I played Game 13 as a solo queue game late at night.  Please note that I may be slightly biased against my bottom lane (as seen in my end-game screenshot) in my post-game analysis because they continually flamed each other for 20 minutes straight.

Draft Order:

Akali
Warwick Twisted Fate
Pantheon (VVinrar) Elise
Alistar Malzahar
Draven Taric
Graves 

I’ve started to notice at the high 1200s/low 1300s Elo, playing double assassin comps are very effective.  That being said, it’s a bit strange to see a double AP combination such as TF/Malzahar since neither is very strong top lane.  What ended up happening was Twisted Fate vs. Pantheon top, which is an easy win for myself.  Malz vs. Akali mid gives an easy lane win to the enemy team since Akali will take damage every time she comes close to creeps.  Meanwhile, Draven/Taric vs. Graves/Ali is a skill matchup with the edge going to my own team.  I would expect the outcome of the match to depend mostly on bottom lane, since Pantheon and Akali are going to do a lot of damage no matter their performance in lane.

Late game is also a toss-up between the two teams.  While the enemy team has double suppression, we also ahve many stuns/inturrupts in addition to 3 assassin champs plus Draven.  If our team is able to knock out key targets quickly, we should be able to secure a win.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Pantheon vs. Twisted Fate
• Mid: Akalai vs. Malzahar
• Bot: Draven Taric vs. Graves Alistar
• Jungle: Elise vs. Warwick

Early Game:

Both teams take defensive blue buff starts and applied heavy ganking pressure throughout the laning phase.

• Top: 3:15 Pantheon FB on Twisted Fate
• Mid: Akali and Malzahar kill each other at 6:45.  TF ganks and kills Akali at 8:45.
• Bot: 3:20 Alistar kill on Taric.  Draven kills Alistar, Graves kills Draven at 3:45 and takes a double kill at 10:00.

10 minute score: 1-0-0, 69 cs, up 40 cs on TF.  Mid behind 30 cs, 1 death, bot behind 4 kills and 10 cs.  Jungle is even.  Kills 6-2, team behind 2k gold.

Mid Game:

At 10:45, I die to a gank by Warwick and Malzahar kills Akali solo.  I kill TF at 11:45, and Taric dies at 12:30.  We lose both mid and bot turrets at 13:30.

I gank and kill mid at 14:30 and lose my own (top) tower shortly after.  Akali kills TF at 15:30 while I die to Graves.  Malz kills Akali at 16:30.  Akali kills TF in skirmish at 18:00.  Graves takes 3 more kills on Taric at 16:00 17:30, and 19:00.

20 minute score: 3-2-1, 132 cs.  Team kills 14-7, towers 0-3, behind 6k gold.  Graves is 8/0/1 while Taric is 0/6.

End Game:

Akali dies in our own jungle at 21:00, and the enemy team takes drag shortly after.  We lose our inner mid and top towers at 25:00.  At 28:45, we lose a teamfight 2-4 and lose our mid inhib and dragon as a result.

In a random comeback, we ace the enemy team 5-0 at 33:00 and take our first mid tower as a result.  Uncontested enemy baron at 34:15.  Enemy team pushes to end but 4-4 teamfight leads in a draw.  After reviving, enemy team takes an uncontested nexus.

Final score: 7-4-7, 209 cs.  Team score 22-26, towers 1-11.

What I learned:

While mid and bottom lanes failed horribly in the laning phase, we had a legitimate chance to win this game by catching their team off guard.  Specifically, the enemy Warwick was caught out multiple times in our own jungle, but our team failed to capitalize on kills by winning teamfights/objectives.

A major problem during this game was that Draven and Taric flamed each other from the beginning of the laning phase to the end of the game, which is why there were not many teamfights — our team was too busy arguing with each other to bother grouping up and fighting.  If we pulled our shit together, we probably could have won the game…but we didn’t.  As a result, we were often picked off and we lost towers for no reason.  Midgame, our team had the potential to win teamfights, as seen in the complete ace at 33:00, and a 4-4 teamfight when the enemy team had baron buff.  Sadly, the win was not to be, and I live to queue another day.

Score:

Final score: 7-4-7, 209 cs.  Team score 22-26, towers 1-11.
Cumulative record: 74-47-112, 3.96 kda, 1-4 on top, 5-8 overall.  1232 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzkptms41diqhz0/Game%2013%20Pantheon.lrf?m

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/SFYBD.jpg

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I played Game 12 as a solo queue game late at night because my ISP no longer allows me to play during the day — I disconnect and lag when I play, so I haven’t been able to play/update this as much as usual.  That being said, I didn’t have that many problems this game except when I died once in lane to a dc.

Draft Order:

Leona
Vayne Alistar
Lux Lee Sin
Ryze (VVinrar) Renekton
Jayce Draven
Hecarim 

Once again, the enemy team held a slight edge on my team in the laning phase.  Draven counters Vayne heavily by himself, but add Leona into the equation and its a recipe for an easy bot lane loss if Vayne makes one mistake.  On the other hand, both mid and top are skill matchups, with a slight edge going to the other team with Lux and Jayce on both lanes.

Late game, the matchup is much harder to tell, but it’s relatively even.  Both teams have strong scaling AD carries.  While the other team has the advantage in strong poke via Lux and Jayce, our team also has great initiation and CC lockdown.  Provided our team survives the laning phase, it’ll be a tough game to win.  Prediction is a slight edge to the other team.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Renekton vs. Jayce
• Mid: Ryze vs. Lux
• Bot: Vayne Alistar vs. Draven Leona
• Jungle: Hecarim vs. Lee Sin

Early Game:

Both teams take a defensive starts, with Hecarim starting at blue and Lee Sin starting at red.  Both teams have relatively strong ganking presence but fail to secure kills with ganks.

• Top: Renekton solo kill on Jayce at 4:00, Hecarim ganks and gets a kill on Jayce at 7:45.
• Mid: Hecarim solo kills Lux at 6:00, and then is caught invading by Lux at 9:30.
• Bot: Leona kills Vayne at 4:30, Alistar/Draven kill each other at 5:00 in tower dive.  Vayne kills Leona at 5:15 and then Lee Sin in our jungle at 6:15.  Draven kills Vayne and Alistar at 8:00 in return for Ali kill on Leona.  Another Draven kill on Vayne at 9:00 and takes a 9:45 tower.

10 minute score: 0-0-0, 55 cs, down 1 kill on Lux.  Top ahead 1 kill, bot down 1 kill , 15 cs.  Jungle up 2 kills but down 20 cs.  Kills 8-6, towers 0-1, down 1.5k gold.

Mid Game:

At 10:45, Renekton kills Jayce top, Lux kills Ryze mid (I dc’d :/), Draven and Lee Sin die in exchange for Vayne bot, resulting in 11:00 top tower for us.  Team takes 2-0 skirmish and 13:00 dragon, but lose a 13:45 mid tower.

2-0 skirmish in mid at 14:30, but we lose Alistar shortly after.  Alistar dies again at 16:00, resulting in loss of our second mid tower.  The enemy team continues pushing, resulting in 1-1 skirmish at 17:30.  Alistar dies again (wtf) at 19:00, resulting in loss of 19:30 dragon and a 0-4 teamfight which turns the tide of the game.

20 minute score: 2-2-3, 89 cs.  Team kills 16-16, towers 2-4, behind 3k gold.  Enemy Draven 6/2 against our Vayne’s 5/6 and Alistar 3/5.

End Game:

We lose a 20:15 inhib turret mid, but we come back and catch the other team 2-0 at 20:45 for a 21:15 outer mid tower.  Alistar gets caught at 22:00.  23:00 teamfight results in 3-4 with a Draven quadra kill and loss of 2 top towers.  25:30 0-3 teamfight results in an uncontested baron.  Alistar gets caught at dragon, enemy team pushes to end

Final score: 4-4-6, 114 cs.  Team score 21-28, towers 3-9.

What I learned:

This game should not have been a loss.  At the 10 minute mark, we were winning.  At the 15 minute mark, we were still winning.  At the 20 minute mark, we were decisively losing.  In the end, what it came down to is that despite a gold advantage, the enemy team had superior coordination and grouped up for objectives, while the solo lanes on my team struggled to farm and failed to respond to grouping.

Failing to group is a common problem in solo queue and I don’t mind it much as long as we don’t lose too much of it, but there were other problems that contributed to the loss.  Specifically, Renekton and Alistar continuously decided to hero-mode and try to pick off champions in the mid-late game, which resulting in them dying and us losing teamfights due to uneven sides.  Even beyond that, Alistar was caught out at random times, and his loss before teamfights resulting in the Draven quadra kill in the fight that turned the tide of the game.

Thoughts on my own performance: I did alright, despite dying in lane to a dc.  I managed to keep up in gold and farm with the Lux throughout the game, and I was able to pick off key targets (occasionally) in fights.  However, the enemy Draven was just too fed off of my bottom lane and he was able to put out superior damage because of the enemy’s strong tank line.  Lack of damage and lack of coordination lost the game for me.

Score:

Final score: 4-4-6, 114 cs.  Team score 21-28, towers 3-9.
Cumulative record: 68-39-104, 4.41 kda, 2-1 on mid, 5-7 overall.  1273 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rjtejt35xi04vqo/Game%2012%20Ryze.lrf

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/xUx0e.jpg

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I played Game 11 as a duo queue with ZRF.  Unfortunately, the replay to this game is corrupted because I dc’d a couple of times during the game, so I’m basing most of the analysis of this game off of my (spotty) memory because I played this game almost a week ago.

Draft Order:

Kayle (VVinrar)
Maokai Malphite
Graves Taric
Soraka Pantheon
Viktor Mundo (ZRF)
Ezreal 

Looking at the picks alone, our team had both an inferior early game and late game team composition.  The other team captain decided to screw around during the banning phase, leaving open many popular bans (that I coincidentally don’t own since this is a smurf); our team decided not to take any of these open bans, while the other team took Malphite.

Top lane (me) was almost guaranteed to lose as a first pick regardless of whether Pantheon or Malphite came top, and mid has the same chance of winning his lane versus both (even though he picked after both these picks).  Bot lane is a skill matchup, so the lane could go either way…but the early game would definitely go to the other team due to strong anticarry presence in the solos.

Late game, we have weak teamfighting versus Malphite and Maokai, especially with a weak tank line, and bad synergy between our carry champions (Kayle, Graves, Viktor).  While there is a chance to win, it would have to depend on winning the early game heavily, which is only likely to happen in the bot lane and jungle.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Kayle vs. Pantheon
• Mid: Viktor vs. Morgana
• Bot: Graves Taric vs. Ezreal Soraka
• Jungle: Dr. Mundo vs. Maokai

Early Game:

Both teams take a defensive blue buff start.  Maokai has a stronger gank presence than Mundo, but neither are very helpful for the laning phase.

• Top: Kayle solo FB on Pantheon at 3:30.  Jungler ganks result in Pantheon kill on Kayle and Maokai kill on Pantheon at ~9:00.
• Mid: Dies a couple of times, wasn’t paying attention to if Maokai was at the ganks.
• Bot: Ezreal takes a pair of kills while Graves is 1-2 at 10 minutes.  Again, I wasn’t paying attention.

10 minute score: 1-1-1, ~55 cs, even with Pantheon.  Mid losing by 2 kills and significant cs, bot is down kills and ~10 cs.  Jungle is even

Mid Game:

Graves starts flaming the entire team for dying, so Viktor takes offense and starts intentionally feeding.  I start losing my top lane because of champion counters so I attempt to go bot to push a tower.  Unfortunately, we are killed in teamfights over and over again, and we are unable to secure any objectives.  We lose.

Final score: 1-4-1, 112 cs.  Team score 7-27, towers 0-8.

What I learned:

First of all, don’t insult your teammates because they might be offended and feed. Second, the runes on my account (recall, I have MS quints, penetration, armor, and scaling MR) are terrible for Kayle, and it doesn’t help that I was countered in my lane.  Even if I did have the replay, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about here because we lost every lane, every teamfight, and the game despite having even odds in most of the fights.

While I didn’t win my lane , I didn’t completely lose it either.  What ended up happening was that Pantheon went even in lane, but roamed mid and killed Viktor over and over again for the lulz so he ended up being able to outpace me in gold.  Sad face :(

I suppose what I can take from this game is that Kayle is an easily countered first pick because I can’t depend on my team to pick a team comp centered around using her ultimate effectively.  And uh…better luck next game?

Score:

Final score: 1-4-1, 112 cs.  Team score 7-27, towers 0-8.
Cumulative record: 65-39-99, 4.21 kda, 1-3 on top, 5-6 overall.  1307 Elo.

0-4 in duo queue games.

Replay: 
[N/A; Replay is broken]

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/KpcfF.jpg

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Well, it’s been 10 games so far and I’ve been having trouble keeping track of my stats and I thought to throw together this fun post.

W/L Record: 5-5
Cumulative record: 64-35-98, 4.63 kda.  1346 Elo.
Total Elo Gain: +7

• Lanes decisively won: Game 5 (Kennen), Game 6 (Sion), Game 7 (Sivir), Game 8 (Garen), Game 9 (Morgana)
• Lanes with slight advantage: Game 1 (Ashe), Game 2 (Soraka)
• Lanes even: Game 4 (Karthus), Game 10 (Olaf)
• Lanes with slight disadvantage: None
• Lanes decisively lost: Game 3 (Nunu)

It appears that winning my own lane has a weak correlation to actually winning the game; I won my lane 7 out of 10 times but only translated the won lane into a victory 3 out of those 7 times.  This indicates that I need to take more roam-heavy champions and/or strong bruisers to win other lanes, instead of being content with winning my own lane.  This Elo seems more dependent on farming champions rather than farming creeps because players do not know how to play in a losing lane; rather than bringing late game champions such as AD carries, it may more more beneficial to play more in the top lane.

After extensive review, I have decided that I am still in Elo Hell.

I played Game 10 as a solo queue game kind of late at night.  This is the first game in a while where the result of the game wasn’t blatantly obvious after the first 10 minutes, although there were still unorthodox picks on the other team in Volibear and Fiora.

Draft Order:

Fiora
Lux Mordekaiser
Amumu Morgana
Miss Fortune Olaf (VVinrar)
Volibear Tristana
Lulu

Looking at the team compositions, our team didn’t have a great chance at winning.  I mean, we picked Mordekaiser AND Lux into a Fiora first pick, and then we brought nothing to counter her or any of the enemy team’s AoE.  

I wouldn’t have been surprised if we saw a 20 minute surrender, since Fiora beats Mordekaiser, Tristana beats Miss Fortune, and Lulu does nothing against Volibear.  Lux and Morgana is a farming matchup of course, but the other two lanes should be completely stomped.  The only bright side on our team was that I picked Olaf, which hard counters AoE CC champions such as Morgana and Amumu, which means the only chance our team has of winning is if I can stomp these lanes hard enough early game and zone them in the late game.  Basically, if our team doesn’t lose early game, the fate of teamfights depends on me, the jungle anticarry.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Mordekaiser vs. Fiora
• Mid: Lux vs. Morgana
• Bot: Miss Fortune Lulu vs. Tristana Volibear
• Jungle: Olaf vs. Amumu

Early Game:

Both teams take a defensive blue buff start.  Both junglers take the second blue buff for themselves for more aggressive lane pressure since mid is evenly matched. Amumu camps mid and bot; I put focus on top early but shift to mid.

• Top: Fiora solo kill on Mordekaiser at 3:45 and 8:00.
• Mid: boring.
• Bot: Tristana takes a 3:15 FB on MF.  5:00 results in MF kill on Volibear, but Trist takes 7:00 kill on Lulu, Voli takes 8:45 kill on MF.

10 minute score: 0-0-1, 44 cs, one assist up on Amumu.  Mid losing by 15 cs, top behind 15 cs and 2 kills, bot losing 25 cs and a kill.  Kills 1-5, team behind 2.5k.

Mid Game:

Fiora takes 11:15 kill on Morde, Tristana kills MF bot while Lux is traded for Amumu mid at 12:30.  All lanes collapse mid and kill Morgana at 12:45.  Fiora kills Lux at 13:45, resulting in loss of a 14:30 mid tower.

15:15 skirmish results in 1-3 trade in enemy favor.  Fiora kills Morde again at 15:50 but is shut down by Olaf at 16:45.  Uncontested 17:00 enemy dragon, and bot tower is lost at 18:30.  Fiora kills Morde (AGAIN, WTF?) top at 19:00 while the rest of the team kill Volibear/Trist bot for a 2-1 trade, and also losing our second top tower.

20 minute score: 3-1-4, 86 cs.  Team kills 7-15, towers 0-4, behind 8k gold.  Every lane is getting stomped, but I am ahead in the jungle.

End Game:

22:00 teamfight results in 0-3 trade with loss of inner mid tower while creeps take enemy top tower.  24:30 teamfight results in 3-2 trade with a double kill to Trist, uncontested dragon.

27:45 teamfight in our jungle leads to 2-0 trade and uncontested baron. 30:30 teamfight leads to 5-0 ace, allowing us to take all 3 mid towers and inhib.  Enemy team catches us on the revive, but we turn the fight into another 4-1 fight, allowing for 2 more towers, bot inhib, and 33:45 dragon.

Morde and Olaf catch Fiora at 35:00, and we are able to take another 5-0 teamfight when she revives, while I take a triple kill as Olaf.  We end the game.

Final score: 9-2-14, 142 cs.  Team score 26-22, towers 11-5.

What I learned:

I really hate like it’s me against the world, but I think that I hard carried this game after being down 10k gold at 25 minutes, with every lane utterly losing in both farm and kills.  Olaf’s anticarry presence allowed the zoning of Tristana and Morgana, while the rest of the team were able to take down the rest of the enemy team 3v4.

The most surprising part of the game (next to us actually winning) was that despite nobody ever getting caught in uneven teamfights, we were able to turn the game around with a strong skirmish and subsequent baron.  This goes against what I thought would happen, as the Morgana/Amumu ult combo allows for lethal teamfights with a strong tank line; instead, poor ult use resulting in missed kills frequently after the 25 minute mark.  Even beyond that, Fiora wasn’t able to put a dent in the health of the carries, even though she hard countered both of our solos .  The factor that lost the game for the other team wasn’t being caught, being bad, or typical solo queue reasons, but rather bad coordination in teamfights.

Score:

Final score: 9-2-14, 142 cs.  Team score 26-22, towers 11-5.
Cumulative record: 64-35-98, 4.63 kda, 1-0 on jungle, 5-5 overall.  1346 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/oy3hr5aeey1z74p/Game%2010%20Olaf.lrf?m

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/V3knv.jpg

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I played Game 9 as a solo queue game.  Like the previous 2 games, it was a bit quicker to play and rather mismatched, so there’s less to talk about.  Our team had an unorthodox team comp, but my team seemed to think that support Maokai is viable at 1300 and I went along with it.

Draft Order:

Nunu
Malphite Morgana
Ezreal Ahri
Varus Maokai
Olaf Riven
Jayce 

Our team had a minor advantage in the laning phase in that the enemy team picked into our team thinking we had a Maokai jungle and Malphite top, when in reality Maokai was support with Malphite jungling.  This led to a favorable matchup in our top lane’s favor.  Bottom lane has an early game advantage with the aggression of Varus and Maokai versus Ezreal/Nunu, although I would expect our team to get weaker as the lane progresses.  Mid is a farm/skill matchup between Morgana and Ahri.  Malphite and Riven are both farm-oriented jungles without strong ganking power.

That being said, I would give the edge to my own team to win in both the early and late games, the only possibility of loss being if Riven gets fed in the jungle.  Otherwise our team has a very even balance between poke and teamfight and has a very favorable composition towards the enemy team.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Jayce vs. Olaf
• Mid: Morgana vs. Ahri
• Bot: Varus Maokai vs. Ezreal Nunu
• Jungle: Malphite Riven

Early Game:

Both teams took a defensive start.  Maokai starts wolves-blue, while Riven is executed by red buff at 2:25 without killing wraiths due to poor leashing.  Riven disconnects at 8 minutes and comes back a minute later.

• Top: A 5:30 gank by Malphite forces Olaf to back.  Riven comes top to hold and is tower dived by Jayce/Malphite at 6:00.  Jayce solo kills Olaf at 9:45.
• Mid: I take an unassisted mid kill on Ahri at 9:00.
• Bot: Ezreal takes a FB on our Varus at 5:00 and another kill at 8:30.  Malphite ganks and kills Ezreal at 9:00, but Nunu dies in the process.

10 minute score: 1-0-0, 76 cs.  Mid (me) up 35 cs and 1 kill, top ahead 30 cs and 2 kills, bot behind 10 cs and 3 kills(seriously, wtf?).  Kills 4-3, team ahead 2k.  Jungle Riven is level 4, 0/2, and has 16 cs.

Mid Game:

Jayce takes his tower at 10:15.  Both top laners come mid at 11:00, and my team comes ahead 2-0 in the ensuing teamfight with a 11:15 mid tower.  Ezreal kills Maokai at 11:45 in return for 12:00 uncontested dragon for our team.  Olaf takes 12:45 top tower.

I solo kill Ahri at 13:15.  Jayce kills Riven top while the rest of the team takes down Ezreal and Nunu bot for a 3-0 total exchange at 14:30.  Nunu kills Jayce top, Maokai kills Olaf bot at 15:30.  I kill Ezreal bot at 16:30.

I kill Olaf mid at 18:15.  2-1 trade at dragon at 19:00, though we dont’ take drag.  20:00 kill by Morgana on Riven mid.

20 minute score: 5-0-4, 136 cs.  Game is pretty much a stomp at this point.

End Game:

2-1 trade at our tower at 20:15.  Jayce kills Olaf at 21:45, Morgana kills Ahri at 22:15, Nunu is caught in jungle at 22:30. 2-0 tower dive allows for a 23:45 mid inhib and 24:15 uncontested drag.  A few more random kills happen and the enemy team surrenders at 26:00.

Final score: 7-0-7, 160 cs.  Team score 24-9, towers 6-2.

What I learned:

There’s not a huge amount to talk about here.  Our team basically won because Riven died at level 1 in the jungle; top lane won because of jungle, mid lane won because of skill, and then the solos collapsed on bot lane and won it.  Past the 15 minute mark, the enemy team was no longer able to contest because Riven never got back into the game and the enemy solo lanes were unable to get any freefarming time, and our team won as expected.

The only thing that raised a small eyebrow here was that Ezreal and Nunu beat Maokai and Varus, instead of the other way around.  While I’m not surprised, I highly doubt I’ll be seeing Maokais playing support in the future.

Score:

Final score: 7-0-7, 160 cs.  Team score 24-9, towers 6-2.
Cumulative record: 53-33-84, 4.15 kda, 2-0 on mid, 4-5 overall.  1309 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fn6zrbtehv3lryr/Game%209%20Morgana.lrf?m

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/lu5Ow.jpg

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Merry Christmas to those and happy holidays to the rest!  Shorter post today because there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about.

I played Game 8 as a solo queue game.  It was the first game in a while I have played in ‘optimal’ circumstances, so I was expecting to win.  My first and last pick announced they were a duo queue in champ select, so we let them take bottom lane.

Draft Order:

Ezreal
Caitlyn Wukong
Annie Garen (VVinrar)
Shaco Mordekaiser
Warwick Sona
Taric 

The key to winning this game, at least for my team, is to play safe in the early game, and then take a win in the late game.

As far as lane matchups go, my own lane (Garen/Wukong) is the only one which has a decisive counterplay matchup in our favor.  Caitlyn naturally wins bottom lane because she’s Caitlyn. Morde-Annie is a skill matchup with the edge going to Mordekaiser — unless the jungle ganks.  The matchup is so close here that one gank for either team could permanently change the dynamic of that lane — in other words, the fate of the game could easily lie in who wins the mid lane matchup.

That being said, the early game goes to the enemy team due to powerful Shaco ganks on top of the volatile mid lane and losing bottom lane.  Our team had only warwick in the jungle, so we couldn’t expect as strong of a jungle presence to win.  If our team manages to scale into the late game, we should take the win as Caitlyn/Morde/Shaco generally have weak lategame scaling versus our powerful CC-dominated chainstun teamcomp.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Garen vs. Wukong
• Mid: Annie vs. Mordekaiser
• Bot: Sivir Zyra vs. Kog’Maw Nunu
• Jungle: Shen vs. Dr. Mundo

Early Game:

Both teams took a defensive blue-buff start.

• Top: Shaco nearly takes a 3:45 kill FB against me.  After this gank, Wukong recalls (I don’t) allowing me to gain a level advantage and dominate the lane.  I kill Wukong at 6:45 and die immediately after due to Shaco.  I dive and take a solo kill on Wukong at 9:30.
• Mid: Annie loses heavily in cs but takes a 7 minute solo kill.  Shaco kills Annie at 9:15
• Bot: Sona dies at 4:15 and Ezreal dies under tower at 4:45.  Warwick comes and dies at 5:00.  Caitlyn kills Sona again at 7:30 and again at 10:00.

10 minute score: 2-1-0, 62 cs.  Mid down 50 cs but up 1 kill, top (me) ahead 30 cs and 2 kills , bot behind 25 cs and 5 kills (seriously, wtf?).  Kills 3-7, team 3k gold behind.

Mid Game:

Ezreal takes a 10:15 kill on Taric, Warwick dies in upper jungle at 10:45 to Shaco and Wukong.  We lose mid tower at 11:15, and then lose Warwick/Annie/Bot tower at 12:30 when the teams group.  Uncontested 13 minute enemy dragon.

Ezreal and Taric trade kills at 14:30.  We win a 2-1 skirmish in bot lane at 15:15, shutting down Caitlyn.  Wukong kills Warwick at 16:15.  Mordekaiser dies along with our second bot tower at 17:15.  4-2 trade under our tower at 19:00

20 minute score: 5-1-4, 118 cs (20 ahead of Wukong).  Kills 12-15, towers 0-3, team behind 6k gold.  Enemy Caitlyn 7-2-3.

End Game:

We kill Wukong at 21:00.  I lose my GA at 21:30 to save bot inhib turret and then take a 22:15 kill on Shaco.  Wukong takes outer top tower at 23:00, Caitlyn kills Ezreal again at 23:30.  2-2 trade at 24:30 at mid results in loss of bottom inhibitor.  0-2 trade at 26:30 results in loss of inner mid tower.  Garen dies at tower at 27:45; uncontested enemy dragon at 28:00.  Team surrenders after another 0-3 trade.

Final score: 7-3-4, 155 cs.  Team score 16-24, towers 0-7.

What I learned:

This game felt heavily out of my hands without any possibility for redemption; when I ran down to support bot lane at the 15 minute-ish mark, bot lane was unable to 3v2.  At the same time, I noticed many times that Ezreal and Sona were afraid of Taric 1v2 after 10 minutes even with wards showing there were no enemies nearby.  Unsurprisingly, I won my lane and lost my game yet again here.

As Caitlyn (early game champion) had 3 kills by 5 minutes, I’m not sure what I could have done to redeem the game when the bottom lane was lost that early.  While I did win my lane, I was camped a bit by Shaco and couldn’t get a decisive result, while the rest of the game effectively 3v4.

The main factor that contributed to the loss in this game was the fact that we were unable to execute effective teamfights, which was the core strength of our team composition.  While we had great chain-cc, we never actually were able to use our abilities together to take down any champion because of jukes from the enemy.  On top of that, I was the only person who could get in range of the fed Caitlyn without being slaughtered in two seconds.  Let’s hope for a better result next game!

Score:

Final score: 7-3-4, 155 cs.  Team score 16-24, towers 0-7.
Cumulative record: 46-33-77, 3.72 kda, 1-2 on top, 3-5 overall.  1271 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f4lcv5qxt0fedzi/Game%208%20Garen.lrf

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/wqdHc.jpg

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I played Game 7 as a duo queue with Fluxyyy, a member of the Reign of Gaming forums.  His Elo was about 150 points higher than mine, so we ended up being first and last pick on our teams.  

Draft Order:

Lux
Zyra (Fluxyyy) Shen
Dr. Mundo Darius
Fizz Singed
Kog’Maw Nunu
Sivir (VVinrar)

Coming into the game, I thought both teams had a pretty equal chance of winning.  The enemy team had a nice ‘protect the Kog’ comp, while our team was extremely mobile with strong split pushing and teamfight presence.  Our team easily holds the early game edge in teamfights, but if the game is stalled out to a 40 minute match the chance of victory dramatically decreases as Kog gets fed.

I expected top lane to be relatively even (Singed/Darius) as neither champion really has the tools to dominate each other, ceteris paribus.  Fizz/Lux mid is a skill matchup with the edge going to Lux as long as she plays safely.  It’s harder to predict, but given equal skill Fizz won’t have much of a chance to farm.  Bot lane is also a skill matchup, given the double skill shot on our team with Sivir and Zyra.  All in all, the early game would be hard to predict.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Singed vs. Darius
• Mid: Fizz vs. Lux
• Bot: Sivir Zyra vs. Kog’Maw Nunu
• Jungle: Shen vs. Dr. Mundo

Early Game:

The enemy team invaded our red, while our team started blue.  Then, they 3-man ganked Fizz, bringing him down to half health.  Shen barely misses being killed at the enemy red at 5:15 after counterganking bot with no success.  Shen doesn’t pull off too many successful ganks, while Mundo puts heavy pressure on all lanes.

• Top: Mundo ganks and kills Singed at 2:45.  Darius solo kills Singed at 6:30, and kills Shen when he ganks at 9:00.
• Mid: Fizz takes a 3 minute kill on Lux.  Mundo ganks and kills Fizz at 5:45.  Fizz solo kills Lux at 7:30.
• Bot: Kog’Maw gets to lane late due to invade, helping us to dominate the lane  Enemy Mundo dies while ganking at 8:00.  Lux ganks and kills Zyra at 9:30.  Fizz follows and kills Nunu before dying to Lux.

10 minute score: 0-0-1, 61 cs.  Mid even, bot (me) ahead 40 cs and 2 kills (on support Zyra), top behind 25 cs and 2 kills.  Kills 5-6, team 1k gold behind.

Mid Game:

Skirmish at 12:30 ends up with a 2-3 trade with double kills going to Darius and Singed.  Bottom lane dive at 13:00 gives a 2-0 double kill to Sivir, but Lux comes and kills Sivir.  Fizz follows to kill Lux, but also gets himself and Zyra killed.Uncontested 14:30 enemy drag.  

15:30 gives Sivir a kill on Nunu bot, while Lux dies to Fizz while killing Shen.  Darius kills Shen and we take bottom turret at the same time afterwards.  Darius takes 16:15 top tower.

Darius solo kills me (Sivir) at 17:00 while mid lane trades Shen for Nunu.  We lose mid tower at 18:00.  At this point, our team starts raging when they notice our 2-4 Singed has rushed a Sheen.  A skirmish at 19:45 at dragon gives our team a 3-0 teamfight.

20 minute score: 4-2-2, 136 cs (70 ahead of Kog’Maw).  Kills 16-16, towers 1-2, team behind 1.5k gold.  Enemy Darius 6-1-2.

End Game:

Enemy team takes a 21:30 uncontested dragon.  Fizz and Sivir are picked off around 23:00 and trade Darius for Singed afterwards, losing a 23:45 bot tower.  I take 25:00 mid tower.  25:30 teamfight gives a 0-2 result with double kill going to Darius.  

A 1-2 teamfight at 28:00 results in another uncontested enemy dragon, and we lose yet another 1-2 skirmish at 30:00, another 0-3 at 33:30.  We lose 2 for 1 while trying to stop baron, eventually losing it at 34:30 in addition to 35:30 dragon.  Our team surrenders at 36:54.

Final score: Final score: 5-6-4, 254 cs.  Team score 21-34, towers 9-3.

What I learned:

This game really disappointed me because we lost despite my duo queue completely crushing bottom lane early game.  I’m not sure if it was the champion matchup or skill, but Kog’Maw never had the opportunity to farm while in lane — the first time we went back about 6 minutes into the game, Kog had 7 cs.  Of course, it was a bit disappointing when Kog started outtrading me towards the end of the game, given that I was up many kills and triple digit cs over him.

Honestly, the play in this duo queue (average ~1400) was a lot poorer on average than the past few games I played (seriously, who does Flask start into rush Sheen on Singed).  The game averaged 1.5 kills per minute, which was a much faster pace than I was used to in prior games.

The main factor that contributed to the loss in this game was the fact that Darius became unstoppable after winning top lane.  Shen and Singed constantly dying meant that we had zero tank line to soak up crowd control and damage from Kog’Maw: our only two damage sources became Fizz and Sivir, with no tanks to prevent them from dying.  

At the same time, Darius was able to 100-0 combo me at 15 minutes without ignite, which means that he could eat through any other champion at that time.  All things considered, it appeared to me that top lane was the single contributing factor to the loss, given that mid went even, bottom lane won, and jungle lost because of top.  I think this is the first game I’ve played on this account where only a single person directly contributed to the loss, instead of a combination of poor play by everyone.  Sad face :(

Score:

Final score: 5-6-4, 254 cs.  Team score 21-34, towers 9-3.
Cumulative record: 39-30-73, 3.73 kda, 0-2 on ADC, 3-4 overall.  1314 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vtt3by3g9teoslv/Game%207%20Sivir.lrf?m

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/6npkb0x76uhe24z/Game%207%20Sivir.PNG

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I played Game 6 after being up for 20 hours, taking two finals, and moving everything in my uni apartment back into my house.  This means I was in ‘this is low Elo I don’t give a fuck mode’ but then I found out that nobody else gives a fuck either, as evidence by this conversation I had in champ select.

ask “you guys mind if i ad sion?”
katarina “what’s wrong with that”

>mfw i remember i’m smurfing at 1300

Now, there’s a reason nobody plays AD sion at higher skill ranges.  He loses top lane to almost every champion because he has no sustain, he’s pretty f’ing useless for the first 30 minutes of the game, and he can easily be stopped in teamfights because he has weak CC and gap closing.  Basically, he’s a shitty version of Nasus that might live a tiny bit longer and does less damage.  Unless, of course, you’re in 1300 and nobody focuses you first. 

Draft Order:

Ezreal
Warwick Katarina
Sona Cho’Gath
Ashe Sion (VVinrar)
Riven Darius
Janna

Both teams in this matchup had relatively weak team compositions, but I would give the edge to my own team.  The enemy team was dominated by relatively weak CC as well as 3 physical damage dealers, while my own team had two tanks, strong disengage, and far better late game scaling.  While isn’t a foolproof chance to win the game, we still had the possibility to lose if all lanes lost too hard.

I expected all lanes to lose this matchup.  Sion automatically loses top lane as AD, Katarina loses to Cho’Gath, and Ezreal beats Ashe.  On top of that, we had a passive jungler (Warwick) and Darius, who has some of the most foolproof ganks in the game, on the enemy team.  In order to win, all of our champions just had to farm, farm, farm, and make it to late game.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Sion vs. Riven
• Mid: Katarina vs. Cho’Gath
• Bot: Ashe Janna vs. Ezreal Sona
• Jungle: Warwick vs. Darius

Early Game:

The enemy team invading our blue, forcing Warwick to take a delayed start at wraiths.  Early game was relatively uneventful, with poor ganks and standard plays.

• Top: I get ganked as Darius at 7:00 and die, but solo kill Riven at 9:45.
• Mid: Katarina 1v1 kills Cho’Gath under his tower at 6:30.  Cho returns the favor at 9:30.
• Bot: Ezreal dc’s and dies to Ashe for FB at 4:45.

10 minute score: 1-1-0, 67 cs.  Mid even, bot ahead 20 cs and kill, me ahead by 30 cs.  Kills 3-2, team 1k gold ahead.

Mid Game:

Warwick ganks and gets me a kill on Riven at 11:30.  Darius ganks and kills Ashe at 12:00.  Cho solo kills Kat at 13:45, then dies to Warwick at 14:15.  Darius is caught invading our blue buff at 14:45.

I solo kill my turret at 15:30.  After roaming mid, Kat kills Darius in a skirmish at 16:45.  My team gets 0-2’d after being caught at dragon, then catches me at 19:00.

20 minute score: 2-2-1, 156 cs (70 ahead of Riven).  Kills 7-10, towers 1-1, team behind 500g.

End Game:

Janna caught at 20:15, Darius dies in jungler skirmish at 21:00.  We take bottom turret then lose 1-2 in teamfight with a double kill going to Riven.  1-1 trade at 23:30 while we lose mid turret, after which I chase down and kill Cho at 24:00 (youtube video below), allowing us to take their first mid turret.

We take uncontested dragon at 27:00 and then chase down their enemy team in 3-2 teamfight.  We take a 3-1 teamfight (d-kill Ashe) and take our first inhib at 30:00.  2-0 teamfight at baron allows us to take second top tower.

I successfully bait my (shit) team into 1-2 teamfight at 34:00 while warwick solos dragon at 34:30.  3-0 teamfight at 36:00 for bottom inhib.  

While all of this is happening, I solo baron (well, until my troll team decided to help with 15% baron hp left).  We push to end with a 3-0 teamfight and enemy team surrenders

Final score: 4-2-10, 264 cs.  Team score 26-21, towers 9-3.

What I learned:

Both of my deaths were 100% preventable with flash as opposed to ghost because flashes over wall or better split-second timing would have allowed me to escape ganks.  On the flipside, I also played really badly because of low energy, and probably deserved to die a lot more than I did.  It would take a minimum of a 2v1 past the 20-25 minute mark to kill me, which never actually happened.

Furor boots are OP as fuck because nothing beats 12% MS for 600g now that there aren’t any MS items left in the game.  Check out my solo kill at 24:00 for proof: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6DhAyRSdMA

Surprisingly, we didn’t lose early game that badly.  Riven lost her own lane by staying in the jungle invade for too long, an unlucky temporarily DC allowed Ashe to win her lane, and Katarina went even.  Ganks on both teams were ineffective, allowing our team to partially snowball to victory once I left my lane and joined teamfights.

Late game, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about beyond the cheesey nature of AD Sion.  Since nobody ever cared to stop me, AD sion basically became too strong to kill on top of the late-game potential of my own team.  Our team actually got caught a lot more than the other team, but they failed to take advantage a lot of the time and we even outtraded in unfair teamfights.  It was a fun game, but I don’t think I’m going to do it again.  

Sion (AD) feels a lot weaker in Season 3 because there aren’t as many movement speed items available that work for him (beyond Furor boots).  His primary build paths - lifesteal, movement speed, and phage - have all been nerfed, so it takes even longer to get the ball rolling.  The new changes seem to have knocked the build even further out of viability.

Score:

Final score: 4-2-10, 264 cs.  Team score 26-21, towers 9-3.
Cumulative record: 34-24-69, 4.29 kda, 1-1 on top, 3-3 overall.  1346 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykzl6mx4pz7l0rp/Game%206%20Sion.lrf?m

Scoreboard:

Full size pic @ https://www.dropbox.com/s/csrj2pb1zj81h6d/Game%206%20Sion.png

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I played Game 5 at the end of my day yesterday as solo queue game after 2 hours of sleep.  This means I wasn’t exactly playing at peak performance, but at the same time Kennen is one of my best champions (71% win rate in 41 games, Season 2) and when combined with my effective APM it didn’t matter a huge deal that I was using MS quints and low alertness.

I want to make a special note before I start analyzing this game that this is now the 4th time out of 5 games that I have experienced trolls in 1200-1300 Elo.

Draft Order:

Dr. Mundo
Lux Kennen (VVinrar)
Singed Mordekaiser
Nidalee Shyvana
Jayce Vladimir
Shyvana 

Hilariously enough, both teams managed to troll each other in champion select with poor nonstandard picks.  On my team, I ended up with a support Nidalee, although that pales in comparison to the 4x top laners on the other team.  At first, I thought it was just a bunch of trolls in champion select, but when the game started my heart sunk because I knew that our team had a poor chance of winning.

Why?  Simple.  First of all, we had nothing to stop Singed.  Beyond that, bruisers and tanky champions completely troll the hell out of Lux, support Nidalee isn’t very useful, and MF is very weak against bruiser-heavy teams.  That leaves Shyvana…and Kennen (me!) to do all the work.

In addition to their unorthodox team comp to destroy our team, the enemy team also decided to switch things up and make top lane a 2v1 to troll me even harder.  Lux and Morde is a skill matchup with the edge going to Morde, but skill matchups barely matter at this level.  Kennen is a bit stronger than Vladimir at 2v1, but that doesn’t make much of a difference if you get zoned.

Lane Matchups:

• Top: Kennen vs. Jayce Singed
• Mid: Lux vs. Mordekaiser
• Bot: Miss Fortune Nidalee vs. Vladimir
• Jungle: Shyvana vs. Dr. Mundo

Early Game:

Both teams used a red buff start without any skirmishing.  Gank-heavy game with heavy roaming by both teams.

• Top: Shyvana runs top with 300 hp at 4:30 and gives a free kill to Jayce.  I kill Jayce at 6:40 after Singed teleports bottom.  Skirmish at 8:00 gives Lux a kill on Jayce, but she dies afterwards to Mordekaiser.
• Mid: Shyvana camps Mordekaiser, resulting in a 4:00 first blood for our team.
• Bot: Dr. Mundo gank nets a 5:30 kill on Miss Fortune.  Singed teleports bot, killing Shyvana but dying to Nidalee.  MF and Vlad kill each other at 8:45.

10 minute score: 1-0-1, 41 cs as Kennen 1v2.  Mid surprisingly even on kills and cs, bot behind 1 kill but ahead 30 cs.  Team kills 5-5.

Mid Game:

I kill Jayce again at 10:30.  Our team takes bot tower at 11:30.  Lux kills Singed bottom at 13:00, team fails to capitalize while pushing, and loses a 0-3 teamfight when they overstay their welcome bot, losing a 14:30 drag.  I get another kill on Vladimir 16:30 when he wastes his pool. 

We catch 2 enemies when they try to push our second mid tower, and we take the first mid tower as a result.  Lux starts to rage randomly.  I get (another) kill on Jayce when he tries to 2v1 dive me at 18:45.

20 minute score: 13-9 kills, 2-1 towers, 2k gold ahead, Kennen (me)  4-0-1, 119 cs.

End Game:

21:30 uncontested dragon by our team.  

1-2 skirmish at 22:00 with Jayce picking up double kill.  Jayce picks up another double kill at 23:00, is shut down by Kennen.  Team continues to run back in and feed because it m’fing low Elo, giving an extended teamfight score of 1-7 (Jayce 4 kills) and completely throwing our team’s minor lead.

Jayce picks up his 3rd double kill in 200 seconds at 25:30, which was kind of annoying to me because I wiped his face top lane in the beginning of the game..  4-1 teamfight at 26:30 which allows us to take second mid tower (MF double kill).

Enemy uncontested baron at 29:00, but they catch 2 of our team immediately after in our jungle.  Enemy uncontested baron at 31:30 in return for Singed kill.  Same 2 members on our team get caught in enemy jungle at 33:00 and we lose inner bot tower as result, and then they caught AGAIN at 36:00, allowing their team to take top and bot inhibs.  They catch our team at 38:30 at dragon, baron, push, and end.

Final score: 7-2-7, 224 cs.  Team score 24-29, towers 4-9.

What I learned:

If you asked me at champion select who would win the game, I would give it to the other team.  If you asked me again at the 15 or 20 minute mark, I would give a 60-70% edge to our own team.  But after continuously feeds by Shyvana, Miss Fortune, and Lux from always being in the wrong place at the right time, we managed to throw our lead, especially ~23:00 where we lost 7 deaths in return for a kill by Kennen (me) who was already fed.

Sadly, Kennen is a teamfight oriented champion that can’t win trades by himself, and can’t win teamfights by himself without a decent tank.  Our Shyvana decided to go god-carry mode with black cleaver and frozen heart versus a magic damage team, which meant that I ended up being the tankier person on our team.  This combined with the extremely tanky enemy team made it impossible to win.  It also didn’t help that my team failed to secure objectives and win major teamfights, which allowed the enemy team to come back with farm and win (seriously, their support Singed ended up with the most creep kills).

I would say this game serves as a prime example of how ‘troll comps’ can win given enough mistakes and opportunities.  Also, the ability of 1300 Elo to give THREE successive double kills in 200 seconds to an unfarmed 2-5 bruiser, or to be caught three times in the jungle in 5 minutes… quite depressing, if you ask me.  I’m hoping for some standard solo queue play in game 6.

Slight note on my build: I ran 21-9-0 on my AP page.  Double doran’s rush into boots 2, followed by Rylai’s, haunting guise, abyssal, liandry’s and ending with GA.  Normally I wouldn’t buy Liandry’s since its a trash inefficient and niche item, but the other team was so tanky that I needed it for the shred.

Score:

Final score: 7-2-7, 224 cs.  Team score 24-29, towers 4-9.
Cumulative record: 39-22-59, 4.45 kda, 0-1 on top, 2-3 overall.  1304 Elo.

Replay: 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/381jgugkk4v39yt/Game%205%20Kennen.lrf

Scoreboard:

I finally remembered to screenshot, yeah!

Full size pic @ http://i.imgur.com/x3NzN.jpg

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