Elder Tokes: noob enemy team
Elder Tokes: Report them unskilled
DiaBahlical: Will do.
Valkos: LOL THOSE WERE BOTS NOOB
Elder Tokes: Lol whatever man
Elder Tokes: You wish
Valkos: LOL IS THIS KID FOR REAL?
Elder Tokes: Fuck you
Elder Tokes: You suck at the game
Elder Tokes: uninstall
Valkos: YOUR FUCKING KIDDING ME
Valkos: THIS KID THHOUGHT HE WAS PLAYING REAL PEOPLE
Elder Tokes: Im bro cmon
Valkos: LAWL
Elder Tokes: Is this your first game nub?
Valkos: MY MAIN IS PLAT, IM JUS PLAYING AROUND
Elder Tokes: Look at their names it doesnt say Ziggs bot nub
Valkos: kid lawl kid
Elder Tokes: bro lawl bro
DiaBahlical: LOL You guys probably duoed.
Elder Tokes: I would never duo with this trash
Valkos: I DONT KNOW THIS KID
Valkos: I SOLOED
Valkos: noobcake
Elder Tokes: I always solo
Elder Tokes: I dont need a team 1v5 every game
Valkos: ONLY THING YOU SOLO IS URSELF LEL
Elder Tokes: Bro do you want to 1v1
Elder Tokes: I swear I will rek you
Valkos: ILL 1V1 UR MOM LOLO
Elder Tokes: Ill 1v1 ur granny lawl get on my level
Valkos: Yolo
Elder Tokes: Nolo
Valkos: such a fucking kid
Elder Tokes: Omfg I am ur new God
Valkos: LOL GOD IS FAKE, UR FAKE
Elder Tokes: Whatever god is not fake
Elder Tokes: Who make the heavens and the earth? NOT SCIENCE
Valkos: LOL THIS KID
Valkos: SUPER FAG
Elder Tokes: lol this bro
Elder Tokes: Someone settle this
Elder Tokes: WHo is nub?
DiaBahlical: Neither of you!
Valkos: THE GUY WHO FUCKED UR MOM LOLOL
DiaBahlical: You're both beautiful and unique snowflakes.
Elder Tokes: Nope
Elder Tokes: This guy is sleet
Elder Tokes: I am beautiful snowflake he is nub
Valkos: ^ IM LIKE A BREATH OF AIR
Valkos: FRESH
Elder Tokes: Im like fresh oj at sunrise
Valkos: UR LIKE ROTTEN MILK LAWL
Elder Tokes: No I dont
Elder Tokes: You are lie
Valkos: NO ONE WANTS YOU
Valkos: GET IN THE TRASH
Elder Tokes: You smell like trash
Elder Tokes: Food trash
Valkos: IM LIKE
Valkos: SUPER ORGIONAL
Elder Tokes: You are super nub
Elder Tokes: I am origional
Valkos: NO TIME
Valkos: IN DAT MUMS PUSS
Elder Tokes: No my mom just made breakfast, where are you hunh?
Elder Tokes: Not here
Valkos: IN DAT PUSS
Elder Tokes: Listen I will fight you in real life if you dont stop I swear to god bro
Valkos: KID, I PROB MADE U
Elder Tokes: Tell this guy he is more nub than me
Valkos: UR PROB A SKINNY LITTLE BITCH
Elder Tokes: I am king of you
Valkos: YOUR KING OF MY DICK
Elder Tokes: No you are homo
Elder Tokes: You are so homo
Valkos: YO DIA
Elder Tokes: so
Elder Tokes: homo
Valkos: NOT WHAT UR MOM SAID
Valkos: WHEN I WAS IN DAT PUSS
Valkos: U HEAR THE WALLS CREEPIN IN?
Valkos: DATS ME
Valkos: YO DIA
Valkos: YO DIABAHLICAL
DiaBahlical: Yo.
Valkos: YO DAWG
Elder Tokes: I am rubber you are glue
Elder Tokes: Every thing you say bounces from me and makes you homosexual
Valkos: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS NUBCAKE
Elder Tokes: Tell this bro I am his king
DiaBahlical: Sounds like some fabulous rubber.
Valkos: DATS WHAT UR MOM SAID LAST NIGHT
Valkos: LOLO
Elder Tokes: Tell this guy I am king of his house and his mom his my wife
DiaBahlical: Oh hey, I think Elder Tokes wanted you to be informed that he is apparently your king.
Elder Tokes: Tell him Dia
Elder Tokes: See I win
Elder Tokes: You are more nub
DiaBahlical: Apparently there has been a coup?
Valkos: LOL TELL THAT NIGGER HE ISNT NOTHING BUT A LITTLE BITCH
Valkos: JUST LIKE THAT
Valkos: THE ONLY THING HE RULES IS HOMOSEXUALITY
Elder Tokes: Tell him I am his King so he is gay
Valkos: YOLO
DiaBahlical: I don't know whether he is king or queen then.
DiaBahlical: That's too confusing.
Valkos: KING OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Valkos: SEE
Elder Tokes: I am King of you
Valkos: YOU LOOSE LITTLE GIRL
Valkos: KID, CRY, BLANKET, AND BED
Elder Tokes: Uh, well thats where you wrong I am boy
Valkos: 4 WORDS 4 UUUUUUUUUUU
Elder Tokes: I will tell you 4 words
DiaBahlical: But the part about being loose and the blanket and stuff?
Elder Tokes: I am your King
DiaBahlical: Was that still true?
DiaBahlical: Or is that also wrong?
Elder Tokes: No I am not a loose or a blanket
Valkos: NIGGER, HE IS A BLANKET
Elder Tokes: I am not a blanket I tell you again
Valkos: I GOT SOME SHADES
Valkos: THESE SHADES TELL ME URS A HOE
Valkos: BRO, I GOT SUPA FLIGHT
DiaBahlical: I am in doubt that a blanket would be able to type messages into this chat.
Elder Tokes: Yeah thats what I say
Elder Tokes: I am no blanket
Valkos: DIA, STOP PLAYING A DUMB BITCH
Valkos: I NEVER SAID NUTHIN ABNOUT A BLANKET
Valkos: HES A KID
Elder Tokes: Tell Valkos I am king and he is dirty peasant
Valkos: KIDS LIKE BLANKETS
Elder Tokes: I AM NOT A BLANKET
Valkos: ELDER TOKES SOME DICK YOLO
Elder Tokes: You take that back right now
Valkos: BRO, U WANT THE NEXT LEVEL?
Elder Tokes: I am next level
Elder Tokes: You are not
Elder Tokes: I am
Valkos: WELCOME TO THE BIG LEAGUE
DiaBahlical: Tokes dick?
Valkos: DATS RIGHT
DiaBahlical: That is some voodoo shit right there.
Valkos: GAIS LIKE HIM AMKE IT HAPPEN
DiaBahlical: Does he sever the dicks first, or just toke them while his poor victims are still attached?
Valkos: DIA TELL HIM I WIN
Elder Tokes: Dia you tell him I am league King
DiaBahlical: OK, OK.
DiaBahlical: I think I've got this.
Elder Tokes: Who is win?
DiaBahlical: Valkos, Elder Tokes is league king. Elder Tokes, Valkos win.
Valkos: nope
DiaBahlical: Did I get it right?
Elder Tokes: But which is best, league king or win?
Valkos: U DONE FUCKED UP
DiaBahlical: Damn.
Elder Tokes: Tell him I am best
DiaBahlical: Sorry.
Valkos: TELL THIS SMELLY KID IM BEST
DiaBahlical: Let's see, so...
Elder Tokes: I am transcendance
DiaBahlical: Wait, which one is the smelly kid?
Elder Tokes: Valkos
Valkos: ELDER
Valkos: ELDER TOKES A DICK
Valkos: YOLO
Elder Tokes: You take that back
Elder Tokes: I am not dick, or loose, or blanket
DiaBahlical: "Transcendence" is a big word for a little kid.
Elder Tokes: I am league king
Valkos: SHIT DAWG
DiaBahlical: Are you guys sure that Elder Tokes is a kid?
Valkos: HE HAS GOOGLE
Valkos: SEE
DiaBahlical: Ah.
Elder Tokes: I am no kid
Elder Tokes: Kid cannot King
Elder Tokes: I am king
Valkos: Aurantiaceous
Valkos: I CAN DO DAT TOO
Elder Tokes: King elder tokes not fit so I just assume all know
Valkos: KING OF DICKS YOLO
DiaBahlical: So I'm supposed to use Google to find out which of you wins?
Elder Tokes: I am literally King of San Marino
Valkos: LOL DAT AINT EVEN A PLACE
Valkos: KIDS MAKING UP SHIT
DiaBahlical: Oh, it's a place.
Elder Tokes: Uh no
Valkos: A GOOGLE PLACE
Valkos: LOLO
Elder Tokes: Uh google is bad corporation I use bing for search time
DiaBahlical: What?
DiaBahlical: Oh, hell no.
DiaBahlical: Valkos wins then.
Elder Tokes: No
Elder Tokes: I win you both
Valkos: BOOM
DiaBahlical: No, you lose, you Bing-loving blanket-child.
Valkos: THIS KID DONT EVEN KNO
Elder Tokes: You take that back immediately
Elder Tokes: I am king
Elder Tokes: I am transcendance
DiaBahlical: You can't be transcendence. That's not even possible.
Elder Tokes: Google take 7 dollars from my bank account
Elder Tokes: Its not much but it principle
Elder Tokes: So now I destroy google
Valkos: YO FUK U DIABHLICAL
Elder Tokes: Tell me your IP DIa
Valkos: STEAL KILLING THUG
Elder Tokes: I will find you and kill you rape your family
Elder Tokes: I am king your are dump trash
Elder Tokes: I am transcendance
DiaBahlical: OK, OK.
Valkos: YALL KNO MY FIGHT
Valkos: IS LIKE
DiaBahlical: 192.168.1.1
Valkos: WOW
Elder Tokes: Wrong ip
Elder Tokes: That home for all
Elder Tokes: Give me real ip you scare
DiaBahlical: LOL
DiaBahlical: What are you talking about?
Elder Tokes: I fuck you
DiaBahlical: Yeah?
Elder Tokes: Yes
Valkos: LOL DIA U GETTING PUNKED
Valkos: HE GOT U BY THE BALLS
Valkos: LAWL
Elder Tokes: Tell me you Ip
Elder Tokes: I tell you mine
Elder Tokes: We meet in middle
Elder Tokes: And I fuck you
DiaBahlical: 192.168.1.1
Elder Tokes: No
Valkos: ROLFCOPTOR
Elder Tokes: Dont play coy with me spaceman
DiaBahlical: Why, whatever are you talking about?
Valkos: DIA U GETTING PUNKED SO HARD DAWG
Elder Tokes: I TALK YOUR MOTHER
Elder Tokes: I TALK YOUR GRANDMOTHER
Elder Tokes: I TALK YOU
Elder Tokes: MY DICK
Elder Tokes: I AM TRANSCENDANCE
DiaBahlical: Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "I TALK YOU MY DICK."
Elder Tokes: Take a picture it will last longer
DiaBahlical: Would you like me to do a web search for it?
Elder Tokes: and then i fuck you with it
Valkos: DIAS UR RESPONSE IS MAKIN U LOOK LIKE A LITTKE BITCH
Elder Tokes: I put harness on your grandma
Elder Tokes: Ride her like camal
DiaBahlical: Wait, you'd fuck me with a picture?
DiaBahlical: How would that work?
DiaBahlical: What are the details?
Elder Tokes: You will see
DiaBahlical: No, tell me now!
Elder Tokes: WORLD OF PAIN
Elder Tokes: I SAY YOU FIND OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Valkos: YO DIABAH
Valkos: A/S/L?
Elder Tokes: YOU ARE SO STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DiaBahlical: 28/M/Seattle
Valkos: UZE A BITCH
Elder Tokes: Seatlle hahahahaha
Elder Tokes: You are gay boy
Elder Tokes: Nothing from Seattle but steer and queer you farmer HAHAHAHA
DiaBahlical: Well yeah.
DiaBahlical: But I thought you were too!
DiaBahlical: After all those times you promised to fuck me.
Elder Tokes: I am King of san Marino
Elder Tokes: NO
Elder Tokes: NOT FUCK YOU LIKE WOMAN
Elder Tokes: FUCK YOU LIKE JAIL MAN
Valkos: HES KING OF QUEER, AND LOOKS LIKE UR HIS QUEEN LAWL
Elder Tokes: TAKE YOUR DIGINITY AND LIFE FORCE
DiaBahlical: I'm afraid I don't follow.
Elder Tokes: I AM TRANSCENDANCE
DiaBahlical: Yeah, you've said that.
Elder Tokes: I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID
Elder Tokes: YOU SAID YOUA RE GAY
Valkos: LOL YOU'VE SAID THAT IS INCORRECT
Elder Tokes: I WIL KILL YOU I SWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Valkos: YO EVAN
Elder Tokes: Youa re from seattle
Elder Tokes: You are Frasier Crane
Elder Tokes: I am Carl jung
Elder Tokes: You suck my dick now
Valkos: I AM SIGMUND FRUED
DiaBahlical: Whoa, but Carl Jung is dead...
DiaBahlical: You guys are both dead?
Elder Tokes: It was fake
DiaBahlical: I didn't know ghosts played League.
Elder Tokes: I got tired of being celebrity hunk
Valkos: I GOT YOUR PSYCHOANALYSIS THEORY RIGHT HERE
DiaBahlical: Wait, so Carl Jung faked his own death?
Elder Tokes: Yes I did
Elder Tokes: And become King of San Marino
DiaBahlical: But he'd be dead by now anyway.
Elder Tokes: DO YOU NOT LISTEN?!?!?!?!?!
Elder Tokes: I AM TRANSCENDANCE
DiaBahlical: So by doing this transcendent dance, you've managed to live for over 130 years?
DiaBahlical: Tell me more!
Elder Tokes: OVer 1,300 years
DiaBahlical: Not that kind of more!
Elder Tokes: If I tell you I have to kill
Elder Tokes: Which I will do already
DiaBahlical: So, what's the problem then?
Elder Tokes: I hate you
DiaBahlical: Aw.
Elder Tokes: I found your IP
Elder Tokes: Big mistake
Elder Tokes: I AM KING
Elder Tokes: I AM TRANSCENDANCE
Elder Tokes: PREPARE TO DIE
DiaBahlical: Aw, he left.
DiaBahlical: Well Valkos, despite your antics, I'm still awarding victory to you.
DiaBahlical: So congratulations.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
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.
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.
Going for the Gold Part XVII: I forgot to publish this one about a month ago...
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.
These games are old news, but apparently I forgot to publish a post for them. I guess I thought I'd play Ranked again and maybe get a few more games in before posting this and letting the ladder reset happen. That didn't happen. The following is what I'd typed in late December...
And that was it. After my favorite Ranked game ever, I took a break. I stayed right where I was, at the top of Bronze II and needing to complete a promo series to get back into Bronze I, up until the ladder reset. It's a dumb, anticlimactic way to conclude the first season of my Ranked journey, but it's what apparently happened.
These games are old news, but apparently I forgot to publish a post for them. I guess I thought I'd play Ranked again and maybe get a few more games in before posting this and letting the ladder reset happen. That didn't happen. The following is what I'd typed in late December...
In what I hope is the beginning of a second rapid ascension out of Bronze II, I just played a Karthus game. I second-picked Karthus, although third pick had called mid. Our third pick didn't complain and proceeded to take Diana top. Our team ended up being Karthus (me), Diana (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Alistar (support) against LeBlanc (mid), Rengar (top), Shyvana (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Taric (support). LeBlanc is a dangerous opponent, and is thought, by some, to counter Karthus. I've found that she's actually worse at preventing Karthus from farming than some other burst champions. My hope was to keep her occupied without dying, knowing that I'd become more powerful as the game went on. LeBlanc couldn't kill me, but thwarted my plan by roaming extensively and picking up kills elsewhere on the map, which I couldn't stop. Well, not at first. Fortunately, my CS allowed me to keep up. I picked up some kills, then intercepted attempts to gank Lee Sin and Diana, who both helped me pick up even more. My final K/D/A was 11/2/10. This win has earned me 16 LP, bringing me to 91, albeit still in Bronze II.
Well, I'm crazy. Or maybe I just stopped giving a fuck. I'm finally taking my Sion into Ranked play. I'm typing this part while the game loads. We needed physical damage from a solo top, and I'm really not well-versed in any AD tops. I've almost always played AP when I've gone top. I initially chose Kayle, then switched to Sion because I'm stupid. We'll see how this goes...
It went pretty well. Specifically, it went so well that I got a pentakill. I mean, we were losing pretty badly and I was only barely able to turn the game around, but I did turn it around. To start out, we had Swain (mid) Sion (me), Amumu (jungle), Miss Fortune (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) against Yasuo (mid), Jax (top), Jarvan IV (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Sona (support). Jax didn't show up right away, so I was able to get more early CS than normal. I don't think it mattered in the end, though. Their Jarvan bullied me to help Jax get caught up, and Amumu didn't do me much good in the laning phase. Swain, playing aggressively, managed to both feed and to get fed himself. But most of his deaths went to Yasuo, who snowballed massively. I'm still not sure what to think of Yasuo as a champion, but he really can snowball. As always with Sion, I had to take breaks to clear waves and keep my health growing, which potentially costed my team some fights. Jax and Yasuo both got fed. With Jarvan to tank for them, they seemed unstoppable. I became tanky enough to hold them off for a while, but it wasn't really preventing us from losing. Probably everyone in the game thought it was coming to a close, 40 minutes in, when they grouped up to push into our base. Amumu ulted their team, then Sona ulted our team. I came in chopping away. Miss Fortune, having been forced by Jax to circle around the fight, avoided the Sona ult and arrived to use her own ult, which dropped Jarvan, Jax, and Yasuo low enough them. I took Jarvan out as Yasuo killed Blitzcrank, then rushed Jax and killed him right after Yasuo caught and killed Miss Fortune. With Jax dead, Swain escaped toward our nexus. Yasuo took Amumu down, scoring a triple kill. Yasuo stayed to try finishing me off next, so Lucian and Sona remained right behind him. I dropped Yasuo, then caught Sona as she ran past me. Lucian was the only one left on their team, so I popped my Ghost. He used Flash to escape, but then turned around and shot at me as I stunned him, then killed him for my second Ranked pentakill ever and my first pentakill with Sion. From there, we won another fight, this time while contesting Baron Nashor, and proceeded to win the game. My final K/D/A was 10/5/12. My final health was 4,020. This match has qualified me for a promotional series. I'm still a bit sore about the whole demotion thing, but this match has left me quite pleased. I took a big risk bringing Sion into a Ranked game. This time, it worked out. I'll have to think about when I want to try it again.
And that was it. After my favorite Ranked game ever, I took a break. I stayed right where I was, at the top of Bronze II and needing to complete a promo series to get back into Bronze I, up until the ladder reset. It's a dumb, anticlimactic way to conclude the first season of my Ranked journey, but it's what apparently happened.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XVI: Merry Christmas, Matchmaking
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.
This is a very special post. It's finally happened. That's right...
It means little, but since this is such a special occasion, I want to point something out.
Me: 4/1/0
Lulu: 0/4/5
Vi: 3/5/3
Sion: 0/7/3
Zed: 3/5/1
There are all sorts of obvious reasons why K/D/A isn't a measurement of how well one actually plays. But I want to point out, because I haven't really stressed it in these updates, that this is a recurring circumstance. In fact, the discrepancy here is considerably less extreme than it is in my typical Ranked Karthus loss. And I have 20 of those. It keeps happening.
When my friends found out that I had, almost immediately after my placement matches, risen out of Bronze II into Bronze I, they were encouraging, telling me that soon I'd probably be in Silver. Maybe they were just being polite. I've also had total strangers in my games compliment my skill, and express surprise that I'm in Bronze. Several people have told me that if I kept playing, they thought I'd make Gold by the end of Season 4. Maybe they too were just being polite. I don't know. But one thing no one told me, when I first got promoted to Bronze I, was, "You'll probably play a hundred or so games here, then get demoted back down to Bronze II." Demotion has been so close for such a long time now that I was halfway to expecting it, although I held onto the hope that I'd be wrong. Only now that it's finally happened, I find myself wondering, "What the hell?" I've spent so much time on this. And that's what I get for my effort? "You have been demoted in Solo Queue to Hecarim's Elementalists, Bronze II."
I've seen a lot of criticisms of the ranking system in League of Legends. I've had some thoughts of my own. But right now? All of that pales in comparison to whatever flaws in the system have taken me in this hundred-game loop back to where I started. If it wasn't for one little detail, I really believe that I'd give up right now.
This is a very special post. It's finally happened. That's right...
League UpdateFor now, that ends my griping about how close I've constantly been to demotion. I got into a Ranked lobby. I was last pick. We had Zed (mid), Sion (top), Vi (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lulu (support) against Lux (mid), Lee Sin (top), Olaf (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Thresh (support). I had a very tough lane. Lulu gave up an early kill and didn't play very well, while Vi never showed up bot. Ever. I was behind and had no help from my team, but I farmed while I could and managed to pick up a few kills too. Zed left. As they were invading our base, Vi ragequit. Two leavers.
You have been demoted in Solo Queue to Hecarim's Elementalists, Bronze II.
It means little, but since this is such a special occasion, I want to point something out.
Me: 4/1/0
Lulu: 0/4/5
Vi: 3/5/3
Sion: 0/7/3
Zed: 3/5/1
There are all sorts of obvious reasons why K/D/A isn't a measurement of how well one actually plays. But I want to point out, because I haven't really stressed it in these updates, that this is a recurring circumstance. In fact, the discrepancy here is considerably less extreme than it is in my typical Ranked Karthus loss. And I have 20 of those. It keeps happening.
When my friends found out that I had, almost immediately after my placement matches, risen out of Bronze II into Bronze I, they were encouraging, telling me that soon I'd probably be in Silver. Maybe they were just being polite. I've also had total strangers in my games compliment my skill, and express surprise that I'm in Bronze. Several people have told me that if I kept playing, they thought I'd make Gold by the end of Season 4. Maybe they too were just being polite. I don't know. But one thing no one told me, when I first got promoted to Bronze I, was, "You'll probably play a hundred or so games here, then get demoted back down to Bronze II." Demotion has been so close for such a long time now that I was halfway to expecting it, although I held onto the hope that I'd be wrong. Only now that it's finally happened, I find myself wondering, "What the hell?" I've spent so much time on this. And that's what I get for my effort? "You have been demoted in Solo Queue to Hecarim's Elementalists, Bronze II."
I've seen a lot of criticisms of the ranking system in League of Legends. I've had some thoughts of my own. But right now? All of that pales in comparison to whatever flaws in the system have taken me in this hundred-game loop back to where I started. If it wasn't for one little detail, I really believe that I'd give up right now.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XV: More Bullshit
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.
I just pulled myself back up to positive LP in Bronze I. I first-picked Karthus, like I always do. It was Karthus (me), Darius (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Annie (support) against Morgana (mid), Yasuo (top), Elise (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Taric (support). Following the string of five losses, then a win, then three more losses that got me here, I finally managed to get into a good game as Karthus. Nah, I'm kidding: the other team had a griefer. At first, it was actually kind of annoying. I guess what happened was that when my teammates decided to invade and grabbed the enemy blue amidst the fighting, Lee Sin got mad at me because he wanted that blue buff. So he took ours and it was no big deal. And then he died and started raging at me for stealing his leash. Huh? Well, Morgana can't kill Karthus very easily in lane, and Karthus can outfarm her all day, so things weren't going too poorly for me, especially since I started out with a blue buff. Darius started out having trouble, but eventually started winning his lane. That didn't matter, though. We were losing bot, then the enemy Varus flipped out when Taric "stole" his kill. He proceeded to throw a fit and lose on purpose in order to teach Taric a lesson. And so I gained LP and have staved off demotion for another day. My final score was 11/1/4, with, of course, the highest CS. But this game was totally unfair. Varus ruined it. I hate crap like this, even when it benefits me. This game took me back up to 8 LP.
After finally winning a game, things returned to normal. And by "normal" I mean "terrible." I was fourth pick this time. We had Gangplank (mid), Riven (top), Diana (jungle), Kog'Maw (me), and Nunu (support) against Lux (mid), Wukong (top), Malphite (jungle), Draven (ADC), and Annie (support). We got off to a great start when my support took off down the lane on his own and the two enemy bot laners ambushed me from the brush near our turret, giving Draven first blood. I teleported right back in and kept minions off the turret, but Nunu went too far out again and got killed by Draven. And of course, Diana never showed up to help us, even though the lane was pushed the entire time. Diana, Gangplank, and Nunu all fed badly, and we were doomed soon. I played cautiously and did pick up some kills, but then I'd also die when my allies were wiped out and I was the only one left. No one on my team, and I mean no one, showed any interest in protecting me for fights. My final score was 6/6/8, and really, I'm surprised it was that good. Our next least-feeding player was Riven, at 4/8/3. Two of her kills were ones she took with her ult when I would have gotten them anyway. The other players on our team all did much worse. And we couldn't have lost to a more sportsmanlike team! Draven was mocking us when some of us refused to surrender, and Annie kept bragging about having more assists than our whole team had kills, or having more kills than me. I sure do love this community. Well, now I'm down to 2 LP.
For some reason, I tried another game as an ADC right after that. Well, I was last pick, so it wasn't entirely my choice. My random support this time was a lot better, though. We had Kassadin (mid), Singed (top), Shyvana (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lulu (support) against Swain (mid), Garen (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Quinn (ADC), and Leona (support). Lulu helped me get first blood against Quinn, then killed Leona herself before Leona could escape. From there, we had an edge, but Quinn and Leona put up quite a fight. They did manage to kill me, but we remained ahead. Swain won mid though, and joined forces with Kha'Zix to destroy our bot lane. Swain kept our team behind for a while. Our Kassadin was feeling overwhelmed and even made a show of threatening to leave. I meticulously continued progressing in my Tristana build. We were still a bit behind our team caught part of their team in the river. We didn't kill any of them, but we drove them off, then started Baron. I finished Baron while my teammates guarded me, then I entered the teamfight and got a pentakill. My first pentakill in Ranked. We destroyed their mid inhibitor before they respawned. They continued to put up a fight: Swain and Quinn even managed to kill me, but ultimately, we won. Finally, for the first time this preseason, I was part of a good game in Ranked. There was some whining on our team when Swain was destroying us, and later some whining from the other team when I was destroying them, but no real raging, and no leaving or griefing or anything like that. I finished with a K/D/A of 16/6/4. I am now at 7 LP.
In my next match, I was fourth pick. I got Mordekaiser for solo top, although I was thinking about playing Swain. I hadn't played Swain in a while. I decided that since I usually did well with Mordekaiser, I'd go with him. We had Zed (mid), Mordekaiser (me), Warwick (jungle), Quinn (ADC), and Nautilus (support) against Ahri (mid), Yasuo (top), Shaco (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Taric (support). This game was pretty uneventful for me. Yasuo couldn't kill me, but played safely and avoided dying to me. The other lanes were dominated in our favor, so I didn't really even have to do anything. In the end, I went 2/0/4. This game brought me up to 12 LP.
During my Mordekaiser game, a friend (Vladmir the Hand) called me on Skype and we did a duo queue immediately after I finished the game. It was Lux (mid), Singed (top), Shyvana (jungle), Quinn (Vladmir the Hand), and Leona (me) against Diana (mid), Renekton (top), Warwick (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Thresh (support). I guess this was my first Ranked Leona game. It did not go well. Their team beat our team up. We tried to hold on, but we were outplayed. Also, I'm not sure why I was playing Leona in Ranked. I guess I thought it was a Normal game. Oops. Well, I went 3/5/4. After this game, I'm at 8 LP.
Following a prolonged series of re-queues, I was able to get into a game as fourth pick. Last pick requested ADC, so I took solo top as Swain. And then last pick turned out to be Vayne—against Caitlyn. About half of my team seemed to think that Caitlyn is OP. Well yeah, when you feed her that much. If you couldn't guess, we lost. It was Kha'Zix (mid), Swain (me), Evelynn (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Nami (support) against Morgana (mid), Jax (top), Warwick (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Nautilus (support). I dominated Jax in the laning phase, denying him CS, forcing Warwick to cover for him multiple times, and eventually killing him. Then he brought three friends with him and they took my outer turret while my team watched. After so many Ranked games, I shouldn't be surprised, but I really was taken aback at just how bad my teammates, with the exception of Kha'Zix, were. They couldn't win any engagement. Most importantly, they couldn't kill Caitlyn. Ever. I was on the opposite side of the map from her until toward the end of the game. After killing Morgana, I was able to engage on Caitlyn and kill her single-handedly. Later, when they were in our base, the champions protecting Caitlyn took off to pick up kills on my teammates, and I managed to get close and kill Caitlyn single-handedly a second time. Caitlyn's final K/D/A: 19/2/10. My teammates fed her all game, then whined that she was supposedly an overpowered champion. Well yeah, when you feed her that much! Our team had 14 kills in the end. The other team had 31. Completely one-sided. I think I did fine, though. I went 6/3/3. And now I'm at 4 LP.
In case I was doubting that Riot hated me with a fiery passion, I got this stupid matchup. It was Annie (mid), Nasus (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lux (support) against Yasuo (mid), Dr. Mundo (top), Master Yi (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Karma (support). Yeah, my teammates fed, but I don't really care about that anymore. The worst thing about this game was that I was lagging out the entire time. I couldn't see what I was doing, because the game was constantly lagging, all while my internet was fine, the game said I had 64 FPS, I'd experienced no lag all day before this game, and my teammates claimed I was the only one lagging. Despite not being able to see a damn thing, I somehow went 2/4/1 and picked up 100 CS, which was better than any of my teammates managed. What the hell? Also, they outvoted me and surrendered 20 minutes in. How is it that the person who is crying, "So sorry, but this game is being unplayable for me" is the only one who wants to keep going? Well, I was going to do a big Ranked binge and play even more games for the rest of the night, but after that, I don't dare risk it. Such a shame. Well, that steaming pile of bullshit has brought me back down to 0 LP, right where I was at the end of my last post.
Nothing has changed. I mean, I'm thrilled to get a pentakill with Tristana and enraged that I had mysterious lag, but really, I'm right back where I was. 0 LP in Bronze I. As before, my next post could be about my demotion. It's annoying enough that I'd play another one right now to make that stop being the case, but like I said, I don't dare risk it. This sucks.
I just pulled myself back up to positive LP in Bronze I. I first-picked Karthus, like I always do. It was Karthus (me), Darius (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Annie (support) against Morgana (mid), Yasuo (top), Elise (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Taric (support). Following the string of five losses, then a win, then three more losses that got me here, I finally managed to get into a good game as Karthus. Nah, I'm kidding: the other team had a griefer. At first, it was actually kind of annoying. I guess what happened was that when my teammates decided to invade and grabbed the enemy blue amidst the fighting, Lee Sin got mad at me because he wanted that blue buff. So he took ours and it was no big deal. And then he died and started raging at me for stealing his leash. Huh? Well, Morgana can't kill Karthus very easily in lane, and Karthus can outfarm her all day, so things weren't going too poorly for me, especially since I started out with a blue buff. Darius started out having trouble, but eventually started winning his lane. That didn't matter, though. We were losing bot, then the enemy Varus flipped out when Taric "stole" his kill. He proceeded to throw a fit and lose on purpose in order to teach Taric a lesson. And so I gained LP and have staved off demotion for another day. My final score was 11/1/4, with, of course, the highest CS. But this game was totally unfair. Varus ruined it. I hate crap like this, even when it benefits me. This game took me back up to 8 LP.
After finally winning a game, things returned to normal. And by "normal" I mean "terrible." I was fourth pick this time. We had Gangplank (mid), Riven (top), Diana (jungle), Kog'Maw (me), and Nunu (support) against Lux (mid), Wukong (top), Malphite (jungle), Draven (ADC), and Annie (support). We got off to a great start when my support took off down the lane on his own and the two enemy bot laners ambushed me from the brush near our turret, giving Draven first blood. I teleported right back in and kept minions off the turret, but Nunu went too far out again and got killed by Draven. And of course, Diana never showed up to help us, even though the lane was pushed the entire time. Diana, Gangplank, and Nunu all fed badly, and we were doomed soon. I played cautiously and did pick up some kills, but then I'd also die when my allies were wiped out and I was the only one left. No one on my team, and I mean no one, showed any interest in protecting me for fights. My final score was 6/6/8, and really, I'm surprised it was that good. Our next least-feeding player was Riven, at 4/8/3. Two of her kills were ones she took with her ult when I would have gotten them anyway. The other players on our team all did much worse. And we couldn't have lost to a more sportsmanlike team! Draven was mocking us when some of us refused to surrender, and Annie kept bragging about having more assists than our whole team had kills, or having more kills than me. I sure do love this community. Well, now I'm down to 2 LP.
For some reason, I tried another game as an ADC right after that. Well, I was last pick, so it wasn't entirely my choice. My random support this time was a lot better, though. We had Kassadin (mid), Singed (top), Shyvana (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lulu (support) against Swain (mid), Garen (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Quinn (ADC), and Leona (support). Lulu helped me get first blood against Quinn, then killed Leona herself before Leona could escape. From there, we had an edge, but Quinn and Leona put up quite a fight. They did manage to kill me, but we remained ahead. Swain won mid though, and joined forces with Kha'Zix to destroy our bot lane. Swain kept our team behind for a while. Our Kassadin was feeling overwhelmed and even made a show of threatening to leave. I meticulously continued progressing in my Tristana build. We were still a bit behind our team caught part of their team in the river. We didn't kill any of them, but we drove them off, then started Baron. I finished Baron while my teammates guarded me, then I entered the teamfight and got a pentakill. My first pentakill in Ranked. We destroyed their mid inhibitor before they respawned. They continued to put up a fight: Swain and Quinn even managed to kill me, but ultimately, we won. Finally, for the first time this preseason, I was part of a good game in Ranked. There was some whining on our team when Swain was destroying us, and later some whining from the other team when I was destroying them, but no real raging, and no leaving or griefing or anything like that. I finished with a K/D/A of 16/6/4. I am now at 7 LP.
In my next match, I was fourth pick. I got Mordekaiser for solo top, although I was thinking about playing Swain. I hadn't played Swain in a while. I decided that since I usually did well with Mordekaiser, I'd go with him. We had Zed (mid), Mordekaiser (me), Warwick (jungle), Quinn (ADC), and Nautilus (support) against Ahri (mid), Yasuo (top), Shaco (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Taric (support). This game was pretty uneventful for me. Yasuo couldn't kill me, but played safely and avoided dying to me. The other lanes were dominated in our favor, so I didn't really even have to do anything. In the end, I went 2/0/4. This game brought me up to 12 LP.
During my Mordekaiser game, a friend (Vladmir the Hand) called me on Skype and we did a duo queue immediately after I finished the game. It was Lux (mid), Singed (top), Shyvana (jungle), Quinn (Vladmir the Hand), and Leona (me) against Diana (mid), Renekton (top), Warwick (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Thresh (support). I guess this was my first Ranked Leona game. It did not go well. Their team beat our team up. We tried to hold on, but we were outplayed. Also, I'm not sure why I was playing Leona in Ranked. I guess I thought it was a Normal game. Oops. Well, I went 3/5/4. After this game, I'm at 8 LP.
Following a prolonged series of re-queues, I was able to get into a game as fourth pick. Last pick requested ADC, so I took solo top as Swain. And then last pick turned out to be Vayne—against Caitlyn. About half of my team seemed to think that Caitlyn is OP. Well yeah, when you feed her that much. If you couldn't guess, we lost. It was Kha'Zix (mid), Swain (me), Evelynn (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Nami (support) against Morgana (mid), Jax (top), Warwick (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Nautilus (support). I dominated Jax in the laning phase, denying him CS, forcing Warwick to cover for him multiple times, and eventually killing him. Then he brought three friends with him and they took my outer turret while my team watched. After so many Ranked games, I shouldn't be surprised, but I really was taken aback at just how bad my teammates, with the exception of Kha'Zix, were. They couldn't win any engagement. Most importantly, they couldn't kill Caitlyn. Ever. I was on the opposite side of the map from her until toward the end of the game. After killing Morgana, I was able to engage on Caitlyn and kill her single-handedly. Later, when they were in our base, the champions protecting Caitlyn took off to pick up kills on my teammates, and I managed to get close and kill Caitlyn single-handedly a second time. Caitlyn's final K/D/A: 19/2/10. My teammates fed her all game, then whined that she was supposedly an overpowered champion. Well yeah, when you feed her that much! Our team had 14 kills in the end. The other team had 31. Completely one-sided. I think I did fine, though. I went 6/3/3. And now I'm at 4 LP.
In case I was doubting that Riot hated me with a fiery passion, I got this stupid matchup. It was Annie (mid), Nasus (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Tristana (me), and Lux (support) against Yasuo (mid), Dr. Mundo (top), Master Yi (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Karma (support). Yeah, my teammates fed, but I don't really care about that anymore. The worst thing about this game was that I was lagging out the entire time. I couldn't see what I was doing, because the game was constantly lagging, all while my internet was fine, the game said I had 64 FPS, I'd experienced no lag all day before this game, and my teammates claimed I was the only one lagging. Despite not being able to see a damn thing, I somehow went 2/4/1 and picked up 100 CS, which was better than any of my teammates managed. What the hell? Also, they outvoted me and surrendered 20 minutes in. How is it that the person who is crying, "So sorry, but this game is being unplayable for me" is the only one who wants to keep going? Well, I was going to do a big Ranked binge and play even more games for the rest of the night, but after that, I don't dare risk it. Such a shame. Well, that steaming pile of bullshit has brought me back down to 0 LP, right where I was at the end of my last post.
Nothing has changed. I mean, I'm thrilled to get a pentakill with Tristana and enraged that I had mysterious lag, but really, I'm right back where I was. 0 LP in Bronze I. As before, my next post could be about my demotion. It's annoying enough that I'd play another one right now to make that stop being the case, but like I said, I don't dare risk it. This sucks.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Going for the Gold Part XIV: Veteran
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.
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.
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)