VexRoth - All That Is Ranked

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/5f6ab86f9286b1fc98fa09aa4aa212d1.jpg width=900] [br] Won a game as [[Xin Zhao]]! Been a while. [[Sion]] messed up my early game plan by going to their Blue I guess to cheese it. Their team was expecting it so he got chunked out and almost died. That left me clearing Red by myself. I got her Blue > Scuttle > spotted Eve on a ward at my blue > rotated and killed her. I didn't get to harass her as much as I would have liked, but our team kept the map pretty well lit up with wards at her camps and [[Control Ward]]s in good locations, so we pretty much always saw her coming. With good pressure in Mid from [[Zoe]], some of which was further used to beat on [[Evelynn]] this was a pretty easy game. One death was from my laners not coming to Drake when I asked them too. [[Fiddlesticks]] came over the wall and either he or [[Ekko]] took me out. I got the Drake and we killed them so overall worth. But would have rather have done it cleanly. Protip, just pull the damn drake out of the pit. So much less risk of being stolen. I have to tell my team that in like 90% of my games. I am starting to see why junglers like duoing with Mid laners. If you have Mid pressure it makes many aspects about jungling easier. You can invade knowing you have back-up. Even if you can't kill their jungler since you might be on the opposite side of the map, you Mid laner may be able to waltz in and kill them assuming you have good ward coverage. So far I've had good luck with [[Leblanc]] and [[Zoe]], with honorable mention to [[Aurelion Sol]].[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/b696677667471501fd2c68779e0a233e.png width=900] [br] [[Akali]] is open was heard during champion select. Actually our Mid did have a fair amount of games on Akali, but a low win rate and I guess she got counerpicked? Don't see enough of [[Lissandra]] or [[Akali]] to know how that matchup goes. [[Nocturne]] got more done with his ganks than I did and then he and Lissandra teamed up to make my life problematic any time I tried to move between lanes. Bot got a nice double kill early and then gave it back. [[Garen]] did okay into the [[Jax]] until I suppose the point that he got outscaled. I couldn't figure out a way to make up for the lack of success we had in the early game.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/81b0ea27091a0cd731e71c0f5f6b31b0.jpg width=900] [br] My team could not find the same book let alone the same page. Took Mid inhibitor I ping Baron with [[Evelynn]] dead, half my team runs to the Mountain Drake and half the team stays in their base giving Evelynn enough time to respawn. We had [[Tristana]] and [[Karthus]] (if he was alive at that point) and a Mountain Drake under out belt so we could take the Baron fast. That was the decision that ended up the game. Could have written game over and shut the client down given how uncoordinated we proved to be during the earlier portions of the game. Some teams can have a rough time of it in the early game and gel if they make it to late game. Not this one. I mechanically screwed up in the early game and missed a kill on [[Evelynn]]. Feelsbad. And I managed to get run down by the [[Fizz]] at one point, which was embarrassing as I was cycling my abilities as well as I could, but between all his dashes and ability to run through minions he was able to keep up with me.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/7aae7fca2cbd9d998e5a6a9b11bad87f.jpg width=900] [br] Twas not a good night at the leagues. Tried to gank Top at level 2. We didn't get anything out of [[Shen]] and while we were trying to shove the wave into the turret [[Warwick]] showed up and we ended up getting double killed. Their [[Shen]] played that game really well, coming in clutch at several moments so props to him.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/d1a9a1fc51838b0c34d8942369af32fd.jpg width=900] [br] And the struggle continues. Their assassins got fed and we didn't have enough bulk at that point in the game to deal with it. They were making all the offensive plays. I kept having to ult defensively and still sometimes died. Need to keep the paths to Bot lane warded when they have a Mid lane assassin/diver. [[Diana]] got a bunch of kills in Bot.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/4c8564929d42d19d91370d5b7d7a8e9b.jpg width=900] [br] Got some coaching. Holy crap my situational awarness and tactical thinking need a lot of development. Add that to the occassional mechanical flub and it is no wonder my games feel like they are crap shoots. I play too many champions. Going to focus on [[Xin Zhao]] for the rest of the season. His late game isn't the best, so I really need to work on my issue with wasting a lot of seconds here and there. Don't be afraid of ranked. I am not going to lose viewers if I fail. I am not going to not get and LCS contract if I don't get Challenger. Just play ranked because I enjoy the competitive aspect of it compared to normals. Could have burned [[Vel'koz]]'s [[Flash]] five seconds earlier if I had just dashed straight into him from the river bush using the movement speed I get from [[Waterwalking]]. Instead I walked all the way around the river wall to get behind him and wound up taking more damage than if I would have just gone straight in on him. I wasted another 5 seconds warding deeper into their jungle than I needed to. I did learn the place to stand behind the Mid lane wall from Blue side perspective so that the minions would not have vision of me. There is a little blue flower on the ground next to the wall that is a good marker. Learned the though that it is the 7-8 minute mark and I have camps on both sides of my jungle up, so what side of the map do I want to play through? (7-8 minutes is when your Buff camps will respawn). -Rift Herald spawns at 9:50 and [[Kled]] is the win condition? Then play through Top side. -Dragon is up and [[Vayne]] is our win condition? Then play through Bot side. Learned that you can cancel the first half of [[Xin Zhao]]'s W [[Wind Becomes Lightning]] animation by using a Q first and that all by itself is enough to proc [[Phase Rush]], because that counts as 3 stacks (Q + both parts of W). Got a reminder to comment summoner timers in chat. Really important with Xin since if their [[Flash]] is down you know you can E, [[Audacious Charge]], straight onto them. Xin is squishy? If you are behind - Build [[Phage]] into [[Jaurim's Fist]] for tankiness. Then [[Sheen]], then [[Stinger]], then finish your [[Trinity Force]]. Or if their team is all AP build into [[Spectre's Cowl]] or [[Hexdrinker]] instead of [[Jaurim's Fist]]. But your core items are still [[Enchantment: Warrior]], [[Trinity Force]], and [[Sterak's Gage]]. A good example of the tactical awareness was his advice to go back to base instead of taking my Top side jungle camps. I went back and finished my [[Enchantment: Warrior]] and then he told me to go to my Red buff, because that was the only available move for [[Vi]] since I had stolen her Red Buff and all the other camps on the Top side of the map. With warrior that is easily a fight I win all day as [[Xin Zhao]] vs almost any other jungler. It also led into the point that I should have had my Bot lane destroy the blast plant as that would have given [[Vi]] no way out. I still got my Red and we were able to take a fight in the river that led to several kills given my strength and the fact I was able to get my team to rotate to the Red. Another point was an incident where [[Kai'sa]] was shoving Mid lane and I was holding the wave vs her and she used her Q and E right in front of me. I figured out why he wanted me to go ham on her (her escape was down, her main source of damage was down, and she was low on mana), but I wouldn't make that play every time, so it was a good illustration of things I should be looking out for. My one death was rather dumb. They were on our Mid lane inner turret after picking up several kills. My team respawned and [[Kled]] went in with his ult, except his ult ended up pathing him into their [[Nami]] instead of their carries. I went into their carries. By myself. Wawawa. It didn't matter that much which target we picked, we just needed to all pick the same target and that didn't happen. Of if their jungler is catching a wave in Mid you can just walk in and take their raptors assuming you don't have to worry about their other laners roaming on you.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/84dbd247c655351bc859a45951bb9952.jpg width=900] [br] My team wanted to invade and then try to remain for their Blue buff. They jumped on us in force and pushed us off of it so I started my jungle late with no leash. [[Rengar]] kept going Bot lane so I kept stealing all his Top camps. The thing was that [[Teemo]] was his point of pressure as he was stomping on [[Poppy]]. Thought Poppy had AFKd at one point as she was just standing by her tower while [[Teemo]] wailed away on it. I asked about her in chat and then she started playing again and had a useful [[Teleport]] play to Mid lane that help us pick up some kills. Fortunately our Bot lane was at least slighty better than theirs and once [[Anivia]] hit level 6 she just cleared the wave and roamed to Bot lane to help them pressure and pick us some kills here and there. Need to review this one and see the spots where I died and if there was another way I could have played the situation. Saizo, the guy that coached me, suggested rewinding the game two minutes before each death and thing about the game state and what I might have done differently compared to what I did do.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/f7f6bda55b981c565dcfd4ca4e5ca2c0.jpg width=900] [br] Well that felt good! Got first blood on [[Kassadin]] on a level 2 gank. I believe I did lose the scuttle crab to [[Kindred]] but [[Veigar]] rotated over and we killed Kindred and Kassadin then I caught the Top scuttle crab and then caught Kindred with no [[Flash]] just coming off her Red buff and killed them again. Bot lane was getting a little wrecked by their Bot lane and some Kindred and Kassadin pressure, but Top was winning and Veigar was a menace. Thinking about the state of the map with respect to what the enemy can do is quite a bit more work and I still have a LONG way to go, but knowing or having an idea of the song structure or to some extent dictating it, feels good.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/6e9e151c32b68613b4f26236536fc6d7.jpg width=900] [br] My team and I had very different ideas about how to play the game. We won a fight Bot lane. I called Rift Herald. My team runs off after their team into their jungle. Eventually we get Rift Herald. I tell my team to back and group Mid. The run to Bot lane and get deleted. I take the two Mid turrets and half health their Mid turret with Rift. Then [[Zed]] and [[Soraka]] decided to ambush their whole team. That went well. It was a clusterfuck from there on out. [[Zed]] kept trying to pick off people and while he might get his target he got killed in return and [[Gnar]] ran off on a couple of away missions that slowed down what we should be doing as team. On top of that I did not play well mechanically. One of those games where every stun misses by a hair's breadth and every ult knocks someone away. Gnar setup for splitpushing, which is maybe why he didn't want to team fight. That is something I didn't recognize, but I don't think it would have worked either with as much pick potential as their team had. Frustrating loss.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/30e767a8b5d31e6d11c12fb2efbaa78c.jpgwidth=900] [br] Felt like we got outscaled despite having two infernal drakes. Like if we couldn't keep them off of Twitch we we just out lost and the amount of burst that [[Vayne]], [[Vladimir]], and [[Kindred]] were putting out was just nuts. Given that we had a [[Tahm Kench]] and still couldn't keep Twitch alive, the game was problematic. I think maybe I should only play ranked on Sunday's. Eiter I get good teams that day or I'm just in a better mental space for playing ranked? I dunno, I kept all the objectives in mind. We got the two infernals. We got Rift Herald. I did not grab Rift though, Tahm got it and used on their Bot tower of all things. So that was a mistake on my part. I also attempted to make a play on Kindred on low health. She was about the same, but she managed to output enough burst that I went down and she didn't. Maybe I should have built [[Randuin's Omen]] before [[Sterak's Gage]] since they had two crit users? Since they had a Vlad I thought at least Sterak's would protect be from both types of damage to some extent, but I felt uber squishy in our last couple of team fights. I still have no idea why they have % max health true damage in the game. Why have a stat that you can't itemize against?[/quote]