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.
After I first got into Bronze I, I noticed that some of the other players in my ladder had little green medallions signifying that they had played "100 games in this league." The symbol is labeled "veteran" but I thought of it more as a mark of shame. When I pointed it out to Nick, we both basically said that we felt sorry for those players. With this post, I became one of them. It gets worse than that, though.
I got a message that I was now inactive in Ranked. I hadn't been
playing because I didn't want to play with LP on the line when I wasn't
comfortable with all the changes to the game. Actually, I hadn't even
been playing normals much. Well, with no choice but to either lose LP
due to inactivity or to risk losing it due to losing, I tried my first
Ranked game in a while. Maybe I'm just feeling particularly cranky, or
maybe it's the absence from Ranked, but this time I really feel inclined
to recount my irritation at the brain-dead allies matchmaking
apparently thinks I should get. So here I go...
Our
team consisted for Karthus (me), Lee Sin (jungle), Tryndamere (top),
Thresh (support), and Lucian (ADC). They had Ziggs (mid), Ryze (top),
Volibear (jungle), Lulu (support), and Sivir (ADC). Firstly, I'll note
that Tryndamere was fine. He won his lane and I felt sorry for him. Our
Lucian seemed to do well and did get fed in-lane, but I still hate his
guts. Once the laning phase ended, he moved around with no real sense of
objectives and got himself killed multiple times in the jungle by
wandering into obviously unsafe areas. That's not a particularly
egregious offense, but he also decided, while we were ahead, that we
would lose. Instead of looking for ways to win once the enemies started
catching up and beating us in teamfights, he looked for people to blame.
For some reason, he settled on me. He declared that I "threw." He never
said why. Thresh wasn't as obnoxious, but he was too aggressive and
died a lot. And then there was Lee Sin. Or rather, there wasn't. Our Lee
Sin repeatedly left and then came back. I was able to hold my lane
against Ziggs, but Volibear would steal our blue, give Ziggs the other
blue, and attempt to gank me. And in the fashion that I've become so
accustomed to with my allies in Ranked, Lee Sin blamed Thresh for some
reason. Thresh was kind of bad, but it wasn't his fault that Lee Sin
spent half his time on our platform. I went 6/5/6. One of my five deaths
occurred when Ziggs and I almost killed each other, then Volibear tried
to gank me. I escaped him, but Ziggs caught me with his ult. My other
deaths, all four of them, were cases in which I was attempting to defend
a pushed mid, alone, and three or four enemy champions converged on me.
Not really a lot I can do about that, other than let the enemy team win
sooner. So, I've just come back to Ranked, and matchmaking has given me
yet another unwinnable game. Maybe it's a way of saying, "Welcome
back." Whatever the case, I hate these stupid teammates and want to kick
them in their stupid faces.
Coming back for a second
Ranked game, I've attained yet another Karthus loss. This time,
apparently the first and last picks on my team were a duo, and wanted to
trade champions and take the mid and ADC roles, but didn't communicate
that to the rest of us. So when I picked Karthus, they raged at me and
said they'd report me, and also that Karthus is trash and always loses.
Off to a great start. Well, we had Karthus (me), Olaf (top), Vi
(jungle), Quinn (ADC), and Sona (support). They had Heimerdinger (mid),
Shyvana (top), Amumu (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Soraka (support). I
don't have a lot of experience laning against the new Heimerdinger. He
has more burst capacity than the old one. But I once I got boots, I was
able to dodge his skillshots, outfarm him, and beat him decisively in
the laning phase. I had more CS than anyone else by quite a bit, and was
starting to pick up kills so that I could carry. As before, my team was
initially ahead on kills. I'm not going to attempt to assign blame for
this one. We mainly lost because we were repeatedly failing to win
teamfights, and there were multiple reasons behind that. Probably the
biggest factor was their their Shyvana, who had initially not been
dominating lane because Vi pressured her with ganks, started to
snowball. Olaf lost lane, but there was more to it than that. I was able
to beat Heimerdinger in my lane, but by initially giving up mid, the
other team was able to have their Amumu help Varus win bot, which forced
Vi to abandon top in attempt to mitigate that, leaving Olaf exposed and
allowing Shyvana to finally start getting fed. I'm not sure what I
should have done differently, but it's definitely the case that what I
did do was not enough. My final score was 7/3/11.
For
my third loss in a row in this post, and my fifth loss in a row in
Ranked, I jungled as Amumu. I haven't been playing him with the changes,
but that wasn't really a factor. Amumu is really easy to play. That
being said, I probably shouldn't have been playing him. Our first pick
apparently thought that, since Amumu wasn't banned, it would be a good
idea to have him on our team. First pick asked if anyone wanted Amumu.
We had two people that wanted to duo bot, and another person that wanted
top, so I thought, "Why not? I'll jungle." So I gave the first pick
Elise, as requested, and took Amumu. Our top was Garen. Our bot laners
were Sivir and Taric. The other team consisted of Fizz (mid), Akali
(top), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Lulu (support). At first,
everything seemed fine. We started falling behind so quickly, I'm not
even sure what caused it. My final K/D/A was 2/6/2. Garen fared a bit
better at 2/4/2, but the others got killed even more (8 deaths for
Sivir, and 10 for the others). No one on our team got more than two
kills. We tried to hold them off, but it was a slaughter. I have to say,
though, that with all the trolls I've been getting, I can't really be
mad at these guys. They didn't do anything wrong. Well, they did push
too much when I advised them to defend, as none of the enemy champions
were visible, so they were probably setting up ambushes. But hey, I've
been seeing so much worse lately that it doesn't seem that bad. These
guys were actually all rather friendly, despite how doomed we were. I'd
play with them again—just not in Ranked.
Well, my next
game broke the losing streak. I was last pick, but I got to ADC, so
whatever. We had Yasuo (mid), Fizz (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Tristana
(me), and Taric (support). They had Teemo (mid), Lee Sin (top), Volibear
(jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Leona (bot). Things seemed fairly close
overall in the laning phase, but I was outfarming Lucian and picking up
some kills, so I was pretty confident we'd win (fed Tristana usually
does). We started pulling ahead a bit, and it turned out that their
9/6/1 Lee Sin had left the game. He never came back, and we won the 5
vs. 4 pretty easily. Not the way I'd like to win, but I did finally pick
up a Ranked victory as Tristana. She's apparently my new default ADC,
replacing Sivir. I went 9/3/8.
With some renewed
confidence coming off my victory as Tristana, I tried another. This time
I was third pick and it looked like we needed a solo top, so I went
with Mordekaiser. Our team was Cho'Gath (mid), Mordekaiser (me), Nasus
(jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Leona (support). The other team had Akali
(mid), Garen (top), Shyvana (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Taric (support).
Things weren't going too badly for me at first, but I got no help from
our jungler in the entire laning phase, while the enemy jungler and mid
helped Garen pressure me. At first, he couldn't do anything, but after I
died three times, I stood no chance against him. And still, I got no
help from our jungler. To be fair, our jungler was being destroyed too.
So was bot. So was mid. It was looking like a complete shutout, until
eventually Akali was too aggressive and got picked off by Lucian. Still,
we had one kill, and they had a lot. Garen decided to troll our team by
trying to "proxy" farm top while his team pushed the other lanes. It
would have ended pretty quickly, but two of us, Cho'Gath and myself,
started to pick up kills. The rest of our team couldn't do much but try
to piggyback off us. They were kind of bad. Actually they were really
bad. Especially our Nasus, who had a silver border, but was completely
incompetent. It sounds like I'm especially bitter, but there was a very
evident gulf in skill between three of our players (Nasus, Leona, and
Lucian) and the other two (me and Cho'Gath). I really don't see why
matchmaking would do this, or how it's supposed to actually place people
properly in ladders. Cho and I tried really hard to win, but this was
yet another unwinnable game. My final K/D/A was 11/7/7. I should note
that despite the fact that I had the most kills, fewest deaths, and
highest CS, I was unhappy with my own performance in this game. I had
too many early deaths, even taking into consideration the amount of help
the enemy Garen had to get in order to take control of the lane. I do
not believe that I could have changed the end result, but I could have
done a better job anyway.
I've tried another Karthus
game. This one is, yet again, putting me perilously close to demotion.
I'm at a loss here. Our team was Karthus (me), Garen (top), Vi (jungle),
Jinx (ADC), and Leona (support). Their team was Ahri (mid), Riven
(top), Udyr (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Fiddlesticks (support). I held my
lane and outfarmed everyone but the enemy Riven, but it quickly stopped
mattering. Garen and Riven got fed off each other and off both
junglers, while our bot was destroyed. The fed enemy Riven and Vayne
proceeded to demolish our team repeatedly. I tried to hang on, but I
couldn't do a thing. The game lasted long enough for me to become
reasonably powerful, but a Karthus with 6 kills is no match for a Riven
with 20. My final score was 6/5/8. Bad for a Karthus game, but I
consider myself fortunate to get any kills at all in a game like this
one. My team was completely outclassed. This was just a bad, stupid
game. Our Jinx, Vi, and Leona were noticeably unskilled. Yet another
instance of matchmaking giving me what amounted to an automatic loss.
For
my last game of this post, I'm down to 0 LP. Yay. I took Karthus
against a Pantheon mid and killed him once. It probably sounds like I
keep making excuses for my losses, but the dogs here all went crazy,
distracting me exactly when Fiddlesticks showed up to gank me. I
probably overextended anyway. Whatever. So I gave up one death and was
1/1/0. Then I got back into the swing of things and continued holding
the lane and outfarm Pantheon. So far, not great, but not bad. And then
my whole team raged at me because they lost their lanes, allowing the
other team to roam. Since I still held my lane, the enemies were eager
to put an end to that, so they harassed me and tried to kill me, but I
was cautious and avoided it. My team surrendered, as I was the only no
vote. Frankly, I'd prefer to have 20-minute surrenderers booted from
Ranked play entirely. I know it's part of the game, and I've surrendered
myself in Normals, particularly when my team had leavers. But to just
give up like that in a Ranked game? What's the point? Go play Normals if
you want to surrender at 20. Not that I harbor delusions that I was
going to carry this particular game. All four of my teammates were
feeding. But I still wanted to try, dammit. Also, I find it absurd that
four players, all of whom are feeding, would decide that the reason they
are losing is the one non-feeding player on their team. No matter the
details, that's just specious. Where does matchmaking find these blockheads?
I mean, I always hear about how terrible the League of Legends
community is, but personally, I've always believed that to be mostly
hype.
So that's it, then. I've finally dropped all
the way to the bottom of the ladder. I want to say something here about
how I could improve my gameplay and turn things around. I want to say
something about how maybe I've underestimated just how much skill Gold
takes. But I'd be kidding myself. Petty as it seems, I have to be honest
with myself and admit that I absolutely, totally, completely, utterly,
conclusively blame the teammates that matchmaking is saddling me with.
I'd be happy to take responsibility for my actions in these games. I'll
gladly own what I've done. It isn't enough, and shouldn't be expected to
be enough.
Well, I now have 49 wins and 61 losses. I'm
at 0 LP in Bronze I. It's entirely possible that my next update in this
series will be about my demotion. I'm going to try my damnedest not to
make that the case, but really, I have no say in that. Matchmaking will
either screw me over yet again or it won't. I guess we'll find out.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Friday, November 15, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XIII: The End of Season 3
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, the season is officially over. Since my last update I've made, well, let's see...
Progress! Kind of. I mean, not really. But I did pass 100 total Ranked games. So there's that. But on with my recaps.
Well, I had an Udyr game that I wasn't happy with. I didn't feed or even die early on at all, but I couldn't pick up kills or keep my teammates from losing early engagements and we lost too heavily in our side lanes. The enemies snowballed and I couldn't get close enough to make an impact. I went 0/4/7. Udyr is one of my favorite champions and can be really fun to play, but if he falls behind, his nonexistent range makes it nearly impossible to accomplish anything. Also, I think I'm generally weak in two roles, and those are jungler and support. When I'm mid, top, or bot, I can almost always keep up by farming minions and freezing my lane. Playing a role that doesn't have that option, even if the option wouldn't win the game anyway, I feel like my gameplay is nerfed. I have had games where I've done well as a jungler or support, but I never go 0/4/7 and feel helpless when I'm solo mid.
My 100th Ranked game was a rather one-sided affair. I was playing Karthus, if that's any hint. Actually, I found this one really amusing. I had first pick, and the other team captain banned Kassadin and Fizz. I banned two more problematic champions and picked Karthus. In response, our last pick made some remark like, "Ew, first pick Karth" to which I replied, "Fuck you" or something like that. That player then exclaimed "counterpicked" when the enemy team took Annie as their mid. I think I said, "Shut up." But I didn't mute my heckler, who ended up taking Poppy as a jungler, something I've usually considered too risky. In truth, Annie really is kind of problematic. I've noticed that Annie players in Ranked tend to be either very bad or very good. And the good ones can kill me if I'm not careful. Annie gets massive burst damage way before Karthus can get going, and combining that with her stun makes her really dangerous to lane against. This Annie wasn't terrible (she let me farm too much, but she did prove herself and pick up several kills eventually), but I avoided her pretty easily and outfarmed her. She got underfarmed. The enemy jungler, a Rengar, was too aggressive, so our top (Udyr) and jungler (Poppy) started to control the game, right before I got enough AP to begin snowballing. And then our Poppy, who was 6/1, said something in the chat like, "Karth, you're 5/0. I apologize for my earlier comment." Maybe it shouldn't seem that novel, but I was impressed because I've been playing this game for two and a half years and I've scarcely ever seen someone apologize like that. And in Ranked? Never. I said, "Aw, thanks" and Poppy said, "Thank you for proving me wrong." We went on to get even more fed. I ended the game going 12/1/11.
Back at the beginning of October, I mentioned that I queued with what appeared to be a Caitlyn-only player. Well, I had mostly forgotten about that person, rejected a few invitations to Ranked games because I didn't feel like playing Ranked anyway. Well, this person had apparently played a lot of Ranked games in the interim. Seriously, it must have been well over 200 games, most of them with Caitlyn. Well, today I got another invitation to play Ranked. I figured I might as well. I got first pick, and went with Karthus, of course. I won't call out this individual by posting a summoner name, but our Caitlyn, my duo partner, was extremely toxic. Most of it was directed toward our Mordekaiser solo top, who seemed to have connection issues. But Caitlyn raged at the entire team, insisting that we were all throwing the game and that it was obvious from the start that we were going to do so. Our jungler, playing Vi, tried to calm Caitlyn down and focus on winning. So did I. But the chat was filled with Caitlyn's useless raging. Mordekaiser, offended by Caitlyn's personal attacks, lashed out, so it got even uglier. And because this was going on from just about the beginning of the game and it ran long, we had to endure it for over an hour. All of our turrets were destroyed. They got Baron at least once. Vi's suicidal initiations combined with my massive damage eventually won us some key fights. We killed most of them and had the remaining enemies slowed down, so we could catch them and ace them. We pushed into their base and won. I went 15/7/16. Caitlyn whined that we should have lost. Vi and I both decided to report Caitlyn and we added each other as friends. And then I got another invitation from Caitlyn. Hilarious.
My next two games with done in a duo queue with a friend (Vladmir the Hand). I was last pick in both. First, we needed a jungler and I saw that the other team was much tankier than ours, so I took Amumu to compensate. Our Kennen mid declared the game lost because we had a Sivir bot, and then Sivir and Kennen decided to spend the whole game raging at each other instead of actually playing the damn game. My duo partner, playing Ryze solo top, did well. I was doing OK, but eventually our doomed mid and bot lanes became too much, especially once they got a fed Vayne. I went 4/5/6.
In my latest Ranked game, I was Sona, supporting Quinn (Vladmir the Hand). In the laning phase, we seemed to be doing well, but both mid and top were completely zoned. I shouldn't be too hard on them. The other team had strong mid-to-late damage output and they simply overpowered us. Yet another game in which someone whined about my Clairvoyance. And yet another game in which I saw Nidalee mid fail against a real mid-laner. Also, they were the same person. But I wasn't so great myself this game, either. I tried to save teammates with my ult and failed too often in the endeavor. It was a rather brutal game. I voted no on the surrender, but I can't really blame the team for outvoting me: we were losing every fight. I went 1/5/4.
Lifetime W:L: 48:53
Current LP: 24
That's right. I had 22 LP for my previous update. I've climbed the ladder a little bit, despite the losing record. Progress?
Well, the season is officially over. Since my last update I've made, well, let's see...
Progress! Kind of. I mean, not really. But I did pass 100 total Ranked games. So there's that. But on with my recaps.
Well, I had an Udyr game that I wasn't happy with. I didn't feed or even die early on at all, but I couldn't pick up kills or keep my teammates from losing early engagements and we lost too heavily in our side lanes. The enemies snowballed and I couldn't get close enough to make an impact. I went 0/4/7. Udyr is one of my favorite champions and can be really fun to play, but if he falls behind, his nonexistent range makes it nearly impossible to accomplish anything. Also, I think I'm generally weak in two roles, and those are jungler and support. When I'm mid, top, or bot, I can almost always keep up by farming minions and freezing my lane. Playing a role that doesn't have that option, even if the option wouldn't win the game anyway, I feel like my gameplay is nerfed. I have had games where I've done well as a jungler or support, but I never go 0/4/7 and feel helpless when I'm solo mid.
My 100th Ranked game was a rather one-sided affair. I was playing Karthus, if that's any hint. Actually, I found this one really amusing. I had first pick, and the other team captain banned Kassadin and Fizz. I banned two more problematic champions and picked Karthus. In response, our last pick made some remark like, "Ew, first pick Karth" to which I replied, "Fuck you" or something like that. That player then exclaimed "counterpicked" when the enemy team took Annie as their mid. I think I said, "Shut up." But I didn't mute my heckler, who ended up taking Poppy as a jungler, something I've usually considered too risky. In truth, Annie really is kind of problematic. I've noticed that Annie players in Ranked tend to be either very bad or very good. And the good ones can kill me if I'm not careful. Annie gets massive burst damage way before Karthus can get going, and combining that with her stun makes her really dangerous to lane against. This Annie wasn't terrible (she let me farm too much, but she did prove herself and pick up several kills eventually), but I avoided her pretty easily and outfarmed her. She got underfarmed. The enemy jungler, a Rengar, was too aggressive, so our top (Udyr) and jungler (Poppy) started to control the game, right before I got enough AP to begin snowballing. And then our Poppy, who was 6/1, said something in the chat like, "Karth, you're 5/0. I apologize for my earlier comment." Maybe it shouldn't seem that novel, but I was impressed because I've been playing this game for two and a half years and I've scarcely ever seen someone apologize like that. And in Ranked? Never. I said, "Aw, thanks" and Poppy said, "Thank you for proving me wrong." We went on to get even more fed. I ended the game going 12/1/11.
Back at the beginning of October, I mentioned that I queued with what appeared to be a Caitlyn-only player. Well, I had mostly forgotten about that person, rejected a few invitations to Ranked games because I didn't feel like playing Ranked anyway. Well, this person had apparently played a lot of Ranked games in the interim. Seriously, it must have been well over 200 games, most of them with Caitlyn. Well, today I got another invitation to play Ranked. I figured I might as well. I got first pick, and went with Karthus, of course. I won't call out this individual by posting a summoner name, but our Caitlyn, my duo partner, was extremely toxic. Most of it was directed toward our Mordekaiser solo top, who seemed to have connection issues. But Caitlyn raged at the entire team, insisting that we were all throwing the game and that it was obvious from the start that we were going to do so. Our jungler, playing Vi, tried to calm Caitlyn down and focus on winning. So did I. But the chat was filled with Caitlyn's useless raging. Mordekaiser, offended by Caitlyn's personal attacks, lashed out, so it got even uglier. And because this was going on from just about the beginning of the game and it ran long, we had to endure it for over an hour. All of our turrets were destroyed. They got Baron at least once. Vi's suicidal initiations combined with my massive damage eventually won us some key fights. We killed most of them and had the remaining enemies slowed down, so we could catch them and ace them. We pushed into their base and won. I went 15/7/16. Caitlyn whined that we should have lost. Vi and I both decided to report Caitlyn and we added each other as friends. And then I got another invitation from Caitlyn. Hilarious.
My next two games with done in a duo queue with a friend (Vladmir the Hand). I was last pick in both. First, we needed a jungler and I saw that the other team was much tankier than ours, so I took Amumu to compensate. Our Kennen mid declared the game lost because we had a Sivir bot, and then Sivir and Kennen decided to spend the whole game raging at each other instead of actually playing the damn game. My duo partner, playing Ryze solo top, did well. I was doing OK, but eventually our doomed mid and bot lanes became too much, especially once they got a fed Vayne. I went 4/5/6.
In my latest Ranked game, I was Sona, supporting Quinn (Vladmir the Hand). In the laning phase, we seemed to be doing well, but both mid and top were completely zoned. I shouldn't be too hard on them. The other team had strong mid-to-late damage output and they simply overpowered us. Yet another game in which someone whined about my Clairvoyance. And yet another game in which I saw Nidalee mid fail against a real mid-laner. Also, they were the same person. But I wasn't so great myself this game, either. I tried to save teammates with my ult and failed too often in the endeavor. It was a rather brutal game. I voted no on the surrender, but I can't really blame the team for outvoting me: we were losing every fight. I went 1/5/4.
Lifetime W:L: 48:53
Current LP: 24
That's right. I had 22 LP for my previous update. I've climbed the ladder a little bit, despite the losing record. Progress?
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
On the Sivir Rework
This is something that still irks me. I didn't really rant about it when it happened, so I'm going to take the time to do so now. But first, I want to say a bit about my own experience with Sivir...
I first encountered Sivir in 2011, way back before she'd been reworked the first time. I was new to the game and found her rather confusing, mostly in the same way that I found all AD carries confusing at the time. As I learned more, I developed a great appreciation for her. I got Tristana for free through the Facebook offer, but Sivir was the first ADC I actually bought with IP. Sivir got me into the habit of playing a very conservative bot lane, picking up last hits no matter how much pressure was on me, and building up enough damage output from items to wreck teams, eschewing defensive items in favor of tactical gameplay. It's still how I play pretty much all of my carries.
Sivir's incredible late game has never really been a secret, but in some ways it has avoided capturing the attention of the majority of players. Traditionally, other champions have been seen as better for extreme carrying. Tristana gets massive range, an AS buff, and high mobility with her Rocket Jump. Vayne gets evasion from Tumble and Final Hour, a stun, and extra damage from Silver Bolts. Kog'Maw gets massive range, armor shred on Caustic Spittle, and extra damage from Bio-Arcane Barrage. In theory, Sivir can't compete with that. In practice, Sivir has a lot going for her late game. Or rather, she did. Between her first and second reworks, Sivir was the best split pusher of any ranged champion, possibly the best base-defender against enemy minions, and could attack entire teams with Ricochet, targeting initiators from a safe distance and managing to damage enemy carries.
After Karthus and Singed, Sivir was definitely my third most-played champion in Season 2. She was my go-to ADC. I got my first pentakill with Sivir. Season 3 changed my itemization, but I quickly settled on a new build that I liked even more than the one I'd been using in Season 2. I branched out, becoming proficient with some other ranged AD champions, but Sivir was my best. That was why she made my "A" list for Ranked games, and subsequently became my second most-played champion for Ranked (after Karthus). I think that I've mentioned all of my Ranked games in my "Going for the Gold" series, so anyone who actually reads through that will see that I've been relying on Sivir. At first, she was the only ADC that I was really playing, and I haven't seen success with any other ADC so far. Before the recent rework, I could have been described as a Sivir main.
Every time Riot reworks a champion, there is some outcry over the changes. Until now, I haven't been in that group. But I do contend that this time, it's different. Here are some reasons...
I first encountered Sivir in 2011, way back before she'd been reworked the first time. I was new to the game and found her rather confusing, mostly in the same way that I found all AD carries confusing at the time. As I learned more, I developed a great appreciation for her. I got Tristana for free through the Facebook offer, but Sivir was the first ADC I actually bought with IP. Sivir got me into the habit of playing a very conservative bot lane, picking up last hits no matter how much pressure was on me, and building up enough damage output from items to wreck teams, eschewing defensive items in favor of tactical gameplay. It's still how I play pretty much all of my carries.
Sivir's incredible late game has never really been a secret, but in some ways it has avoided capturing the attention of the majority of players. Traditionally, other champions have been seen as better for extreme carrying. Tristana gets massive range, an AS buff, and high mobility with her Rocket Jump. Vayne gets evasion from Tumble and Final Hour, a stun, and extra damage from Silver Bolts. Kog'Maw gets massive range, armor shred on Caustic Spittle, and extra damage from Bio-Arcane Barrage. In theory, Sivir can't compete with that. In practice, Sivir has a lot going for her late game. Or rather, she did. Between her first and second reworks, Sivir was the best split pusher of any ranged champion, possibly the best base-defender against enemy minions, and could attack entire teams with Ricochet, targeting initiators from a safe distance and managing to damage enemy carries.
After Karthus and Singed, Sivir was definitely my third most-played champion in Season 2. She was my go-to ADC. I got my first pentakill with Sivir. Season 3 changed my itemization, but I quickly settled on a new build that I liked even more than the one I'd been using in Season 2. I branched out, becoming proficient with some other ranged AD champions, but Sivir was my best. That was why she made my "A" list for Ranked games, and subsequently became my second most-played champion for Ranked (after Karthus). I think that I've mentioned all of my Ranked games in my "Going for the Gold" series, so anyone who actually reads through that will see that I've been relying on Sivir. At first, she was the only ADC that I was really playing, and I haven't seen success with any other ADC so far. Before the recent rework, I could have been described as a Sivir main.
Every time Riot reworks a champion, there is some outcry over the changes. Until now, I haven't been in that group. But I do contend that this time, it's different. Here are some reasons...
- Sivir had already been reworked before. There'd been some bemoaning the loss of her Ricochet output following the first rework, but generally, she still felt like the same champion, with the same capabilities. People were happy with her.
- Sivir lost her niche with this rework. Her pushing power is gutted and she's not particularly better at mowing down waves of minions swamping her base than any other ADC.
- There wasn't anything wrong with Sivir. She did her job. She wasn't dominant, and she wasn't underplayed. A lot of players liked her mechanics, enjoyed playing her, and liked her lore and personality. The one problem, which everyone knew about, was with her clunky, outdated model. Triangle feet and running in slow-motion. Sivir looked bad. No doubt about it. And I get the impression that Sivir players initially assumed that Sivir was simply getting a VU. Instead, they hit her mechanics with a wrecking ball, gave her a voice that makes it sound like she has laryngitis, and made her lore go from enigmatic to bland. Maybe the bit about lore should be a separate rant. I don't think I've seen anyone make a case for any of the lore revisions Riot has done. And it's not like the bar is set in some particularly loft manner. Most of the champion lore is pretty bad. And yet Riot manages to find their oldest, worst-written lore and replace it with something that is much, much worse.
- With previous reworks, many players pointed out something like how the invisible Karma mains somehow turned up to complain once there was a rework. That sort of thing. But with every rework I can remember, the champion was either technically broken due to general gameplay changes (Jax, Kayle, the first Sivir rework) or horribly underpowered and too difficult to buff without becoming overpowered (Sejuani, Karma, Heimerdinger). Sivir is the one exception. I don't have the numbers to prove it, but just from experience I can tell that she was seeing her fair share of play. Sivir mains didn't magically turn up once there was a rework. They really did exist, and there were a lot more of them than there were Karma mains.
- Everyone who has spoken positively about the new Sivir wasn't playing the old Sivir. This ties into the previous item, but it's important. I have seen positive reception for the Sivir rework, but none of it has been from people who were already playing Sivir. Riot is already in the business of making new champions. They shouldn't take away popular champions from one group to give a new champion to a different group.
- They changed Sivir from an AD carry to a weird AD caster. Her single-target DPS is a shadow of its former self. Other reworks haven't so fundamentally taken something away from a champion. Jax went from being a lategame killing machine to being a lategame killing machine with some tweaks. Sejuani went from being a tank to being a tank. Sivir simply cannot be played as she was being played before, even though other champions with similar functionality retain it. The closest I can think of is Evelynn, and that was a rework of an entire mechanic, and still not comparable to what's been done to Sivir.
- They really fixed what wasn't broken. There were some calls for mechanical change to Sivir, but they were generally either about her autoattack range, and most Sivir players seemed fine with her range anyway. "I want less sustained damage and more burst," said no Sivir player ever.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XII: Failure in Season 3
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, I haven't made one of these posts in a while. Part of the reason is that I haven't been playing many Ranked games. They've extended the end of Season 3, something I've known about for a while, but haven't commented on. I should note that I'll still be in Bronze when Season 3 ends. Going for the Gold, but I'm not getting any closer at the moment. Many people have been attempting to get promotions before the season ends. I'm not going to try that because it isn't a realistic goal. I'm not moping when I say that, just stating a fact. Here, I'll even support it.
When I concluded my previous post in this series, I had 33 LP in Bronze I, with 43 wins, 46 losses. A losing record overall, something that has been true for a while with these posts. Since then, I've played some more games. I don't remember the details about most of them, but I do have a few notes...
Tristana loss (we had a leaver)
5/3/3
Swain loss (the rest of my team fed)
7/4/8
Karthus win (I've got nothing, but apparently I sure did pick up a lot of kills in this one)
22/6/15
Mordekaiser win (my lane opponent was an inept Renekton and our ADC got fed anyway)
5/2/8
Kog'Maw loss (the rest of my team fed)
6/6/0
Karthus loss (both side lanes fed hard, then the other team started pushing mid and killing me)
2/3/4
Vayne loss (my lane partner, a Jinx, trolled the team and fed hard)
1/3/0
Kog'Maw loss (my lane partner, a Ziggs, intentionally fed—yes, I did get two fake supports in a row)
7/11/8
Karthus win (actually a pretty decent game)
5/2/10
Lifetime W:L: 46:52
Current LP: 22
This fits the pattern of my previous posts: my position in Bronze I oscillates, but it keeps spending more time near the bottom. The gap between my losses and my wins slowly widens. I titled one of my early posts "Going Nowhere." At the time I assumed that "eventually" I'd start going somewhere, specifically up. Now that I have more data, perhaps I should use the title, "Going Down—Very, Very Slowly." That I'm headed the wrong direction is one reason I won't be making Silver by the end of the season. But there's another reason: I'm just not playing that much Ranked right now. I have other priorities, and I've been having more fun with Normal games. I do still intend to make Gold, but it's both unrealistic and not worth my time to race for it at the moment.
Well, I haven't made one of these posts in a while. Part of the reason is that I haven't been playing many Ranked games. They've extended the end of Season 3, something I've known about for a while, but haven't commented on. I should note that I'll still be in Bronze when Season 3 ends. Going for the Gold, but I'm not getting any closer at the moment. Many people have been attempting to get promotions before the season ends. I'm not going to try that because it isn't a realistic goal. I'm not moping when I say that, just stating a fact. Here, I'll even support it.
When I concluded my previous post in this series, I had 33 LP in Bronze I, with 43 wins, 46 losses. A losing record overall, something that has been true for a while with these posts. Since then, I've played some more games. I don't remember the details about most of them, but I do have a few notes...
Tristana loss (we had a leaver)
5/3/3
Swain loss (the rest of my team fed)
7/4/8
Karthus win (I've got nothing, but apparently I sure did pick up a lot of kills in this one)
22/6/15
Mordekaiser win (my lane opponent was an inept Renekton and our ADC got fed anyway)
5/2/8
Kog'Maw loss (the rest of my team fed)
6/6/0
Karthus loss (both side lanes fed hard, then the other team started pushing mid and killing me)
2/3/4
Vayne loss (my lane partner, a Jinx, trolled the team and fed hard)
1/3/0
Kog'Maw loss (my lane partner, a Ziggs, intentionally fed—yes, I did get two fake supports in a row)
7/11/8
Karthus win (actually a pretty decent game)
5/2/10
Lifetime W:L: 46:52
Current LP: 22
This fits the pattern of my previous posts: my position in Bronze I oscillates, but it keeps spending more time near the bottom. The gap between my losses and my wins slowly widens. I titled one of my early posts "Going Nowhere." At the time I assumed that "eventually" I'd start going somewhere, specifically up. Now that I have more data, perhaps I should use the title, "Going Down—Very, Very Slowly." That I'm headed the wrong direction is one reason I won't be making Silver by the end of the season. But there's another reason: I'm just not playing that much Ranked right now. I have other priorities, and I've been having more fun with Normal games. I do still intend to make Gold, but it's both unrealistic and not worth my time to race for it at the moment.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
The Importance of Roles: Individual Mid & Late Game Roles
Everyone knows the current meta revolves mostly around roles. How in depth you understand why certain champions tend to do well where isn't really important now but I also am assuming most people know lanes typically have certain roles. But when you're in champion select, calling out lanes isn't enough coordination to avoid redundancies on your team.
Think of roles as fitting into two categories: What are you expected to do by "yourself" (Mostly during laning phase)? What are you expected to do with the team?
The basics of each lane are hopefully obvious. Farm up while denying the opponent farm, secure their tower while protecting your own, help nearby allies, etc. But a lot of people miss what they're supposed to be doing mid and late game in-between team fights: Warding; Farming; Defending; Shopping; Securing Objectives (Pushing, Buffs, Dragon, Baron, Shut Downs, Forcing Team Fights).
People forget that essentially any role and champion can do these things. Some require at least one other person and some champions and roles are better than others at certain things but the most obvious case of missed opportunities between team fights is lack of warding (Usually at the expense of splitting limited farm among too many people to really help anyone).
Splitting up to do different things between team fights isn't necessarily suicide but does require strong map awareness (Read wards). If you want to push and there isn't enough ward coverage, you'll probably need another person on wards for a bit. Yes, more often than not this does mean someone besides the support has to buy wards.
When setting up for a team fight, it's important to think of who, where, when, and why. You wont be able to see who is where and when they're going to be in the fight without good map awareness so why take a chance?
Farming and buffs late game should usually be reserved for those that get the best use out of the gold or benefits (Either the under leveled/ineffective at their role or the strongest carry). Running to a lane to take farm that your ADC just as easily could take to finish your 2nd Warmog's doesn't help your team. A jungler refusing to give blue to his mana hungry APC can be directly responsible for most of the missed kills in the next team fight. But don't refuse to farm if the opportunity is right. Letting creeps go is not only wasteful but can result in the lane being pushed and losing objectives.
Defending is one of those things people will have different opinions about no matter what. In general, 3 more dead champions than the other team should result in an objective (taking a tower, shutting someone down, etc). If you can't trade an objective when you lose an objective, you're losing. Don't get confused and think that losing two towers for killing 3 opponents and grabbing a tower is a neutral exchange.
The amount of farm needed to equate an objective is pretty drastic. If you're saving a tower from a creep wave while only two enemies take a tower, theoretically anything you do would be a loss. In any other scenario involving farming vs defending, you're directly contributing to your team's loss by not defending. 3 enemies on a tower means someone has to defend. Ideally, if you kill all 3 you can take another objective or if 2 people can stall/successfully defend the tower, the rest of your team should be able to take an objective.
Nothing frustrates me more than someone not being around for a team fight or slowing the team down from capitalizing with a team fight because they're shopping. Fucking wait until there's down time. It's one thing to run for a carry to run back and get a Mejai's or something ridiculous before mowing down mid but if your team is in their nexus and you have more than 10% health and are heading back to spawn, you better fucking disconnected.
League of Legends is about objectives. You can go 20/0/15 and still lose. Why? Because the enemy took more or an equal amount of towers and capitalized. You win League of Legends by taking the enemy nexus. You have to break down their nexus towers, at least enemy one inhibitor, that inhibitor's tower, and all the enemy towers in that inhibitor's lane. Super creeps can take the nexus towers and nexus if the enemy doesn't intervene. If you're not doing something to help your team take a tower, inhibitor, or distract the enemy from your creeps, you need to be protecting your towers, inhibitors, or creeps.
Unless you're a carry, farming doesn't directly help your team accomplish its main objective. Denying your opponent farm does hurt your opponent from accomplishing theirs. If you're a bruiser and you're rolling mid game, help feed your carries or win the game before their carries get rolling. Letting people free farm because you're uselessly wandering or dead helps your opponent win main objectives and thus the game. Don't be afraid of dying but be aware of when your team can cover for you if you do. It should take you 3 deaths before they secure your lane's tower.
I know I covered a lot here but the importance of what everyone should be doing and when is vital for the explanation of both kinds of roles which I'll cover later.
Think of roles as fitting into two categories: What are you expected to do by "yourself" (Mostly during laning phase)? What are you expected to do with the team?
The basics of each lane are hopefully obvious. Farm up while denying the opponent farm, secure their tower while protecting your own, help nearby allies, etc. But a lot of people miss what they're supposed to be doing mid and late game in-between team fights: Warding; Farming; Defending; Shopping; Securing Objectives (Pushing, Buffs, Dragon, Baron, Shut Downs, Forcing Team Fights).
People forget that essentially any role and champion can do these things. Some require at least one other person and some champions and roles are better than others at certain things but the most obvious case of missed opportunities between team fights is lack of warding (Usually at the expense of splitting limited farm among too many people to really help anyone).
Splitting up to do different things between team fights isn't necessarily suicide but does require strong map awareness (Read wards). If you want to push and there isn't enough ward coverage, you'll probably need another person on wards for a bit. Yes, more often than not this does mean someone besides the support has to buy wards.
When setting up for a team fight, it's important to think of who, where, when, and why. You wont be able to see who is where and when they're going to be in the fight without good map awareness so why take a chance?
Farming and buffs late game should usually be reserved for those that get the best use out of the gold or benefits (Either the under leveled/ineffective at their role or the strongest carry). Running to a lane to take farm that your ADC just as easily could take to finish your 2nd Warmog's doesn't help your team. A jungler refusing to give blue to his mana hungry APC can be directly responsible for most of the missed kills in the next team fight. But don't refuse to farm if the opportunity is right. Letting creeps go is not only wasteful but can result in the lane being pushed and losing objectives.
Defending is one of those things people will have different opinions about no matter what. In general, 3 more dead champions than the other team should result in an objective (taking a tower, shutting someone down, etc). If you can't trade an objective when you lose an objective, you're losing. Don't get confused and think that losing two towers for killing 3 opponents and grabbing a tower is a neutral exchange.
The amount of farm needed to equate an objective is pretty drastic. If you're saving a tower from a creep wave while only two enemies take a tower, theoretically anything you do would be a loss. In any other scenario involving farming vs defending, you're directly contributing to your team's loss by not defending. 3 enemies on a tower means someone has to defend. Ideally, if you kill all 3 you can take another objective or if 2 people can stall/successfully defend the tower, the rest of your team should be able to take an objective.
Nothing frustrates me more than someone not being around for a team fight or slowing the team down from capitalizing with a team fight because they're shopping. Fucking wait until there's down time. It's one thing to run for a carry to run back and get a Mejai's or something ridiculous before mowing down mid but if your team is in their nexus and you have more than 10% health and are heading back to spawn, you better fucking disconnected.
League of Legends is about objectives. You can go 20/0/15 and still lose. Why? Because the enemy took more or an equal amount of towers and capitalized. You win League of Legends by taking the enemy nexus. You have to break down their nexus towers, at least enemy one inhibitor, that inhibitor's tower, and all the enemy towers in that inhibitor's lane. Super creeps can take the nexus towers and nexus if the enemy doesn't intervene. If you're not doing something to help your team take a tower, inhibitor, or distract the enemy from your creeps, you need to be protecting your towers, inhibitors, or creeps.
Unless you're a carry, farming doesn't directly help your team accomplish its main objective. Denying your opponent farm does hurt your opponent from accomplishing theirs. If you're a bruiser and you're rolling mid game, help feed your carries or win the game before their carries get rolling. Letting people free farm because you're uselessly wandering or dead helps your opponent win main objectives and thus the game. Don't be afraid of dying but be aware of when your team can cover for you if you do. It should take you 3 deaths before they secure your lane's tower.
I know I covered a lot here but the importance of what everyone should be doing and when is vital for the explanation of both kinds of roles which I'll cover later.
How much time should be devoted to League?
Since lolking.net's "charts" down so I can't do my piece on some of the Champions with the lowest win rate and why, I suppose I should do a brief update of why I haven't been posting as much as old wind bag (Stephen).
I haven't been playing League. In fact, I uninstalled it.
I'm in school right now and at the beginning of each quarter I usually try to distance myself from distractions for a few weeks. This quarter I'm also doing NaNoWriMo and working weekday nights.
Honestly, I don't really know where the balance point is for me and League. I'm sure a lot of people have this problem especially those who know a lot of people that play. A lot of the issue comes from the fact that games are so long but so frequently thrown, carried by unbalanced teammates, or victims of unbalanced match making. To that end, it almost doesn't make sense to play anything but ranked since going through two independent matchmakings stretches the problem out for longer.
So I guess the question boils down to: Can you improve and advance in League by never "practicing" outside of ranked?
I'll have to get back to that another time.
I haven't been playing League. In fact, I uninstalled it.
I'm in school right now and at the beginning of each quarter I usually try to distance myself from distractions for a few weeks. This quarter I'm also doing NaNoWriMo and working weekday nights.
Honestly, I don't really know where the balance point is for me and League. I'm sure a lot of people have this problem especially those who know a lot of people that play. A lot of the issue comes from the fact that games are so long but so frequently thrown, carried by unbalanced teammates, or victims of unbalanced match making. To that end, it almost doesn't make sense to play anything but ranked since going through two independent matchmakings stretches the problem out for longer.
So I guess the question boils down to: Can you improve and advance in League by never "practicing" outside of ranked?
I'll have to get back to that another time.
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XI: Recovering
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, by now you know the drill. I took a bit of a break after plummeting to 2 LP in Bronze I, but I recently came back. I've completed seven Ranked games since then...
Game 1 as Sivir
Our team: Sivir (ADC), Cassiopeia (support), Malzahar (mid), Lee Sin (jungle), Maokai (top)
Their team: Renekton (top), Fizz (mid), Draven (ADC), Janna (support), Amumu (jungle)
I was terrified that the Cassiopeia support would backfire on me, but we won lane. I didn't catch any outright trolling on the enemy team, but they fell behind and ended up surrendering early on.
K/D/A: 2/1/2
Game 2 as Udyr
Our team: Udyr (jungle), Varus (ADC), Cho'Gath (top), Lux (support), Brand (mid)
Their team: Hecarim (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), Teemo (top), Nami (support), Twisted Fate (mid)
I got coerced into jungling, kind of. It's not that I mind, it's that I wanted to win. Well, our bot lane struggled and our top lane was completely trounced, but I picked up some kills and helped Brand pick up even more. He got fed and carried. I had a neutral K/D in the end because I started getting destroyed by their fed Caitlyn before I could reach anyone with Udyr's melee-only capability. I went from 8/3 to 8/8. Still, we won.
K/D/A: 8/8/6
Udyr W:L ratio: 3:1
Game 3 as Maokai
Our team: Maokai (jungle), Kassadin (mid), Corki (ADC), Sona (support), Akali (top)
Their team: Jax (top), Master Yi (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), Karma (mid), Volibear (support)
Another jungle game for me, but it became my first Ranked Maokai win, so I was thrilled. This would actually have been a very easy game, but Akali fed the crap out of Jax. Kassadin and Corki were huge jerks, so the only person I liked in this game was our Sona. Jax ended up killing any of us pretty easily, but we were ahead enough against the rest of his team that we still pulled it off.
K/D/A: 4/5/15
Maokai W:L ratio: 1:4
Game 4 as Karthus
Our team: Karthus (mid), Olaf (top), Nasus (jungle), Graves (troll), Vayne (ADC)
Their team: Jarvan (jungle), Viktor (mid), Singed (top), Leona (support), Sivir (ADC)
The Graves player had last pick and hadn't been communicating in the lobby. Apparently he didn't want to support, so he decided to play a different game: "Compete against Vayne in bot lane, then pretend she's the toxic player in the allchat." I had my hands full with a strong Viktor player (the new skin made him momentarily popular, it seems), but I was Karthus, so it was fine. But our bot lane was dominated enough that we fell behind on objectives. With Sivir and Singed to split-push we fell even further behind. Graves was spamming the allchat with caps lock lies about our Vayne. We lost, of course. Well, I'd won three in a row and wasn't expecting to be able to keep it up forever. Does Riot have special androids that join queues with me and activate "troll mode" when I play Karthus? I mean, that's crazy talk. But I can't prove it doesn't happen...
K/D/A: 8/3/7
Karthus W:L ratio: 13:15
Game 5 as Sona
Our team: Sona (support), Viktor (mid), Garen (top), Olaf (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC)
Their team: Hecarim (jungle), Sivir (ADC), Mordekaiser (top), Diana (mid), Blitzcrank (support)
I was last pick and our enthusiastic Caitlyn player seemed to think I should play Sona. I acquiesced. Caitlyn was too aggressive, but that managed to get her some unlikely-seeming kills, even if she died to get them. I ended up having another one of my awesome Sona games, which started to wear them down. Hecarim attempted to use ganks to bully us and ruin our positioning for teamfights, but I blocked some of that with my ult. It started out fairly even (their top was crushing ours, while we were a bit ahead elsewhere), but turned into a great game for our team.
K/D/A: 5/0/13
Game 6 as Sona
Our team: Sona (support), Singed (top), Elise (jungle), Fizz (mid), Caitlyn (ADC)
Their team: Warwick (jungle), Mordekaiser (mid), Corki (ADC), Fiddlesticks (support), Olaf (top)
The Caitlyn player from the previous game asked to duo queue with me. This person was sort of odd, seemingly wanting to always play Caitlyn and always ban Corki and Fizz. Things were going poorly for us from the start, but I figured I'd just keep healing and try to hold Corki and Fiddlesticks off until we could get strong enough to outpoke them. Then our Elise came in, with less than full health, for a psychotic gank when Corki and Fiddlesticks weren't even overextending. Elise got killed while Caitlyn chased Fiddlesticks down the lane. I tried to save Elise, being too far back to save Caitlyn. Corki killed all three of us, and then the rage commenced. I think mid and jungle might have been a duo queue, because they raged about all three of the other players, despite not doing well themselves. The game was a total disaster.
K/D/A: 0/8/12
Sona W:L: 4:3
Game 7 as Sivir
Our team: Sivir (ADC), Wukong (top), Lux (mid), Diana (jungle), Leona (support)
Their team: Akali (mid), Pantheon (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Nami (support), Ezreal (ADC)
I don't want to be too hyperbolic about this one. Anyway, let's see. On the downside: Wukong being an asshole in the pre-game lobby spamming about how we needed to give him top because he's smurfing and blah blah blah I added him to my ignore list before the game even started, Diana being a pompous idiot about my inability to kill the Akali she was chasing through our jungle with no wards, and Leona having to take a phone call and not really paying attention to the game for the first part of it. On the upside: me. No really, I was being outfarmed by Ezreal and ganked by Xin Zhao at first, but then I decided to win, so I did.
K/D/A: 9/3/5
Sivir W:L: 6:6
Lifetime W:L: 43:46
Current LP: 33
Well, by now you know the drill. I took a bit of a break after plummeting to 2 LP in Bronze I, but I recently came back. I've completed seven Ranked games since then...
Game 1 as Sivir
Our team: Sivir (ADC), Cassiopeia (support), Malzahar (mid), Lee Sin (jungle), Maokai (top)
Their team: Renekton (top), Fizz (mid), Draven (ADC), Janna (support), Amumu (jungle)
I was terrified that the Cassiopeia support would backfire on me, but we won lane. I didn't catch any outright trolling on the enemy team, but they fell behind and ended up surrendering early on.
K/D/A: 2/1/2
Game 2 as Udyr
Our team: Udyr (jungle), Varus (ADC), Cho'Gath (top), Lux (support), Brand (mid)
Their team: Hecarim (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), Teemo (top), Nami (support), Twisted Fate (mid)
I got coerced into jungling, kind of. It's not that I mind, it's that I wanted to win. Well, our bot lane struggled and our top lane was completely trounced, but I picked up some kills and helped Brand pick up even more. He got fed and carried. I had a neutral K/D in the end because I started getting destroyed by their fed Caitlyn before I could reach anyone with Udyr's melee-only capability. I went from 8/3 to 8/8. Still, we won.
K/D/A: 8/8/6
Udyr W:L ratio: 3:1
Game 3 as Maokai
Our team: Maokai (jungle), Kassadin (mid), Corki (ADC), Sona (support), Akali (top)
Their team: Jax (top), Master Yi (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), Karma (mid), Volibear (support)
Another jungle game for me, but it became my first Ranked Maokai win, so I was thrilled. This would actually have been a very easy game, but Akali fed the crap out of Jax. Kassadin and Corki were huge jerks, so the only person I liked in this game was our Sona. Jax ended up killing any of us pretty easily, but we were ahead enough against the rest of his team that we still pulled it off.
K/D/A: 4/5/15
Maokai W:L ratio: 1:4
Game 4 as Karthus
Our team: Karthus (mid), Olaf (top), Nasus (jungle), Graves (troll), Vayne (ADC)
Their team: Jarvan (jungle), Viktor (mid), Singed (top), Leona (support), Sivir (ADC)
The Graves player had last pick and hadn't been communicating in the lobby. Apparently he didn't want to support, so he decided to play a different game: "Compete against Vayne in bot lane, then pretend she's the toxic player in the allchat." I had my hands full with a strong Viktor player (the new skin made him momentarily popular, it seems), but I was Karthus, so it was fine. But our bot lane was dominated enough that we fell behind on objectives. With Sivir and Singed to split-push we fell even further behind. Graves was spamming the allchat with caps lock lies about our Vayne. We lost, of course. Well, I'd won three in a row and wasn't expecting to be able to keep it up forever. Does Riot have special androids that join queues with me and activate "troll mode" when I play Karthus? I mean, that's crazy talk. But I can't prove it doesn't happen...
K/D/A: 8/3/7
Karthus W:L ratio: 13:15
Game 5 as Sona
Our team: Sona (support), Viktor (mid), Garen (top), Olaf (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC)
Their team: Hecarim (jungle), Sivir (ADC), Mordekaiser (top), Diana (mid), Blitzcrank (support)
I was last pick and our enthusiastic Caitlyn player seemed to think I should play Sona. I acquiesced. Caitlyn was too aggressive, but that managed to get her some unlikely-seeming kills, even if she died to get them. I ended up having another one of my awesome Sona games, which started to wear them down. Hecarim attempted to use ganks to bully us and ruin our positioning for teamfights, but I blocked some of that with my ult. It started out fairly even (their top was crushing ours, while we were a bit ahead elsewhere), but turned into a great game for our team.
K/D/A: 5/0/13
Game 6 as Sona
Our team: Sona (support), Singed (top), Elise (jungle), Fizz (mid), Caitlyn (ADC)
Their team: Warwick (jungle), Mordekaiser (mid), Corki (ADC), Fiddlesticks (support), Olaf (top)
The Caitlyn player from the previous game asked to duo queue with me. This person was sort of odd, seemingly wanting to always play Caitlyn and always ban Corki and Fizz. Things were going poorly for us from the start, but I figured I'd just keep healing and try to hold Corki and Fiddlesticks off until we could get strong enough to outpoke them. Then our Elise came in, with less than full health, for a psychotic gank when Corki and Fiddlesticks weren't even overextending. Elise got killed while Caitlyn chased Fiddlesticks down the lane. I tried to save Elise, being too far back to save Caitlyn. Corki killed all three of us, and then the rage commenced. I think mid and jungle might have been a duo queue, because they raged about all three of the other players, despite not doing well themselves. The game was a total disaster.
K/D/A: 0/8/12
Sona W:L: 4:3
Game 7 as Sivir
Our team: Sivir (ADC), Wukong (top), Lux (mid), Diana (jungle), Leona (support)
Their team: Akali (mid), Pantheon (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Nami (support), Ezreal (ADC)
I don't want to be too hyperbolic about this one. Anyway, let's see. On the downside: Wukong being an asshole in the pre-game lobby spamming about how we needed to give him top because he's smurfing and blah blah blah I added him to my ignore list before the game even started, Diana being a pompous idiot about my inability to kill the Akali she was chasing through our jungle with no wards, and Leona having to take a phone call and not really paying attention to the game for the first part of it. On the upside: me. No really, I was being outfarmed by Ezreal and ganked by Xin Zhao at first, but then I decided to win, so I did.
K/D/A: 9/3/5
Sivir W:L: 6:6
Lifetime W:L: 43:46
Current LP: 33
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