Going for the Gold Part XVIII: Ladder Reset

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

The ladder rest happened. I knew it was coming, but somehow there was enough of a delay and no real warning until it was too late, so it took me by surprise and I never finished that promo series. I knew going into this that I had a second chance of sorts. Doing placement matches again, I might end up starting out higher in Season 4 than I'd ever been in Season 3. There was also the possibility that I could end up even lower, and that was so daunting that I hesitated to even start.

Ultimately, it was the prospect of playing with Nick that got me motivated to get back to Ranked play. My first eight placement matches were done in a duo queue with him. Nick was team captain every time and I was last pick every time. In the last two games, I queued alone and was fourth pick both times.

In my first placement match, we had Zilean (mid), Nidalee (top), Tryndamere (jungle), Tristana (me), and Leona (Nick). The other team consisted of Ziggs (mid), Dr. Mundo (top), Nasus (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Thresh (support). Our lane opponents bullied us and pushed constantly, but it didn't really matter. The other lanes fed massively and there was an early surrender, with me as the only no vote. My final K/D/A was 0/0/0. I was able to Rocket Jump to escape from some attempted kills, but couldn't salvage the game sufficiently to stop the surrender.

In my second placement match, we had Syndra (mid), Jax (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Tristana (me), and Sona (Nick). The other team consisted of Ziggs (mid), Renekton (top), Master Yi (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Leona (support). This game was closer than the previous one, but still managed to be another display of Ziggs getting fed. I was 1/1/1, I think, at some point, but I started to be more aggressive because I didn't want to repeat the previous game. When I couldn't pick up any kills and kept getting caught, I went back to being cautious, but it didn't matter: Ziggs and Master Yi were both fed enough that they could take any turret together by killing everyone under it. I ended up going 1/7/1 and flipping out about the feeders, which hopefully at least amused Nick.

In my third placement match, I finally got Karthus. The rest of our team consisted of Wukong (Nick), Shyvana (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Leona (support). The other team had Cho'Gath (mid), Nasus (top), Olaf (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), and Janna (support). There is no way for Cho'Gath to stop Karthus from farming, so my lane was essentially secured. Nick also won his lane, and managed to get Olaf to camp top in the process. It didn't matter. Once again, our allies were just that bad. I went 14/5/7, but it wasn't enough, and we lost.

I'll preface the fourth placement match my noting that, as usual, I was last pick. I couldn't pick Mordekaiser because the other team had him, but I was worried that he'd be soloing top, which was the lane I'd be in. They also had Singed, so I couldn't pick him. I wasn't going to pick Swain, Sion, or Nasus against Mordekaiser, so I was at a loss. I was supposed to solo top, and none of my champions were even available. With the clock running down, I picked Cho'Gath. It turned out to be Fizz (mid), Cho'Gath (me), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Draven (ADC), and Morgana (Nick supporting) against Mordekaiser (mid), Singed (top), Malphite (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Thresh (support). This game was like a mirror of my first three placement matches. No one on our team was particularly bad and almost everyone on the other team was. I didn't really do much, but I held top lane and killed some of them when they tried to fight me there. My final K/D/A was 3/1/3. This was the first placement match victory for me and also for Nick.

The fifth placement match was just stupid. Nick had taken the jungle and one person picked Janna as a support. Those two were fine. We also had a Malzahar and a Warwick, but the Malzahar player called top, so that left us needing an ADC, but also not having a real mid against their Cassiopeia. Nick told me to just pick Karthus. I inquired and got no response, so I picked Karthus. The Janna player said I should go ADC, so I switched to Tristana. I went bot and so did Janna, but then Warwick eventually went bot too, and continued to ignore the rest of us. With mid completely undefended, I was forced to switch. Tristana didn't stand a chance against Cassiopeia. We'd have lost for sure, but the enemy Nasus was a no-show. That left Teemo against Malzahar, me against Cassiopeia, and Janna with the useless Warwick against the enemy bot lane of Caitlyn and Sona. We were disadvantaged in every lane, but had Nick to back us up. Because it was 5 vs. 4, we could win fights, but our teammates never capitalized on that, so Nick and I did it for them. We died a lot, but we took the objectives we needed to take. Nick saved this already stupid game from being and even stupider upset, despite being too drunk to land skillshots. I went 6/7/4.

In my sixth placement match, we had Ziggs (mid), Jax (solo top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lux (Nick supporting). Nick was already whining about me picking Tristana. He'd wanted me to go Karthus mid, which I'd wanted too, but I was last pick and didn't get it. We were up against Heimerdinger (mid), Garen (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Lulu (support). Our lane didn't go too well and Lee Sin wrecked everyone while our jungler didn't help us at all. Our Ziggs fed Heimerdinger and the whole thing looked to be a disaster. Eventually the game ran long enough that we started coming out ahead in fights. I got full build and still couldn't pick up kills without dying, but we were coming out ahead, so whatever. Ultimately, we won. I went 9/9/7. This took me to a neutral record in my placement matches, which made me feel a bit better. I was still pretty annoyed that I couldn't have a single good Tristana game. I'd been dominating with her before this season.

For my seventh placement match, Nick first picked Nidalee "fill." We had Kayle (mid), Gangplank (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Tristana (me), and Nidalee (Nick supporting) against Teemo (mid), Pantheon (top), Vi (jungle), Twitch (ADC), and Lulu (support). Despite Vi's exclusive focus on me, our lane went pretty well. We were losing overall, but I thought things would work out. I started picking up kills. I got another one. And then Pantheon leapt onto me and instantly killed me. I joked to Nick, "Who fed Pantheon? His damage is crazy." Then I looked at the scoreboard and saw that Pantheon had twelve kills. Oh. We tried, but yeah, can't carry feeders, I guess. It sounds so cynical, but it seems pretty applicable as far as this game went. My final K/D/A was 8/6/3.

In my last placement match with Nick, he first picked Nidalee "fill" again. This was the one where a teammate whined about Nidalee being a bad support. Nick responded, "So pick a better one." No one else wanted to support, so Nick was Nidalee support again. Nick's critic jungled as Xin Zhao, but spent more time flaming Nick in the chat than actually playing the damn game. We had Ashe as an ADC. Our fourth pick took Mordekaiser. I asked if I was going mid or top. The Mordekaiser player offered to take either, and so did I, so the decision ended up being Mordekaiser mid. I took Swain as my top, then the Mordekaiser player switched to Renekton and went top. Dammit. That left me with Swain against LeBlanc mid. Renekton laned top against Pantheon. The enemy team had Miss Fortune and Leona for their bot lane and Aatrox as their jungler. LeBlanc couldn't kill me, but Aatrox harassed me and kept me from winning my lane. Eventually, they'd all just let me free-farm mid until I was forced to push or retreat, then they'd send three or four people after me. Renekton trounced Pantheon, but Xin Zhao didn't help the team (too busy raging about Nidalee support) and our Ashe was completely clueless. Nick thought that he was matched up with a new player. It seemed to be the case. We had too many competent foes for a starved Nidalee support, a Swain who'd been bullied by multiple opponents for most of the game, and a Renekton to deal with. Xin Zhao and Ashe were usually dead weight. Our team was destroyed. I went 3/8/4. I did what I could to distract the enemy team, but we had no DPS to actually make that a viable tactic.

Nick had lost two placement matches before I joined him, so that match placed him in Bronze III: Syndra's Shadows. I still had two more. I figured if I could win just one of the two, I'd be have more placement match wins than Nick, and be placed higher than him. Even if I lost both, I'd still be tied with him, so maybe we'd be placed in the same division.

For my ninth placement match, everything but bot lane was picked by the time it was my turn. Again. So it was Gragas (mid), Renekton (top), Nocturne (jungle), Tristana (me), and Kayle (feed) against Fizz (mid), Teemo (top), Syvana (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Thresh (support). Despite not actually having a support (Kayle made no attempt to support me whatsoever, opting instead to wander around, get killed, and steal CS), I held my lane. All four of my teammates fed, although all but Renekton also managed to kill enough while doing so to mitigate that, at least for a while. As usual, I didn't have time to carry before our nexus was swarmed and destroyed. I went 7/3/9.

I had one more chance. And this time, I got mid, so I had my Karthus. I was with Malphite (top), Udyr (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Leona (support). The other team consisted of Ziggs (mid), Aatrox (top), Hecarim (jungle), Kog'Maw (ADC), and Nidalee (support). As usual, I got farmed and fed. We were winning for a while, then it came to teamfights. They had far superior poking power. In theory, this could be cancelled out with Malphite and Leona to initiate for us. And that was my hope, right up until the end. Malphite and Leona had other plans. Those plans all involved being poked to death and didn't involve anything other than being poked to death. So of course, we lost. I went 12/3/8.

My placement matches have thrown me into Bronze V. I knew there was a possibility that I'd end up lower than I'd started after my first placement matches. I honestly didn't think, not even for a moment, that I'd ever end up at the bottom of Bronze V. I don't know what to say about this right now.