The Fool's Adventures In Scrubdom

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-01at32413PM_zps7cf013a3.png] Bans were [[Shen]], [[Blitzcrank]], [[Amumu]], [[Hecarim]], [[Thresh]], and [[Malphite]]. Easy enough game. Started red, as per usual when blue, and immediately forced [[Jayce]]'s [[Flash]] during my gank on top. I ran into [[Shaco]] during my lurking about to see if [[Jayce]] was going to come back in, so no actual kill out of it, but I did manage to murder [[Gragas]] in mid. I then counterganked [[Shaco]] up top, which buried both him and [[Jayce]] as both [[Garen]] and I were going to snowball out of control from that. [[Garen]] took his tower early, and I turned my attention elsewhere. Managed to get a double kill in bot lane and take the tower as well as a dragon, and I constantly kept the dragon timer so our team was there and ready for it exactly as it spawned. With two towers and two dragons on our side, the game was pretty much over. [[Shaco]] had no control over his own jungle, let alone the dragon, and couldn't pressure any of the lanes. Bot was set, mid was fine, top and I were snowballing. We just tower-dived them due to their lack of any actual tank ([[Leona]] had been shut down too hard to really count as one). They couldn't stop us. THINGS I SCREWED UP: - I don't actually remember what caused my deaths this game, so I can't really say for sure whether or not I screwed anything up.[/quote]

[quote=Thalia Kael]Doesn't really count but whoever built the second locket messed up a bit unless it was intended for some reason[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][quote=Thalia Kael] Doesn't really count but whoever built the second locket messed up a bit unless it was intended for some reason [/quote] That would be [[Garen]]. I completed my Locket very early on, as I usually do. He got his as one of his last items. Not sure why, but at that point we were so far ahead it didn't really matter.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-01at43925PM_zpsb2be7ba1.png] CAN'T KEEP ME OUT FOREVER HAHAHAHAHA Bans were [[Shen]], [[Hecarim]], [[Vayne]], [[Blitzcrank]], [[Lee Sin]], and... nothing. Their first pick forgot to select something for their third ban. Honestly, this was one of the most boring games I have played in a loooooong time. I wanted to do my standard start, but [[Renekton]] already had [[Kennen]] shoved to his tower, and in mid lane, the enemy [[Riven]] tried a level one tower-dive against [[Katarina]]. Meanwhile, bottom lane got a double kill all on its lonesome. [[Katarina]] just snowballed out of control, roamed, and murdered the ever-loving shit out of everyone. I didn't really do anything but farm and hold mid this game, other than make some very basic engages towards the end (which is how I died that one time; they burned everything on me, allowing [[Katarina]] to just ult for the win). THINGS I SCREWED UP: - Nothing that I can think of, mainly because [[Katarina]] could honestly have won this game without me. I still helped to push lanes and take objectives, but I didn't really make any plays or do anything other than very basic tank/initiator crap.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-01at53240PM_zps2515e97a.png] Bans were [[Blitzcrank]], [[Fizz]], [[Amumu]], [[Kassadin]], [[Malphite]], and [[Zed]]. [[Jarvan IV]], because he can carry [i]almost[/i] anything. This game started out fairly boring, since [[Kennen]] apparently wasn't paying attention when I said that I was going to gank for him immediately, and thus I didn't even manage to force a [[Flash]] from [[Tryndamere]]. Since their team was all AD, however, I advised everyone to start stacking armor early - for [[Kennen]] and [[Ahri]] to rush [[Seeker's Armguard]], for example. It helped [[Kennen]]. Didn't really help [[Ahri]]. She and [[Talon]] were trading kills in mid lane all throughout the laning phase. [[Ahri]] had a bad habit of going all-in just as I pinged that I was going to gank for her soon. But whatever, the game was mostly even. The first real event of this game came when I counterganked the enemy [[Aatrox]] in bottom lane. We killed [[Aatrox]] and [[Thresh]], took the bottom tower and snatched a free dragon in the bargain. Since I'm apparently the only one in Silver who actually keeps track of timers, every dragon after that was also free. There was only one real point where this game looked like it might spiral out of our hands. [[Ahri]] and [[Kennen]] both got caught out in the middle lane, and the enemy team was able to take everything, including the inhibitor, before we could stop them. So we were thoroughly on defense for a long stretch, while they took down all the turrets outside our base. We knew that they would try for Baron soon, and that we had to beat them to the punch. We thought we had it when we caught out [[Aatrox]] and [[Tryndamere]], but [[Caitlyn]], rather than helping us with Baron, decided to wander off to the middle lane and try to 1v1 [[Talon]], which meant that we didn't have the damage to take it before they respawned. So we went back to defending. Honestly, the thing that won this game for us was that I was constantly warding. They attempted to set up a five-man death squad in our wraith camp bush, thinking that one of us would facecheck and they would win the game on the spot. However, they were sitting right on top of one of my wards. [[Nami]] dropped [[Tidal Wave]] right across the entire group, and I followed up with [[Demacian Standard]], [[Dragon Strike]], [[Cataclysm]], and [[Randuin's Omen]] for the complete lockdown. That was an easy ace, and we took Baron immediately after. Then we stacked up in mid (though I had to take about a full minute to try and herd [[Caitlyn]] into line, since she kept trying to wander off and take CS in other lanes) and shoved through. I engaged on the enemy team under their inner middle tower, we aced them, and we pushed to win. THINGS I DID WRONG THIS GAME: - I missed two [[Smite]]s this game. We got both the dragon and the Baron regardless, but still, that was very sloppy.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-01at81830PM_zps8aaaebb6.png] Back to Silver IV! Whooo! Bans were [[Blitzcrank]], [[Shen]], [[Kassadin]], [[Amumu]], [[Hecarim]], and [[Malphite]]. The thing I've noticed about ninety-nine percent of the other junglers in this ELO is that they will always, always try to force situations. They'll waste their time with ganks that can't possibly pay off, or tower-dive early without the durability to make it out, or any number of other things. Honestly, I think one of the biggest edges I have here is patience. I was able to force [[Garen]]'s [[Flash]] early on, but nothing more than that. Other than that, I spent most of the early game farming; [[Elise]] had [[Garen]] thoroughly whipped, [[Kayle]] was constantly pushing her lane, and bot was taking care of itself with a few early kills. The first real event of the game happened when I came in to countergank [[Olaf]]. It ended up in a full-on three-to-three brawl in the river that, because I was able to E-Q smartly both to escape and to prevent [[Garen]] from doing the same, gave [[Kayle]] a kill and a big lead in her lane. Then it was back to farming. Until, that is, another opportunity presented itself: counterganking [[Olaf]] again, this time in the bottom lane. [[Draven]] and I split the three resultant kills, took the bottom tower, and snatched the first dragon of the game to boot. [[Elise]] took top shortly thereafter, and the rest of us converged on mid and were eventually able to take that down as well. That was pretty much it. Our advantage was too big at that point, particularly because I was keeping timer on the dragon and we were able to take it every time it came up thereafter. [[Draven]] and [[Kayle]] kept trying to say that we should take Baron, but we honestly didn't need it. Our advantage was too huge. That's another thing people do at this level: they just keep looking to take Baron because they have a lead. It's generally a bad idea. It's just an opportunity for the enemy team to collapse on you and catch you in a confined space. If you can win the game just by grouping up and pushing to win, there's no reason to go for Baron. Anyway, that was it. We pushed mid, took the inhibitor and both nexus turrets (but were too low to actually finish the nexus before they respawned), then rinsed and repeated for both other lanes. Retreat to base, heal, and charge down mid for the win. I am textbook as fuck. EDIT: Oh yeah. I "lost" the second game in the series because my router crapped out in the middle of champion select, and the client counted it as a dodge.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-02at22332PM_zps829bfae9.png] Sigh. A combination of terrible things. But at least I wasn't demoted! Bans were [[Shen]], [[Blitzcrank]], [[Ahri]], [[Malphite]], [[vayne]], and nothing; the enemy first pick didn't make a third ban. This game started out exceptionally boring. [[Garen]] got First Blood against [[Renekton]], but died to minions immediately after, so I went up top and farmed that for a bit. Then, on my way to mid, [[Elise]] got dropped to about 100 health by [[Kayle]] and had to back, so I farmed that as well. And then [[Garen]] died up top again, so I went back up to farm that and... you get the picture. Things were actually pretty even early on, despite [[Garen]] dying once in lane. Things started to go south, though, when [[Amumu]] ganked [[Elise]] (who hadn't bought so much as a single ward all game) and she started complaining that "this amumu is getting out of hand". She continuously failed to buy wards after that, too, so she just kept dying to him. We lost the middle tower pretty early, which put us behind, but I counterganked [[Amumu]] in bottom, grabbed a few kills, the tower, and a dragon. [[Garen]] also got the top tower because [[Renekton]] was roaming, so we actually had the lead. But... [[Elise]] and [[Alistar]]. [[Alistar]] had said in champion select that he didn't want to support and was very bad at it, but he waited to say this until everyone else had already locked in. He went [[Alistar]] because it was apparently the only support he had (he apparently tried to do jungle [[Alistar]] sometimes). And he was abysmal. He died multiple times in lane just by walking out in front of the enemy laners. He got caught out while we were setting up for teamfights because he decided to walk around behind the enemy team and sit in the bush. He sat on his [[Ruby Sightstone]] and never placed so much as a single ward (and no, I am not kidding here; neither [[Elise]] nor [[Alistar]] [i]ever warded[/i], leaving me and [[Garen]] - mostly me - to do all of it). He never contributed anything during teamfights, mostly because he was dead during them, but when he wasn't he just ran around and missed every [[Pulverize]]. No, don't ask me how you miss a [[Pulverize]]. He found a way. Meanwhile, [[Elise]], our AP carry, was fond of diving headfirst into the enemy team in spider form rather than casting her spells from afar. She was also one of those players who tries to blame [i]everyone else[/i] for everything that goes wrong. I know that my play this game wasn't perfect, but my ultimates were not, as she claimed, the reason she kept dying. Her headfirst dive into the enemy team was what killed her. And, honestly, I ulted [i]really damn well[/i] this game. It just wasn't enough, with [[Amumu]] and [[Renekton]] acting as a frontline and soaking up [[Corki]]'s missile spam. Both [[Alistar]] and [[Elise]] were also, for some ungodly reason, [i]determined[/i] that [[Amumu]] [i]had[/i] to be the first to die, as he was clearly the biggest threat on the enemy team. Half the fights, I was the only one aiming anything at [[Twitch]] or [[Kayle]], who were the actual damage sources. And this isn't a case of "attack the closest" - I mean that, in half the fights, [i]both [[Twitch]] and [[Kayle]] were exposed and on the front lines, but [[Elise]] made the conscious decision to attack [[Amumu]][/i]. Then, at about the twenty-five minute mark, [[Alistar]] ragequit because I asked him to start warding with his [[Ruby Sightstone]]. This was not me being petulant. There were four wards on the map at the time. [[Alistar]] had not died for several minutes, and his [[Ruby Sightstone]] had full charges. [i]Every single ward on the map was mine[/i]. But he had been raging the whole game beforehand, so it wasn't really that surprising. [[Garen]], [[Corki]] and I still put up a hell of a fight. The enemy team was [i]very[/i] bad about grouping up, so [[Garen]] was able to splitpush hard enough to get an inhibitor, and I managed a miracle [[Smite]]-steal on the Baron when the enemy was trying to take it. But we just couldn't do enough to turn it around with an [[Elise]] who insisted on attacking the tank instead of the carry when both were open and no one was pressuring her and an AFK [[Alistar]]. It eventually ended with [[Corki]], [[Garen]] and myself just running for the enemy nexus turrets. We couldn't win teamfights and we couldn't stop them from taking the newly-respawned Baron, but we might have been able to kill their nexus before they could react. Last-ditch effort, and it didn't work out, but at least we tried. THINGS I SCREWED UP: - Honestly, I think I played pretty well this game, though I might not have ganked quite enough during the early game. I'm not entirely sure that's a mistake, though, as the enemy team was warding heavily and I was at least guaranteed a moderate amount of gold and experience from just covering the open lanes.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-02at45649PM_zps6d3d0215.png] Bans were [[Amumu]], [[Nasus]], [[Shen]], [[Blitzcrank]], [[Thresh]], and [[Malphite]]. I was first pick for this game and just banned what anyone else wanted me to, but I didn't get to join the game until about three minutes in due to a client crash - hence my low kill involvement. Fortunately, our lanes didn't do too badly, and [[Jarvan IV]] is man enough to be able to complete his initial clear without a leash and still be at high enough health to gank effectively. [[Riven]] had [[Renekton]] pinned to its tower and our bot lane was completely wrecking face, so all I had to do was keep [[Ziggs]] from having a good day in the midlane and we were golden. I did just that. [[Ziggs]], who was previously bullying [[Veigar]] around hugely, was forced to burn his [[Flash]] during my first gank and spent the rest of the laning phase either tower-hugging or running for his life. By contrast, their [[Nocturne]], who had not started the game three minutes late, accomplished nothing, since I counterganked him the one time he tried to do anything about [[Riven]], forced his [[Flash]], and killed [[Renekton]] in the bargain. That was it. They couldn't do anything. Their jungler didn't contribute to the game, their top lane was severely bullied, their bottom lane was feeding outright (to the point where [[Nami]] was level 6 almost at the end of the game; she wasn't AFK, she just died that much and couldn't get near the minions), and I made sure that their only possible winning laner had a really, [i]really[/i] bad time of it. Eventually, we just grouped up in mid and crushed through. THINGS I SCREWED UP: - Every single one of my deaths this game was entirely unnecessary. In fact, pretty much everyone on my team who died shouldn't have. Our lead was too huge. But, again, we started getting complacent and doing stupid things that might have thrown the game just because it was funny to 1v3 and get a double kill before they finally brought you down.[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-02at73325PM_zps23ffd5d8.png] Sigh. Bans were [[Blitzcrank]], [[Malphite]], [[Thresh]], [[Kassadin]], [[Amumu]], and [[Shen]]. This was just... sad. Incredibly so. I know I keep talking about how it's my team throwing the games that I lose, but really, I don't know how else to say it in games like this. I know I'm not a Diamond-level player, and that I'm not carrying as hard as I could be, but this is just ridiculous. Our [[Nunu]] player decided he wanted to play chicken in champion select. He wanted to jungle, you see. The issue was that I had already locked in [[Sejuani]] jungle (since we had an AD mid and [[Teemo]] had said that he was probably going to go [[Jayce]] top but switched at the last minute), so he was playing chicken [i]when I could not possibly give in if I wanted to[/i]. And he didn't back down. So he locked in [[Smite]] [[Nunu]], and it took the entire team telling him to take [[Exhaust]] and try to support rather than screwing over my jungle for him to change - and even then, he waited until the last possible second. It didn't get any better once we got in-game. [[Nunu]] actually tried to [[Consume]] my blue buff for the steal, but luckily messed up the timing so that I was able to jungle regardless. I told [[Teemo]] that I was going to gank for him immediately after red (we were purple team), and since [[Trundle]] had no [[Flash]] it should have been an easy kill. But [[Teemo]], like all Silver players, took this as the signal to push as hard as he possibly could, so [[Trundle]] was pinned to tower when I arrived. I did, however, notice that [[Zyra]] had started with both [[Rejuvenation Bead]] and [[Faerie Charm]], and both her blue and green wards were still sitting in her inventory. I came down to bottom lane, forced both of them to [[Flash]] out, and then sat in the lane bush until [[Zyra]] facechecked ten seconds later and picked up an easy kill. I then went mid and handed a kill to [[Zed]] for an early 1/0/1. One pair of [[Boots of Mobility]] later and I was sitting pretty at 1/0/4, with another successful gank on bottom lane netting a double kill for [[Varus]] and another kill on [[Gragas]] for [[Zed]]. So you'd think that this was going well, just from looking at that. Nope. [[Teemo]] was feeding [[Trundle]] out of his mind. We lost the top tower before ten minutes without [[Hecarim]] so much as showing his face up there. [[Zed]] died to [[Gragas]] every time the fat man came back into lane. Even [[Varus]], who was probably the only other person on the team who actually knew what they were doing (as opposed to our [[Zed]] who sort of just rolled his face on the keyboard and picked up straggler kills in some later teamfights), couldn't stay alive in lane. Because [[Nunu]] was trolling. If it wasn't enough that [[Teemo]] and [[Zed]] were feeding, [[Nunu]] was doing the same [i]and[/i] wasting what gold he did get on the dumbest items possible. He had an [[Eleisa's Miracle]], for crying out loud. And double [[Boots of Mobility]] (which I didn't even think was still possible). And a [[Sightstone]] that he literally [i]never used[/i]. I was literally the only person on my team warding for the duration of this game. That's where all those hundreds of gold that are not evident in my inventory went: wards. Because absolutely no one else on our team was buying any, despite the fact that [[Trundle]] was roaming our jungle and kept jumping out to kill [[Zed]] every time he went back to lane. There wasn't anything I could have done. I did absolutely everything in my power. At multiple points during this game, I landed a perfect four-man [[Glacial Prison]] that hit everyone but [[Zyra]], then followed it up with [[Permafrost]] and [[Flail of the Northern Winds]] to immediately take [[Ashe]] out of the fight. Despite the fact that everyone on my team had free stats from my [[Locket of the Iron Solari]], that the enemy team had no AD carry, and that the enemy team [i]started every fight stunned for two seconds[/i], there was absolutely nothing my team could do. Even chaining [[Varus]]' CC with mine was no good. [[Zed]], [[Teemo]], and [[Nunu]] all fed too damn hard. THINGS I SCREWED UP THIS GAME: - This is one of those games where I'm pretty confident that I [i]did[/i] make mistakes, but they were simply lost in the sea of absolute, wretched failure that was my team. So I'm instead going to ask for any miscellaneous advice that higher-level players might have. After reading this thread, what is it that [i]you[/i] think I need to improve on?[/quote]

[quote=Foolamancer][img=http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u65/Maestro134/ScreenShot2013-10-02at84636PM_zps9519942c.png] Bans were [[Aatrox]], [[Jax]], [[Caitlyn]], [[Blitzcrank]], [[Kassadin]], and [[Thresh]]. Our last pick [[Brand]] was duo with our first pick [[Draven]], which was fine by itself. But [[Brand]] also turned out to be highly toxic. While this game was pretty simple overall, [[Brand]]'s constant insults wore thin after a while. Still. Despite my apparently low kill participation here, I'm largely the reason this game was so easy. [[Renekton]] had [[Lee Sin]] pinned to the tower, so I couldn't do my standard start, but I did catch [[Zac]] attempting to gank top for an easy countergank and First Blood. With a kill under his belt, [[Renekton]] snowballed the lane and systematically took [[Lee Sin]] to pieces. Meanwhile, down bot, I came in and handed a double kill to [[Draven]], which pretty much buried that lane as well. We followed up with a free dragon, and since I was keeping the timer, we got every single one that spawned after that without the other team being able to contest. The one weak point in the team was [[Brand]]. He didn't buy any wards to start and shoved the lane hard. Any jungler with half a brain would know that he was an easy gank, and so he got ganked by [[Zac]] not once, not twice, not three times, but [i]four times[/i]. Only the fourth one got anything, so I knew [[Zac]] was pretty much terrible, but [[Brand]] started complaining about getting no help from me while he was getting camped. Well, no duh; if you have your enemy pushed to the tower, are a champion with no mobility, and have no wards, yes, you're going to get ganked a lot. If you can't handle that, maybe you should buy wards instead of complaining that the jungler is putting more priority on helping lanes that seem to have some idea of what they're doing. I didn't actually say that in game, though. Instead I just told him to buy wards, to which he responded "I'm not arguing with a retard". He continued to never buy wards for the rest of the game and got continuously camped by [[Zac]], though, again, since [[Zac]] was pretty awful, nothing really came of it. I still donated him blues, because I was taking [[Zac]]'s and, hey, at least if he gets some farm his [[Pyroclasm]] will be a terror in teamfights. It's not like he was ever in danger of really losing them; he only died once more in lane, because he actually managed to pop [[Zac]]'s passive during one gank attempt but didn't back off while [[Annie]] had a stun-[[Tibbers]] at the ready (and then blamed me for his death, but w/e). And that was pretty early on. [[Annie]] was fond of roaming, and was really the only threat their team had. She was constantly going up to top lane or down to bottom lane to try and get kills. Most of the time, she managed at least one, but whenever I was in the area she paid for it with her life. She did get one very nice countergank in on me, though. I gotta give props for that. I came down to bot lane through the lane bushes, which were unwarded, to try and kill [[Zac]] again. As it turned out, [[Annie]] was lurking in the [i]other[/i] bush, so I exploded. But that wasn't enough. Everyone else on their team was shut down hard. I ganked [[Lee Sin]] again, killed him, and took the tower with [[Renekton]]. I took mid while [[Annie]] was off roaming, killed her down in bottom, took that tower as well, and we just stacked up in mid and pushed to win. THINGS I SCREWED UP: While I did a good job of getting all the lanes snowballing hard this game, I did make a couple mistakes. One, I forgot to activate [[Locket of the Iron Solari]] during the final push, which resulted in my death. If I had activated it, I would have survived. Two, after [[Brand]] died to the [[Cell Division]] bait in midlane, I was holding the tower and underestimated how much damage [[Annie]] had at her disposal. I died to [[Disintegrate]], like an idiot. Three, that countergank that [[Annie]] managed in bot lane shouldn't have happened. Should have warded the other lane bush before going for the engage. We still won the ensuing fight, but it could have been 0-for-3 instead of 1-for-2.[/quote]