Going for the Gold Part XXVIII: Reaching for Bronze I to Close Out Spring

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. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

There's apparently a rune sale running through the end of the month, so I've been trying to figure out what runes I should buy. I've been pretty happy with my current runes, but I have a lot of IP left over and I might as well get runes now, while they're cheaper. So I was browsing the store and a player on my friend list that I didn't remember at all, and who apparently didn't know who I was either, decided to invite me to duo Ranked. He was Darksaber240 and he'd just gotten into Bronze I himself. We got into a lobby and, finding myself second pick and with none of my usual options looking good, I played a champion that I've never played in Ranked, but that I knew I could solo top with. We ended up with the rather unusual team composition of Soraka (mid), Nasus (me), Udyr (jungle), Caitlyn (DarkSaber240), and Morgana (support). Our opponents had Kennen (mid), Teemo (top), Kayle (jungle), Tristana (ADC), and Thresh (support). As I've mentioned, a lot of people are under the impression that Teemo top counters Nasus, but that's heavily dependent on how the laning phases go and on junglers. Yeah, Teemo can kite Nasus, poison him, blind him so that he misses his Siphoning Strike stacks, and be a nuisance. But as a ranged AP top, Teemo lacks burst, and Nasus can hold the lane by lifestealing from minions, waiting things out until Nasus has enough magic resistance to actually fight Teemo. That was what I tried to do in this game, and to an extent, it worked. My biggest concern was Kayle. A good Kayle can murder Nasus. Kayle was as problematic as I feared. On top of that, our Udyr charged in on Teemo early on and gave him double buff, which gave him a substantial lead on me and let him kill me after I stupidly forgot how much damage red buff would do to me. Udyr gave up several early deaths and I was behind for a long time, with my teammates asking me to help as our opponents started grouping up and pushing. But I kept grinding, and even though things looked bad initially, circumstances changed in our favor. Despite being behind, I managed to kill Teemo by myself. My inexorable pushing top lane drew attention from the other team, but they overextended when they tried to close in on me after sieging mid, and we won some close teamfights. I got caught up on stacking Siphoning Strike and also got items to tank the enemy team. Meanwhile, Udyr, who had been frustrating the rest of us early on, got fed and made an impressive comeback. No, really, I was impressed. I thought our Udyr was a feeder and that we were unfortunate, but he turned things around and ended up being the star of the show. As for me, I went 7/5/5 and had the typical late game Nasus domination that I'd been trying to build up to. We won, and my first win in my second foray into Bronze II has taken me up to 23 LP.

After nearly a month, I got back to Ranked play, in part just to prevent LP decay. Our bans were all over the place. We had a first pick Xin Zhao jungler and third pick wanted mid, so I took Mordekaiser top and let the other player, who picked Syndra, take mid. Our bot laners were Varus and Nami, who invited me to that Curse Voice thing, so I was in chat with them, which didn't really help, but I guess it was worth a shot. Our opponents had Annie (mid), Kha'Zix (top), Wukong (jungle), Miss Fortune (ADC), and Braum (support). I got the first two kills by dominating lane against Kha'Zix, but Wukong ganked me aggressively and eventually I fell behind, as did the rest of our team. Xin Zhao never helped any of us. Not once. So it was basically 4 vs. 5. My final K/D/A was 5/9/4. That brings me down to 7 LP.


Queuing up for another one. I'm already apprehensive. Our bans make no sense again and these guys are arguing in a way that makes them all look stupid. Yeah, I'm already frustrated with my teammates and we haven't even started yet. Anyway, we've got Lee Sin (mid), Trundle (top), Master Yi (jungle), Tristana (me), and Nami (support) against Talon (mid), Renekton (top), Kayle (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Taric (support). It turned out to be even worse than I feared. Lee Sin was a feeder, so that meant Talon was able to snowball and burst me down whenever he could catch me, which turned out to be three times. Master Yi ran around in the jungle doing very little, but liked to rage at me for playing too passively. Nami also raged at me for playing passively, while simultaneously failing to ever set anything up. Trundle was fine, but was camped by the enemy Kayle. I went 4/3/1 and didn't even get close to the firepower I'd have needed to salvage this disaster. There go my LP again.

For my next match, I first-picked Karthus. My allies had Darius (top), Amumu (mid), Jinx (ADC), and Karma (support). We were up against Lissandra (mid), Yorick (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Tristana (ADC), and Morgana (support). Other than Amumu, my allies were rather bad. But mainly, Jinx and Karma constantly fed Tristana. I had no chance to get going and carry. When I finally did get an opening in a teamfight and ace our opponents, Jinx and Karma rushed to Baron Nashor and died, then raged at the rest of us. They were very, very bad. I ended up going 6/5/8, which is pretty terrible for me as Karthus, but not so terrible when the match falls apart so quickly.

Then I go last pick, but still took Karthus. My allies had Yorick (top), Vi (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Zyra (support). Our opponents consisted of Yasuo (mid), Darius (top), Teemo (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Morgana (support). I easily outfarmed Yasuo, but all five of my teammates were terrible players. On top of that, I eventually discovered that my passive was bugged! Yeah, when I died, my passive failed to go off. I'd still get seven seconds of Defile if I had it toggled on before I died, but I could not cast spells, so I was forced to watch low-health enemies run around right by me without being able to finish them. That made me pretty mad, but I'd still have done well if not for my feeding, bickering, raging, clueless, uncooperative teammates. Ultimately, I went 8/4/9. With this bullshit, I'm in danger of being demoted. Again.

I tried another match. This time we had Gragas (mid), Jax (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Kog'Maw (me), and Nidalee (support) against Kennen (mid), Darius (top), Warwick (jungle), Twitch (ADC), and Morgana (support). My lane opponents weren't very good, so I was able to farm pretty effectively. Eventually, the enemy team positioned themselves badly against me in a couple of skirmishes and I got fed. It wasn't over with that, though, as the enemy top and jungle had become very powerful. Warwick's ult was able to shut me down a few times, and I had a hard time convincing my teammates to group up. But eventually, we pushed as a team and won. I went 13/6/8. That match has taken me up to 20 LP. No demotion just yet.

I queued with Scott (IMLRG) for two Ranked games. In the first, we had Malzahar (me), Renekton (top), Elise (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Sona (Scott) against Vel'Koz (mid), Wukong (top), Warwick (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Nami (support). Elise tried to go commando, avoiding our team and going trying to fight multiple enemies alone, which went poorly. Renekton was like that too, only twice as bad. This gave our opponents an edge. They had Vel'Koz, Nami, and Wukong cover a wide area with damaging spells so that Warwick could initiate on any fool who wandered into the firing znoe and Vayne could pick off stragglers. I tried to herd my team out of these deathtraps, but they weren't having it. With Karthus, I might have been able to follow them in and dish out damage on everyone, but Malzahar needs to target one person at a time, and I couldn't make it work. I went 7/4/2, but we lost badly and I dropped to 3 LP.

When we tried again, it was with Cassiopeia (mid), Singed (top), Udyr (me), Quinn (ADC), and Braum (Scott). Our opponents had Tristana (mid), Pantheon (top), Rammus (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Thresh (support). I had my red buff stolen, which slowed me down, and couldn't find any good early gank attempts, so I worked on building up stacks for Wriggle's Lantern and Tear of the Goddess. Progress was slow for me. Our Cassiopeia was very bad and I spent a lot of time trying to keep mid from collapsing. Singed turned out not to know how to fight Pantheon (or perhaps just how to play Singed in the first place). So we started to fall behind, but our bot lane came through, then bot laners roamed and dominated the map. The enemy team did adjust to fight the roaming duo, but that bought me the time I needed to get my items. Feral Flare really changes things for my Udyr build, but it takes time. I ultimately went 5/1/8, but it was the bot laners that did most of the work. I think Scott got 24 assists in this one. He and Quinn were responsible for the comeback. So now I'm back to 23 LP, which, as I can see from the top of this post, is where I'd been at the end of last month. My MMR may have dropped a bit, but I'm back to 23 LP.

I was fourth pick, and I was pretty apprehensive with the other picks. But I didn't have much choice in the matter, so it was Mordekaiser (mid), Tryndamere (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Sona (me) vs. Diana (mid), Garen (top), Master Yi (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Xin Zhao (support). This became an epic 63-minute match. Some of my teammates kept assuming that we'd lost, but we held on and counterpushed, keeping our nexus turrets safe the whole time. Kills were tied up or close to it and all of the inhibitors except in the ones in the bot lane went down multiple times. Fortunately, our Tryndamere was pretty good. And of course, our team had an awesome Sona to back them up in teamfights. I used to build Sona less tanky, and I'd hide back and spam spells. In this match, I was wading into the other team, nuking squishies with my passive, blocking damage with shield items, and stunning the other team with my ult. It was pretty intense. With Yi being Yi, even I thought we were in trouble. I kept worrying that he'd backdoor our nexus, but we were able to keep defending it. After over an hour, the other team got out of position and we took advantage of that. I flashed to snipe the super-tanky Garen before he could escape, which left Vayne alone to face most of our team. We stormed their nexus and finally finished it. In the end, I went 9/6/41. That victory took me up 21 LP, to a new total of 44 LP. I'm also tied on my win/loss ratio now: 37 wins, 37 losses.

Finally, I did a solo queue match and got first pick, so I had my Karthus. We also had a Lee Sin jungler, a Vladimir top, and a Jinx ADC with Xin Zhao supporting. Our opponents had Ziggs (mid), Shyvana (top), Rengar (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), and Morgana (support). My lane opponent played somewhat passively. I easily outfarmed Ziggs and picked up some kills with my ult to get ahead. Our Vladimir fed hard, but our bot lane came out ahead too. Because Shyvana was fed, she was able to keep the match close for a while, but my damage output let Jinx easily snowball and pick everyone off, and when she couldn't kill our enemies, I did, leading to an early and decisive victory. I went 5/0/9. Up to 64 LP now. I'm not back to Bronze I yet, but I think I'm getting there. I took April and most of May off. It's not June 1st. If I get some more Ranked matches in, I can potentially reach Bronze I before Spring is over.