Cue the Jaws theme music: McSharkson takes on...

[quote=McSharkson]So earlier this week, I went and had Chinese food. After the meal, we got our obligatory fortune cookies. And mine said 'The sky is the limit this month'. That can mean only one thing - time to see how far I get in ranked! Well, that and season's end is in two months' time. Wish me luck! FIRST MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/first-ranked_zps7c68ae81.png[/IMG] This was last night. Played [[Lucian]] because I was coming off a match where I went 21-3 with him in normals and a friend who had been spectating encouraged me to play him more. Since I was coming off such a curbstomp game, figured why not? Scored First Blood on [[Varus]], though I died immediately thereafter for my first death. Both our jungle [[Fiddlesticks]] and support [[Thresh]] were good, and Fidd's first gank led to a kill on [[Nami]] for me. More farming after that, then got ganked by [[Amumu]] and swear I got hit by every one of their ults and still almost survived, but got killed by a Varus snipe. Burned my Barrier and Flash in that escape attempt, which led to me losing an exchange shortly thereafter because his Barrier was still up and led to my third death. Cleaned up my act after that - another Fiddle gank led to him killing Varus, and I managed to get a pickoff with my ult on Nami for kill number three. After more farming, they went for dragon and we tried to contest, but Fiddle got killed and they took it - however, we were able to get a few pickoffs in the ensuing fight - I think I got Amumu and Nami, and think we also got [[Pantheon]] but I don't remember exactly. After that fight we managed to take a few towers, making it a moot point. Game actually didn't last too much longer after that - after [[Jayce]] and Fiddle caught Varus out of position shortly therafter, we took inner mid tower, then had a teamfight right under their mid inhibitor turret while numbers were in our favor - killed Amumu in that one. With that we just pushed to win - got the seventh kill when they were trying to defend their nexus. Of my other teammates, Jayce was afk early but managed to catchup without too many problems, and I didn't see much of [[Jarvan IV]] outside of the last teamfight. The reason they were outnumbered late was that Nami dc'd somewhere later on, blamed her ISP - and [[Lux]] quit towards the end (or so my spectating friend told me), which is why you got the report requests. Still, look at our team comp - I don't think it would have really mattered either way, come late game. Also, managed to be captain despite this being my first ranked match, so that was cool.[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]SECOND MATCH: Forgot to screen shot it, but here's the lineup: Me: [[Zed]] - 6/8/6 | 10.2k | 141 | Tiamat/BotRK/Brutalizer/Mercury Treads (Homeguard)/Spectre's Cowl [[Wukong]] - 11/5/3 | 11.3k | 130 | Hydra/Mercury Treads/Trinity Force/Brutalizer/Ruby Crystal [[Nunu]] - 2/9/16 | 9.4k | 52 | Doran's Ring/Philosopher's/Frozen Heart/Mercury Treads/Kage's/Warden's Mail [[Vayne]] - 7/7/9 | 13.5k | 257 | Doran's Blade/Berserker's Greaves (Homeguard)/Quicksilver Sash/Phantom Dancer/Infinity Edge/BotRK [[Hecarim]] - 5/6/13 | 9.7k | 72 | SotAG/Boots of Swiftness/Spirit Visage/Iceborn Gauntlet [[Teemo]] - 10/11/7 | 11.7k | 133 | BotRK/Needlessly Large Rod/Liandry's/Nashor's [[Varus]] - 16/6/8 | 12.9k | 93 | Berserker's Greaves/Infinity Edge/Bloodthirster/Bilgewater Cutlass/Dagger [[Gragas]] - 3/4/14 | 10.5k | 136 | Rod of Ages/Athene's/Sorcerer's/Doran's Ring/Blasting Wand [[Fiddlesticks]] - 3/7/18 | 10.3k | 103 | SotSW/Boots/Liandry's/Morellonomicon/Blasting Wand [[Morgana]] - 3/3/19 | 10.4k | 41 | Ruby Sightstone/Blasting Wand/Zhonya's/Philosopher's/Sorcerer's (Homeguard) We lost. Despite Vayne's absurd farm advantage, Varus got fed because he kept getting kills in lane. I tried wandering down from mid a couple times, but only once did I effectively catch him and the support. Despite winning some early team fights and taking an inhibitor, they managed to take Baron because we lacked ward coverage. I know you can't blame the support alone for lack of sight on Baron, but given that I think I bought more wards than he did - well, I'm blaming him a little bit. I'll give their team credit - they did do an exceptional job of peeling people off of Varus towards the end, and Varus himself kept himself very well positioned to prevent me from jumping on him and bursting his face in. Got silenced by Fiddle in the last team fight when I was trying to jump on Varus - with Baron buff they won the fight with Varus, Morgana and Gragas still alive and pushed to win. I spawned in time to ult in on Varus, but not enough to keep them from blowing the Nexus. Didn't help that the first pick was Morgana - I was second pick, and we were second team pick, and most of my favorite mids get countered by her, so I chose Zed. However, their next picks were Gragas and Varus, so it became apparent she was actually going support. Might have played someone else if I knew that.[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]THIRD MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/third-ranked_zps40792502.png[/IMG] Not much to talk about this match - was one of the later picks this time and ended up supporting. Could have taken ADC, but I let [[Vayne]] be Vayne. Their team comp was questionable, to say the least, and early on the 'support' [[Teemo]] ended up taking up most of [[Graves]]' farm. [[Amumu]] got a good couple of ganks early on - I died because they had a strange tendency to focus me of all people, but whatever - I'll happily take the focus instead of Vayne. She got fed as all hell and that was pretty much game. Take that win any day.[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]It's a bad habit for me to keep images of my wins and not of my losses, but I was very... frustrated after these two games and didn't think about screenshoting them. Didn't help that I played them two in a row, making it a cumulative infuriating effect. Still, for posterity's sake, I'll talk about them, just in case anybody is actually reading this and wants to help me improve. FOURTH & FIFTH MATCH: First game ended as 2/8/1 for me as [[Lissandra]] - I was killed in the invade by my lane opponent, [[Swain]], and he used the advantage in levels to all-in me the moment he hit six and got the kill. Jungler fed him one more kill, and now with his heavy advantage, he proceeded to zone the ever-loving hell out of me, and I had very little recourse, as he could easily kill me if I was positioned wrong, as he proved by killing me one more time even thought I was safe under tower. He proceeded to take tower, go roaming, get a bunch more kills and that was basically gg. Got killed several more times because people didn't want to surrender and even though I was certain the game was lost, I'm not one to sit afk in fountain. Second game ended as 1/6/17 for me as [[Sejuani]] - this time the problem was top, where I repeatedly tried to gank their [[Nasus]], who was beating up our top [[Sion]] in CS. However, Sion's idea of helping me during these ganks was to stun him then follow up with... absolutely nothing, which meant I never actually got to kill him because I couldn't do enough damage to him. Soon enough he was mega-farmed, and even though we won a team fight or two early, eventually the Nasus was nigh unkillable. We got him once late - when it was 3v1 in our base - and still took nearly everything we had. These were both yesterday. Today, I had a bit more luck... SIXTH MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/sixth-ranked_zpsb670e123.png[/IMG] Was last pick this time, but surprisingly got what I wanted - first three went jung/mid/top and the fourth pick didn't want to adc, so I ended up taking it. [[Elise]] scared us early when she failed to connect until most of us were six, but she caught up with no trouble at all. [[Ahri]] carried us early - crushed [[Quinn]], which probably led to her early dc, then came down and ganked twice at bot in lieu of our absent Elise, which helped me get a couple kills. They put a hell of a lot of pressure down bot - I presume to shut me down because I was [[Vayne]]. Eventually, however, we pushed mid and got into a teamfight wherein I managed a triple - and apparent that they couldn't win a 4v5 against both a fed Ahri and Vayne, they surrendered. Would be nice to win a match without having silly things like random dc's, but I'll take it, nonetheless. And no, I don't know what [[Katarina]] was thinking either.[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]So the last few games were done a bit differently. A friend of mine - one of the ones who actually got me into League - decided to duo queue with me for a couple games. He doesn't like solo queue (much prefers Treeline), but he's still ranked as Silver III, so it was a good couple of test matches to see how I was vis-a-vis Silvers. And I was honestly pleasantly surprised at the results. SEVENTH MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/seventh-ranked_zps0fe88af5.png[/IMG] Laning was fairly even - I was behind the Ezreal in farm, but I scored kills off ganks. Unfortunately, my friend playing [[Lee Sin]] was camped by their jungler on top, and [[Kassadin]] thumped [[Fizz]] on mid. I ended up going Quicksilver into Mercurial Scimitar partially to keep from getting [[Warwick]] ulted, but also in hopes of having a chance against Kassadin - that said, could never really shut him down. Fizz quit late in the game, and we ended up surrendering. EIGHTH MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/eighth-ranked_zpsf61f2397.png[/IMG] This game was a bit frustrating early, as [[Varus]] and I didn't coordinate particularly well despite best efforts. [[Ashe]] got really strong, and midgame it didn't look like we could take her - so my friend as [[Mordekaiser]] did what Morde does best and turned her into our best weapon. Once we could consistently focus down Ashe and turn her, we won the game. Pleased with my performance as Sona - got some good ults off, and kept my team mostly alive during team fights. A little later on, somebody on Mobafire chat was looking for a duo partner - and I figured why not? NINTH MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/ninth-ranked_zpsec2049cc.png[/IMG] Story of this match - I was squishy Vayne and Akali focused me the instant she saw me, and I could do jack all to contribute to fights. She got incredibly fed and that was gg. The Akali was nice after the match though at least, as you can see from our long conversation. This was all last night. Then today, since I was so close, I figured I'd play the last provisional. TENTH MATCH: [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/tenth-ranked_zpsfef1f834.png[/IMG] Our team was all AD thanks to confusion amongst one of our team members - who did not speak English and thus didn't coordinate with all the others. That said, being all AD didn't really matter because they built a grand total of two Wriggle's Lanterns for armor, making it a relatively moot point. It felt like I was the only one who considered building anything defensive on either team, but still, it worked out in the end. I'm not sure what happened with Rengar - he was there at the end, but I don't know if he dc'ed midgame or just didn't get any levels for whatever reason. Final result: 5/10 for provisionals, placed in Silver V. Glad to have escaped bronze.[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]I wanted to burn through provisionals so I could get ranked before classes started. Since classes have, I'll probably be going much slower, but still wanted to update the few games I have got in in the past few days. First game I was [[Nasus]] jungle, but didn't really matter because last pick decided that support was beneath him and started farming bot lane for himself, causing our adc to rage quit. It went downhill quickly from there. Next game was my first ranked [[Kennen]] game. Played top, but didn't do as well as I'd liked and was admittedly carried a bit. Still, we managed to get our ADC [[Draven]] fed, and he wrecked the enemy team. Contributed to teamfights with my ultimate, though, so I'd like to think it wasn't a total failure. [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/Siegreich/League%20Ranked/silverV-3_zpsbdc1002c.png[/img] Well that was a lot more LP than I was expecting, but apparently [[Zed]] was Gold IV, if Lolnexus is to be believed. He had connection issues though. Probably the first time I've ever been positive as a support, and it's mostly due to an early double kill I had no intention of getting. Fizz came in for a gank, I W-E-Q'd into [[Graves]] and [[Taric]], but we did enough damage that the delayed eruption for my W managed to get Graves. We chased Taric to his tower and I prepared to E-Q again to stun him for [[Caitlyn]] to kill, but E-Q was enough damage to kill him as well, and Caitlyn only got assists off it. Anyways, we managed to take advantage of Zed's absence during the mid game, but late game he came back - only we had a lead by then. Their entirely AD team kind of made it easy to counter build (it's the only reason Vlad got Iceborn, I think) Late game we had pushed to Baron and were preparing to Baron when they tried to counter. We managed to push them off at the cost of [[Fizz]] and [[Vladimir]], but me, Caitlyn and [[Wukong]] managed to survive and take Baron. While we were pushing to win they came back up, and started diving for Caitlyn. She did a lot of damage, but failed to score any kills, and despite my best efforts, couldn't keep all of them off her. It allowed Wukong to come in and clean house, however - and he scored a penta. That ended up being game.[/quote]

[quote=Lucorian5]+30 LP for a win...must be nice :')[/quote]

[quote=McSharkson]Yeah, well... doesn't matter at the moment, because I've gone on a losing streak that's wiped out my entire LP gains, so... yeah. I keep waiting for happier news to start adding posts, but at this rate, I might not be so lucky for a while. :/[/quote]

[quote=Lord Kesharq]man 30LP for a win....cant recall the last time i saw anyone get that much lol. and you should post up the loses too, just for the hell of it.[/quote]

[quote=1jamie50][quote=Lord Kesharq] man 30LP for a win....cant recall the last time i saw anyone get that much lol. and you should post up the loses too, just for the hell of it. [/quote] IKR? I got +30 one time in the history of ranked and that's only because I was at like a 53% WR in Bronze 2 or 3 or something like that.[/quote]