Ranked Game #32

Hey guys, I played my thirty-second ranked game a couple days ago. My luck continued to trend downward, though I didn't do nearly as bad as I did in my last game. This was a solo queue game.

I had the second pick for my team, and we had first ban:

Amumu, Shen, Nocturne, Rammus


Draft:

Mordekaiser
Alistar, Teemo
Kennen, Kassadin
Malphite, Vayne
Xin Zhao, Ashe
Soraka


Kind of a meh team in my opinion. I'm not a fan of having a new champion being played in ranked the week it was released, as most people can't learn a champion that quickly. Soraka seems to be a bit of a hit or miss champ, she's good if she can pick her spots correctly, but is otherwise pretty insignificant. I also felt like we were lacking in damage output, with only two champions capable of dealing a great amount. The durability and crowd control abilities we had was nice though. As for their team, I am personally not a fan of having Mordekaiser as the main tank, but it tends to work at this level more often than not. Xin Zhao also tends to dominate, making this team a bit intimidating. Kennen's AOE stun was probably the most threatening of them all, as they would be able to wreck us if he was successful in triggering the stuns.


Lane Matchups
Top: Malphite, Alistar vs  Mordekaiser, Xin Zhao
Middle: Teemo vs Kassadin
Bottom: Soraka, Vayne vs Kennen, Ashe
Jungle: none

Early Game
The laning phase was pretty good for us in my opinion. We seemed to dominate two lanes and got a healthy amount of kills in the process. First blood happened up top when Malphite and Alistar decided to tower dive Mordekaiser, failing in the process. Xin Zhao came in to try and clean up Malphite, but he managed to get away. Mordekaiser got at least one more kill while laning, but neither tower was pushed too much. I had the upper hand in the middle lane, thanks to some awesome ganks by Alistar. Those kills helped me push to their tower and kill it faster, along with making Kassadin a bit more cautious when he came back. The bottom lane seemed to be won by the enemy, as they certainly had the kill advantage. Soraka would foolishly chase after low health enemies and promptly get herself stunned and killed. However, they were able to get the first tower kill of the game when Alistar came down for a gank and pushed the enemies out of the lane. With no opposition and three champions attacking the tower, it went down in no time. Xin didn't really gank too much, he pretty much just covered for others when they were forced to go back to base.

Mid Game
At that point, I felt like we had a slight advantage and momentum over them. Unfortunately, that all changed very quickly. In response to the tower kill, they bumrushed the three who were walking around its ruins and killed Soraka and Ashe easily. They then pushed the lane with ease and destroyed our bottom turret. Immediately following the kill, a teamfight broke out in the nearby jungle. We didn't stand a chance against Kennen's ultimate and thus we were beaten badly. After that, the action focused on the middle lane. There was a lot of dancing going on for quite a while, with occasional quick advances and retreats just to see if someone would get greedy. Eventually enemy minion waves in other lanes came bearing down on our turrets and so our attention was divided. The enemy team took advantage and engaged us 5 vs 3 at our turret, winning easily. That got them another tower kill. The thing that probably contributed the most to our loss was Soraka going AFK for five or six minutes after she got ganked by their entire team in the bottom lane. I don't really get why she was down there all alone, but I guess thats just what people at this level do. Anyway, the enemy team began parading around, killing towers as the pleased and eventually getting to our inhibitors. Without Soraka, we were unable to challenge them when they went for Baron and so we waited in our base for our ultimate demise. They destroyed our Nexus after brutally killing us in our base at 36 minutes.

Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #32 - Teemo

What I learned:
- If played correctly, Kennen is a huge force, AOE stun is ridiculously good
- I may be a little too timid sometimes when it comes to finishing people off, I could have had several more kills if I hadn't backed off in some situations
- Vayne is pretty good, though people don't know how to counter her yet
- Going AFK is a pretty dumb response to someone on your team doing something you don't like, especially if you are queuing with someone
- I did not know Xin Zhao could jungle without Smite, interesting

My Score: 3/4/3
My Build: Philosopher's Stone, Mercury's Treads, Malady, Banshee's Veil, Stinger, Amplifying Tome
Summoner's Spells: Exhaust, Flash

Current ranked record: 14-18 (0 leaves)
ELO rating: 1165

Even a dead cat bounces, so I'm bound to get a turnaround one of these days. Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #31

I played my latest ranked game on Wednesday, after all of the server troubles got cleared up. I got to play a champion that I usually dominate with, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I played very poorly and was too stubborn to adapt my build to succeed. This was a solo queue game.

I had the fourth pick for my team, which had first ban:

Shen, Vayne, Vladimir, Nocturne


Draft:

Urgot
Amumu, Malphite
Mordekaiser, Galio
Nunu, Teemo
Malzahar, Udyr
Ashe


I feel like some people get too excited when the "standard" bans don't happen. I mean sure, having two high-quality tanks is great, but you only need one...and it takes away from the ability to win multiple lanes. Other than that, we had a lot of possibilities for jungling, with Nunu taking the role to give us complete control. I liked the amount of initiators we had though, especially compared to them. Plus the combination of Amumu and Nunu's ultimates is always intriguing. I thought their team was kind of oddly composed, but pretty balanced. They had a huge amount of damage potential compared to us, so I suppose it was a good thing we had so much bulk.

Lane Matchups
Top: Teemo vs Mordekaiser
Middle: Ashe vs Malzahar
Bottom: Malphite, Amumu vs Urgot, Galio
Jungle: Nunu vs Udyr


Early Game
This part of the game was pretty even in terms of kills, but it seemed like we took the advantage in regards to map control. First blood  happened about 4 minutes into the game when Malphite tower dove Urgot for a kill, dying in the process. The kill count was essentially even down there while laning, each side died a couple times, and the towers were pushed to the extremes most of the time. Ashe did okay in the middle, getting a kill or two with some help on ganks, but dying a couple times to Malzahar's suppression. The top was even as well, though I managed to get a slight kill advantage on Mordekaiser. I was not able to push my lane like the others were though, it was backed up to my tower quite a bit. Nunu ganked a lot, and was usually successful. He knew how to pick his spots very well, which helped our lane control. Udyr didn't do too much, he would come in later than he should have, but still managed to get a kill here and there. Their bottom tower was the first to fall after a gank from Nunu pushed Galio and Urgot way behind the turret, leaving it open for the kill. Their middle turret fell a few minutes later when it was left alone for the taking.

Mid Game
Once laning ended, a lot of the action was focused in the top lane and the nearby jungle. Nunu and I went up there to clear a large minion wave, which was soon followed by a 5-man gank. We tried to shelter ourselves with our tower, but it was no match for their numbers, as we both died pretty quickly. By that time, the rest of our team had showed up, but with no real uniform teamfight strategy everyone targeted a different champion, causing us to lose the teamfight and an awful lot of momentum. This was also the part of the game where I started playing like crap, and Malzahar would ult me on sight, melting my health in seconds. I was too stubborn to build magic resist items until it was too late. The onslaught continued in the middle as they pushed relentlessly, taking our towers down without much resistance. Whenever we did engage them, it would be on their tanks and thus, get us nowhere. They eventually got through a couple inhibitors and finally had to retreat to heal and such, leaving us a small opening. We took Baron by the slimmest of margins (they were bearing down on us as we finished) and retreated to our base. Unfortunately, in our ignorance of our base super minions had destroyed one Nexus turret and the bottom inhibitor had died. They came in to finish us off, with our horrible teamfight strategy gimping us until the very end. Our Nexus was killed at 43 minutes.

Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #31 - Teemo


What I learned:
- I need to learn to adapt as Teemo, I'm usually too stubborn to stray from my build at all with him. That cost me big time here
- It may just be a one time fluke, but it doesn't seem like Udyr is that great at ganking. If you're smart, you can see him coming from a mile away and just run to safety while you kite him
- Just because the "superior" tanks are available doesn't mean you should pick them. You should pick who you are best with
- This is obvious, but no team coordination is a recipe for disaster. We had great potential with our team composition, but it crashed and burned miserably

My Score: 6/9/9
My Build: Eleisa's Miracle, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Malady, Nashor's Tooth, Banshee's Veil

Current ranked record: 14-17 (0 leaves)
ELO rating: 1181

The losses are continuing to pile up, but I am not going to quit. My goal is still to get my rating back to 1300 and beyond, things are bound to turn around soon. Thanks for reading.

-Chickenmoo

Ranked Game #16

I played another game on a whim tonight, since my friend asked me to. The other team ended up being pretty bad, and we got carried hard. The game got drawn out for a while though when the enemy team stopped pushing, even when we were running. This was a duo queue game with 534N7R0N. This summary is going to be a little shorter because I don't really feel like writing at the moment, plus it was a pretty easy game.

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

Nocturne, Rammus, Malphite, Shen


The draft:

Amumu
Teemo, Jax
Nunu, Nidalee
Leblanc, Nasus
Ashe, Akali
Irelia


Pre-game thoughts
I liked our team composition, though playing with a Jax always worries me, as its usually feast or famine with them. Our backdooring capability was fantastic should the situation have arisen, with Nasus' Siphoning Strike and Jax's Relentless Assault. Also, having two of the games best steamrollers in  Jax and Leblanc is fantastic, along with the map control of Teemo. Irelia (my friend) jungled, I went bottom with Jax, Leblanc went mid and Nasus went top. They had a pretty balanced team as well, having two of the best kiters (Ashe and Nunu) out there promised to be tough to deal with. Having Amumu was also troubling, especially combined with Nunu. Akali appeared to be jungling, as she locked in with Smite, but Nunu ended up filling that role for them.

Early Game
Laning was fun, seeing as I actually won my lane for once, even though I had very little to do with it. Jax and I went again Akali and Amumu, and Jax absolutely dominated. We First Blooded Akali very quickly near her tower, and proceeded to kill her and Amumu several times before the laning phase ended. Leblanc went against Ashe, who was probably one of the best I've seen, she was very aggressive and gave little ground, spaced very well. Ashe got one kill on Leblanc on a Nunu gank, and that was it (I think). Nasus laned against Nidalee, who became the target of ganks from Irelia due to her constant overextending. Nunu ganked often and everywhere, getting me once or twice. The first tower to fall was their bottom one after a Jax double kill (he was fed, hard).

Mid Game
Here is where laning ended, and all of the action shifted to the middle lane. Top and bottom were essentially ignored except to clear minion waves threatening towers for a long time. There was a pretty funny sequence when Jax decided to go kind of backdoor the bottom lane, where he got a quadra kill from the other team coming at him one at a time, and then killed the tower while he was at it. This allowed us to take out their outer middle tower, and the inner one came down a few minutes after that. Their strategy at this point was pretty poor, they would initiate one at a time and get themselves killed in seconds. At this point they were all raging because of Jax's domination, which was pretty comical.

Late Game
The game began to drag on at this point, as we were on their doorstep, but unable to do anything. They would just sit at their tower, throw their spells, and run away if we moved at them. We took Baron to get even more of an upper hand, but it still didn't do much. At this point Jax had us all go top to kill towers and distract them, while he backdoored bottom some more. He was able to destroy an inhibitor, forcing them to play defense more. They were pretty good at locking down their base besides that, it was the only chance they had to make even a little comeback. It never came to fruition for them though, as eventually they wandered far enough out of the base for us to gank them, enabling a quick sweep of the base and finishing with a Nexus kill at 47 minutes.



Post game scoreboard:

Replay link: Ranked Game #16 - Teemo

What I learned:

- Wriggle's seems to be a better first item than Philosoper's Stone for Teemo in my first trial with it, the lifesteal is great when you're attacking more than once per second. That does leave me mana starved though

- Jax is truly a game changing champion when he gets a few early kills, Leap scales ridiculously well

- I never thought that a fragile champ like Ashe could be so annoying at the same time. Knowing the enemy's range instantly gives you a huge advantage in a 1v1

- Having Amumu is not an automatic win

My Score: 3/5/14

My Build: Wriggle's Lantern, Bezerker's Greaves, Malady, Nashor's Tooth, Madred's Bloodrazor, Negatron Cloak

Current ranked record: 10 - 6 (0 leaves)

ELO Rating: 1344

Eh, I guess the summary ended up being about the same length as usual. Being carried is fun, but going up against an airtight defense like that is not. Also I feel like my friend needs to play someone else when he queues with me next time, as I'm sure you guys love seeing Irelia in every other game. My next ranked game will be sometime this weekend. Thanks for reading.


-Chickenmoo

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