Ranked Game #18

I had lots of free time today, so I got around to playing my latest ranked game. I was able to pick one of my favorite champions, but the game went horribly. It was a very frustrating game that should have gone better...in theory. I queued with my friend 534N7R0N for this one.

I was captain of my team, and had second ban:

Rammus, Nocturne, Shen, Malphite


Here's the draft:

Amumu
Malzahar, Blitzcrank
Nunu, Kennen
Tryndamere, Dr. Mundo
Gangplank, Miss Fortune (534N7R0N)
Galio


This was certainly not my favorite team composition ever, but I suppose it wasn't too bad. Having three AOE ultimates was certainly a strong point, and could make for some fantastic teamfight destruction. I'm not really that big a fan of Gangplank, Miss Fortune or Kennen though, as they tend to be mediocre in most situations. Our Gangplank wanted to switch with me, but I refused, so he decided to random and that's who he ended up with. That kind of made me mad...but I lived with it. Nunu said he would jungle, Kennen took the top lane, Miss Fortune went mid and I went bottom with Gangplank. Their team worried me with the massive amount of bulk they had, along with the ability to pick people out of the crowd and absolutely destroy them. Their Tryndamere jungled, which I had never seen before.


Early Game
The laning phase was pretty slow, lasting almost half of the game. First blood didn't happen until about ten minutes in, where Malzahar was able to take out my friend with his ultimate. That matchup in the middle was pretty even with a couple kills going to each side. More action happened right after that, when Nunu ganked Blitzcrank and Galio in the bottom lane, with us being able to take out the former. That matchup was pretty even as well, though we never got at all close to their tower, most of the laning phase was fought on our half. Tryndamere ganked quite a few times, or at least tried to, but without much success. Kennen went against Dr. Mundo in the top lane, and just played harassment back and forth with their Q's for a while. The only kill occurred late in laning when Mundo tried to towerdive and was unsuccessful. After one small teamfight near dragon, where we ended up foolishly chasing them into our death, our middle tower was destroyed for the first tower kill. Our bottom one fell soon afterwards when I got caught too far out by Malzahar's ultimate and Blitzcrank's skill combo.

Mid Game
Here is where the laning finally ended, and we began to get demolished. Our teamfight strategy was pretty poor, which definitely lost us the game. We targeted Malzahar and Tryndamere first like we should have, but if/when they managed to escape, we wouldn't know what to do and everyone would start attacking a different champion. As a result, we lost most if not every teamfight in this game. The only time when we had some hope was when we forced a retreat from a teamfight, and went for one of their towers. Unfortunately, they had stationed Malzahar and Blitzcrank there, as a fantastic tower defending combo. We couldn't touch it, and had to retreat pretty quickly when Gangplank got killed. In the meantime, the rest of their team was storming our towers, with two of our inhibitor towers being taken down by the time we got back to base. To seal the deal, they Baroned and absolutely destroyed us when they ran into us on their way to our base. This triggered a surrender by us at the 39 minute mark.

Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #18 - Amumu

What I learned: 
- Tryndamere isn't that great of a jungler...or this one was just bad
- Malzahar and Blitzcrank is a great combo, Rocket Grab into Power Fist into suppression is too good
- Disables need to be saved for channel ults like Galio's and Nunu's, as they are too good to be allowed to complete
- Nothing against my friend, but Miss Fortune doesn't have much utility outside of large damage output
- Galio's recent buffs were pretty nice for him

My Score: 2/5/6
My Build: Philosopher's Stone, Mercury's Treads, Aegis of the Legion, Force of Nature

Current ranked record: 10-8 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: 1293

Another day, another game without a tower kill by my team...hopefully this run of bad luck ends soon. I might try Corki in my next game, I'm getting more comfortable with his positioning and such. Janna is also a possibility, I'm trying to learn to play her this week. Hope you enjoyed the read, comments and suggestions are welcome.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #17

I apologize for how much time has gone by between games here, I've had a lot of things to do, along with the fact that I'm trying to cut down on the number of games I play. As fun as it is, I was making LoL too important in my daily life, but I think I've found a good medium for the time being. Anyway, this was a really frustrating game, a pretty bad loss with the blame spread out pretty evenly among my team. I duo queued with 534N7R0N.

I was the captain for my team, and had second ban:

Nocturne, Shen, Rammus, Amumu

Here's how the draft went:

Urgot
Fiddlesticks, Warwick
Teemo, Renekton
Garen, Ashe
Blitzcrank, Cho'Gath (534N7R0N)
Nidalee

I liked our team going into this one. Other than the lack of a real AP carry, it looked pretty good on paper. We had a fantastic potential combo with my ult and Blitzcrank's Rocket Grab to really screw over an enemy by moving them way into our territory. Having a good self-sustaining jungler (Cho'Gath) was also a plus. We felt pretty confident going in, seeing as they didn't really have a true tank. Nidalee is pretty annoying, but also helped compose an overall squishy team with the likes of Fiddlesticks and Ashe. As for lane assignments, Renekton went top, I took mid, and Teemo went bottom with Blitzcrank. Cho'Gath jungled for us, and Warwick did the same for the enemy team.

Early Game
We made a kind of silly decision at the start to try and gank Warwick at his blue buff starting point. One of us ended up walking in a Nidalee trap and gave our position away, so they were ready for us. None of us died, or got hurt really, but those of us who went were at an early disadvantage due to the lost experience from not being in lane. Cho'Gath was especially hurt, as he needed extra help to be able to start his own jungling at blue. Renekton was able to get First Blood pretty quickly in the top lane, and had a kill advantage on him during the laning phase, though neither tower got pushed too much. I went up against Ashe in middle, and neither of us had room to get the killing shot on the other. Warwick came to gank me a couple times and did very well at it, giving them the advantage. The bottom lane was pretty eventful, kills were traded back and forth a few times, and that is where most of Cho'Gath's ganks were attempted, though not too successfully. A couple crucial teamfights happened near dragon, usually getting 3 or 4 of us killed opposed to like 2 of them. We made the mistake several times of trying to take Warwick on 1v1, where he clearly has the advantage against a team without any grievous wound capability.

Mid Game
The laning phase lasted a long time in this game, the first tower didn't fall until about the 20 minute mark, right after the second dragon fight. They took out our bottom outer tower at the same time as when I was trying to defend the middle one from Ashe. She unfortunately was able to take it out easily, right about when the rest of her team showed up and plowed on through the next tower in line. This was about the time when we had almost  no chance to win unless we were to somehow ace them in a teamfight. We sealed our fate by foolishly engaging in a teamfight where we were at a clear disadvantage but didn't retreat, and traded a Warwick kill for 3 of our lives. Backed up inside of our base, Blitzcrank tried pulling them in and ended up getting Ashe. Somehow we managed to not kill her, and instead got aced inside our base with all the towers standing when her team came to save her. After a bit more attempted turtling, we surrendered at 35 minutes. I did manage to pull Nidalee in for a fountain kill right before though, which was kind of funny.

Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #17 -

What I learned:
- I need to relearn Urgot, my game with him has fallen off a cliff lately
- Warwick should never be taken on alone unless you have huge burst damage
- Garen can be an effective primary tank if the rest of your team buys a little bulk as well
- Keeping fights at your tower is crucial when you are clearly overmatched, they make an enormous difference
- Pushing towers is how you win games and gain momentum...we barely touched them

My Score: 5/8/4
My Build: Manamune, Mercury's Treads, The Brutalizer, Randuin's Omen

Current ranked record: 10-7 (0 leaves)
ELO rating: 1319

That was just a bad game all around, hopefully I can string together a few wins this week and break 1400. The next game will come within the next two days. Thanks for reading, please comment if you have any suggestions on my general strategy (if you watch the replays), build, or on my blog in general.

-Chickenmoo

No game tonight

Sorry guys, I was home from school this weekend, and was planning on playing a ranked game when I got back. Unfortunately, I left later than expected and so didn't have as much time as I thought I would. A game will happen in the next couple days, most likely Monday.

-Chickenmoo