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.
Well, there's no guarantee that these next games will be my exit from Bronze V, but I think I have a pretty good shot. If I can win two of my next three games, I get promoted. Let's see what happens...
Things start out well: I'm first pick in my first match of the series. I ban Kassadin and Shen reflexively, hoping to pick Karthus and carry. I ask for suggestions for the third ban, because I'm cocky enough to think I only need two. The first request is LeBlanc, but I know I can deal with LeBlanc, so I said as much. The next request was Jax, so I banned him. The other team banned Blitzcrank, Vi, and Vel'Koz. I picked Karthus and got that giddy feeling when I know I'm about to wreck some scrubs. Uh, no offense. Anyway, we ended up with Karthus (me), Nasus (top), Wukong (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Nami (support). Our opponents had LeBlanc (mid), Teemo (top), Amumu (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Taric (support). Well, I declined to ban LeBlanc when it was brought up, and she was picked. Caitlyn was freaking out at being counterpicked, and I could see how their team would have some advantages against us: more mobility, more early damage, more range, and Amumu's ult for teamfights. Well, I get to brag, because I carried as Karthus again. Actually, it was fairly close. I got us ahead, picking up some kills with my ult and then killing a few more of them in skirmishes before the other team managed to kill me even once. But then, even though I was fed, we started losing some teamfights. My teammates were able to adjust, and we eventually pushed into their base and won, but they did win some fights over objectives before that, and another bad fight might have cost us the match. In the end, I went 16/3/10.
Well, that's one match down. I now get two more chances to earn my promotion. I can lose this next one and still make it, but let's try to make that irrelevant. Or not! I got first pick again. I banned Kassadin, Blitzcrank (someone asked), and Veigar (none of them owned Shen). The other team banned Akali, Fizz, and Jax. Our team consisted of Karthus (me), Volibear (top), Wukong (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Gangplank (feed). The other team was Yasuo (mid), Cho'Gath (top), Vi (jungle), Twitch (ADC), and Leona (support). All four of my allies were completely incompetent. Ashe and Volibear were trying, but were obviously outclassed. I don't actually believe that Wukong and Gangplank got to level 30 on their own, as they showed no signs of understanding out to play the game. It would have been over very, very quickly if I hadn't been Karthus. I got fed, of course, and wrecked the enemy team as much as I could, but I can't win 1 vs. 5. Matchmaking blatantly screwed me over on this one. For a game with no a single obvious troll or leaver, this was probably the most rage-inducing session I've ever had. There was no reason for this to happen. I should never, ever be matched up with people this bad in Ranked. I don't care what the bullshit algorithms are and what the justification might be: it's a heaping pile of crap. It's one thing that most losses are beyond my power to have turned around, but this is something else entirely. Hey Riot, this kind of match is totally unacceptable.
So now I'm despondent. Let's get it over with. Go ahead, matchmaking: kick me back down into the Bronze V ladder, where you've decided I must dwell, no matter how I play. Third pick this time, so probably no chance I'll get Karthus and give myself the best shot I can get. I'm too pissed off to read what these people are typing now. For all I know, it won't work out anyway, because it's another match like the last one. We ban, let's see, Amumu, Wukong, and Nasus. They ban Fizz, Renekton, and Akali. Ugh, I just accidentally read the lobby chat and these people are idiots. Dammit. Fuck it, I'm forcing Karthus. Someone asked nicely for mid, but I'm not falling for that crap. The other team first-picked LeBlanc, so I'm not walking into a counterpick. I can do this. Well, maybe I can. I'm certainly going to try. So yeah, it's Karthus (me), Teemo (top), Diana (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Thresh (support) against LeBlanc (mid), Jax (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Volibear (support). OK, so we won, but that game was kind of annoying too, as our Teemo fed and raged at the same time. Somehow it was everyone else's fault that Teemo overextended and died to his own lane opponent, and he wanted all of us to know it. The fed Jax was problematic, but our team, other than Teemo, were able to persevere. We had a better jungler, and I was able to farm more than in the previous games, so I managed to snowball too. Thresh and Jinx also fared well enough, so we were able to catch up, cancel out Teemo's feeding, and take their turrets so we could get farther ahead. I went 10/1/7.
Well, I climbed a tier. On one hand, I know from past experience that climbing out of higher other divisions is going to be a lot harder. On the other hand, at least I can climb out of Bronze V. And it only took me 16 games (which is too many if I want to make it to Gold, considering how often I play).
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