For any of you who actually read this blog, here's what's been up with me.

For about a week I played loads and loads of LoL, all in ranked solo q. It probably wasn't worth it but I gained about 100 elo and am now in the 1650s. Here's some things I learned that week.

Solo Queue should be taken in small doses

Solo queue is absolutely terrible. 1500-1700 is full of trolls and overall bad players. It's like the bridge do high elo, with a bunch of planks missing and the ropes coming undone (that's my best attempt at a metaphor, take it or leave it). It's the most rage-inducing things in League of Legends. You'll be tearing it up 5 games in a row as mid, then all of a sudden you get support Xin Zhao on your team. The next game you get a surge ignite tristana. The next your top lane feeds their Tryndamere. The next game YOU feed their Tryndamere. The next your captain doesn't ban shaco.

You get the point. Pretty much solo queue is an untamable beast which presents you with several games that are impossible to win. I don't care if Reginald is playing mid at this elo, sure he will eventually rise to 2k where he belongs, but he is sure to drop some games because frankly some of them you just can't win.

I started to become mentally worn down by this, and occasionally started trolling and playing champions I had no idea how to play. The funny thing is in some of these games I still did better than most of my team.

Moral of the story: don't play too much solo queue or you may go insane.

Strong solo q champs

Since I had played 30ish solo q games before this, and none in the past two weeks or so before I started playing all these games, I actually wasn't too sure of who was op. Here's the most common bans in 1500-1700. I haven't played much THIS week so idk about sivir.

Shaco - If the other team has a shaco and that shaco is korean, you have already lost the game. Shaco stomps the **** out of solo queue with his ganks. He has loads of CC, a gap closer, and loads of burst. He can gank anywhere at any time. I would highly recommend getting good at shaco if you want to gain elo.

Kassadin - Kass hasn't ever been broken to me and as long as you wreck him in lane 1-6 and then just play cautiously and cs, you should be able to beat a kassadin. His ult is great for ganking and he's mobile with a strong late game. Kass can definitely carry games but I don't view him as a huge threat honestly.

Morgana - Morgana is another solo queue stomper. This is a champ that is also beatable but it's incredibly difficult to do so. Would definitely recommend learning her to stomp lanes.

Tryndamere - This guy is completely broken. Unlimited sustain in lane, and if you decide to fight him he's gonna crit you twice and then heal all your damage back up. Ganks? Nah I'll just spin through walls at no cost. Oh and he 3 shots carries. Oh and his ult is kinda good. Got exhaust? Haha he took cleanse.

Rammus - Seeing a lot of rammus bans too. He's a really good jungler but I think it's more of a fotm more than anything. I don't think rammus will ever be the best jungler in LoL but a well played rammus can break games and definitely in solo queue. Strong all around champ and he's a true tank with lots of damage potential.

Skarner - Another very strong jungler with a lot of gank potential and a fear factor. Skarner can demolish carries in teamfights with his suppression but he still has the shortest suppression in the game at the shortest range. Skarner's real advantage is that he can farm great for a jungler and that's a big thing with this new jungle.

Fizz - He's a great overall champ that can preform many roles. Since he's new it's a little unclear to me on whether or not he is actually op, but I have no doubt that he is completely viable (and perhaps op). His kit is very well designed and he's a pretty satisfying champion to play. Good job on riot's part.

Xerath - Holy **** this guy is broken. Burst of annie, range of brand, without taking into account his W. And you don't even need it! His W is more of a luxury than anything, he still 1 shots champions - at a safe distance too - without it. I actually don't see him banned very much but, he really should be.

Lee Sin - In the right hands Lee is still extremely strong, however there aren't many monks that impress me. He's being banned less and less but I still think he's really really good.

Graves - Early game is everything in solo q, and graves has it. His lane phase is just rediculous. Slight drop off late game but really nothing too significant. His kit is one of the best of the AD carries, and kits are basically what makes and breaks an AD carry.

Sion - Sion also breaks games in solo queue and his easy difficulty makes him a pretty easy choice to ban. Can burst with the best of 'em, provided the sion knows what he's doing.

I'm better at AD carry than I thought

...And because of this I'm gonna switch roles. AP carry will always be my main role but I am going to go back to AD carries as well. Reason being is that as fun as top solo is, I feel it is a really matchup based lane and it takes a lot of time to figure it all out. AP carry requires the same time, and I'd rather spend it on AP than offtank, since I feel I'm better at it.

AD is a pretty simple role to me, learn kits, farm all day, and have good positioning. That's all you really need to know to play AD carry, however it's a really hard role to pull off in solo queue, since you are probably relying on a random person to be a good support player and there's a good chance of that not happening. Duo lanes are always a role of the dice in solo q imo unless you know who is supporting you.

So what next for me?

I'm sorry if any of you enjoyed my strategy session posts and were missing them. Depending on real life I'll probably start up the series again and start maintaining the tier list. No promises for either one though because I have other commitments IRL that I may or may not make right now. Basically I'll either not be able to play LoL at all for the next month or so, or be able to play it a decent amount, or be able to play it a lot. We'll see. Thanks for reading.