VexRoth - All That Is Ranked

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/d918124c45daa29734e841cd6e368e2c.png width=700] [br] Our Bot lane got DESTROYED during laning phase. Fortunately, [[Tryndamere]] just split pushed all their structures down in every lane while they ran around in 2-3s that we could fight. E.g. they sent three to take our Top lane Inner turret. I was the only one nearby at the moment so I just chilled and watched them take the turret, which annoyed the hell out of [[Fizz]]. Grag aren't you going to do something? [[Draven]] steps forward past the turret they had just taken and I ult him into our team, who had finally gathered in the area. Good enough [[Fizz]]? Did make a mistake while ganking Top lane. [[Morgana]] shielded [[Draven]] so I opted to kill off the [[Morgana]], what I didn't realize was that [[Lulu]]'s [[Glitterlance]] was sufficicent to break Morgana's shield. That ended up getting [[Kog'maw]] killed and we didn't even get the [[Draven]]. So the main mistake was that I need to remember that the shield can be broken with sufficent magic damage then I you can do all the nasty things to the formerly shielded champion. Also need to remember to check for [[Zhonya's Hourglass]] on champions come Mid game. [[Katarina]] dodged an ult that would have sent her into our team if it had connected.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/b21eeb9c132d4afa239cdfc9b2ebf0b4.png width=700] [br] Guess my [[Shaco]] is not ready for prime time. Our tempo got fubarked by Bot lane getting destroyed. Top started out doing all right with some help from me, Mid [[Lucian]] was doing well, but once [[Ashe]] started dying to [[Twitch]] she just continually died. And their wombo combo with the Jarvan ultimate into a Rumble ultimate and followed up with a Twitch ultimate was devastating. Sad panda.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/8a95677ec9fdec4660c5e6a46d3ba83c.png width=700] [br] Urgh. Eventually killed [[Orianna]] after blowing her [[Flash]] then getting her to blow her [[Ghost]]. [[Jarvan IV]] wasted a helluva lot of time trying to gank [[Veigar]]. Farmed up nicely. Stole some of [[Jarvan IV]]'s camps. Sitting on like 7 stacks on [[The Dark Seal]]. Got Dragon though we lost [[Nami]] in the process and despite all that, we were down all our outer towers. Like really...[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/a2b91d4ca00af0b6d0047a4759af1b40.png width=700] [br] Should have dodged this one. The only reason I didn't was because [[Jarvan IV]] should beat a [[Riven]] per Champion.gg (but maybe it is wrong about that). We had her dead to rights under her turret with a wave and JIV wouldn't walk in and auto her once. After that she just shit on him. Bot lane was doing well, but then Blitzcrank roamed Mid and helped them kill Heimnerdinger. Then he roamed Top lane with Talon and they got a kill on Jarvan IV and took the first tower at Top. GG at that point. Because everyone on our team was so damn squishy. Super freaking duper irritating to actually build like a tank and not feel like one ever. I got a freaking bunch of grief for working toward [[Locket of the Iron Solari]] you know for the damn shield vs the Talon, Riven, and Twitch AoE and to mitigate a little damage from [[Warwick]]. Not my night for ranked league for sure.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/3a435cb218aff608891e9ffdab84779c.png width=700] [br] I was about to write a post about how pleasant ranked has been with respect to toxicity of late compared to blind pick, then there was Salt N Pepper here. Had to mute his dumb ass after he decided to help [[Thresh]] when Thresh was clearly dead and got himself killed too. Where were you J4? Ping ping ping. Not dying along with you idiots is what. It felt like we won this one simply by being more tenacious than they were and were able to stick in fights longer. Because we certainly didn't do it with smart plays. Case in point we knew [[Orianna]] and [[Lee Sin]] were Bot side, but Thresh went in on a hook and I knew that either I went ham right then and traded some kills or we lose everyone with nothing in return so I followed up despite knowing a bunch of us were going to die in the follow-up that was coming. Thresh knew he had screwed up, Lucian however thought it was just grand. Playmakers! That is what we want. Yeah, playmakers don't bet the pot on a losing hand.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/08f97e7e5cf0038469cd7b5e6a488a8b.png width=700] [br] Not too shabby. Bot lane needed more babysitting than I would have liked even before the opposing team started sending four people down there. [[Orianna]] while doing pretty well in Mid lane was behind on her roams and should have stayed in lane in a couple of cases to get their Mid tower much earlier. Don't get me wrong I was glad she was making the effort but sometimes it would have made more sense to stay Mid. That meant that they actually ended up getting first tower in Top lane when Ahri roamed and [[Warwick]] showed up for a tower dive. The got [[Garen]] and the tower. At one point [[Garen]] roamed down and deleted the [[Ahri]] while I came in from the other side preventing her from running toward me while Ori had her hemmed in the middle. [[Garen]] did Garen things. He was proxing on Yasuo and went on some odd chases here and there and usually wound up with a kill and got out a decent amount of the time. We had this one sewn up but my team minus [[Orianna]] who was dead at the time decided to run it up Bot lane and take a 4 v 3 despite the fact that I told them to wait for me to farm up my [[Guardian Angel]] for which I needed around 300 gold, at which point Orianna would also have been out on the map. Like I expected they died. So we had to wait it out. [[Orianna]] was beast modding it late game and kept deleting anyone that she could get in range of to delete. Could have been cleaner, but I will take the win. Definitely going to have to try to keep [[Hextech Gunblade]] or [[Blade of the Ruined King]] in my build as the lifesteal is literally a life saver. I was able to keep hammering away in fights where without it I would have gone down.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/2f36c80849fbd124c6a79c7e382ed954.png width=700] [br] The team played around and with [[Evelynn]] well. Had a lot of trouble getting to anyone useful between [[Galio]] being in our face and [[Vel'koz]] to provde cover fire. Wish I had actually bought a [[Tracker's Knife]] for this one. One for warding for [[Evelynn]] and two for ward hops so I could get the heck out of [[Vel'koz]] ults which were at least three of my deaths. Our team didn't help themselves. We had a couple of good fights when [[Maokai]] showed up to provide lock down and damage reduction, but he ran off after after two successful fights to go farm side waves. They reengaged after those fights and manage to screw us. I was like where the hell is the tree? Split pushing to get a tower that is going to take an hour for him to take down by himself. Okay. To be fair he had a rough lane, but he also didn't respect the [[Evelynn]] 3 minute gank so some of his undoing was his own doing. Felt like a really awkward game where they were being more aggressive/proactive than we were.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/fa8fcc22eabbdf931fef280ebc8dad90.png width=700] [br] Whew my team was slow to close this game out after getting a big lead in a relatively positive matchup in Bot lane. Gave time for [[Udyr]] to farm up despite getting dumpstered in the early game and become a split push threat, which was super irritating because we were dominating the game otherwise. [[Katarina]] had to back when we were pushing Mid lane to deal with him. She got him though we lost the turret he was after, then [[Morgana]] and [[Malphite]] stepped a little too far forward and we were able to delete them which allowed us to break their base. Could have ended so much cleaner by taking out Baron after we killed [[Udyr]] but [[Caitlyn]] kept chasing their team up Mid lane by herself, which gave me a case of the hives to watch. If she had just came when I had called it, we would take Baron and gotten back out before they could respawn, instead only two of us got out with Baron and then [[Riven]] died shortly thereafter leaving us with only one Baron.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/64a06c2a8545f2eb53861ee8e0add41a.png width=700] [br] [[Camille]] screwed up early game and took a tower shot so I killed her for it. Later I made a mistake and pushed out one more minion wave after almost killing Camille again not counting on how fast [[Camille]] can get back to lane. She came in hot and [[Lee Sin]] came in out of the river. I almost killed Lee for his effort, but didn't quite managed to pull it off. If I had just stayed on him I would have gotten him but I switched autos between him and Camille. The rest of the team was doing relatively well and we got some key picks with our CC and were able to punch them in the mouth and then rotate and take Baron and then finish the game.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth]The Mid Season Update is upon us so I figured it was time for a moment of reflection on the season thus far: I hit gold which was my main goal for the season. Had a solid streak of crushing it with [[Shyvana]] in the jungle and [[Nasus]] in Top lane with a bit of [[Nautilus]] thrown in mostly as support when I got autofilled to make my way out of Silver for the first time ever. While I still make a number of tactical, strategic, and mechanical errors every game, I feel like that number is less. I think a little more about why I am doing what I am doing and try to work out a strategy that will help the most as a game unfolds. I think a little more about lane match-ups and tailor my pathing accordingly when I can (some champs clear much better from one direction than the other). I pay more attention to the mini-map, my laner's position and health relative to the enemy laner's position and health. I even think a little about the enemy jungler's pathing. I think about what objectives can be taken after a successful fight/skirmish and I even try to think a little ahead of that in the sense of what would be biting off more than my team can chew. All the listed areas can use more clean-up. I watchedd a foggedftw2 stream and the way their [[Kha'zix]] jungle played a skirmish was just slick as hell to watch. You could see that the [[Kha'zix]] knew exactly what the enemy was capable of and what resources they had to turn the skirmish into a win including when to [[Flash]]. Or to put it another way they knew how to use everything at their disposal to make an advantageous play, which is the direction I'd like to take my game play. Recent games [img=https://i.gyazo.com/e2c77206f3f87b52cc0d9b2eeae9e75f.png width=700] [br] I've been ending up with Jungle about 90% of the time. Still using [[Nasus]] for Top lane when I get that position. He is simple to use and scales well and you can opt for an E max in really crappy match-ups. [[Kennen]] being one of the few match-ups that I haven't figured out how to deal with. In the jungle I've been rotating [[Jax]], [[Gragas]], and [[Ivern]]. [br] [img=https://i.gyazo.com/a1f2c6cf3ebd626f04f864c9b70cd26b.png width=700] [br] I had a good amount of success on [[Hecarim]] early in the season, but I started to struggle with him after they did some things to tone down his early game. I was a little surprised with how much success I had with [[Shyvana]] after I dusted her off when I started struggling with [[Hecarim]]. After I hit Gold my win rate on her also trailed off substantially and I felt that was due to early gank pressure being more important. That lead me to switching to [[Gragas]] and [[Jax]], both of which have hard CC built into their kit. [[Vi]] is also someone I continue to get decent mileage out of. I've tried some of the "OP" junglers such as [[Warwick]], [[Graves]], and [[Ivern]]. And while I'm might have good individual performances on those champions, I haven't been turning those performances into victories for whatever reason. My suspicion on Ivern is that it is simply a matter of my laner's not being able to transition the advantages I've given them into wins. Whereas higher level players can take those advantages and run with them. [[Graves]] I suspect is just higher level as far as his mechanical and positioning requirements, which is an area I still fall down somewhat on. An ADC main I am not. I'm going to be playing more on my alternative ranked account while I figure out how the Mid season changes are effecting the state of the game as I like it better when people are playing champions and using builds with which they are familiar.[/quote]