Ranked Game #26

I gotta start studying for exams today, as it is finals week for me. I got a game in before I hit the books, and it was a good one. I ended up jungling with a champ I had never jungled with in a real game before, so it was bound to be interesting. This was a solo queue game.

I was the captain of my team and had first ban:

Nocturne, Shen, Malphite, Rammus


Draft:

Brand
Amumu, Morgana
Warwick, Dr. Mundo
Tryndamere, Caitlyn
Janna, Xin Zhao
Kassadin


Our team was interesting in terms of composition. We had two AD carries and two AP carries, with me being the only real bulk on the team. It certainly isn't a recipe for disaster, but also not ideal in my mind. Having a Tryndamere also makes me kind of nervous due to the usually horrible early game that they have. Given that though, we had a large amount of damage output, allowing us to easily counter their moderately tanky team. They had no real dedicated source of AD, just a bunch of crowd control and AP damage. The amount of crowd control they had was pretty significant compared to ours though, a suppression and two knock-ups is pretty scary.

Lane Matchups
Top: Tryndamere vs Dr. Mundo
Middle: Kassadin, Caitlyn (yep) vs Brand
Bottom: Morgana vs Janna, Xin Zhao
Jungle: Amumu vs Warwick


Early Game
So yeah, we had two people go in the middle lane. They were both too stubborn to leave, so they just went for it.  First blood happened about three minutes into the game when Brand roasted Tryndamere in the top lane. Tryndamere complained almost the entire laning phase about how "OP" Brand is. Soon after that Brand switched to the middle lane. As a result of overloading the middle, their tower ended up getting destroyed at around 6 minutes, which helped us get a bit of momentum and map control early. People started roaming around at that point. The bottom lane got a bit of help, but then the enemy team overloaded it and managed to get their first tower kill a few minutes later. After this, a lot of the action happened in the top lane where each team was trying to take the first tower up there. It was a lot of small teamfighting where we ended up falling behind in kills a bit, as Kassadin and Tryndamere would get themselves killed in easily avoidable situations.

Mid Game
Fortunately, Tryndamere hit his "critical mass" once he got a Phantom Dancer and we started taking back the momentum. An important teamfight happened in the bottom lane where we danced around dragon for a while, and then stepped into the lane to stop a push. We ended up acing them by targeting them in the ideal order of Warwick, Brand, Janna to eliminate as much damage as possible early. With the ace, we took down their outer bottom tower, and half of the inner one. Another great successful teamfight got us the next middle tower, thanks to the incredible presence of Morgana's ult to ruin entire teams. There was a bit of a lull in the action at this point, involving a lot of warding and counter-warding of Baron to try and get an advantage. Eventually another teamfight broke out in mid, where we were able to ace them by picking them off one by one with our AOE snares. This got us their middle inhibitor tower and inhibitor, but we unfortunately got aced in our retreat thanks to Mundo's cleavers. Their kills were spread far enough apart so that they really couldn't do anything with the down time.

Late Game
We launched another offensive on their base, gradually taking down their side lane towers. Upon getting to the base, we managed to secure another ace, getting us another inhibitor and one Nexus tower. We were pretty poor at retreating once again though, as all but one of us died while running away. They took that opportunity to get Baron buff without real contention, forcing us to defend for a while. Upon waiting it out, we made a push bottom and took out all three inhibitors at once. Given that they then had three lanes of super minions to worry about, we took Baron down once he respawned. This allowed us to make the killing blow by taking out the Nexus at 52 minutes.


Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #26 - Amumu


What I learned:
- Tryndamere isn't the greatest solo laner...but he is also the best at recovering from a bad laning phase to dominate
- Some people are too stubborn for their own good, but it helped us mount an early lead
- Warding may be the most important thing that a jungler does early on
- Kassadin needs to farm to operate at his full potential, as in he needs to be able buy a mana pool
- Dr. Mundo is incredibly irritating when chasing someone

My Score: 5/8/22
My Build: Aegis of the Legion, Mercury's Treads, Banshee's Veil, Sunfire Cape, Null-Magic Mantle (and 7 or 8 wards)
Summoner Spells: Smite, Flash

Current ranked record: 14-12 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: 1294

So my first real jungling venture with Amumu was successful, and this was a really uplifting game compared to the last few. My next game will come either today or tomorrow. Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

-Chickenmoo

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 #8

Hello everybody, I finally had the time/desire to play a ranked game tonight. It did not go very well and ended pretty quickly, my fastest game yet. I certainly thought that we would do better based on team composition. This was in solo queue.

I had the third pick for my team in this game, the other team had first ban. Here's how they went:

Nocturne, Shen, Rammus, Teemo


They strayed from the classic tank banning, but those are both valid choices in my mind. Here's the draft:

Us: Xin Zhao
Them: Shaco, Jarvan IV
Us: Ryze, Amumu
Them: Maokai, Twisted Fate
Us: Warwick, Ashe
Them: Annie


Now I don't have the runes to jungle with Amumu (or at least haven't tried in a while), so Warwick said he would jungle. Xin Zhao took top solo, Ashe took mid and so Ryze and I took bottom. At first glance, this looked like it would be an interesting jungle struggle, as two of the best in the game were going head to head (the other being Shaco). The amount of crowd control between the teams was essentially even, though they had two stuns while we had one, Ashe's ultimate. I thought our chances would be good though, given the steamrolling capability of Xin and Warwick. The amount of bulk between the teams was also pretty even, with us having a slight advantage. This would all turn out to mean nothing in the game though.

Early Game
After protecting Warwick at blue buff, we headed to our respective lanes. Ryze and I pushed pretty hard right away, keeping Maokai and Jarvan at their tower for a while. At one point, Jarvan came out of the shadow of the tower to engage us, resulting in himself getting killed for First Blood, and me dying to Maokai immediately after. Ashe fended off Twisted Fate pretty well in mid, with no kills happening between the two. Xin was at a disadvantage against Annie due to her large range and stun capability, and it showed in the head to head as she was able to kill him twice while laning. Warwick didn't do too much from the jungle, but Shaco got involved a bit. There was one fight where Shaco had come to try and gank bottom at half health, and we ended up chasing him into the river. Ryze was able to kill him, but Maokai and Jarvan followed from bottom, and Twisted Fate and Ashe joined in as well. This resulted in Twisted Fate dying, but Ryze and I fell as well.

Mid Game
Laning broke down when our bottom tower and top tower were taken out in quick succession. Warwick also disconnected for about ten minutes at this point, which mostly crippled us. There weren't too many teamfights as it was quite a short game, but a few happened near our wraiths and in the middle of the map. Annie and Twisted Fate were pretty much dominating us at this point, though we were at least able to kill him a few times. The only highlights here for us were catching Shaco being an idiot and having us all chase him down and kill him. All the teamfights consisted mainly of a stun from Annie, a root from Maokai and large amounts of damage from Twisted Fate and Jarvan. We didn't really stand a chance, so we surrendered at 25 minutes.

Here is the post game scoreboard:

What I learned:
- Xin Zhao cannot solo a ranged carry, he does not have the damage dealing capability to pull it off
- Annie is a monster when she gets kills, that bear is just sick nasty when its used as her stun
- Jarvan's ult combined with Tibbers/stun is a great combo, that will kill pretty much anyone in seconds
- Maokai's snare is better than I thought, I'll have to give him some run in the next few days
- ELO hell is real, lol

My Score: 3/5/7
My Build: Philosopher's Stone, Mercury's Treads, Heart of Gold, Aegis of the Legion

Current ranked record: 4 - 4 (0 leaves)
ELO Rating: Unranked

This is now a three game losing streak for me, so hopefully I can get out of it in my next game by queuing with a friend. As always, thanks for reading, and comments/suggestions are appreciated!

-Chickenmoo

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