Ranked Game #13

I played a ranked game this afternoon at the end of a long string of normal games. It was a close game where momentum shifted back and forth several times, and we very nearly lost at one point due to some bad teamfight coordination. However, we had an excellent general that kept us going and led us to victory. I went alone in solo queue for this game.

I was the captain of my team, and had first ban. My team's bans/picks are in green, and the enemy team's are in red:

Nocturne, Tryndamere, Amumu, Shen


Here is the draft:


Master Yi
Teemo, Rammus
Malzahar, Heimerdinger
Soraka, Xin Zhao
Taric, Malphite
Tristana


I liked this team composition A LOT, a great balance of magic and physical damage, two ranged DPS, the best disruptor in the game (Rammus), and a support. What more could you ask for (besides a stun)? Rammus said that he would jungle, allowing for maximum ganking power. I took mid and Tristana took top solo, leaving Soraka and Xin Zhao bottom. Their team was pretty balanced too, though the fact that they had a Heimerdinger was encouraging. I find it hard to do well with him, or to be useful at all, so I figured that he would be free kills for us. Going into the loading screen, they did not have anyone with Smite, but it would still be possible to Master Yi to jungle without it.


Early Game
Tristana drew Malphite and Master Yi in the top lane, showing that no one on their team was jungling. Going 1v2 meant that she had to operate from her tower constantly, but also exposing the enemy to easy ganking. Rammus came up for a gank very quickly, helping Tristana get first blood on Malphite, and then Rammus took out Yi right after. Rammus ganked top several times, as Malphite and Yi never learned not to overextend and got themselves killed. I went up against Heimerdinger in mid, but couldn't get anything done against him. He wasn't able to kill me while laning though. Nothing really happened in the bottom lane with Soraka and Xin Zhao facing Malzahar and Taric, just gradual pushing back and forth with no kills between them. At one point, Tristana died up top, allowing the the turret to be taken down. Fortunately, we were able to push their middle tower in response with a few people to even the tower count at one. Overloading the middle let minions kill our bottom tower though, as Xin and Soraka weren't around to help. Here is where laning broke down and we began roaming to take out towers and kill the dragon for some global gold whenever it was available.


Mid Game
The momentum of the game began shifting in their direction at this time, as we didn't coordinate our teamfights too well. Whenever they showed up, we would just attack the closest champion to us, which often turned out to be Malphite or Taric. Obviously this was a bad idea, as the rest of their team would just focus us down one by one, forcing a retreat. We also got caught pushing too hard at times and paid dearly for it. There was one occurrence where they initiated a fight at their inner middle tower, and managed to take out all of us but Rammus in our retreat. We did kill Master Yi and Malzahar, but that didn't hinder their ability to push too much. They got all the way to our inhibitor, but couldn't take it out completely by the time we all respawned. In our retaliation push, we found them wandering around their blue buff and killed three of them very quickly. We took this opportunity to kill Baron and use the buff to help defend our base. They eventually came back to our top tower, pushing to that inhibitor as well, but they were pushed back thanks to some heroics (saving my ass) courtesy of Soraka. Unfortunately they did destroy our middle inhibitor while they were around our base.

Late Game
Our plan at this point in the game was to sit and defend the base while we waited for the inhibitor to respawn. However, in their advance on it, we managed to kill two or three of them, enabling us to adventure out for a little while. Also, our Baron buff had run out, so we took the chance and grabbed it again. It was a little shakier this time, as they found us in the act and tried to draw us away. After killing Baron, we all got into full escape mode to go back and defend the base (and live). I believe someone got caught by them and died, but otherwise we successfully got away. When our inhibitor respawned, they took another shot at pushing, but this time we shut them down effectively by targeting Malzahar and Heimerdinger first. We shut down their push, and countered with our own, taking down their Nexus at 48 minutes. Huge props go to Rammus for orchestrating this fantastic comeback

Here is the post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #13 - Teemo

What I learned:
- Rammus is REALLY good coming from the jungle, this may be the first time I've seen it, not entirely sure
- Having someone direct traffic is the best way to mount a comeback, keeps everyone on the same page
- Heimerdinger may be more useful than I thought, his abilities hurt if you aren't careful, placement of turrets is key
- Building no magic resist against AP Teemo is a bad idea, one mushroom can take half health
- Being a carry is fun, I missed it
- Banshee's Veil is never a bad thing to have

My Score: 15/8/14
My Build: Philosopher's Stone (sold), Malady, Mercury's Treads, Nashor's Tooth, Banshee's Veil, Madred's Bloodrazor, Giant's Belt

Current ranked record: 8-5 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: 1301

That was one of the more fun and exciting games I've had so far, comebacks are always a good time. I have also broken 1300 ELO again, which is cool, a nice milestone (though my high was 1320, when I couldn't see it). I may play another game tomorrow, or on Monday, but definitely one of those two. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome, thanks for reading!

-Chickenmoo