Tournament Thread

[Prospero]

We should nominate one person to call targets and all follow. Trying to get the hive mind to make a decision in the span of 2 seconds is hard. Hell, said person flag the target with a map ping so they don't get lost in the fight as easily. I've been having a lot of success flagging the squishy in my solo Q games.

[Thrawn]

I think tommorow is the deadline to finish round 1 2v2 games and post results.  I don't think Schild has even been able to get a response from anyone we're supposed to play.  Win by forfeit I guess? :P

[schild]

I'm going to push it as a win by forfeit. Checking my solomid account now.

Edit: No response, PM'd Messiah.

[schild]

if they don't respond just report a forfeit win

That's that then. I'm out til 11PM EST tonight, so if they don't respond, they're hosed.

[Hoax]

Yeah we are and it really sucks, also being lazy if we "seem" to be up on a team.

Here's my report from me and MrBoss getting beat in the 2v2, we didn't get beat badly all things considered but we weren't really in it and we didn't have any experience with the format, 2v2, or first kill wins in general.

Game 1 (we are home team, we choose first pick, for my money first pick is a lot better I still think)

They ban -> Blitz (they ban Blitz because of my wins both games)
We ban -> Nid (one of their guys is a 100% Nid player, also her abilities are still retardedly OP in a 1v1 lots of running in and out situation)
They ban -> Annie (because Boss plays lots of Annie and Annie at L6 is stupid in small scale engagements)
We ban -> Shaco

We pick -> Ryze (admittedly we're very limited in our picks because me and boss don't own many champs and we don't play enough to play everyone, 3 of our 4 champs picked were only because they were free)
They pick -> Cho & Ashe
We pick -> Nasus (I think I fucked us over pretty bad w/ this pick but I wasn't sure what I should play tbh)

We had a chance to win this one for sure, they were playing Cho in front and Ashe hanging way back doing very minimal harassment they had no intention of going for kills until L6.  We got Cho down to 25% or lower about 3 times before they got first blood of my poor play and failing to pop my fort pot, that is a reoccurring theme unfortunately.  Once they get fb they roll it to first tower and the game is over shortly after because we try to force a fight and can't get it because now Cho has veil.

Game 2:
We ban -> Nid
They ban -> Blitz (I might have played him but I doubt it)
We ban -> Ashe (I didn't want to play against Ashe because I had declared beforehand we wanted to run a more rushdown team)
They ban -> Annie (go with what works, I can respect this)

They pick -> Cho
We pick -> Ryze & Zilean
They pick -> Morg

My Zil is terribad, I had considered playing him a bunch to get him down now that he's so OP and because I thought he would be a good pick for this.  But Boss hasn't been around and nobody else I know has been practicing for this format so I figured fuck it.  It was working sort of, we had them back a ton and were getting more creep kills but we could have done a LOT better.  I should have told Boss and checked my own auto attack and if we had taken only the last hits so that as few as possible of our creeps were getting to their tower range (the only place they could get kills) we might have won off of money advantage alone.  We were laying down some harassment but Morg is a fairly hard counter to our team.  With playtesting I might have known that, so if you guys think of taking Zil make sure you have Morg off the board.  The shield was keeping them in the lane and eventually I died because Zil is still paperthin and I kept mishitting E instead of W and casting on yourself is a  bitch if you aren't used to the particular champ's hitbox.  Our plan would have worked (ryze + zil) IF we had practiced like 10 games with them.  But we hadn't so we lost.

Oh well.

Final thoughts:
I don't like 4xBan Unique Champ draft though I do want to learn the 1v1 solomid format but I'm not sure when/how to do it.  I just don't play all the champs nor do I want to play all the champs and for a 4 bans unique draft format you have to own and play a LOT of champs or have invested time into figuring out what is worth playing, probably a lot of the latter.  If as a group we had gotten Adam's team, the 2 f13 teams and Cooltang&Syn together and played a few games I think we could have done much better.  I'm not exactly thrilled with the idea that people are planning to gravitate competitive play to such an annoying format that requires you to give a fuck about trying out every champ.

[Thrawn]

I plan on trying to show up for captains night on Friday again. I seem t remeber someone saying something about being signed up for a draft pick tournament on Thursday??

[Hoax]

Yeah I'll be around for both Friday and Thursday night unless something drastic comes up.  Thursday is a 5v5 event, not sure of the details but its through Couch Athletics but with a more serious tryhard vibe.  Supposedly they might even let Adam play again.

[schild]

Boy howdy, you'd be wrong.

http://www.couchathletics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=195&t=5745

I suppose signing up first may have stopped anyone else from signing up. Auto-win IMO.

[Thrawn]

If we do end up playing draft I'm guessing TF will be our ban pick every round? :)

[schild]

If we do end up playing draft I'm guessing TF will be our ban pick every round? :)

TF/Ryze/Blitz, sure.

[Thrawn]

My second choice after TF would be Nid almost always if it wasn't for the fact it would gimp ourselves.

[schild]

I don't worry about playing against other Nids and Nid/Fiddle is just too horrifying a combination at low level.

[Hoax]

Don't waste a ban on Blitz you can just play safe and outfarm him he can't afford to melee many creeps because he can be harassed hard and has no real escapes.

I'm not even sure banning TF is worth it unless they have a TF player.  Ryze for sure is a good one.

[bhodi]

Speaking of TF, this was so hilarious I had to post it:

I had the most bullshit TF Experience yet - At the start, he gated to the bushes between our first two towers, placed a ward, and then two of his teammates teleported in. Ganked in our own territory before minions even spawned. Any change to him can't come soon enough.

Apparently, you can get your team to all buy elixirs and kill a tower before minions spawn, too.

[schild]

Speaking of TF, this was so hilarious I had to post it:

I had the most bullshit TF Experience yet - At the start, he gated to the bushes between our first two towers, placed a ward, and then two of his teammates teleported in. Ganked in our own territory before minions even spawned. Any change to him can't come soon enough.

Apparently, you can get your team to all buy elixirs and kill a tower before minions spawn, too.

HMMMMMMMM.

[Slayerik]

Speaking of TF, this was so hilarious I had to post it:

I had the most bullshit TF Experience yet - At the start, he gated to the bushes between our first two towers, placed a ward, and then two of his teammates teleported in. Ganked in our own territory before minions even spawned. Any change to him can't come soon enough.

Apparently, you can get your team to all buy elixirs and kill a tower before minions spawn, too.

One fortify or two teleports shit all over that plan though, right?

[bhodi]

Which is why you look at their starting spells. You can still go for the gank. It's becoming pretty common.

[Thrawn]

Whoo hoo, so currently it looks like Thursday night draft is on and we have 2 of our team present (counting me).

[Thrawn]

5v5 draft, F13 wins

Final game -

Bans - TF and Twitch

Pick order was (I think)

Bat Country -
2-Sivir
2-Taric
4-Fiddle
4-Alistar
6-Nidille

Opponent -
1-Mordikiser
3-Annie
3-Ashe
5-Jax
5-Kassadin

I would make a comment about us hoping to continue the streak tommorow night, but captains night is likely to see us all on different teams.

[schild]

Team Bat Country rides again.

ON A PALE WHITE HORSE. NAMED TEEMO.

[schild]

Still can't believe they picked Mord first.

[Hoax]

Here's what happened (I wrote it down) in case anyone is interested:

Game 1 > We ban first & pick first (somehow this happened, I'm not clear how)

Our ban - TF
They ban - Fiddle

We pick - Sivir (Hoax)
They pick - Malphite
They pick - Ryze
We pick - Annie (Tsal)
We pick - Alistar (Thrawn)
They pick - Ashe
They pick - Karthus
We pick - Taric (Tiberius, not from f13)
We pick - Nidalee (Schild)
They pick - Udyr

When we weren't standing in Karthus' aoe we pretty much raped face off, we took 3 exhausts so Udyr had almost no effect on the game and Ashe never really got going.  We took Lizard at start but Alistar stole it from Sivir/Nid, in fact he had Lizard 2-3 times in the game and ended with 8 kills tryhard indeed.  Our push was stronger and our 5-man was stronger we owned dragon and most of the buffs and never gave them much breathing room, they got first blood and it was downhill from there.

Game 2: (we have first ban but 2nd pick)

We ban - TF
They ban - Twitch

They pick - Mordakaiser (who fucking knows why, the team captain wanted to play him and made this ridiculous pick)
We pick - Sivir (Hoax)
We pick - Taric (Tiberius)
They pick - Ashe
They pick - Annie
We pick - Alistar (Thrawn)
We pick - Fiddle (Tsal)
They pick - Kass
They pick - Jax
We pick - Nidalee (Schild)

This time we cleared our south wood on blue and got Nid Lizard and then got dragon to start.  The lane phase was mostly in their favor probably, though Nid was running over Ashe.  They got first blood but we recovered with some coordinated play before they were really ready for it.  They countered by going five-man before we were and honestly the game was very touch and go for awhile.  Luckily, we controlled dragon and dragon wins games, while we had strong enough pushing to keep our towres up and they really didn't push at us hard enough if they had they might have gained advantage.  Also by the time we reached the mid phase Nid had almost all our kills and was insanely fed which made our pushing power insane.  There were a few more team fights, some we lost but we had such creep control that they could never get anything out of their half victories and once we managed to finish Baron it was over.

gg's to all, it was fun playing serious games like that.

[Megrim]

Wow, looks like you guys are doing really well. How is the hero rotation/unlock system working out?

[Thrawn]

We took Lizard at start but Alistar stole it from Sivir/Nid, in fact he had Lizard 2-3 times in the game and ended with 8 kills tryhard indeed.  Our push was stronger and our 5-man was stronger we owned dragon and most of the buffs and never gave them much breathing room, they got first blood and it was downhill from there.

It's better on Alistar anyways because I like punch stuff...and stuff.

[Slayerik]

I started playing again and enjoying Sivir. Since you guys already have one, is there any hero you feel would help the team to learn? I really only know lower tier guys like ChoGath, singed, and Veigar. Used to play Ryze as well...

[Thrawn]

We don't normaly run a Sivir actually.  She was just a really good pick for draft.  Our normal team is Malphite, Fiddle, Nid, + whoever happens to be on.

[Slayerik]

Ok, I'll hone my Sivir skills and have Singed and co. as backup fun.

I'd like to play some non-tourney shit tonight, I was on vent last night but noone was on. Anyone get on there still or did ya move to like Cool's spot?

[Thrawn]

We were playing the Couch Athletics draft tournament last night and will likely be playing the CA captains night tonight.

[Slayerik]

I still can't believe that LoL hasn't implemented a 5 random vrs. 5 random mode. Now that would be pretty damn cool I'd say.

Make it so all champs are unlocked in that mode, hell it could get people to try new champs, like them, and buy them.

[Thrawn]

It's ok that they haven't released game modes or added twisted treeline to normal or a third rune page or etc or etc.

They've released a ton of mediocre skins and a bunch of champions that were almost all terribly broken for good or bad on release.

[Thrawn]

Oh, and don't forget Leaverbuster!  Nothing like being punished because your team was 2 hard randoms and a Mordikiser with clarity and revive.

[Slayerik]

I was thinking maybe try to get good with karthus - him and fiddlefuck together is painlocker

Karthus
Fiddle
Niddle
Alistar
Sivir/Taric/Annie

That's a lot of magic though....

[Thrawn]

Karthus isn't bad, but Sivir is currenlty much, much, much, much better if you're playing tryhard and trying to win.

[Slayerik]

Yeah, I have found as long as you are willing to be a team player with her (minus some solo queuing bad luck...discons and such) she can really turn the tide in team fights and lane pushes and win games.

[Der Helm]

I have been practicing with Shaco and Twitch during the last few days and I think I am getting semi-competent. Have been thinking about buying Warwick, he sure is fun to play.