Ranked Game #4

Howdy, I played another ranked game today on a whim. The game ended up going pretty well, it was a good, solid victory. Our team worked together pretty well and our jungler was fantastic, especially in the early game. This was the first game that had a jungler on each team, so I finally got to experience what I expect in a ranked game. There were also no leavers, disconnectors or trolls, which was good. In this game I duo queued  with a fan of the blog who friended me a few days ago. I had never played with him before, but he has around 500 wins so I was pretty sure he knew what he was doing.

Once again, I was the captain of my team, but I had second (and third) bans this time. The bans were:

Malphite, Rammus, Shen, Vladimir


Having first pick, the draft went like this, with my pick italicized:

Us: Amumu
Them: Garen, Mordekaiser
Us: Ashe, Dr. Mundo
Them: Twisted Fate, Lux
Us: Shaco, Akali (my queuing friend)
Them: Udyr


Now I don't have the runes to effectively jungle with Amumu, so that was left to Shaco. As our only ranged champ, Ashe took mid, and Akali volunteered to solo top. That meant that we would have a tanky lane bottom with me and Dr. Mundo. I was a little concerned about our lack of ranged attackers, but we also had great initiation with my Bandage Toss, Ashe's Enchanted Crystal Arrow and Shaco's Deceive. The latter's stealth also makes him a fantastic ganker, which helps dominate the laning phase. The loading screen showed that Udyr was packing Smite, so I would finally get to experience a ranked game with a jungler on each side.

Early Game
After protecting Shaco at the golem buff, we all settled into our lanes. Akali was pitted against Garen, Ashe got Twisted Fate and Mundo and I had Mordekaiser and Lux. Nothing really happened until Shaco started ganking, which luckily was pretty early in the game. He got first blood on Mordekaiser when he and Lux overextended in our lane. We were also able to get the kill on Lux as she tried to escape. A few minutes later once they had both respawned, Shaco came back and ganked them both again, giving us a huge advantage in the lane. At this point, Twisted Fate was roaming and teleporting around the map, allowing Ashe to get the first tower kill in mid. Their bottom tower was taken out in a weird sequence where Udyr and Shaco came into the lane at the same time, and Ashe towerdove for a Lux kill.

Mid Game
This is when laning broke down entirely, and we began dominating the game. A crucial teamfight happened at dragon when Udyr was trying to take it by himself. Shaco sniffed it out and blinked in to steal it, killing Udyr in the process. The rest of each team soon followed in, where we were able to take out another three of their champs quickly. Many of the teamfights occurred in the middle of the map and in the jungle near the enemy red buff. Twisted Fate and Mordekaiser were always the first to fall in every struggle, and Lux would run away at the sight of us and just throw all her skills back. Garen was probably the most dangerous, as he built a bit of attack damage to give him quite a bit of killing power. He seemed to single me out in every teamgfight with DEMACIA!! (also known as Demacian Justice) and got the kill a few times. The turning point was a teamfight in the middle where i was able to catch Twisted Fate exposed near his team. After launching in, I popped my ult and the rest of my team swooped in and demolished their team. With this ace, we were able to take down the middle inner tower and also the inhibitor tower.

Late Game
At this point the game was pretty much in hand. They tended to initiate whenever they respawned, thus getting themselves killed quickly. Twisted fate was especially guilty of this, he would stun one, and then be met by the other four and their burst damage. We eventually took the inhibitor out and the super minions began pushing the Nexus turrets. Another teamfight occurred by their red buff where we caught their squishies too far away from their tanks that eventually resulted in an ace inside of their base. Without enemy champions to impede us, we were able to take down the two Nexus turrets and the Nexus with ease at the half hour mark.

The post game scoreboard is shown below:

What I learned:
- Garen can be pretty dangerous if he builds some attack damage, putting the 'DPS' in 'tanky DPS'
- Constantly flying around the map is not ideal for success with Twisted Fate, especially when soloing
- A good Shaco can be devastating, as he can gank well from the jungle at level 2, a feat not many junglers are capable of
- Mordekaiser needs tanky items to be worthwhile, straight AP gets him killed fast
- Banning Vlad is kind of silly, he's easily countered now that Sanguine Pool doesn't give a speed boost

My Score: 1/4/16
My Build: Philosopher's Stone, Mercury Treads, Aegis of the Legion, Force of Nature

Current Ranked Record: 3-1 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: Unranked

Playing with friends is really beneficial, so if you guys want to play with me, please friend me. I'm certainly open to it. My next game will probably be Sunday, but there is a possibility of tomorrow. As always, comments/suggestions are appreciated, and thanks for reading.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #3

Hey gang, my third ranked game is now done (and I didn't use Urgot this time). This one was a nice easy win, due to the fact that I had a great, cooperative team and the enemy team was a little lacking in ability. This was also my first game that didn't have an ounce of controversy in it, there were no leavers or disconnections and there was also no trolling. This time, I duo queued with a friend from school who has been playing the game quite a bit longer than I have. This was comforting as I knew I would have at least one teammate that I could count on.

For this game, I was the captain of my team again and had first ban. The bans were:

Rammus, Amumu, Malphite, Shen


Having first ban meant they had first pick in the draft, here is how it went, with my pick italicized as usual:

Them: Cassiopeia
Us: Singed, Malzahar
Them: Cho'gath, Annie
Us: Caitlyn, Nidalee
Them: Ezreal, Tristana
Us: Irelia (my queuing friend)


Now with three possible mids there was potential for arguing over who got to take it, but fortunately only Malzahar actually wanted it, so that was easily settled. My friend decided to jungle with Irelia, and Nidalee took the top lane. She's probably one of the strongest 1 vs 2 laners (their team didn't have a clear jungler) out there, with her huge heal and long-range harassing nuke. That left Caitlyn and I in the bottom lane. This team composition felt really good to me, as we had plenty of range, lots of harassment and a large amount of crowd control. On the loading screen, the enemy team did not have anyone carrying Smite, showing that once again there was no enemy jungler. The fact that people choose to go into a game without one is just dumb, the benefits of having one far outweigh the cons.

Early Game
The early part of the match was pretty lackluster, with much of the laning phase consisting of ranged harassing and running around. Nidalee managed to get first blood on Ezreal with a gank from Irelia about five minutes in, and Caitlyn and I caught Cassiopeia with Irelia's help a while later. Right before the laning phase began to break down, Malzahar got the first kill in mid on Annie, which inspired a little taunting between the two. Eventually the top lane got pushed so hard that Nidalee died twice protecting the tower, and it became the first to fall. Fortunately, we were able to take down their bottom and middle towers in quick succession following a small teamfight minutes later.

Mid Game
We started mid game off with a four-man gank of Ezreal, who was defending the top tower from minions at half health. We took town the tower in the process, and this is where the ball started rolling towards our victory. At this point, our team (especially Caitlyn) had effectively warded the upper half of the map, giving us fantastic map control and turning their attempted team ganks in our favor. We were able to kill each of their team members regularly, though Annie gave us problems a few times. She was quite good at positioning and stunning me before i could throw her back towards my team. We were able to take dragon twice, once uncontested and the second time Irelia stole it with Smite. After that, our team pushed mid for a while, gradually whittling down the inner turret. There was a lot of posturing going on at that time, with spells and skillshots being fired, but doing pretty much nothing of consequence.

Late Game
Once that tower was taken down, the game was pretty much won. The middle inhibitor tower and inhibitor were subsequently taken down while the enemy stragglers were picked off by our collective crowd control skills. We began to advance on the Nexus turrets but backed off when the enemy team respawned. While Irelia and Nidalee went back to shop/heal, the rest of us stayed in their base to harass them and keep them from going anywhere. We kept it up long enough for the other two inner towers to be pushed without any contest. When the top inhibitor was advanced on, a teamfight broke out. This actually turned out more in their favor, as they caught us in a bad position and were able to kill four of us, while we only took one. However, this didn't hurt our team at all, as they had to scramble back to defend their base from incoming super minions and thus couldn't even get close to one of our towers. We eventually Baroned and got them to surrender at 46 minutes.

Here is the post game scoreboard:

What I learned:
- Queuing with friends is a good way to assure success in ranked games
- Nidalee is a pretty darn good solo laner
- Stuns cripple Singed's ability to initiate, but he can escape from the most ridiculous situations
- Caitlyn is good at harassing early game, but doesn't have much to offer later
- One person cannot carry a team in ranked, at least not against a competent opponent

My Score: 1/2/14
My Build: Rod of Ages, Boots of Swiftness, Force of Nature, Giant's Belt, Blasting Wand

Current Ranked Record: 2-1 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: Unranked

Once again I apologize for the lateness, hope you guys enjoy the summary! Comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

-Chickenmoo

No ranked game tonight

Sorry guys, I didn't really feel like going solo again tonight, so I decided to hold off until Thursday so I can duo queue with a friend. I did end up playing (and dominating) a normal game with a fan of the blog though, which was pretty cool. I certainly don't mind you guys friend requesting me, as I don't have a large pool to pull from for ranked games, and I think it'd be nice to play with an arranged team once in a while. Just keep in mind that I am taking ranked seriously and am trying to win as many games as possible, so please don't troll me. I suppose the recent banhammering will deter that though.

On an unrelated note, I've been playing Singed a bit this week and been really enjoying it. He seems unkillable at times, which is hilarious when the other team tries to focus him. I'm considering saving my IP and forgoing completing my rune page to buy him, especially since he's only 1350 IP.

I'll post as soon as I can after my ranked game tomorrow, thanks for reading.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #2

Hey guys, my second ranked game is now in the books. Unfortunately, it was a loss, but it was a well fought game. It was not without controversy though, as one of the members of my team disconnected twice in the middle of the game, critically hurting our chances. During the game it was mentioned that this was the first ranked game for a couple members of my team. That was comforting, as I knew that they would stick it out until the end. Nevertheless, it was a very intense game with the overall momentum shifting in each direction several times. I think that is enough introduction, so onto the game.

This game was once again in solo queue, with one dodge before getting into the game. I was the captain of my team and we had first ban. They went as follows:

Rammus, Vladimir, Malphite, Amumu

Since we had first ban, they had first pick. Here's how the draft went, with my pick italicized:

Them: Teemo

Us: Urgot, Jax

Them: Kennen, Mordekaiser

Us: Shen, Renekton

Them: Alistar, Garen

Us: Nasus

Before going to the loading screen, we decided our roles. As the only ranged champ, I took mid. Renekton said that he would jungle, so that was taken care of. I'm glad that people have been willing to jungle so far, it's good that they see the importance in it. After Urgot, the strongest solo laner in our team was Nasus, so we had him solo top. That left Shen and Jax in the bottom lane. Now our team was quite tanky, so I had high hopes. Also having a Shen is always great, his ult is just unbelievably good for teamfights. Going into the loading screen, it was evident that they did not have a jungler, raising my hopes of victory even further. I didnt think it would be easy though, as they had three pretty beefy champs.

Early Game

Now Renekton didn't take smite, so Nasus helped him get his jungle started and then went to his tower. Jax was able to get first blood on Kennen pretty quickly, which turned out to be his only kill for a while. Soon after, I got Teemo down to a sliver of health and Renekton snuck behind the tower and ignited him for the easy kill. We picked at them gradually, with each of us getting a kill here and there in the early going. Unfortunately the other team was able to take down our middle and bottom towers early, setting us back a bit. At this point laning pretty much broke down.

Mid Game

This is when the momentum began to shift in our favor. We were able to repeatedly catch them out of position and alone or only with one other champ and just burst them down. There was one teamfight which started when we ganked Garen in the top lane and took him down quickly. We took down their top tower, and then the rest of the enemy team showed up and got themselvers killed. By the time we got to attacking the tower, they had respawned and initiated another fight. This time, their two squishies got themselves killed again, but the tanks forced us to back off. This was a real turning point in the match, as we only lost one champ in the entire fight, and that was when we were retreating. It was probably the most intense teamfight I've ever been a part of, plus it got me 5 kills. There were several more teamfights that we won handily, so it was looking like victory for our team at this stage. This is also when Jax disconnected twice, once at level 8 and another time a while later.

Late Game

Eventually, the teamfights began shifting in their favor as their tanky champs all had huge amounts of armor. They would catch us at a disadvantage and pick us off one by one. We were also focusing their tanks unnecessarily, myself included. I know this is kind of a lame excuse, but their squishies tended to hide right next to the tanks, making it hard to target them. Besides that, they positioned themselves very well, staying out of harm's way while still attacking. The Jax disconnections hurt us here, as he was underleveled and was easily killed once he jumped (literally) into the fight. We did get Baron once, but our resultant push failed and got a couple of us killed. In their counter-push, our middle inhibitor was taken down and we couldn't recover. At that point we only played defense. They got Baron twice and pushed down another inhibitor, and eventually took out our Nexus at the hour mark.

The postgame scoreboard can be seen below:

What I Learned:

- Having a tanky team is almost necessary for victory in long games

- Being a man down is quite crippling, no matter the skill level of said person

- Alistar is quite hard to kill with his ult up, the CC reduction and damage mitigation is significant

- Having a jungler isn't great if they don't gank at all

- Yordles can hide well in teamfights

My Score: 18/7/18

My Build: Manamune, Mercury Treads, Youmuu's Ghostblade, Banshee's Veil, Black Cleaver, Guardian Angel

Current ranked record: 1-1 (0 leaves)

ELO Rating: Unranked

This summary was a little longer than I would have liked it to be, but I suppose that is a function of the game being an hour long. Thanks for reading, suggestions are welcome in the comments!

-Chickenmoo

First Ranked Game (and win!)

Howdy, I just finished my first League of Legends ranked game. Now I've read a lot about ranked play and its seemingly plentiful feeders and trollers on various forums, which has placed my expectations of its playing population very low. Unfortunately this game pretty much hit that assumption square on the head, though thankfully it was not my team. This was in solo queue, I didn't any friends online to duo with. I ended up being the captain for my team and had first ban, so I consulted my team about bans. The bans were, in order:

Rammus, Master Yi, Evelynn, Pantheon

Now at this point I was a little confused, as they banned two easily countered champs. I obviously banned Rammus as he is the bane of everyone's existence, and then Pantheon by the suggestion of my team. In my opinion, he is one of the toughest champs to stop if he starts steamrolling so its justified.

They had first pick, so this is how the draft went, my pick is italicized:

Them: Ashe

Us: Urgot, Singed

Them: Kennen, Maokai

Us: Amumu, Vladimir

Them: Janna, Sivir

Us: Jax

Amumu decided that he was going to jungle and Vlad said he would mid, so I would take top. That left Jax and Singed in the bottom lane. When going into the loading screen and seeing their summoner spells, I was a little confused. They had no jungler, or at least no one with Smite, and Janna and Sivir had Rally and Teleport as their spells. I suppose this was a good precursor to the game that was forthcoming, in that it was kind of silly.

The game started out quite odd, as they sent three top (Ashe, Sivir and Janna) to kill me, but the latter two towerdived separately for some reason and gave me a double kill. After respawning, they headed mid with Ashe and made quick work of the outer turret there. The took out the bottom outer turret in this fashion as well. Personally, I felt a little panicked at this point, but I also had gold from them feeding quite a bit, so it was pretty easy to recover. I wouldn't say there was a real turning point in the game, I mean we did ace them 8 minutes into it, but it didn't really mean too much. 

Our team pretty much did whatever we wanted with them, the only time they really threatened was when there was a large minion push up top with Kennen and Janna helping. They got to our inhibitor turret but stopped there. The teamfights went largely in our favor, as they would always initiate with one squishy champ and get demolished. Amumu did a fantastic job with his Bandage Toss and Curse of the Mummy, nabbing us many kills in the process. Jax also did very well, he was talking half health with just his Jump attack. He also backdoored a lot of turrets while we were pushing mid, helping us end the game quickly. The game ended with a Nexus kill at about 30 minutes. The postgame scoreboard can be seen below.

What I learned:

- Ranked play has trolls, just like all the horror stories

- Jungle Amumu is fantastic, I can't wait to try him out

- Jax is a hard champ to stop when he's fed, harder than most I mean

- Overloading a lane at the word go can actually be effective, especially with the recent minion buff

- Having a jungler is important, as it allows three champs to be at a higher level than the rest instead of just one

My score: 11/4/12

My final build: Manamune, Brutalizer, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Banshee's Veil

Current Ranked record: 1-0 (0 leaves)

ELO Rating: Unranked

I hope you guys enjoyed my first game post, if you have any suggestions leave them in the comments. 

-Chickenmoo