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

No game tonight

Hey guys, sorry there's not going to be a game played/posted by me tonight. I had a couple of tests today and just felt like relaxing for the rest of the night. I'll definitely play one sometime tomorrow though. Also, I am probably not going to buy Lee Sin anytime soon, I'm saving my IP for CDR glyphs, and RP for the Urfrider Corki skin.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #12

Hey guys, I just got over a large lump of homework and had quite a bit of free time, so I played a ranked game. This was a pretty good game, although it was a little bumpy at the beginning. I went into duo queue with my friend 534N7R0N once again.

I ended up being the captain for my team, with first ban. Here are the bans, with my team's bans (and picks) in  green and the enemy team's in red.


Nocturne, Rammus, Amumu, Shen


The draft:

Dr. Mundo
Singed, Nidalee
Malphite, Ryze
Gangplank, Ashe
Xin Zhao, Tryndamere
Irelia (my friend)


My friend was very excited to have a Nidalee on our team, as she tends to do very well. Her pseudo-squishyness leads the enemy in, allowing her to quickly turn the tables on them with her nukes. Gangplank was a little concerning at first (I've expressed my opinion on him in an earlier post), but I figured if he was playing him in ranked, he knew what he was doing. Their team composition seemed pretty poorly thought out, lots of melee attackers and not a whole lot of damage. Having a bunch of bulk is always nice, but if you can't back it up with a good punch, it doesn't do you much good. Anyway, Nidalee took top solo, Ashe took mid, Irelia was jungling, and I laned bottom with Gangplank. Going into the loading screen, it was evident that Xin Zhao was their jungler.


Early Game
Out of all the enemy champs, I find Dr. Mundo to be the most annoying. Of course, I ended up laning against him, along with Tryndamere. The harassment went back and forth with Mundo's cleavers and Gangplank's Parrrley, with our health slowly getting whittled down. We both stayed in the lane at low health for too long and they decided to go for it, catching Gangplank just outside of tower range for First Blood. I stupidly tried to get revenge, ending up with Tryndamere diving me for the kill. We weren't able to get much on them in the laning phase unfortunately. Nidalee was able to handle Malphite pretty well up top though, holding him off even when Xin Zhao joined the party. She killed them each at least once, and managed to stay alive the entire game. Ashe did okay against Ryze in the middle, they were pretty even in terms of head to head kills. Irelia was able to help out on a few kills here and there, eventually giving us enough leeway to take out their middle tower for the first tower kill.


Mid Game
Here the laning phase ended and our steamrolling began. A key turning point was a struggle over dragon, where we caught Tryndamere alone. They must have had the surrounding area warded, as he tried to run when he saw our team coming. We were able to get him to pop his ultimate by the time the rest of him team arrived, turning it into an all out teamfight. They ended up with the dragon kill, but we were able to pick off all but Ryze as they tried to run away from the obvious disadvantage. While I attempted to chase him down, my team downed their bottom turret and helped in the pursuit. We weren't able to catch him, but we did quickly take out their next turret and escaped without any casualties. At that point the map was pretty much ours. There was one funny incident where Nidalee was running away from a group of 3 enemies, and got them to aggro Baron on her way out. Gangplank immediately popped his ultimate on them, netting at least one kill in the process as they were all pretty low on  health.

Late Game
By now they had no chance to win, even an ace would get them two tower at most, not nearly enough to get the super minions that are essential to any comeback. We gradually pushed all of their towers, getting to the middle inhibitor first. One last teamfight in the bottom lane by their inhibitor tower sealed the game, they foolishly came at us one or two at a time, allowing us to take them out quickly. The tower was pretty much inconsequential for them, as it switched aggro several times but didn't take any of us out. The fight ended when we picked off Dr. Mundo just as the tower fell, clearing the way to kill the inhibitor and nexus turrets. They surrendered just before we were able to take out the Nexus at 42 minutes.

Post game scoreboard:

Replay file: Ranked Game #12 - Singed

What I learned: 
- Nidalee is quite dominant when in the right hands, having one on your team is always good for a combined support/magic damage role
- Singed needs farm to be devastating, which I could not do well at all this game
- Ashe's arrow is fantastic for catching stragglers in a teamfight, if there is better initiation on the team it may be best saved for later
- Gangplank isn't terrible, but I still need to see more
- Being all bulky is pretty much useless when no one builds magic resist, there is more than just physical damage out there kids

My Score: 2/4/14
My Build: Rod of Ages, Boots of Swiftness, Force of Nature, Giant's Belt

Current ranked record: 7-5 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: 1256

Another quality game in the books, I feel like I need to play more non-tanks though. Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #11

Hey guys, I played this game a couple days ago right after game number ten. However, I had other things to do that night and also didn't really want to have two game posts in the same day, so I put off the summary until now. This game was kind of out of spite to the last one, as that one just made me mad. I duo queued with my friend 534N7R0N.

I was the captain for my team, with second ban. I am going to try something new with the picks and bans here, making my team green and the other red. Here are the bans:

Nocturne, Shen, Rammus, Amumu


And the draft:


Singed
Teemo, Jax
Malphite, Poppy
Mordekaiser, Twisted Fate
Nunu, Irelia (my friend)
Shaco


This team composition seemed questionable when the draft was through, seeing as we had all the bulk in the world, but limited damage output. Poppy seems to be kind of hit or miss, Nunu is only deadly when built straight AP, and Irelia usually can't be relied on to be the main source of damage. My friend (Irelia) took his typical jungling role, I took top solo, and Nunu took mid (never seen it before, he wanted it). That meant that Malphite and Poppy would take bottom lane, which seems like a decent combo at first thought. Malphite's skills can easily allow Poppy to get in position for her charge attack and drive the enemy out of position. Their ganking ability with Shaco and Twisted Fate had me worried a bit, but the rest of their team didn't seem like it'd be too tough to deal with.

Early Game
The action got started early in the middle lane with Nunu against Teemo, as Shaco attempted to gank at level 2. However, Nunu was able to get to his tower, just in time for Irelia to swoop in and grab First Blood on Teemo. Nunu then chased Shaco back to his mid tower and managed to kill him with an Ice Ball before he got away. He got a few kills on Teemo, and died a few times when Shaco came to help. I was pitted against Mordekaiser in the top lane, with him having the advantage most of the time. He would whittle my health down whenever he could, and eventually spring Children of the Grave on me for the kill. He killed me a couple times, but I wasn't able to do the same to him. The bottom lane had a lot of action, as kills were traded back and forth several times throughout the laning phase. Twisted Fate and Jax also tended to overextend at low health, making it easy for Irelia to come in for the gank. We were ahead in kills for the entire game, but our top tower was the first to fall after I died to Children of the Grave a second time. This is where the laning phase ended and a lot of roaming began.

Mid Game
There were a lot of little teamfights at this stage of the game, no full 5 on 5 ones quite yet though. Twisted Fate and Shaco consistently put themselves in bad situations that would net them a kill, but cost them their own lives shortly after. The momentum seemed to be going in their favor when we lost a teamfight at our middle tower and quickly lost it, along with half of the inner tower, but we were able to chase them down and get them to retreat upon reviving. Jax and Twisted Fate also happened to be going after our bottom tower at the time, which they succeeded in taking out, but we caught them, killed them, and took down their tower as well. There was one teamfight in the middle of the map that was foolishly initiated by Teemo, but ended up in 3 deaths for their team and momentum for ours. The sequence that won us the game started with us catching Mordekaiser way out of position at our top inner tower, and then taking Baron in a kind of spur of the moment move. Jax disconnected right afterwards, with them surrendering soon after we destroyed their middle tower. They surrendered at 30 minutes.


Here is the post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #11 - Singed

What I learned:

- Mordekaiser is annoying as hell, I don't know how to play against him, especially solo

- Nunu can handle mid just fine, contrary to what I once believed. His Ice Ball is on a short enough cooldown to make it work

- Malphite needs to use his ultimate to be the most effective, which this one did not do at all

- I'm learning the situations when grabbing Baron is ideal...in this case it was that they only had 3 up, when we had all five

- Disconnectors are annoying, the win feels a bit tainted because of that

My Score: 6/4/9

My Build: Rod of Ages, Boots of Swiftness, Negatron Cloak, Regrowth Pendant (X2)

Current ranked record: 6-5 (0 leaves)

ELO Rating: 1213

Well there you have it, hope you enjoyed the read. I probably will play again tomorrow night, as all of my homework will be out of the way then. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

-Chickenmoo

-Chickenmoo

Summary of My First Ten Ranked Games

Hey guys, I thought that people would find a little summary of my first ten ranked games interesting to read, to get an overall picture of the types of champions I have had to face and work with, along with some stats from my play.

Summary of Games
Game 1: Win as Urgot (30 minutes)
Game 2: Loss as Urgot (1 hour)
Game 3: Win as Singed (46 minutes)
Game 4: Win as Amumu (30 minutes)
Game 5: Win as Urgot (42 minutes)
Game 6: Loss as Singed (38 minutes)
Game 7: Loss as Urgot (48 minutes)
Game 8: Loss as Amumu (25 minutes)
Game 9: Win as Taric (47 minutes)
Game 10: Loss as Urgot (24 minutes)

An even 5-5 record, resulting in an ELO of 1176.

Champions Banned
10 times - Rammus
7 times - Shen
6 times - Amumu, Malphite
2 times - Vladimir, Nocturne
1 time - Master Yi, Evelynn, Pantheon, Maokai, Karthus, Teemo

Rammus was banned in every game I have played so far...though I question how many people can actually play him well. The one time I tried him I fed hardcore, but his playstyle seems to be a little different than the other top tanks.

Champions Seen (including myself)
6 times - Urgot
5 times - Ashe
4 times - Singed, Amumu, Nidalee
3 times - Kennen, Nasus, Teemo, Alistar, Irelia, Cho'Gath, Annie, Dr. Mundo, Twisted Fate, Warwick, Xin Zhao
2 times - Jax, Maokai, Sivir, Mordekaiser, Garen, Malzahar, Shaco, Akali, Katarina, Nocturne, Fiddlesticks
1 time - Vladimir, Janna, Renekton, Shen, Caitlyn, Cassiopeia, Ezreal, Tristana, Lux, Udyr, Blitzcrank, Kog'Maw, Miss Fortune, Kassadin, Gangplank, Leblanc, Pantheon, Ryze, Jarvan IV, Taric, Malphite, Master Yi

Obviously the Urgot number was skewed by me, but I was kind of surprised at the Nidalee count, along with the fact that when Malphite and Shen weren't banned, they weren't always used like Amumu was.


Overall KDA
56/59/116
Ratio (kills+assists/deaths): 2.92:1

Other Random Stats
8 turret kills
933 minion kills
5 double kills
95,712 gold earned

If there are other stats you guys want to see, without having to go look at my summoner profile, let me know. I hope you all like this little summary, it was interesting seeing the most commonly used/banned champions. Thanks for reading, comments/suggestions are appreciated.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #10

Howdy all, I played my tenth ranked game just a little while ago. It was a rather frustrating loss, and a very quick one at that. I queued with my friend 534N7R0N for this one.

I was captain of my team, with the other team having first ban:

Shen, Malphite, Rammus, Amumu


Heres how the draft went:

Us: Urgot
Them: Annie, Singed
Us: Alistar, Fiddlesticks
Them: Nidalee, Ashe
Us: Katarina, Irelia (my friend)
Them: Nocturne


After the draft I was a little concerned because we didn't really communicate much during it. Fiddlesticks and Katarina didn't say a word, and essentially insta-locked their champs. But we had a good balance of attack damage and magic damage, so I didn't think it would be too bad. Fiddlesticks locked in with Smite, so we figured he was jungling, leaving my friend to lane with Irelia. He definitely prefers jungling with her, but I trust him to do well in any role. He laned with Alistar bottom, while I took mid and Katarina took top solo. Their team worried me a bit, as the combo of Ashe's and Nocturne's ultimates can be ridiculous, usually meaning instant death for the target. Also, Annie's stun and Nidalee's heal are pretty irritating.

Early Game
The action got started early, as their team decided to try and gank Fiddlesticks at blue buff. I foolishly walked into the small bush closest to Baron, and into the enemy team. I managed to escape to my tower, but then made another mistake and went back in when they started harassing Katarina and Fiddle, getting myself killed for First Blood. Katarina went up against Singed in the top lane, with the pair trading a few kills back and forth. I drew Nidalee in middle lane, which ended up being a lot of harassment, though I managed to stay alive. Ashe had a nasty tendency to join in on the fun, which was annoying, but I managed to get a kill on Nidalee at my tower. Fiddlesticks contributed pretty much nothing in the laning phase, as he was underleveled and couldn't do much damage. The bottom lane had quite a bit of action though, especially when Nocturne decided to gank. The kills went both ways, but mostly we were at a disadvantage. They eventually took out our bottom tower, and laning broke down after that.

Mid Game
We were pretty much helpless at this point, with no pushing capability and pretty poor defenses. We couldn't even get one tower down, we took them down to half health at most. They continued to push our towers hard, taking out the other two outer ones pretty quickly. When we did get an opportunity to push, Ashe's giant arrow would come flying in for the stun, followed by Nocturne on his ult. Obviously this would shut down any chance of a push. It was just a poorly played game from the beginning, with getting myself into bad situations too often, and Alistar never participating in a teamfight. Fiddlesticks and Katarina pretty much had no damage dealing capability, while Irelia cannot succeed as a primary damage dealer (meaning after I died).
We ended up surrendering at 24 minutes.

Here is the post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #10 - Urgot

What I learned:
- There are so many good combinations with Nocturne's ultimate, he is nearly impossible to stop if all of your team's attention isn't on him
- I take back what I said last time, Fiddlesticks is one of the worst champions out there
- Not all Katarina's steamroll
- Nidalee is deceptively squishy, once again I will say that her heal and spear are super annoying in lane
- The best way to kill Urgot is when he overextends trying to use Acid Hunter, as his escape capability is poor

My Score: 2/6/2
My Build: Manamune, Mercury's Treads, Long Sword, Long Sword

Current ranked record: 5-5 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: 1176

So I have finally reached the 10 game mark, and can now see my ELO after every game (and also my peak, which apparently was 1320). I actually played my eleventh game directly after this one, as I wanted to redeem myself, but I won't post that until tomorrow sometime. The replay is up if you're really curious though. Anyway, I'm now going to write up a summary of my first ten games, with various stats and trends, stuff like that. If there's anything in particular you guys would like to see, let me know. As always, thanks for reading.

-Chickenmoo