TOP OR I FEED, A LoL story.

[Rasix]

In an impromptu and possibly ill advised attempt to not be fifth pick every time, I decided to try out ranked.  Rather than shitting up the LoL stories thread with my every exploit, I'd like to see how documenting the games here would go.  Consider this a running journal (or cry for help).

Some background:

LoL is my first MOBA. I was unsure at first I would even like the game.  I'm not very competitive.  My APM in competitive games is pretty low (this was a serious issue with SC2).  I don't like shitty communities.   But, for whatever reason, LoL has really captured my attention.  I find the community mostly ignorable, the APM level is within my comfort zone, and my foray into ranked SC2 last year got me over my fear of being competitive.

I'm not very good.  Let's get that out right in the open.  I have major mechanical flaws with how I play.  My minimap awareness and summoner spell usage are both poor.  I have a hard time hitting f for some reason.  I most often hit g instead.  My awareness in team fights is abysmal.  I get lost all of the time.  I don't last hit particularly well.  My judgement in team fights can be suspect.

My strengths are more on a meta level.  I don't counter pick myself.  I don't first pick something easily countered.  I know how to build.  I know when I'm stronger.  I know what I good fight is, and I know what a losing fight is. I ward.   I don't rage at my team mates.  I call MIAs (when I don't think you should really have to).  I know how the game flows and when objectives are important.  I face check less bushes than most people.

Roles I'm comfortable with:

Top:  Gangplank and Irelia are who I have the most experience with lately.  Can also play Kennen, Rumble, Wukong, Singed, Cho'gath, Udyr, Yorick, Sion

I like GP and Irelia because they're pretty safe and can carry hard against the greatest variety of team comps.  GP's global ult helps a lot, and Irelia has great initiation and burst.  I don't get to top a lot, so I'm not very imaginative with who I choose.

Mid:  Ryze, Swain, Gragas, Annie (long ago), Kennen, Sion

I like playing mid, but I'm not as comfortable with a lot of mid champs.  I have a bunch of mids on my account that I've never played (Aniva, Kassadin, Karthus, Twisted Fate)

Support:  Taric, Nunu, Soraka, Lulu, Sona (I have some experience with Janna, Alistar and Blitz, but not much)

I play the most support out of everything.  This is mostly a product of usually being 5th pick during normal draft combined with an aversion to jungle/ranged AD.   I don't mind playing support, but it really sucks when a) your ranged AD is bad and b) you need someone to carry.  You're not going to carry with a support unless you're playing one that is more viable out of the role.  I've seen a support Lux or Yorick take over the carry role when their partner is insufficient, but you're not going to see an enemy team shrink in fear from a Nunu that had been building GP5 / aura items.

Roles I'm not good with:

Ranged AD:  Cait, Urgot, Trist, Ashe.  Only one I'm not completely horrible with is Cait.  Urgot is mostly untested at this point.

I don't position very well in team fights, and I don't last hit well.  Plus, it really bothers me when I get a shitty support.  Last Soraka I got paired with basically threw the game.  I was up early and should have snowballed through the game, but they kept getting caught and feeding kills.

Jungle:  Udyr, some Noct.  I would likley also be comfortable jungling Warwick, GP, and Nunu.

Not a lot of experience jungling.  Not a great ganker.  Jungler takes too much shit.  You have to deal with everyone's idiocy at the same time.  However, if your team is rolling, you have the easiest job ever. My main jungler has strong ganks but not a very strong initiate.  You can just run away from Udyr if you see him coming.  You're not going to have to dodge some skill short or DIE. 

First game already bagged. I'll put it up shortly.

[Rasix]

Game 1: HOLY SHIT, I'M FIRST PICK



I nearly pooped myself when I saw that I was first pick.  I just kind of panicked and banned Kass first, even though I had no intention of playing mid.  They kept yelling at me to ban Shen, when I couldn't even find Shen.  If I don't have Shen and if they don't have Shen: I CAN'T BAN SHEN.

Bans were: Kass, Rammus, Morg (WHY DID I BAN 2 MIDS).  Shaco, (drawing a blank on rest).  I should really screenshot the picks.

I first pick Irelia as it looked like no one was strongly claiming top.  Irelia is safe.  We get fairly standard looking team, if I bit odd with a support Volibear.   Support Volibear was not playing 0 CS support, which worked out fine here, but could prove to a problem.  He built straight tank, and was awfully proud of his multiple warmogs. 

During load I notice, hey, no jungler on their team.  GREAT. 

me: "I'm going to have a 2 v. 1 top. Just ignore me for a while.  Shit on bot and mid.  I'll be ok"
ww: "LOL. Sure."
me upon arriving to lane and seeing Cait and Xin:  "WTF IS THIS LANE?".

So, basically I just let them push lane to tower and last hit there avoiding harass as much as possible.  My main goal is to avoid getting jumped on by Xin.  Cait was bad, but I made sure to stay behind minions to avoid taking a peacemaker to the jaw. 

Meanwhile, Annie is pooping on Brand and bot lane is doing fine.  At level 6, they push Brand out of lane and Annie comes up top.  We get a double kill.  Game is over.  Once I have my wriggles and boots, I'll be good to farm up there and then turn on them whenever.  I've lost all trepidation for this lane and for the game in general.  They're feeding Annie like crazy. 

Around mid game, we start throwing a bit.  People are getting caught.  I got caught one face checking top tri-bush into 4 of them.  Annie is basically diving everything that moves at this point.    I can no longer farm because the game is now a gigantic roaming ARAM.  We win pretty much every team fight (still some deaths) and the game just steam rolls.  None of their surrender votes go through as Xin and Cait think they can still win. This is entirely possible, the game is going on long and they have a non trivial amount of kills.  However, they are not tanky at all.  They are not farmed at all.  Brand's build is nonsensical.   We eventually take Nexus and win.

Derp of the game:

Cait, nearly dead, flashes forward like 6 feet to face check Annie and gets a fireball in the mug.

What I did poorly:

I took this game a little lightly once I realized how bad they are.  Shouldn't do this, it's always possible to throw. Missed one early MIA call, but this is difficult when you're in a 2v1 and Xin is constantly in the river bush. Took blue late and didn't bother giving it to Annie.  The rest of the team was dragoning so I was going to steal their jungle.  Annie got mad.  Sure, I should I have possibly given it to them, but I wasn't even looking.  We were going in to finish, and I really didn't care.  If I was going to be a dick, I'd say "go take ours so we can win even harder. Nice thornmail".  Instead I just said I was taking their jungle and wasn't paying attention.

What I did well:

Knew when to engage for the most part.  Picked targets well.  Communicated with team well during champ select and through most parts of the game.  Got them to actually baron and push after winning fights.

[Rasix]

3 in a row.  WTF.


Picture is all you really need.  They were all pretty awful.  The Irelia was pretty much just a troll.  It was 4/19 at one point with all 4 kills belonging to me.

Trundle dove to give up FB and double buff to Malz.  Then a low Malz hung around to give it to me after a flash/ignite/q.  Probably could have stopped that entire sequence by igniting earlier, but Malz had heal and Trundle took like 4 tower shots.  

So, onto the next game.  SHAKE IT OFF.

I got Ryze again, but last two picks gave me pause.


Rightfully so, it seems!


THE FEEDING.  I think Malph and I had the same thought going through our heads, "for fucks sake...".  Nunu was nice and gave us a good pep talk before the game in broken English.  He kept talking shit to bot once they started the chow train.   He just probably shouldn't have said anything with the quality of his play.  I had the river bush warded and Jarvan pops into it.  So what does he do?  RUNS STRAIGHT AT JARVAN.  At least it got me a kill, but, goddamn.  Kat is right there as well and Jarvan can see  you running at him.  "WTF is this crazy yeti doing?".  

I played alright.  Not my best, but Jarvan jungle + Kat mid can put the fear in you.  Blissfully over at 20.  I probably should have reported Nunu, he was on everyone's ass the entire game.  Including his two solo lanes he never ganked for.

Continue on with the pain train.  


FML.  Thanks assholes.

Gangplank and Irelia go bot..    I have to go top, where it's a 2v1 v. Panth.  Easy for him since his fucking passive.  And so the two players that need the most far, are top.  This is like my first game, I don't like it at all.

Gangplank was just retarded. Him and Irelia got destroyed by an Urgot/Riven lane.  What fucking level of ELO hell have I fallen into?

Top went bad.  Nasus didn't do anything and no one bought any wards (cept me, yay).  Annie was a bit of a loud mouth and a bad sport (aren't they all?).


For this stretch, I'm not really sure what I could have done except maybe carry harder the first two, and just jungle on the last one.  I should have known no one would jungle and that 2v1 lane just sets up a level discrepancy and mid/bot will have it rough. Combine that with no one wanting to go ranged AD either.  Guess I just picked the wrong role that no one wanted to play.  

[Rasix]

ENTER SORAKA: SLUT UNICORN OF ASSISTS.  

Well, they say that if you lose 3 in a row, you should take a break.  Fuck that, it's only 11pm!


Well, at least my team comp didn't make me want to off myself.

You wouldn't know by looking at the score, but they had us down to our two nexus turrets and we basically won only with an ace and rushing to finish.

Early game:  We dominated.  Bot lane was me and Ashe v. a derpy Garen and a scared-of-his-own-shadow Ziggs.  Ashe got caught a few times but otherwise, she was solid.  Her arrows were awesome.  She hit almost every one.  Jax kind of shat on Sion top.  AD Sion's early game is garbage.  He was getting some kills via ganks and Jax being over confident.  Not good.  Vayne was also getting the odd cleanup kill.

Mid to late:  We got a lot of kills, but got caught a ton.  All the kills were getting funneled to Vayne and Sion.  BAD TIMES.  We lost a lot of team fights.  We could not push at and started to lose towers and then inhibs.  Things got snippy.  Olaf and Jax just doubled down on the stupid and would go for these retarded engages.  Was looking grim.  No one built defense to counter Sion/Vayne.  

Late, late:  I build a Randuin's, Veigar gets a Zhonya's.  They engage and lose.  We win fights and are able to push some out but we're down to our Nexus turrets.  One final ace and we push to base.  Jax melts the towers (two warmogs, really?).  During this time we were able to sneak in a baron, because Oracles had divined that they had ZERO wards.  Nobody buys wards at this level.  AT ALL.  I'm only the third support champ that I've see in 5 games.  WTF, did these people just hit 30 and slam into ranked?

A win is a win, but nearly lost it when we started to throw.  Olaf thought he could axe kite 4 of them when they had a Maokai.    Luckily extreme late game Veigar and Jax are just ridiculous and Ashe continued to hit those arrows.  I was a bit concerned at being a support champ in a very late game, where everyone has enough gold to carry.  However, aura items and Shureli'as/Randiun's proved to be game changers.  If there had been just another champ here, it would have been one hell of a throw, I think.

Whew.

[Paelos]

I like your story, but can you explain some of the terms you are using for a noob reading this like myself? What is jungling for example?

[Rasix]

The game has 3 lanes (top, mid, bottom) that cross the map. 



The area in between in the lanes, where you see the trees, has a number of neutral monster camps that can be killed for exp and gold.  Typically the current meta has 1 player on each team in top, 1 in mid, 2 in bottom and one "jungler".  The jungler mainly levels and gets gold by killing these neutral camps.  The mobs that go down the lane going in waves and the neutral monster camps have set respawn times.  The jungler also tries to assist the other lanes in killing their opponent in between killing neutral camps.  The jungler has a big presence in the game as they are all over the map from the very start. 

[HaemishM]

 WTF, did these people just hit 30 and slam into ranked?

Yes, I did.  But seriously, I think a lot of people do and fuck's sake, is it a completely different game in ranked. At my shittastic ELO (hovering around 1000), it's as bad if not worse than unranked solo blind queue, only the douchiness is higher, the bitchy whining is worse and when you lose, fuck me, do you lose hard.

[Bann]

I like reading this, keep up the good work!

Also, when do you play? If you want a partner, Ill duoqueue with you. I'm maybe 60 games played now, with an elo ~1100.

[Slayerik]

Nice write ups! I tried playing a game last night but I just didn't have much fun. If I get back into it, I'll be sure to look you guys up.

[Rasix]

I like reading this, keep up the good work!

Also, when do you play? If you want a partner, Ill duoqueue with you. I'm maybe 60 games played now, with an elo ~1100.

I start playing pretty late, usually around 9-10pm PST.

[schild]

That's a lot of words about League of Legends.

I joined one game in the last 6 months. They must have some sort of ELO Decay thing going on. I was playing with fucking idiots.

For the next few weeks I guess I just play Kassadin if I get back into it. Just terrible.

[Rasix]

That's a lot of words about League of Legends.

Yes, it is.  I wanted to do a blog, but I don't think anyone would read it.  Plus, more effort.

I joined one game in the last 6 months. They must have some sort of ELO Decay thing going on. I was playing with fucking idiots.

For the next few weeks I guess I just play Kassadin if I get back into it. Just terrible.

Elo decay
Elo decays over time when you are above 1400 Elo:[5]

    Elo decays after 4 weeks of inactivity.
    For normal rating, inactivity is defined as no activity in any queue.
    For ranked rating, inactivity is defined as no activity in the specific queue (arranged 5x5, arranged 3x3, and solo/duo 5x5 are all tracked separately). Ranked decay also applies to people who are unranked and above 1400 rating.
    Elo decays at a rate of 25 every week after the 4th week of inactivity for both normal and ranked ratings.
    The decay timer completely starts over after a game is played in that specific queue
    Elo will not decay below a rating of 1400.

Kassadin is usually banned. 

[schild]

Oh my god.

My ELO is 1400?

I actually don't care about ranked. Too many tryhards. I just don't want to have to pull myself out of random shit hell.

[Rasix]

1244 actually.   http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/19564624

Although it looks like you have no games this season, so you might be back in placement.  You may be living the dream along with me.  

Only real reason I'm doing ranked is that Normal Draft fucks over solo players in regards to pick position.  Otherwise, the games were much nicer there. This is likely because I'm not even placed yet and these mongoloids I'm playing with are also doing placement games.  I'm guessing most had just done blind exclusively to this point, because over half of the time the team comps and lane comps have been completely retarded.  I'm not just being a stickler about meta, these lane comps just don't fucking work in any way.  

I'm guessing that if I place low enough I'll end up playing a game that will be objectively worse than my normal draft experience.  At that point, I'll just fuck off and live with 90% 5th pick.

[schild]

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/2722

Apparently the bottom is 1200.

[schild]

ELO Decay makes me not want to play. I just played another and ugh, I might just sell my account.

[Rasix]

Well, technically you got reset as part of Season 2.  You're in a land between ELOs until you get 10 matches in. Placement matches are like a trip in the way-back machine.

[schild]

Dumb.

[Paelos]

I had to google the terms, ELO Hell and Feed. As expected it comes down to people being assholes.

[HaemishM]

My ELO is shit (5W/10L with an ELO of 983). It truly is more of a crapshoot than normal solo queue, only with the added benefit that you're likely to be playing 1) WITH a team full of people just as bad as you only convinced that your poor play is the ONLY reason the whole team is down 4-19 in the first 10 minutes and 2) AGAINST a team of pros playing together on Skype. The people in ranked are more whiny, with the only benefit that most of them will actually just surrender at 20 when it's obvious the team is fucked instead of holding out hope for 3 enemy disconnects.

By comparison, normal solo queue (non-draft) feels like I'm playing against (and with) quadraplegics.

[Rasix]

Episode 6:  No one wants to jungle or "good guy Rasix"


"Anyone want to jungle? Buehler, Buehler... "

So, again, I get a team where no one wants to jungle. I figure me jungling Gangplank for the first time is better than having to deal with a 2 lanes getting raped and top unable to snowball because of level diffs.  

Everyone had decided what they wanted to play before even seeing the other team.  Hard core meta strategery going on here.   Second pick was adamant he play WW top.  First pick instalocks Annie v. their first pick Galio    Since last pick shouted "I NO JUGNLE" and fourth pick wanted to only Blitzcrank... Yah, I wasn't brimming with confidence.  So, no time than the present to learn how to GP jungle.

Went cloth 5 since no one at this ELO can apparently leash.  Annie autoattacked (not even a fucking Q) once while Blitz and Sivir (who originally was going to Kayle bot with Blitz, sprinted toward top at the start, and took quite a bit of all caps to get her in the right lane) sat at their tower, unmoving.  Sivir, I don't think, was a native English Speaker; just a hunch.

Things went fine as you can see.  Warwick and I abused top.  At one point he was dominating Akali bad enough that he told me to just leave him and deal with other lanes.  Despite giving up first blood, bot was able to roll Teemo and Sona.   Annie was a bit of a problem, as she was getting really smacked around by Galio.  Luckily with bot tower going down early and Warwick having no problems, we were all able to take turns babysitting mid.  

I played pretty well.  We got the only baron and every dragon.  I'm not sure they even got a tower down.  Every blue went to Annie, and it wasn't long in before we were taking all of their jungle.  I put down a lot of wards, since no one was and the only way we were dying were from jungle/mid ganks.   My build wasn't great.  I went Wit's End due to concern over Akali and Galio, but a better idea might have been to just rush warmogs/frozen mallet and just get tanky.  Although, I was concerned that with blitz and warwick, we were going to need me for more damage.  I was torn, but based on my 2 deaths I had, I could have been tankier.  

A few bad ults, some face checkery (that worked out for us, "/all WORTH IT!!!"), but overall a not bad effort with my first effort at jungling with GP.

A nice gem from champ selection:

Sivir: "We have no jungle" <- I'm sitting in champ select with Flash/Smite.  

[Rasix]

Episode 7: Dat Throw


top and bot do work
fortune and mu too heavy
mumu with the throw

First pick instalock Amumu. 4th and 5th pick said they are going bot together (Fiora and Alistar).  Third pick wants to go bot, but said she can mid with.. MF.  We ask if she can play an AP mid since we're AD heavy, and her best answer is "I played Lux once against bots".  Miss Fortune it is! I had already picked Irelia to counter GP.  I assume he is going top, but they have a Trynd too. I'd be fine against Trynd as well.

It's GP and I go like 3 or 4-1 in lane.  About level 7 I start pulling ahead in CS and forcing him out.   Game goes well, but all of their kills are going to Cait.  All of their farm too.   We push down middle and inhib.  Their Karthus is a complete retard or just has really big fingers.  Guy keeps firing off his ult randomly like when no one is even around.  We're maybe up 9-10 kills when it's time for a baron.

Well, they start to set up for baron and we're getting over there.   Then Amumu just inits.  Right into all 5 of them when only myself and one other are near.  That threw it.  It was all down hill from there.  We had to deal with Tynd backdooring and Amumu and MF dying like retards.  Then Amumu and MF start arguing over MF buying two IEs.  

Another team fight lost and it's over.  Fiora had a few DCs so let's blame it on that.  But really, this is one of the few instances where I've seen a team completely dragged down by two players.  Usually it takes 3, but I suppose two are adequate for a throw.

Derp of the game:

I go down with GA (an item that revives you) at their inhib (where we could have won if 3 of our team didn't run away).  Karthus is hovering over me with very little life hoping to get the kill with his defile. I pop up, hit W, and he dies before they can gang me down.  The rest of his fat fingered ults are a close second.  Mumu's bad inits are too painful to nominate.

[HaemishM]

Why would someone pick ALISTAR when Amumu is first pick? I... that's just retarded. Even worse, it sounds (and looks on the stats sheet) like Alistar was the superior tanker by far.

[ezrast]

http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/2722

Apparently the bottom is 1200.

1200 is average. Anyone below that just doesn't have their Elo publicized to spare them the shame.

[Rasix]

8-10: Out of place(ment)

Game 1:

First game Olaf!  My score doesn't reflect it, but I played pretty well for not being that well versed in his mechanics (didn't know the axe wouldn't go full distance unless aimed so).  I had my lane won until bot and jungle started to throw it.  Then I was just camped and the teamfights went really poor.   I offered to jungle, but Xin said he would.  

After his sixth really bad death, "first time jungle, can you tell?".  Man, if it's your first time, maybe you should just own your own jungle instead of invading all the damn time and feeding kills.

Twitch was pretty useless, all of his kills were late KSs.  

Game 2:

Nearly lost it in this this one. Bot lane was ridiculously bad and tanked the entire game.  About 8 minutes in, Shyv tries to steal their blue but gets forced out by top and jungle.  I see that mid is wandering over and bot is too for the nice 5 man gank.  I do some chipping but stay safe.  Bot just hero modes in and all 3 kills go to.. MALZ.  Thanks guys.  Fucking perfect.   Despite that, I was actually doing pretty well against Malz and could solo him, but my team kept feeding him kills.

"mid mia"
*pings a thousand times toward top*
An ally has been slain!

Shyv was good (despite that episode) and Talon wasn't bad, but that Ashe was one of the worst I've ever seen.  Talon and Shyv were all over her.  Talon was just crying like a bitch at the end, bemoaning his fate in elo hell.  

We really could have won if the bot lane had even be slightly less terrible, but Graves was so fed he could basically 1v3 us at the end.

Game 3:

After about 5 failed queues, this game comes up.  I can see why there were all of the dodges.  I second pick GP to go against Fizz.   We get to fourth pick and need someone to go support.  Fifth pick is already jungle Nunu.  Well, 4th pick starts off as Nasus.

"wtf, no"

So he picks and locks Renekton.  FFFFUUUUUU. I think this guy did this in all of my previous queues, and that's the reason it took 30 minutes to get a game started.   I have a solution that I propose and is accepted.  I'll jungle, Nunu will support, Renekton the asshole will go top.

Their Fizz dcs. So Renekton gets Lux top at start.  Fizz comes back about 5 levels into it and has a rough time.  Bot is rolling.  Mid is having problems.  Mainly, mid keeps charging into Veigar's stun and gets obliterated time and time again.

I played a solid, if unspectacular jungle.  We're rolling except every engage someone gets destroyed by Veigar.  

me: "Get some MR."

Ez: "I'm not disrupting my build for defensive items."

This guy is bitching the entire time that Veigar is going to carry it and we're throwing.  The thing is, no one else on their team is a threat at all, but Nunu, Ezreal, and Ahri keep invading their jungle and getting caught.  

One ace at inhib and they're done.  I feel a bit sorry for Veigar.  

So, that ends my placement at 4-6 and 1133 ELO.   I'm not sure this is an ELO I deserve, but there's not a whole lot you can do about some of these people you get stuck with.  

Some observations on the entire experience:

- No one wards.  At all.  Not even support unless you're playing it.
- 0 CS support is a rarity.  Pure support champs are a rarity.  The team with the better support often wins.
- Mid is almost inconsequential.  Top for the most part as well.  A really bad jungle/bot lane is a death sentence.  If your AD carry is awful, you will not win.
- It seems like a good quarter of the people I'm playing know one or two champs, and that's it.  
- No one counter picks.  They have a champ and role in mind, and, fuck you, I'm first picking Nasus.
- It's hyper, hyper aggressive, especially bot lane.  Fuck CSing, TRADE TRADE TRADE.  
- Everyone loves Lux.  So much Lux.
- A good jungler is really rare. Most think they have to invade constantly and always gank.  They'd be better off if they didn't most of the time.  Most don't have the ward coverage to support this style of play.
- You see a lot of  Dorans at the start.  Often on support or in zero sustain lanes.  /sigh  If you see an AD carry with boots 3, they're probably going to beat the fuck out the other team.

[HaemishM]

I'm continually amazed at how little farming seems to be important to the players in ranked. I mean, I'm bad at last hitting a good bit in ranked, but some of these people don't seem the slightest bit concerned that their CS is shit and that's why they can't buy good items. They just want to constantly engage in fights.

[Margalis]

You guys should duo with me. I was 1450 for a while but I went on a huge losing streak (I had like 3 games in a row where we had 2 people top lol) so now I'm 1290 or something.

[Slayerik]

You guys should duo with me. I was 1450 for a while but I went on a huge losing streak (I had like 3 games in a row where we had 2 people top lol) so now I'm 1290 or something.

You guys should. Margalis is a bad mofo, plays pretty much any spot needed, and rapes as Cass mid :)

[Rasix]

11-12:  CARRY HARDER


Mid/late game Ryze strong!  Team that dies a ton, weak. That Vayne was just terrible.  To be fair to her, she had a support Fiddlesticks. But really, can my AD carries quit running Swiftness boots?

Team did not buy wards.  That's why you see a super fed jungler. 

Their GP had a quadra right by inhib turret that finished us off.  Just disappointing to play really well and see your team fail to materialize.

Game 2:

This is where I display some questionable manners. 

I'm sitting at third pick in champ select:

5th pick: Top.
Me: I'd prefer to top.  You're 5th, guy.  So, you may not get top.

Yes, I could have been diplomatic, but 5th pick should be aware of how shit works and just not call their slot.  You're bottom bitch, ask nicely.    So, 3rd pick comes around, they have Warwick, so I pick Yorick.

5th pick: WTF, fuck you.  Fuck this elo.   WAH WAH WAH WAH.
*5th pick locks in Gangplank*

Rather than explain to him that I actually expressed an interest to top and chose before him, I say that I'll play support Yorick.  Griping ceases and everyone is happy.  Yay.    First time Yorick and it's support.  Figures.

GP carries hard.  To be fair, I think an abstract painting of a penis could have beaten that WW top.  Plus, oranges.   Not sure about those boots either. 

The game is close, however, mostly because our first pick AP Ezreal was terrible.  Just terrible.  Quote someone on my team, "To make AP Ez work, you actually have to hit your fucking skill shots".   The guy was just getting destroyed by Ahri.  Anytime he went mid, she either chunked him out of lane or flat out killed him if her ult was up.  Ez refuses to go mid anymore and so we tend to rotate coverage while he runs around being useless.  We also have the problem of Graves NEVER LEAVING LANE EVER.  Guy wasn't bad, he just wasn't much of a factor in the game outside of the laning phase.

Game ends when we catch WW out front.  Noct lands a fear.  We kill.  Noct jumps and we get another kill.  Pop Shurelias and there's another kill for Noct. 

Noct: "Time for a quadra!!!"

I make it into their base a bit behind Noct and he's in trouble v. Ashe and someone else (maybe Lux). Everyone's low health.  So I ult him, and we score the ace.  Both kills going to me.   

Noct: "NOOOO. YOU STOLE MY QUADRA!"

Actually buddy, it might have been a penta! I didn't have the heart to tell him.  We tear through the end of the base with little problems. 

We really roughed up our lane early, but the Ezreal being such a drag messed up the flow the game.  A non retarded mid and I think this one ends up a stomp.

[Rasix]

You guys should duo with me. I was 1450 for a while but I went on a huge losing streak (I had like 3 games in a row where we had 2 people top lol) so now I'm 1290 or something.

Sure thing.  I think I could hang at 1300.  In the past, however, I never seemed to play well with you.  But, that was when I couldn't support or jungle at all and was still leveling. Would be interesting to see the elo spread and what it would do if we're 150-200 points apart.

[Bann]

I wish my playtime meshed better with you late players. I'm usually done w/ computer about 9-10ish CST. I've got 10 days off starting Friday however, so I'm sure I'll be up later and wasting time. Expect to be bothered for games. Margalis, are you margalis on LoL?

(I'm Bann11)

[Rasix]

13-14: CARRY THE HARDEST

So, I have an issue.  I'm 0-4 with Ryze, possibly my best champ.  All games I played well, 2 of them carrying, but unable to carry the team.  So what do you do when you're faced with first pick and someone's called top, but mid is available? FIRST PICK THE SHIT OUT THAT RYZE.

random dude on team, "First pick mid countered hard"
me (internally): Fuck you.  I WILL CARRY THIS SHIT.  JUST YOU WATCH.  I WILL QWEWQEWQEQWEQWEQWRWQEWQEQWRQWEQWEQWEWQEQWEWQ their team into the cold depths of oblivion.  
me (externally): "I'll be fine"


Success.  I guess all I have to do is not die at all and destroy what is possibly my worst match up.  I do well against his early aggression and a few pretty decent Lee ganks help force him to b.  I help Lee pickup FB on their jungler and we're on our way.

What proceeds is the text book Ryze snowball, where every back you end up picking up another core item and returning to lane ridiculously strong for your level.   About a minute or two before the surrender I get a triple kill at dragon that possibly would have been a penta if the rest of their team hadn't bugged out.   It was getting to the point that they were afraid of even staying under tower.   All I had to do was root someone and Graves and I could chunk them down before they could react.  Love this type of game, it makes you feel 10' tall.

Plus the fun part with Ryze is everyone underestimates just how non-fragile you are.  There's a point in the game that they aren't going to kill you without a 3 man gank.

Game 2:


I was 1/3/5 in lane.  I got dove a ton by Maokai/Wu.  Despite that, I stayed even/ahead of Wukong in CS until the laning phase ended.  After that, I mostly focused on protecting carries, securing objectives, and just making sure people stopped getting caught.

Game was really close for most of it.  Turned when we decided to do Baron with no ward coverage and no Oracles.  I just felt we were stronger and could turn.  About 3/4 through baron, Cait shows up (pretty much alone) and we gib her, finish Baron, and push down inhib turret.  

From then on, we slowly whittled them down.  Had a few bad fights, which made me nervous, since an ace and we could easily lose with Cait getting rather big.  However, surprisingly, Viktor toward the end just got scary and could pretty much instagib anyone on their team.   At one point Cait stepped too far forward at bottom tower, and he just melted her.  You barely even saw the spells go off.

7/1/x out of lane is something I'm happy with.  I tend to play Irelia really well in lane, but so-so outside of lane.  I did have to switch priorities on my build once I realized we really didn't have a tank other than myself.  I think I'm building triforce a bit too much with her, but I can't completely ignore damage and that helps a lot.   My farm numbers were a bit low, but I never really went back top to farm after laning phase was done.  I left all of the wave clearing and cleanup to the carries.

Yay, back to even.

edit:

This this was funny: in post game chat, Graves called Viktor a "try hard" because he only died twice.  It's ranked.     And.. wtf is that Janna build?

[HaemishM]

My last two ranked games last night were almost like this except instead of carrying the team, I was one of the better players but the rest of my team was incomparably horrid. In ranked, I feel good when I'm not the guy they are yelling at for feeding. But it's really bad when not only am I not feeding, I do better than anyone else and most of my deaths are because I'm up against someone fed by another lane, like an AP Sion.

[Rasix]

I'm starting to not want to play ranked anymore.  The title of this Radicalthon is becoming prophetic.  Just got trolled really hard in two straight games.  It's not fun. So pissed I even forgot to screenshot one of them.

edit:

Game 3: AP Yi mid.  FML.

[MrHat]

I'm starting to not want to play ranked anymore.  The title of this Radicalthon is becoming prophetic.  Just got trolled really hard in two straight games.  It's not fun. So pissed I even forgot to screenshot one of them.

edit:

Game 3: AP Yi mid.  FML.

Jesus.

I stopped playing Ranked a few months back and am afraid to atrophy my ELO below 1400.

That being said, I'm on during the day for the most part and would be happy to duo to at least lessen the retard level by 1.