Going for the Gold Part XXXII: At Long Last, Qualified

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

I got some more Ranked games in. I had a plethora of  trolls, but still managed to account for myself in these games, I think. I started out getting first pick, which gave us Karthus (me), Kayle (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Thresh (support). Our opponents had Vel'Koz (mid), Volibear (top), Vi (jungle), Corki (ADC), and Janna (support). While Vel'Koz isn't particularly problematic for me, the enemy Vi was quite good and, for some reason, the Kayle player was completely out of place here, feeding with a baffling intensity. Lee Sin took to raging rather than playing the game, and Lucian, the only player besides me not to become completely outclassed from the start, was arrogant. I was initially a bit ahead on my kill/death ratio, but I purposely went into deadly situations trying to swing teamfights, which never actually worked. I'm trying to prioritize giving my team a chance to win the game, rather than just going for kills. I think I did a good job of that, but this just wasn't a game that we could win. In the end, I went 3/4/5.

I tried another game. This time, I got mid, but without Kassadin banned. Haven't seen one in a while, actually, but I'm not risking it. I picked Veigar. I was up against a Lux, and I was narrowly beating her in lane, but she abandoned the lane early and became a roamer, which worked marvelously for her, as our bot lane repeatedly fed her. I pinged that she was missing. I did it a lot. They just kept dying and then our Lucian would whine about "mia." He and his Annie support were facing a Caitlyn/Alistar lane, which didn't get many kills but was able to feed Lux and the enemy Master Yi (jungling) kills. Our Garen top decisively beat a Xin Zhao, but our Tryndamere wasn't doing much. In fact, he fed Lux some of the kills that let her get going in the first place, going for stupid ganks that weren't going to work, then getting snared and killed by her turret. There was a lot of bickering between Tryndamere and Garen. It started in the lobby when Garen first-picked, then waited for Tryndamere to lock in before switching away from Smite and declaring "top." Ultimately, Tryndamere failed to adapt and had poor decision-making. Garen was a better player, but was all in it for himself, refusing to help the team or coordinate in any way. With those two and a feeding bot lane, I didn't stand a chance. I went 7/6/2 because Veigar can dish out the pain, even with a fed Lux trying to stop him, but we lost and it wasn't even close. I called it a night, frustrated that I'd fallen behind.


For my next two games, I did a duo queue with Justin (Schweizerhof). Our team composition was Xerath (mid), Urgo (top), Udyr (me), Varus (Justin), and Thresh (support). We were facing Talon (mid), Lissandra (top), Jarvan IV (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), and Orianna (support). Our bot lane came out ahead and our mid also did better than the enemy, although top did a bit worse. But skirmishes started to go against us, so this was actually a pretty close game for a while. The other jungler did pretty well for himself, which might have salvaged the game for them, but the combined poking power of Varus and Xerath helped us control objectives. And then there was me. I revisited my characteristic Udyr farm-intensive jungle domination. I assembled my full build and was able to annihilate any opponent I caught alone. A couple of times, two of them tried to team up against me, thinking that their combined power would stop me, but I'd kill them both instead. Fights in which I could find and opening quickly became very one-sided. In the end, I went 13/4/8.

In the second game with Justin, I jungled again, taking Maokai this time. He went top as Aatrox. Our mid was Malzahar and our bot laners were Vayne and Soraka. The other team had Heimerdinger mid, Darius top, Pantheon jungle, and Tristana/Karma bot. Justin can take most of the credit for this one. He tore Darius apart in the laning phase. Pantheon made some effort to turn that around, but not enough. I earned some assists, but wasn't doing very much for my team. I did serve as tanky bait to net Justin a few more kills, though, which put him over the top. This game was marred by both Malzahar and Tristana getting one kill each and then disconnecting. As Justin dominated the match and it drew to a close, the other team whined about it being 4 vs. 5, failing to notice that it was actually 4 vs. 4. I think Tristana did disconnect earlier, though, which might have given us a substantial boost, allowing Vayne and Soraka, neither of whom did particularly well, to control their lane and then go mid with me to help win skirmishes against Heimerdinger and Pantheon. I only went 1/2/7, but that's not so bad for a generally starved tank in a very short match. The other team surrendered at 25 minutes in.

Justin took a break but came back to spectate most of my next game. It was Karthus (me), Fiora (top), Amumu (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Morgana (support) vs. Cassiopeia (mid), Ryze (top), Udyr (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Janna (support). I was worried about facing the new Cassi, but I've had Karthus vs. Cassi lanes in the past, especially practicing with Nick. This Cassiopeia player was rather bad and I was easily able to control my lane. I got farmed and tried to carry, but everyone else on my team did poorly. Fiora lost to Ryze, badly. Lucian built the wrong items in the wrong order and fell behind. Morgana fed. And then there was Amumu. He had a habit of entering my lane either just as I was returning or just in the middle of a fight. These weren't ganks. He'd stick around and get cozy, stealing CS from me and pushing the lane. Once it was pushed all the way out, I'd usually have to back off, either because I spotted Udyr or because I had no ward coverage at all. Then Amumu would run off into the enemy jungle, get ganked by three or four opponents (because they had wards), and rage at me. Lucian was begging Amumu to help bot, but Amumu continued this pattern of failing to counterjungle despite those pleas. Udyr and Ryze easily carried this for their team, with the other three doing their share to help ensure victory. I only went 7/3/13. Not bad, but it would have been better if my teammates ever tried to pick a fight when my ult was actually available.

Later on, I tried solo queue again and got first pick. Since I refuse to learn my lesson, I took Karthus again. My allies were Nasus (top), Hecarim (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Fiddlesticks (support). My opponents were Lux (mid), Dr. Mundo (top), Kha'Zix (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Soraka (support). Lux played passively and I was able to farm against her, which was good because kills were slow in coming. I saw very few ult opportunities, and most of my attempted ults didn't pick up kills. So I was forced to get up close and personal for this one. Fiddlesticks actually got fed the quickest, but Hecarim and I weren't far behind, and Lucian eventually got fed too. On the other team, Mundo held his own, but none of the others could. I went 9/2/5. Well, at least I finally won a Karthus game again.

I'd struggled with trolls and I knew that I was, yet again, one match away from qualifying for a promo series. I tried again. It was Ahri (mid), Singed (me), Udyr (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Braum (support), against Ziggs (mid), Riven (top), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Thresh (support). I actually picked Singed into Riven, which was risky on my part, but I'll explain. Riven isn't a good matchup for Singed, as she is manaless and has a much stronger early game than he does, as well as winning games if she gets fed. With the help of a good jungler, Singed is in a pretty bad spot against Riven. But I also know that most players in Bronze are liable to feed Riven kills and make her dangerous. I was banking on being more skilled than the enemy Riven, or at least on not being pressured by her jungler, and being able to survive and help my team. Singed outfarms Riven if the pressure isn't on him, and he can control teamfights. Another top, such as Mordekaiser, could potentially bully Riven, but I thought I could make this work. My choice was vindicated. A lot. Riven won a few early exchanges against me, but got tossed into my turret, which she survived, but that allowed me to catch up. Rather than recalling, she stuck around in the lane with low health, which let me take control. She attempted to coordinate with Fiddlesticks to circle around behind me for a gank, but I saw it coming and popped my Ghost. They chased me, but I use Fling. Riven used Flash to escape my turret, and Fiddlsticks managed to run away with low health. I teleported back and Riven refused to leave. Eventually, I killed her under her turret and took over top lane completely. I farmed up and was able to get Singed to do what Singed does best: run around causing mayhem so that his team can easily clean up. In the end, I went 5/2/17. And that win propelled me into a promo series.

Going for the Gold Part XXXI: Slow Progress Is Still Progress

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

I came back to Ranked play with a rather uneventful game. I mean, it was uneventful for me. I was fourth pick and our fifth pick wanted ADC, so I obliged and took Sona, supporting what ended up being Jinx. Our allies were Akali mid, Sion top, and Warwick in the jungle. I laned against Miss Fortune and Malphite. I tried to support Jinx and keep her alive, but she made some bad misplays and fell behind. It happens. Fortunately, the enemy Ahri fed severely, allowing Akali and Warwick to snowball. Sion was up against Riven top, a matchup I'd be worried about, but he came out decisively ahead. The other team had a Xin Zhao jungler who managed to pick up some kills, but not enough to turn the match against us. Warwick and Sion really carried this one, with Akali picking off enemies too for good measure. I just wandered around trying to keep my teammates healthy and had an easy, nonchalant sort of game. Warwick had Blade of the Ruined King, Feral Flare, Frozen Mallet, and Wit's End. On-hit junglers are fantastic now. It's beautiful. I went 3/1/10 in the end. The 24 LP I just got takes me up to a total of 77.

I started another match. This time, I got first pick, so I took my Karthus of course. It was Karthus (me), Darius (top), Udyr (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Braum (support) vs. Fizz (mid), Rengar (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Thresh (support). I was able to farm effectively against Fizz. Udyr went in for a gank when I was only level 3, so I stayed back (I don't take a point in Wall of Pain until level 4 and Fizz wasn't that low anyway). Fizz hurt Udyr and stuck around to go for the kill, so I flashed in and got first blood on Fizz. From there, I won my lane handily, but the other lanes fell behind. I thought we were doomed, but Lucian, who was way behind against the enemy Caitlyn, finally got going. He backdoored and lured enemies out of position. I got fed and would have carried hard if I'd gotten any help at all, but my teammates (except Lucian, who was doing his own thing that was working) practically ignored me and continued to lose fights. I went 15/10/12 and, of course, it wasn't enough. Darius, Braum, and Udyr were really all pretty bad. I don't know why matchmaking keeps putting me with these people. And I'm not saying that because I think I'm so good. It's just that while one bad game on occasion is inevitable, there's a clear, consistent pattern I'm observing here, and I get inept, bickering allies way too often. That loss drops me 19 LP, to a total of 58. The stagnation continues. Or perhaps now that I've pointed it out, I'll lose more and plummet in the ladder. The worst part of it all is that Fizz carried the other team to some extent. Caitlyn and Lee Sin got fed too, but I kept ahead of Fizz and killed him repeatedly throughout the game so much that he really shouldn't have been able to snowball. It didn't matter: my teammates gave Fizz his own catering service.

Coming back after a hiatus consisting of half of July, I did a solo queue match. I'm hooked on Feral Flare junglers now, so I grabbed Udyr. My teammates were Vel'Koz (mid), Olaf (top), Draven (ADC), and Leona (support). The other team's jungler was Amumu. Olaf was up against Tryndamere, Vel'Koz against Diana, and the enemy duo bot lane was Jinx and Lux. Olaf got off to a good start, but our bot lane struggled. I helped out a bit early while clearing jungle camps more quickly than Amumu could. Eventually, Tryndamere disconnected. From there, I mostly farmed jungle camps, occasionally putting pressure on lanes to keep my team ahead. It was 5 vs. 4 and we had already been winning, so the other team caved in and surrendered after 21 minutes. I went 2/1/2 in this silly free victory. I gained 19 LP and am now up to 76.

Work had me too busy to bother with any Ranked games, so I went on another hiatus for the rest of July. Came back on August third and jungled as Udyr. I was with a Nidalee mid, Brand solo top (I thought he was going mid, but he eventually noted top and we were able to fill the other roles after some confusion), and Caitlyn/Nautilus duo bot. We were up against Syndra, Renekton, Amumu, Tristana, and Karma. However, both Renekton and Amumu were no-shows. A 5 vs. 3 could have been an easy, uneventful game, but my allies did poorly early on and then proceeded to freak out. I just kept calm and picked up kills where I could. I went 4/1/0 and was the only person on my team with a positive K/D ratio. Syndra and Karma both got fed and were able to hold my teammates off when they panicked and tried to force objectives at unfavorable times. But of course, it was 5 vs. 3, so we still won. A bit annoying, but a win is a win. And now that I've switched to on-hit Udyr as my nearly exclusive jungler in Ranked, winning is apparently what I do. That's 19 more LP, taking me up to 95. If I win my next match, I get a promo series. But who knows when that will be? I don't have time for this right now.

Came back on September first for another Ranked game. I got first pick, so I tried a Karthus game. I had an easy lane against a Katarina. Top lane we had Vladimir against Riven. Our jungler was Vi and the enemy jungler was Maokai. The bot lane consisted of our Lucian and Braum against Tristana and Leona. The other lanes didn't do particularly well, but they weren't feeding at first either, although bot eventually did. I had enough time to farm up and start wrecking the enemy team. I even teleported in and ganked them when they chased my team, picking up a quadra kill. Of course, it wasn't enough. Lucian was particularly obnoxious, but the whole team was pretty clueless, picking fights when there was no objective for us to take or when we were split, while failing to take objectives unless I led the way personally. Vi held her own for a while, but my whole team, save for myself, became outclassed and died far too much, which doomed us. In the last teamfight, Lucian ran off by himself into the jungle while the other three charged on ahead of me into the middle of the map. They died, of course, and left me alone to defend the nexus against an entire team, which wasn't possible. I went 14/2/4, scoring more kills than the rest of my team combined. But I didn't really need them to pick up kills. I needed them to stop dying so much. They died eight or nine times each. This really was a case of that "can't carry noobs" cliche, although I hate to fall back on it. And this is why I hate Ranked. Even though I kicked ass all game long, all I have to show for it is the loss of 13 LP, which puts me back down at 82. I get the feeling that this will be another entirely Bronze season for me.

A week later, I tried another Ranked game. Guess what happened? If you guessed that I got Karthus but couldn't carry my feeding team to victory, well, it's become such a cliche at this point that you really aren't demonstrating any sort of prescience. I had a Pantheon top, Xin Zhao jungle, Lucian ADC, and Morgana support. The enemy mid laner was Brand, who played passively other than when Sejuani was trying to gank me, so I was able to hold the lane and eventually outfarm him. The enemy top was Malphite, who easily dominated our Pantheon. The enemy jungler, Sejuani, kept aggressively ganking people, which wasn't going to work on me, although I did have to flash away from the first attempt (didn't expect it so early). The enemy bot laners were Tristana and Blitzcrank. For a while, we were ahead on kills solely because I was dominating, but eventually a coordinated team outscales a single Karthus. My allies tried to do some sort of collaboration, but it was haphazard and often stupid. On several occasions, they engaged when they shouldn't have, and I died after picking up kill or two while the rest of my team perished. But they also refused to initiate when we needed it, such as when the enemies were grouping up to push down our mid inhibitor or when they were taking Baron. Essentially, the impression I got throughout this match was that my teammates, while trying their best, were of a lower skill level than me. If even one of them had done well, this match would have been a cinch. But they just kept feeding. I went 18/6/14. At the end, my teammates were wrongly going on about how the enemy inhibitor respawning stole our victory (the nexus had plenty of health left and they all dropped like flies in the fight that took place at it, mostly because they bullied Pantheon into ulting onto it long before the rest of us could get there, so it was 4 vs. 5 in their base). The enemy team was just saying, "gg." It wasn't. It was a stupid game with stupid people in it. I think I blocked most of them. Yeah, I'm bitter. This crap keeps happening! And now I've dropped 20 LP, down to 62.

Got second pick in my next game and mid was wide open with no real bans, but the enemy team had taken Jax and Udyr, so Singed seemed like a safe pick. We ended up with Fiddlesticks (mid), Singed (me), Master Yi (jungle), Tristana (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) against Xerath (mid), Jax (top), Udyr (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Orianna (support). Jax didn't bully me enough early on, so I got a couple levels into my Poison Trail and took over the lane, damaging the outer turret badly and keeping Jax underfarmed while I cleared his minions by running around. I messed up and let Udyr gank me, then Xerath went for a gank as well, which he got, but not before I killed Jax. I took the outer turret and kept farming up for a while. I was annoyed to be 1/2, but the rest of my team was doing well, while the only enemy that wasn't falling behind was Sivir. That let me get enough items to initiate with impunity. Once that happened, the match that was already going our way became so one-sided that the other team surrendered. I went 5/2/9 and got 20 LP, taking me back up to 82, which cancels out the match I lost with Karthus earlier today. Not progress, but it's better than nothing.

For some stupid reason, I tried to do better than breaking even, and joined another queue. This time, it was Ziggs (mid), Gangplank (top), Udyr (me), Draven (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) vs. Veigar (mid), Riven (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Braum (support). Well, my good fortune with Udyr had to give out at some point, and when it did, it gave out with obnoxious intensity. I did everything I could, but this was not the sort of game for me to be jungling in. I got no help from my teammates, while our opponents took over our jungle. I was ganked in the jungle repeatedly, sometimes by the entire team. I bought a bunch of wards and tried to place them for coverage, but I was ganked before I could. I went 4/11/4, but like I said, I did what I could. This was a doomed, one-sided matchup all around. Losing 14 LP takes me down to 68. Oh, and this match was filled with toxic players too. Riven was fine and Draven tried to help out on our team (although his notion that I should hide behind turrets with him so that I couldn't get killed in the jungle as a jungler wasn't really tenable). And I don't remember Blitzcrank being egregious. The rest of them were jerks. Ranked is starting to get unfun again. I'll try once more anyway.

Well, I should have known. Yeah, I did another Udyr game. This one wasn't quite as egregious in most aspects, and I was able to go 2/6/5. Mid we had a Katarina that mostly outplayed Lux, but got too aggressive when she shouldn't have. Top we had a Nasus that fed Akali like it was his mission, then pretended that it was everyone else's fault. The enemy jungler was Amumu, and my teammates handed him kills too. Our ADC was Caitlyn, the primary offender in giving Amumu kills, exposing herself to obvious Bandage Toss kills on multiple occasions and then expressing surprise that Amumu killed her. We had a Teemo support who griefed us, hogging CS that Caitlyn was trying to take, then counterjungling me (at one point, I used my Smite to take blue, then ran in and got the wight down to a sliver of health before Teemo sniped it over the wall). The enemy Jinx and Blitzcrank easily won their lane, so mid was the only one that held out at all, and none of us could hope to stop a fed Akali. Not only was this profoundly unfun, but I got a lot of senseless blame for things, even by the opposing team. Ordinarily I'd think, "Hey, if even the other team is saying it's my fault, maybe I'm wrong." But these guys were just slinging insults and saying things that made no sense. I muted six people in this one, but that's probably less than average for today. I'm done. I'll come back some other time. No point in playing a game that is only going to torment me. Well, now I'm down to 53 LP. Thanks, matchmaking.

On September 28th, I was invited to a Ranked game by Scott (IMLRG). We did Team Builder with other people after that, but I did get a Ranked game in anyway. So there. Mid was open and Scott suggested I grab Karthus, but mid was still open on the other team and I didn't want to get counterpicked. Unsure of what to do, I picked Veigar in the Ranked match for the first time ever. The enemy team tried to do a counterpick of sorts, taking Zed in hopes of assassinating me out of the game. Top we had Jax vs. Akali, and our Jax got an early lead on her, from which she eventually recovered. In the jungle we had Kha'Zix (bad) and they had Master Yi (dangerous for us). The bot laners were Lucian and Leona (Scott) vs. Caitlyn and Nami. I built up a lot of CS and nuked people, of course. I went 7/4/8 in the end, which was a bit better than my teammates, but not a lot. We were actually behind on kills in the end, but won key teamfights on account of an awesome Veigar deleting enemy damage-dealers as soon as the fights broke out. I really think Veigar could be one of my go-to alternate mid laners. With that victory, I'm up to 72 LP.

On-hit builds

Ever since early in Season 2, I've been really into on-hit builds. At the time, on-hit itemization usually focused on Madred's Bloodrazor, Malady, and Wit's End, with Frozen Mallet, Trinity Force, and Lich Bane as other options (Ionic Spark was another one, although I didn't care for it much). As items were modified, deleted and added to the game, on-hit builds, which are the most item-dependent builds around, changed considerably. In all that time, I've been continuing to refine on-hit builds for my champions that I think can pull them off and expanding my roster of on-hit champions. I've finally gotten to the point where I'm actually kind of proud of some of my on-hit champions. Although I still specialize in some champions that have nothing to do with on-hit itemization (Karthus and Singed, for instance), I'm becoming, at least as a secondary feature, something of an on-hit specialist. Some of the champions I build this way seem to be in pretty good spots right now. Here's a summary of where I'm at so far. This isn't a guide or anything like that, just me expounding on what I think is working for me so far...

Kayle: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Nashor's Tooth, Wit's End, Frozen Mallet, Zephyr
I've gotten to the point that I'm confident in my full on-hit Kayle build. For some reason, full AP and hybrid are the most popular approaches to Kayle right now. I think on-hit is better than ever. Kayle's whole kit synergizes with on-hit itemization. Early game is mediocre with this and mid game is a real struggle, but once the full items start accumulating, I think Kayle can carry harder than a traditional crit-based ADC.

Udyr: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Muramana, Feral Flare, Iceborn Gauntlet, Wit's End
I got tired of feeling underpowered when I played full tank junglers and couldn't carry my teams in Ranked. Even though I'm still a big fan of Amumu and Maokai, Udyr has once again become my go-to jungler. This build reaches the attack speed cap and adds massive on-hit damage to a fast, shielded fighter with a stun. Stacking Tear of the Goddess and Feral Flare takes time, but the utility that Bear Stance brings in skirmishes buys that time.

Teemo: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Nashor's Tooth, Wit's End, Frozen Mallet, Zephyr
My Teemo build is just a copy of my Kayle build. That's because I haven't been playing Teemo much on Summoner's Rift. I don't think my on-hit Teemo has much to offer that Kayle can't do better. If I actually played Teemo more, I'd work out how to optimize on-hit effects for him in particular. He doesn't get Kayle's awesome passive, but his base AS is much better. Perhaps Runaan's Hurricane or The Black Cleaver would be good here.

Skarner: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Muramana, Feral Flare, Trinity Force, Wit's End
Skarner was recently reworked, but I believe that my approach is still valid. I need more testing. My Skarner is very similar to my Udyr. I haven't figured out which I like more for late game performance, but Skarner takes longer to start contributing, which is problematic. Even if I mainly stick with Udyr, I'll be exploring Skarner more in the future.

Kog'Maw: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Statikk Shiv, ???
I gave up on on-hit Kog'Maw after the removal of Madred's Bloodrazor. While the champion remains one of my best, I've found that a physically focused, crit-based, life-stealing ADC Kog'Maw has so much to offer late game that I hesitate to try him as a full on-hit champion.

Twitch: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Statikk Shiv, ???
He's a newer acquisition, but my issue with Twitch is similar to the problem I'm seeing with Kog'Maw. I could go full on-hit. Twitch's kit would seem to synergize with that. But lifesteal and crits are so strong when Twitch is built as an ADC.

Lulu: ??????
I know that Paul (Lithormane) has some experience with on-hit Lulu. I've dabbled in her as a full support, and she's just so good at that. I'll have to figure out if I can find a place where I'd be comfortable playing her as an on-hit champion. Maybe solo top? But her whole kit provides support functionality! It just seems like a waste to make her a solo laner.

Shaco: Blade of the Ruined King, Berserker's Greaves, Trinity Force, ???
Not really my style of jungler, so I moved away from Shaco. I've trolled some ARAM and other really casual games with AP Shaco, which is gimmicky, but very fun. If I were to seriously play Shaco again, it'd be on-hit. I really do think it wins out in the end over AD Shaco.


Diana: Nashor's Tooth, Berserker's Greaves, Wit's End, ???
I used to play Diana, but gave up on her after her entire kit was nerfed. Generally, I hybridized between on-hit and AP. Diana has a lot of options. But I've moved on to other junglers. I don't see myself focusing on Diana again any time soon.

Warwick: Nashor's Tooth, Berserker's Greaves, Wit's End, Frozen Mallet
Whenever I've tried on-hit Warwick, it's been very cheesy. But I think it could still work. I might get back to this.

Elise: ??????
Tried it, but I found AP bruiser to be more reliable than on-hit here. I think I'm not good enough at Elise to play her anyway. She's tricky and probably requires more aggression than I am used to.

Gangplank: Ravenous Hydra, Berserker's Greaves, Statikk Shiv, Trinity Force, Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer
Basically, I build Critplank. But it's sort of a hybrid on-hit build anyway. I don't see going full on-hit as being a more attractive option here, sadly.


Cho'Gath: Wit's End
When I have played Cho'Gath, which hasn't been often, I've been going tanky AP. It works. Wit's End is pretty good with his Vorpal Spikes though, and I dream of incorporating more on-hit items into that.

Orianna: Probably not
She gets an on-hit passive and has some utility that would make sense for an on-hit champion. But her shield, which is so very, very good when she builds AP, is ineffectual for a full on-hit build. When built as a mage, Orianna gets more range, more burst, a big shield, and can use her passive to threaten enemies that would press engagements against her. That passive would be even better on an AS-based build, but Orianna would lose the long-range burst damage from her spells and most of the magnitude of her shield. She'd have amazing DPS against enemies that stood in front of her doing nothing, but would be a short-range glass cannon. I just don't see that being viable.

Going for the Gold Part XXX: Stagnation

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

In solo queue, I found myself second pick. Our first pick took Kayle mid. Two more people were arguing over support, so I avoided the whole mess by picking Singed top, which was a risk. We ended up with Kayle (mid), Singed (me), Udyr (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Braum (support). Our opponents had Annie (mid), Vladimir (top), Rengar (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Alistar (support). I had to give a lot of ground against Vlad. Udyr came top to help, but didn't bother coordinating with me and I was often unable to support those gank attempts, due to being out of mana or having recalled. Annie got fed and our bot struggled, while Vladimir killed me and Udyr in a teleport gank as I was finishing Rengar off, then pushed and took my turret. Things were looking grim, but we stuck it out. I never died the rest of the match, and I disrupted enemy push attempts, buying us time. My Singed finally farmed up enough to tank, and I got myself fed, then Udyr, then Caitlyn. Up until Caitlyn got really fed, it was back and forth. Most of my teammates died in a fight, then the enemies went for Baron, getting it, but I killed two of them as they took it and made two more of them vulnerable as they fled, so Rengar was the only one to keep the buff. Our late game was better and we weren't far enough behind for them to keep us down. Annie raged and wanted everyone to report the feeder Rengar. In the end, I went 10/1/21. That win got me 18 LP, so now I'm up to 47.

I was last pick, but mid was open and I was up against a ridiculous team composition. We already had Caitlyn and Braum for bot lane, with Rengar jungling and Gangplank top. The other team had Yasuo (mid, I guessed, and he was), Varus (ADC of course), Fiora (turned out to be top), and Master Yi (jungle). So I took Karthus. Last pick on the other team was Leona. We were up against a team with almost no magic damage and not much crowd control, but the potential for extreme physical damage. Gangplank was trounced in lane and I was slow to pick up kills, but eventually our relatively sane plan of bringing a combination of disruption, burst damage, sustained damage, and utility to fights won out over the all-in physical damage our opponents brought. I went 11/2/16. Our opponents were bickering and wanted to report each other, but really, they have themselves to blame for that comp. I get another 18 LP, taking me up to 65. Not bad, but I'm a little worried. I used to be getting more LP for wins. My MMR might be too crappy for me to keep climbing. This match did even out my overall win/loss ratio, so I'm at 43 each. Hopefully that improves the situation.

I tried another match. I feel sorry for our Ashe, but only our Ashe. We had Malzahar (me), Quinn (top), Udyr (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Thresh (support). Our opponents had Annie (mid), Rengar (top), Malphite (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support). I was able to bully Annie, but she farmed very well and I was wary of ganks. Eventually, Malphite circled through our jungle (which had no wards, of course), and shot in for an ult gank on me. I was annoyed at this point, but I was still only slightly behind. Then he did it again. That's the point at which I started complaining to my team that mid was a problem. No response. Even after she was ahead two kills, I was still keeping up with Annie. Confident that Malphite wasn't coming for me, I pushed out again, only to have Rengar and Blitzcrank both show up to gank me. Ashe was struggling to keep bot lane under control, and doing a pretty good job of it, but my other teammates let the enemies group up and murder me again, putting me far enough behind that I didn't have enough damage output to win against anything. Then, for the rest of the match, Quinn, Udyr, and Thresh all whined about wanting everyone else on the team to focus Annie. The Annie that they'd ignored and that was now massively fed and protected by a wall of other champions. Yeah, that wasn't happening. I couldn't get close to Annie and neither could they, but they still couldn't shut the hell up about it. Each of the three was wholly convinced that if only everyone else would magically kill Annie, our problems would go away. This whole match was some bullshit. Aside from how frustrating my teammates (except Ashe, who was fine) were, I also had numerous instances in which my spells got enemies to just a tiny sliver of health, but couldn't finish, and other instances in which my spells were easily killing someone, but Thresh or Udyr was run in and steal the last hit, keeping me from using kill gold to climb out of the hole I was in. I was considering swearing off Malzahar in Ranked play, since I haven't had much success with him. But that's not fair. This was not a reasonable test. I was doing fine against Annie when she was alone. But she got help from her teammates and I got none from mine. Woe is me. Blah, blah, blah. I might have been able to do more with Karthus in this one, but I wasn't about to pick Karthus into a very possible enemy Kassadin. So yeah, I went 5/9/10. It was just a bad game and I'll move on. By the way, it was Loss Prevented. Ha! Yeah, there were server problems last night, but apparently there were still issues, although I didn't lag myself (Udyr was claiming to, now that I think about it). So, no drop in LP for me there, but it might have hurt my MMR?

In my next game, I wound up on a team that needed a jungler. I was going to be Maokai, but I switched to Udyr at the last second because Feral Flare is still OP. I was already building Udyr as an on-hit champion anyway. Now it's just crazy. We had Teemo for mid and Yorick top. Our bot laners were Jinx and Morgana. The other team went Akali mid, Cho'Gath top, Vi jungle, and had Draven and Taric for bot. Akali tried to invade near blue buff and hit Teemo while he was acting as a ward. I gave chase, but couldn't catch her. Yorick and Teemo killed her anyway, then leashed blue for me, so we were off to a good start. Cho'Gath held his own, but raged far too much for me to feel sorry for him. Our other lanes won, so I was able to farm the jungle and do what Udyr does best. Wriggle's Lantern took some time, but once I had it, Tear of the Goddess was easy to acquire. I stacked both and moved on into Wit's End. I stayed out for a long time, relying on blue buff for sustainability as I stacked Feral Flare and helped my teammates pick up kills. Akali eventually caught me as I was recalling under a turret (because of her stupid ult). But then I got Muramana and Iceborn Gauntlet simultaneously, allowing me to walk all over our opponents. I went 9/3/9 and had so much gold. Just so very much. I'm pretty tempted to try Skarner in Ranked. On-hit is so good now. Anyway, I guess the Loss Prevented in the previous match might have affected this one, because I only gained 9 LP for winning. I'm up to 74. I just hope that my MMR doesn't keep me down.

Well, the following game was a rather uneventful win. We had Ahri (mid), Darius (top), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Kog'Maw (me), and Taric (support) against LeBlanc (mid), Renekton (top), Master Yi (jungle), Twitch (ADC), and Morgana (support). Taric kept me mostly safe and I was able to outfarm Twitch, so things were going well for us early on. But no kills were happening bot, while top and mid both snowballed in our favor. Eventually Taric screwed up while trying to recall and Morgana was able to come in and murder both of us. I later picked up a kill. LeBlanc left at some point, and my teammates aggressively pushed mid. I farmed bot alone for the rest of the match, scaring Twitch off when he tried to share the lane. The other team surrendered while I was still farming. My score was 1/1/1. That was an unnecessarily easy win, and it gained me 22 LP, taking me up to 96.

I was going to close out the weekend with a promo series in sight, but I was invited to duo queue by someone I'd played with back in Bronze V, right before my first promo series. I tend to duo with people if they ask me, but sometimes I get burned and find myself with people I can't believe I ever added. This was one of those times. My partner picked Diana jungle to start with. So far, so good. Second pick took Ryze, but wouldn't answer me when I asked which lane. Since my duo partner had said something about tricking them into thinking Diana was mid and then countering their mid pick, I thought maybe Ryze was going mid. I took Singed top at the last second. Our bot laners were Tristana and Braum. The other team had Malzahar (mid), Fiora (top), Jax (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Morgana (support). Fiora's early damage isn't that great, and she has limited range for her attacks, so I was able to farm from the beginning. I think my Singed has gotten to be pretty good again, maybe better than ever before. But it is not guaranteed to work. In this case, Jax harassed me by camping my lane early on, and then Malzahar, after beating the crap out of mid, roamed and camped me as well. I fell a bit behind on CS, but Fiora still wasn't much of a threat. Ultimately, our loss was a group effort. Tristana was constantly disconnecting. Ryze stayed away from the team and then raged when we didn't wait for him (even though he obviously wasn't following us). Diana and Braum watched me initiate for them, then waited to fight until after the enemy team CC-juggled me and killed me. For how bad my allies were, I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did. There were some minor blunders on my part (like running right into the Jax I knew was probably hiding in a brush), but mostly, I did my job. My teammates simply didn't want to let me tank for them. Diana wasn't the most toxic of players, but did turn out to be very bossy and said stupid things like, "Singed, stop running around." Lesson learned about playing with that person, I suppose. I went 4/8/7. This match lost me 18 LP, so I'm down to 77.

I played some duo queue games. I hadn't recorded anything about these matches and was relying on LOLReplay to remind me about them, but it is glitching out badly, so I have limited information. I might not be getting these next ones quite right. There was one with Scott (IMLRG). We had Ziggs and Renekton in the solo lanes, with Warwick jungling. Scott and I duoed bot with Braum and Kog'Maw, respectively. Our opponents had Diana (mid), Jax (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Pantheon (support). This match was a disaster. Every lane failed and the enemy Lee Sin got fed very quickly. I don't remember why things went so badly, other than the enemy Lee Sin, but they sure did. My final score was 0/5/1, which was terrible, but I had no time to get going and my teammates weren't interested in protecting me (except Scott, who tried to, but could not). My teammates fed even more. The total team score was 42 to 8. The whole thing was over in 27 minutes. Disastrous. That should be 45 wins, 46 losses at this point.

We tried again. This time, I was jungling as Udyr and Scott went Braum again, supporting an Ashe. We had Rumble to solo top and an AP Tristana mid. Our opponent had Zed mid, Nasus top, Olaf jungle, and their bot lane consisted of Draven and Heimerdinger. I know that I've said before how I'm pleased with the development of my on-hit Udyr, but I'll continue to do so. I was having some trouble getting my Udyr to be reliable, but the advent of Feral Flare has really made the build come together. Scott had a lot of trouble, though, mainly because the Ashe he was trying to support was quite bad. Aside from my Udyr getting fed, other factors turned out in our favor: the enemy Zed was bad and fed our Tristana early on, Rumble was (initially) able to keep Nasus pinned down, and the enemy Draven was also bad. Heimerdinger did get fed, though, and Nasus eventually got out of control (for people who weren't Udyr), so it wasn't a total shutdown. I went 12/2/6. This one would have, I think, put me at 46 wins, 46 losses.

Something is off. I had five more Ranked games, all of them in duo queue with Scott, and I played Karthus in all of them. But my total record is 48 wins, 52 losses. I'm missing three losses somewhere, and I think they all happened in a row, in duo queue with Scott, between the the Singed match (duo queue with a jerk) and the disastrous Kog'Maw match. I'll see if I can correct this error once the improved official match history tool comes out. At the moment, I can't remember anything about those three losses except that I think I know when they happened. However, the Karthus spree I remember quite well. The abbreviated version is that I did a duo queue with Scott and went Karthus in every game. I got fed in every game. But three of them were beyond my power to save. My impression was that my teammates were all too eager to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I was kicking ass and taking names (except not taking names so much, because that takes time away from kicking ass). But I still lost three of the five. Let's see, as for some details...

First game my allies were Shyvana (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Sona (Scott). We were up against Talon (mid), Fiora (top), Amumu (jungle), Vayne (ADC), and Morgana (support). Scott was frustrated that he kept getting jumped on and killed, but he did a good job of supporting our Varus. Xin Zhao and I both got fed anyway and carried. I went 12/2/7.

Second game my allies were Aatrox (top), Pantheon (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Braum (Scott). We were up against Ziggs (mid), Kayle (top), Udyr (jungle), Lucian (ADC), and Annie (support). This one was incredibly stupid. Our Aatrox was toxic from the beginning. Initially it was all about one of the bans Scott chose (without this person having said anything beforehand), but really Aatrox was ready to troll over anything. Bot lane was fine, but top and jungle were actively trying to lose. I reported both. I went 19/7/15 this time. We were easily ahead and would have won if either Aatrox or Pantheon, let alone both, had decided to contribute. They refused.

Third game my allies were Shyvana (top), Evelynn (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Braum (Scott). We were up against LeBlanc (mid), Kayle (top), Fiddlesticks (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Lulu (support). I distinctly remember that LeBlanc was a good sport (even though I was able to outscale her and murder her) and that Lulu was incredibly obnoxious. I snowballed pretty hard in this one, getting full build and elixirs, then accumulating a hoard of even more gold that I couldn't even use. It just seemed like a good game for me. I was convinced that I'd be commending LeBlanc for keeping me pinned down initially, even if it didn't work out in the end. I went 21/3/16. My teammates had other plans, but I didn't think it would enough to stop me from carrying. Eventually, after we got the worst of an engagement, they wanted to push mid. I agreed, but told them to wait for my ult to come back up. I told them exactly how long it would take. I thought they were fine with that, so I soloed the dragon to get my teammates some more gold as my teammates spread out and shoved the side lanes. I recalled in our jungle and told my teammates that my ult was back up and that I was ready to group up. What I didn't notice was that while I'd been recalling, all four of them overextended without me and ran into an ambush. Scott told me that he was following them to try to protect them. Well, that was terrible, but Jinx did escape and we cold still have held out and recovered, but Jinx inexplicably turned around and tried to fight the entire enemy team by herself. That left me alone against all of them, which was too much, so they pushed and took our nexus. I get that these things happen, but I explicitly told them the amount of time it would be until I would be ready to group up with them. They appeared to be waiting. And then, in the last few seconds, they charged in without me. What more could I do?

Fourth game is a perfect example of why I still main Karthus. My allies were Nasus (top), Pantheon (jungle), Kog'Maw (Scott), and Blitzcrank (support). Scott was initially unhappy with his support, but Blitzcrank eventually proved himself. Pantheon went in for a gank on Yasuo, but Lee Sin counterganked, then attacked me under my turret, giving Yasuo a double kill. Yasuo pressed that advantage, farmed up, and Lee Sin continued to put pressure on me. Oh no! "Hi, I'm Yasuo. I'm a highly mobile, manaless, crit-based AD caster. I got my lane handed to me on a silver platter by Lee Sin. I have 400 CS. And Karthus still beats me." Yeah, despite my early disadvantage, I got full build and wrecked the enemy team, even Lee Sin. I went 11/3/24. We won.

Fifth game my allies were Pantheon (top), Lee Sin (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Leona (Scott). We were up against Lux (mid), Nasus (top), Tryndamere (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Nami (support). We were ahead up until the last few minutes, when my teammates suddenly collapsed and let Nasus, Caitlyn, and Tryndamere run all over them. I went 11/4/6. That puts me at 53 LP.

That's a rocket in my pocket. I'm also happy to see you.

Tristana has been my go-to ADC ever since the Sivir rework. She's my second most-played champion in Ranked for the current season. Tristana represents the bulk of my ADC gameplay in Ranked since the Sivir rework. I sometimes change it up, but I'm more comfortable with her than I am with msot other champions. Tristana's incredible late game damage output, ease of farming, pushing power, and escape capability make her well-suited to the conservative, hypercarry approach I employ as an ADC. And my record with her this season has been 2 wins, 12 losses.

It's safe to say that these games have been holding me back. At the time I'm writing this post, I have 43 total wins in Season 4, and 43 total losses. If the Tristana games could magically be excised without changing the other results, I'd be at least one division higher than I currently am, and probably in a good position to go even further. I've been pondering the problem for a while, but I'm not sure what to do about it. Change my build? Change my playstyle? Change my champion selection? Practice more? Eschew the role in favor of ones in which I see more success? I have no idea. I'm stuck.

And just when I'm tempted to give up on Tristana, I roll her in ARAM and this happens.

I managed to salvage a game that was otherwise looking to be pretty doomed. Just an ARAM, but still, it was pretty cool. I'm not giving up on you yet, Tristana.

AP Kog in ARAM

Fuck your Spirit Visage. I have Liandry's.
Fuck your Banshee's Veil. I have a Void Staff.
Fuck your Mercury's Treads. I have Sorcerer's Shoes.
If you really want to buy, my spells will make you die.

Going for the Gold Part XXIX: The Mad Chemist is Back

After playing League of Legends for over two years and accumulating over a thousand normal games, I finally entered ranked play. In my own, totally objective, assessment, I am skilled enough for Gold. My placement matches disagreed, and threw me into Bronze II. More recently after failing to climb out of Bronze I, the ladder was reset and I found myself placed lower still, all the down way at the bottom of Bronze V. The Ranked matches I've played so far have clearly marked me as a Bronze player. This is the story of my attempt to prove them wrong. This is Going for the Gold.

Well, now I know I'll never ragequit. If I didn't do it this time, nothing is going to make it happen. This match was so bad it was surreal. The matchup was Karthus (me), Aatrox (top), Amumu (jungle), Ezreal (ADC), and Blitzcrank (support) vs. Fizz (mid), Kayle (top), Shyvana (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Sona (support). People often pick Fizz against my Karthus because they think Fizz beats Karthus, but I've always managed to hold my own, not feed, farm up, and come out ahead. This wasn't so much an exception as it was a deception. All of my teammates, all four of them, seemed to be actively trying to screw me over. It didn't make any sense, and of course I didn't believe that was what they were doing, but it was what I kept seeing. Aatrox disconnected multiple times and eventually ran where I was farming and poached CS from me. Blitzcrank stole my last hits repeatedly and would go in with me, then ditch me suddenly and speed boost away while I got ganked. Ezreal initially seemed to be the least egregious, but used Arcane Shift and Mystic Shot to steal the last hit on a blue buff I was taking, and then immediately (no joke, it was a matter of a few seconds) rushed into the enemy team and died. And then there was Amumu, who would hang out by my lane or even in it, but would just stand around doing nothing (or take off) and let Fizz and Shyvana kill me. I fell behind rapidly and my allies fiercely sabotaged every attempt I made to come back. Reading this, it seems like I must be exaggerating, but I'm actually not. Like I said, it was surreal. I went 3/10/9. I'm not really even discouraged by this one because it was unlike any other game I'd played and I don't expect it to happen again any time soon, if ever. So I'm going to try one more for the night. I'm down to 48 LP. Maybe I can make it up with the next one.

Well, it wasn't as bad as the previous game, but it was pretty bad. We had a first pick Nidalee mid. I should probably have just dodged, since I've never really seen Nidalee mid work. But apparently I never dodge in Ranked. We also had Volibear top and Udyr jungle. Someone picked Nautilus support, so I was left to ADC, something I always manage to lose games doing these days. I picked Kog'Maw for some reason. The other team had Malzahar (mid), Jarvan IV (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Jinx (ADC), and Janna (support). We had trouble in the lanes, especially after Xin Zhao killed me twice with tower dives, but Udyr refused to help, calling us stupid for not knowing how Udyr works. That set Nidalee off, and our Nidalee player spammed the chat the rest of the game whining about how bad everyone else was. Udyr griefed, making sure we'd lose teamfights, and eventually congratulated the other team on making sure that Nidalee lost. While Volibear and Nautilus were obviously at least trying to win, they didn't attempt to protect me, so I was picked off all the time. I went 6/12/4. I'm now down to 31 LP. Brutal. We were probably going to lose anyway with the griefer, but I would have appreciated having some help. My teammates pretty much just ignored my existence.

I played seven duo queue matches with Scott (IMLRG). In the first, we had a someone first-pick Poppy for solo top, and another person picked jungle Gragas while Scott took Braum as a support. I was going to mid, but the last person locked in Nasus, so we switched to Poppy mid, Nasus top, and had me take Tristana. Our opponents had Diana (mid), Dr. Mundo (top). Xin Zhao (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Leona (support). We tried to hold bot lane, but didn't have a jungler to back us up, while the other team did. Gragas tried, but couldn't do enough. Poppy was ridiculously aggressive and fed, but also picked up kills while doing so. Nasus was the biggest problem. He had 12 bonus damage on his Siphoning Strike. That means he killed four things with it in the course of the match. He was dead weight and gave the enemy team a gold boost. This was a case in which 4 vs. 5 would actually have been better for us. We were perplexed at how someone would be playing Nasus in Ranked games without actually bothering to use his abilities. I went 7/5/0 in the end. Scott and I both reported Nasus as unskilled. Then I checked out the player's information on "LOLKING." It turned out that our Nasus player had 9 wins, 25 losses in Ranked this season, and was in Silver V. Oh. Riot, please?

Then we had Karthus (mid), Mordekaiser (me), Volibear (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Braum (Scott) vs. Sion (mid), Xin Zhao (top), Fiora (jungle), Graves (ADC), and Sona (support). This was my worst Mordekaiser game ever. I couldn't do any damage to Xin Zhao for some reason. It was like he was the one with the shield, instead of me. He picked up two early kills on me, but I got him back on the second one with my turret. He was still bullying me, when Volibear showed up and got destroyed instantly when he came to gank, leaving me exposed when I advanced to help him, so I died again. From there, Xin Zhao had complete control of the lane. Meanwhile, AP Sion and Fiora murdered the rest of my team. We tried to mount a comeback and started to catch up, but our team didn't coordinate well enough for it, and we were aced and defeated. I went 6/14/18. This match was total bullshit, but whatever. Moving on.

Not wanting to go out on such a depressing finish, we tried again. This one got screwed up. We had AP Tristana as a mid against Kassadin, which I was very apprehensive of. We also had a Rammus jungler to their Diana jungler, which I felt better about. Scott took Braum as a support and I was going to go on-hit Kayle to carry alongside him, as we already had Tristana on our team anyway for long range attacks. Our last pick failed to see that I was going bot, and picked Varus. He was nice about it once he saw his mistake, and I was going to let him have it, but Scott looked up the match and saw that the enemy Sion had AD runes and masteries. Kayle has no problem with AP Sion, but can't stop AD Sion all that well. So I asked Varus if he'd solo top anyway, which he did. That left Scott and I to face Jinx and Lulu in bot lane. It didn't hit us at first, but this match was very one-sided. Varus had no trouble with Sion, so he got farmed and fed. Tristana didn't feed Kassadin, and Rammus destroyed Kassadin and Sion, getting both lanes even further behind. Bot was where the only real challenge was, as Jinx maneuvered skillfully, poking us and keeping up with my CS. Eventually, we caught her when she got too isolated without Lulu's shield on her. I hit her with Reckoning, then used Flash and Ignite to pick up the kill. The lane remained challenging for a while, but we pulled ahead, then dominated the other team. I was 8/3/5 by the end.

Next, I tried some Singed games. In the first of those, it was Veigar (mid), Singed (me), Rengar (jungle), Caitlyn (ADC), and Sona (Scott) vs. Lux (mid), Talon (top), Jax (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Leona (support). Rengar couldn't shut the hell up and Caitlyn was intermittently spamming pings, but we were initially ahead. Veigar disconnected and I had to work hard to keep us from falling behind. Eventually, Veigar came back (level 6 when I was level 14, I think). That gave us the edge we needed to win teamfights and, subsequently, the match. I went 4/3/14.

We had someone that wanted Master Yi in the lobby, so Scott first-picked Yi for a trade. But Scott wanted to support and the other person turned out not to own any, so Scott was stuck with Annie as a support. I had already picked Singed again by this point, and we got a Ziggs mid, so the last pick, protesting at not being the worst in the world at ADC, took Ashe. Our opponents had Fizz (mid), Heimerdinger (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Corki (ADC), and Morgana (support). True to her word, Ashe fed and couldn't accomplish anything, which left Scott underpowered too. Fizz also got fed. Yi was initially picking up kills, but started getting picked off too. Fortunately, I had enough time to get my Singed going. I was, in the words of our Yi, "LCS proin." I used Fling to feed my team, then my Poison Trail's devastated the enemy team and I picked up some kills for myself too. Scott asked me to carry him, so I did. I went 10/2/14. Singed is back and he's here to stay.

Figuring I was on a roll with Singed, I picked him again. We already had a Ryze mid anyway. We got Tryndamere as our jungler. Scott picked Braum to support again and our ADC was Lucian. We were up against the intimidating team composition of Fizz (mid), Shyvana (top), Volibear (jungle), Varus (ADC), and Thresh (support). I've never done well against Shyvana with Singed, and Volibear is problematic for him too. But the real problem in this match was that Tryndamere disconnected. He was the one picking up our kills, and we lost him. Our whole team fell behind. Eventually he came back, but the damage had been done. Even though our team was way behind on kills and on objectives, it turned out that Scott and I could tank the other team surprisingly well. For a while, I thought we'd win that way. But our teammates just never brought the damage (except Ryze, who usually did) to fights. Impressive as it was to see how long it took the five enemy champions to kill our Braum and Singed, taking a long time to die wasn't going to save us by itself. Frustrating, but I understand that it happens. I went 4/9/9 in my first Ranked loss as Singed.

Finally, Scott talked me into one more try. This time, I had him ban Kassadin so I could pick Karthus. My teammates had Teemo (top), Trundle (jungle), Sivir (ADC), and Braum (Scott). The other team had Heimerdinger (mid), Garen (top), Xin Zhao (jungle), Ashe (ADC), and Leona (support). I complained that I can't catch a break anymore as Karthus. This one had a few problems, but the main one was feeding teammates. That make me sound arrogant, but it did happen. Heimerdinger pushed aggressively and I held him off, which Karthus can do, but he got help and I did not, so he pulled way ahead on CS and took my outer and inner turrets. We killed each other a lot, and he picked me off sometimes, but I killed him more. He made up the deficit by slaughtering my teammates. Scott thought the enemy Heimerdinger was just good. My impression was more that people shouldn't run into his turrets like chickens with their damn heads cut off. So Heimerdinger got fed. But another problem was that Teemo was incredibly toxic. I was the primary target of his ire, but he also went after Sivir, although sometimes it seemed like he had the two of us mixed up, which was bizarre. He only went after Scott when Scott pointed out that he was saying things that were factually incorrect. Teemo stopped trying to help and started only caring about picking up kills for himself, which helped put us behind. But I was pretty well farmed and would still have wrecked the other team if not for Garen. He harassed me, revenge-killed me when I took out Heimerdinger, and was a constant threat. I was mad about Teemo and annoyed about my teammates feeding in general, but I have to admit that I was impressed with the enemy Garen. In the end of this one, I went 14/11/12. I'm now down to 29 LP.