My blog is moving!

Hey everybody, my blog is moving to Elementz's new website, Reign of Gaming! I will be doing all of the same stuff there as I did here, but will no longer be posting on this blog. I will leave it up though so that its content can still be viewed. As for how it happened, I took a shot in the dark and sent Elementz an email a while ago, before his old site went down, asking if I could post content for his blog. He said that he had read my stuff before and liked it, saying that I could come aboard eventually. With his new site in working order, I was given my own section on his website. The link to my blog is here. I hope you all continue to read my posts over at Reign of Gaming!

Sorry for the lack of posts

I apologize for my lack of promptness when posting my game summaries lately. I've been home from school since Thursday, and have had other more important things to do to prepare to move into my apartment. Once I get settled in on Tuesday, I'll get the game 29 summary written, along with the entire post for game 30 that I played on Sunday night. Sorry once again for being so slow.

-Chickenmoo

25 Game Summary/Overview

I felt like 25 was a good number to stop and look back on, so I am writing another summary for all of my games so far. The review will consist of a count of all the bans I've seen, all the draft picks I've seen, along with some miscellaneous stats and my general thoughts on the "metagame" at the ELO I've been hanging around.

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)

Game 11: Win as Singed (30 minutes)

Game 12: Win as Singed (39 minutes)

Game 13: Win as Teemo (47 minutes)
Game 14: Win as Singed (49 minutes)
Game 15: Loss as Maokai (38 minutes)
Game 16: Win as Teemo (47 minutes)
Game 17: Loss as Urgot (35 minutes)
Game 18: Loss as Amumu (37 minutes)
Game 19: Loss as Nunu (39 minutes)
Game 20: Win as Corki (40 minutes)
Game 21: Win as Singed (25 minutes)
Game 22: Loss as Urgot (28 minutes)
Game 23: Win as Singed (39 minutes)
Game 24: Loss as Urgot (34 minutes)
Game 25: Loss as Nunu (46 minutes)

This leaves me at a 13-12 record and an ELO of 1271, which is nearly 100 points higher than when I last did an overview

Champions Banned
21 times: Shen, Rammus
19 times: Amumu
16 times: Nocturne
10 times: Malphite
2 times: Vladimir, Zilean
1 time: Brand, Evelynn, Karthus, Maokai, Master Yi, Pantheon, Teemo, Tryndamere

It is clear that Nocturne has become more prevalent as a ban in this metagame, which is understandable as he can be difficult to counter without coordination. The best tanks still reign supreme though, with Shen, Rammus and Amumu taking the top spots, and Malphite following a bit behind them. An interesting absence is that of Singed, who is seen at the next best tank and quite an annoyance with his ability to move enemy champs.

Champions seen (including myself)
12 times: Ashe
11 times: Singed
9 times: Irelia, Urgot, Warwick
8 times: Nidalee, Teemo
7 times: Jax
6 times: Amumu, Cho'Gath, Malzahar, Mordekaiser, Nasus, Nunu, Xin Zhao
5 times: Alistar, Dr. Mundo, Twisted Fate,
4 times: Akali, Annie, Blitzcrank, Garen, Jarvan IV, Katarina, Kennen, Malphite, Maokai, Rammus, Renekton, Taric
3 times: Fiddlesticks, Gangplank, Leblanc, Lux, Miss Fortune, Nocturne, Ryze, Shaco, Tryndamere, Vladimir
2 times: Caitlyn, Corki, Evelynn, Kassadin, Kog'Maw, Lee Sin, Master Yi, Poppy, Shen, Sivir, Soraka, Tristana, Trundle, Zilean
1 time: Anivia, Cassiopeia, Ezreal, Galio, Heimerdinger, Janna, Karthus, Morgana, Olaf, Pantheon, Rumble, Sion, Sona, Udyr

I'm not surprised by Ashe taking the top spot here, as she is commonly known as the best AD carry out there. Having Jax so high up is kind of interesting, seeing as he isn't a "top-tier" champion. Though he is one of the best steamrollers, which tend to dominate at this level of play. The biggest thing I noticed though, was the lack of support champions being played. They don't seem nearly as important here as they do in high ELO play.

Overall KDA
114/142/251
Ratio (kills+assists/deaths): 2.57:1

This number is lower than what I had in my last summary, showing that I need to improve when carrying.

Other stats
24 turrets destroyed
2,570 minions killed
236,709 gold earned

General Metagame Thoughts
It seems that at this level of play it only takes one dominant player to win a game. When one champion gets on a roll, the other team starts trying really hard to end that roll, getting themselves killed in the process more often than not, fueling the steamroll even more. It is much more of a pubstomping game dominated by one or two people, instead of a balanced team game where everyone has an impact on the outcome. The tunnel vision of most players at this ELO is what determines who wins.

The idea of support and roaming champions is not very prevalent, but they do tend to make a positive impact when they are involved. The lanes that have healers tend to do very well, especially with Nidalee and Taric. Those champions will almost always win their lanes due to their ability to sustain without having to go back to base.

My last thought is about junglers. A team with a good jungler obviously can win the majority of the time, regardless of playing level. However, at the ELO I'm at, laners are less cautious when it comes to pushing lanes and leaving themselves exposed, making having a good jungler more important. A dominant jungler will seem to be omnipresent in the lanes, ganking when opportunities present themselves and helping secure global gold for their team.

Well, there you have it, a summary of my first 25 ranked games along with a few brief thoughts on the metagame at my ranking. If you readers have any questions or comments, or would like me to talk about a certain topic, let me know in the comments section below.  As always, thanks for reading!

-Chickenmoo

No game tonight *UPDATED*

Hey guys, I didn't really have time to play a ranked game tonight. It will definitely come tomorrow, maybe two to give you all something to do during the server downtime on Tuesday. On an unrelated note, I'd really appreciate any feedback regarding the formatting and such of my game summaries. Like do you guys like what I write about? Are there certain things that you would like to see mentioned that I don't talk about? Any general questions regarding my thought process or playstyle? Don't be shy, I want to know what you all think.


EDIT: So I did end up playing two games tonight, the first was a pretty exciting win, while the other was another depressing loss. I will do the write-ups first thing tomorrow, hopefully I'll get them done by the time the servers are back up, as I need to get some action in with Rumble.

On an unrelated note, here's a drawing of Singed surfing that I did for a few Riot Points

-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

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

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

No game today/thoughts on Nocturne

Hey guys, sorry I haven't played a game in a couple days. I've had quite a bit of homework to do, but I will definitely play one tomorrow (Wednesday). Hopefully I'll be able to duo queue and keep my winning streak alive.

I have made a couple champion purchases recently, Singed and Nocturne. I played Singed a lot during his free week last week, so buying him at 1350 IP was an easy choice. But obviously, Nocturne is the more interesting one at this point in time. I bought the Frozen Terror bundle with RP, and have used him in a few normal games so far. The results haven't been good so far, one 15 death game and another 8 death game, each with very few kills. However, I think I'm gradually getting a better feel for him, learning his chasing limits and such.

For those who don't know, he's primarily a melee dps champion, with two skills (Q, R) scaling off of attack damage and one (E) scaling off of ability power. His Q does a nice amount of damage, especially in the laning phase, and the movespeed increase is good for chasing. The attack damage increase while in the trail is also a huge bonus, as 20 bonus damage per attack (at level 1) in the laning phase is huge. His E is probably more useful though, as fear is pretty good CC. It starts pretty short, but gets up to 2 seconds at level 5. The tether range is easily kept by chasing with his Q. The passive attack speed increase with his W is fantastic (20% at level 1, 40% at 5), but I can never remember to use the spell shield in fights.

Paranoia is a great ult and probably overpowered at this point, but I've had difficulty finding good times to use it. It's obviously good for ganking, but it's more difficult to use in a teamfight, as there is a bit of delay from when you take out the enemy vision to when you can trigger the giant blink. To give somewhat of a picture of the blink's range, it is about the distance from your inhibitor to your outer tower in the same lane.

I've been building him with only AD and armor pen, as he gets enough attack speed from greaves and his W. I''ve tried jungling, but I feel like I need some armor runes to succeed at it.

That's all I have to say for now regarding Nocturne, if you have any questions leave them as comments. Once again, I'll be playing my next ranked game sometime tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

-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