Wayne3100 Ranked Journey (EUW Server)

[quote=Xeronn]Haha, I used to do that all the time. Then I started making my own playlist.[/quote]

[quote=koksei]Wow dat vid. Lee Sin + Toplane it is noice[/quote]

[quote=Wayne3100]Alright, time to wrap it up as far as Season 2 is concerned. But not to worry, my friends, because I won't leave you guys without at least one last enormous wall of text! :D So here it is: some statistics from Season 2, my Season 3 goal, changes in terms of roles/champs, additional features for my Season 3 thread and whatever else I think of while I'm typing, let's get going! [center][h4][color=red]Don't worry: there is a tl;dr at the end of this post, just keep scrolling down![/color][/h4][/center] [center][h2]Some Stats from Season 2[/h2][/center] Games Played since opening this thread: 43 Wins: 23 Defeats: 20 [u]Solo Queue vs Duo Queue[/u] Solo Queue: 11-13 Duo Queue: 12-7 [u]Roles Played (Winrate)[/u] Support: 15 (47%) AP Carry: 11 (45%) AD Carry: 7 (43%) Solo Top: 5 (80%) Jungle: 5 (80%) [u]Top 3 Winrates (for Champs with 5 or more games played)*[/u] [list=1][*][[Amumu]]: 5-0 (100%) [*][[Janna]]: 9-1 (90%) [*][[Caitlyn]]: 5-1 (83%) [/list] [u]Top 3 KDA ratios (for Champs with 5 or more games played)*[/u] [list=1][*][[Janna]]: 7,94 [*][[Amumu]]: 7,82 [*][[Sona]]: 6,37 [/list] [h4]* Including Ranked 5s and matches played before opening this thread[/h4] [center][h2]My "True Elo"[/h2][/center] Right now, after playing about three more games that I haven't posted in this thread (2 duo queue, 1 solo), my elo is exactly 1500. However, with ~60 ranked games played, I would hardly say that it is an accurate rating and it's definitely not the highest elo I'm able to reach right now. I don't mean to sound arrogant saying that, that's just the way I see it. In recent weeks, I feel I've been performing well and improving a lot as a player, especially as I'm also learning to play top atm (I'll get to that in a moment, but you may have noticed my trailer mentioning that that'll be my main role in Season 3). I've played against a lot of different players - a lot of lower elo opponents, but possibly even more equal/higher elo opponents - and have performed well. What I would say my actual elo is? Hard to tell, though I'd say somewhere between 1600 and 1700. Hard to explain exactly why I feel that would be my elo, though I guess the most logical reason would be my normal elo which is in that range after over 1100 wins. [center][h2]My Strengths & Weaknesses[/h2][/center] I'll start by listing some bacis mechanics and other aspects of the game that I feel I'm pretty good at before going into those I really need to work on. As a sidenote, I'd encourage anyone who's trying to improve as a player to take a good look at his/her own strengths and weaknesses as it makes it a lot clearer what you need to be focusing on to become a better player. [center][color=#00ff00][b]The Positives[/b][/color][/center] [list][*][color=#00ff00]Farming[/color]: A long time ago (when I was not yet level 30), I started to realise how important it is to learn how to cs properly, especially as an AD Carry (my most played role back then). Since that, my cs increased from being absolutely dramatic to decent/good, but more recently I stopped paying attention to exactly how high my cs was. Instead, all I'd do is simply compare my cs to the cs of the enemy laner and I'd be happy or sad based on whether I would have more/less cs. Then one day Wintermond commented in this thread saying I should farm better. My initial response to this was "lol, wtf? I'm pretty sure I'm good at that bro". He explained that he wasn't trying to tell me I was bad, but that I should start aiming higher in order to make sure that I'd always outfarm my opponent and increase my chances of carrying a game (keeping in mind that a kill is roughly 15 cs). A good (though hard) goal to go for, he said, was aiming to hit 100 cs at 12 minutes. HUGE wake-up call (Caps to prove it! 8D). Since then, I have played 12 minute custom games on approximately 30 different champs that are or might end up in my roster, playing some of them several times. Because it is easier to cs in custom games (without an enemy laner or jungler to screw you over), results of these custom games varied between 110 and 124 cs at 12 minutes. A bit unrealistic, but still over 6 hours of purely practising how to cs properly. In normals, I have yet to reach 100 cs at 12 minutes (96 at 11:15 before recalling to get items and 98 at 11:30 before dying in a Dragon fight being the closest I've gotten so far :P), but I have still noticed a dramatic improvement and I will continue to work on this to make sure I get the highest amount of cs possible in every game I play. The reason I'm writing so much about this is simple: I feel cs is an [i]incredibly important[/i] mechanic, but it's also [i]incredibly easy[/i] to work on. Literally all you need to do is pay attention to it and practice, practice, practice. Custom games might feel boring, but they help. [*][color=#00ff00]Map Awareness[/color]: Being primarily a support player for my team, I often check the map to see whether there are any incoming ganks and I ping my teammates back whenever necessary. I also make sure to call it when my enemy laner is missing, because I know not everyone pays close attention the minimap. [*][color=#00ff00]Reactions[/color]: Not sure what to say about this, honestly. I literally used [[Vladimir]]'s [[Sanguine Pool]] to dodge [[Vayne]]'s [[Condemn]] after she used it when I was standing right next to her the other day. [*][color=#00ff00]Communication[/color]: I don't ignore teammates, I don't flame them (even though in my head I won't always have positive thoughts about them), I encourage teammates to stay positive and compliment them on good plays, I'm not too cocky to admit it when I made a mistake but also not too shy to point it out when I think a teammate should've handled something differently (though I always try to be careful when doing that as some people will just ragequit if they don't agree >.>). Overall, I'd say I'm a pretty good team player. [/list] [center][color=red][b]The Negatives[/b][/color][/center] [list] [*][color=red]Map Awareness[/color]: Wait what, positive [i]and[/i] negative? Yup. The reason for this is that my map awareness generally is good, but I still [i]lose[/i] a lot of map awareness in specific situations: [list] [*]When focusing heavily on cs, mainly with champions I'm unfamiliar with [*]When trying to look for an opening to make a play, for instance by trying to hit [[Rocket Grab]] or start a combo by hitting [[Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike]]. This happens more often when an enemy is low on health and I'm looking for them to make a wrong move so I can finish them off. [/list] [*][color=red]Teamfighting/Positioning[/color]: Although I don't get caught out of position all that often, something tells me my positioning in general is still mediocre. When I played some duo queue games with Wintermond, I noticed I got caught a lot more, which leads me to believe the only reason I don't experience this more often is because I don't normally play against 2.2k teams like in those games. Same goes for my decision making in teamfights. Hard to work on though :/ [*][color=red]Making Calls[/color]: I communicate with my team, but struggle to influence the game by being a leader and telling my team when to go for an objective, such as Dragon, Baron or simply pusing a tower down. In a recent [[Irelia]] game I played, I made a Baron call when I saw two enemies in bot lane while we were all near mid and top and it almost turned the game around in our favour after being heavily behind. I should really do that more often. [*][color=red]Helping out other lanes[/color]: I don't gank sidelanes often when I'm mid, I don't go mid often when I'm top. If I'm well ahead, I try snowballing by getting more kills on my enemy laner, using everything in the process, including my ult and summoner spells. Often enough, I end up losing a game in which I won my lane and I feel me helping out other lanes earlier could prevent that from happening. Ultimately, whether you win or not is always gonna depend on whether your teammates are any good, but that does not mean you can't influence their performance by helping them out in lane. [/list] All in all, I'd definitely say my laning phase is my strongest phase. I played against an 1857 [[Irelia]] as [[Jax]] yesterday and I went even with her in lane (both had 1 kill, both had an equal amount of cs), but at the end of the game she had 100+ cs more than me and was fed. Obviously this was mainly because we were losing at this point, but the gap shouldn't have been so big as I could've splitpushed more to get some farm or just kill some jungle creeps. In the end, it allowed her to get [[Trinity Force]], [[Randuin's Omen]], [[Wit's End]] and [[Guardian Angel]] while I had a [[Bilgewater Cutlass]] and [[Frozen Mallet]] (which should've been [[Trinity Force]] but I decided to build tankier when we fell behind). Still a great game that showed me exactly what I need to work on though. [center][h2]My Season 3 Goal[/h2][/center] [center][img=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120924212555/leagueoflegends/images/5/5f/PlatinumBadgeSeason2.png][/center] Speaking of 1857 elo, that brings me to my Season 3 Goal (again one that was in the video I posted earlier): [color=#E5E4E2]Platinum[/color]! Now, people who've followed this thread and saw me hit gold after approximately 60 games might wonder: "Why does this guy think he is a platinum player?". The answer is simple: I don't. However, I think I have the [i]potential[/i] to reach platinum, which is why I'm going for it. A season is a [i]long[/i] time (~a year) and I feel that'll give me enough time to improve drastically. [center][h2]A New Main Role/Champ[/h2][/center] As I said, my trailer pretty much spoiled this, but while going for Platinum in Solo Queue, I want to main Solo Top. Why? [list=1][*]I enjoy playing Solo Top. [*]I feel I have little to learn in bot lane and it would make more sense for my development as an all-around player to focus on something else. [*]I feel like playing a solo lane might improve my chances of winning (ever so slightly) for not having to depend on your laning partner having a brain as much (though obviously you're always gonna need a decent/good team to stand a chance in the end). [/list] As a result of this decision, I've started playing (a lot of) Solo Top games recently to make sure I play enough champions at a respectable level and learn the lane mechanics that come into play. Obviously, me maining top does not mean I won't be playing other roles at all anymore and I still expect to play a lot of AD (especially in the beginning) and support (especially at higher elos) as well. As for my new main champion, I have chosen to main [[Lee Sin]]. I feel I haven't had a real main in a while, but Lee is one of my most played champions already and he's just incredibly fun to play. He loses little to no matchups in top lane, is a champion that allows for some epic plays and can also jungle in case it's needed (that is most likely in case someone else is being a douchebag and decides to pick a top after I've already picked one >.>). The other champion I feel I'm good on right now is [[Irelia]], with more champions being worked on as we speak (for more info check the roster below). [center][h2]My Season 3 Champion Roster[/h2][/center] Throughout Season 2, I have often made changes to my roster of champions, adding champions I picked up along the way, removing champions I didn't really play all that often etc. In the end, I tried keeping my roster as small as possible to ensure that all champs in my roster were champs I actually played. For Season 3, I have decided to stop trying to limit/reduce the amount of champions in my roster. The number of champions I'll play [i]regularly[/i] will probably be limited, but there are a lot of champions I [i]can[/i] play so I've decided to go for a big roster of champs. Right now, I'd say the roster will look something like this (roles in order of what I expect to play most to what I expect to play least, champs in alphabetical order): Solo Top: [[Irelia]], [[Jax]]*, [[Lee Sin]], [[Olaf]]*, [[Rumble]]*, [[Xin Zhao]]* AD Carry: [[Caitlyn]], [[Ezreal]], [[Graves]], [[Miss Fortune]], [[Sivir]], [[Varus]] Support: [[Blitzcrank]], [[Janna]], [[Leona]], [[Lulu]], [[Nunu]], [[Sona]] AP Mid: [[Ahri]]*, [[Morgana]], [[Orianna]]*, [[Ziggs]], [[Zyra]] Jungle: [[Amumu]], [[Lee Sin]], [[Maokai]]*, [[Skarner]] The champions with a * are champions I still need to work on before playing them in ranked. Whenever I learn a new champion, I'll simply add it to the roster. Like I said though, I won't be reducing the roster and removing champions anymore, because even if I don't end up playing a certain champion often, that doesn't mean I can't play that champion. I also still have a lot of champions that I own which I need to test more and champs I might buy and add later. [center][h2]Additional Thread Features[/h2][/center] Alright, we're almost there, stick with me now, one more thing to go. In addition to this thread being a place where I can share my journey with all of you, I also want to add some things to make it more interesting for you guys, which is why I will most likely include a lot more video material in my new thread. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do yet, but some things I'm considering are: [list] [*]Compilations of great plays or big derps (both by me as well as teammates/enemies in ranked games) [*]Videos of me watching replays of my own games and analysing them, giving an indication of the sort of things I look at when doing that. [*]A serie of How-To videos focusing on sharing information about important mechanics. This includes specific lane mechanics as well as basic mechanics like farming etc. Aimed at players new to the game (basic mechanics) or new to a certain role (specific lane mechanics). [*]Matchup videos that would basically consist of a replay of a good game I had as <Champ X> vs <Champ Y> and would show how to play certain specific matchups. In-depth champion- and lanespecific material aimed at both new as well as experienced players. [/list] Part of these ideas are just videos that would be cool to watch, whereas others could also be helpful to those reading this who are interested in improving as a player. I'm not sure whether it would be a good idea to make these and how often I'd do it, but if anyone would learn anything from these kind of videos it would definitely be worth it for me to invest time in making them. Apart from extra video material, I will also try to get a stream working. That is: I have a working stream, I just don't really use it and I still have to mess around with some settings. Also, playlist needed :/ [center][h3][color=red]GIVE ME THAT TL;DR ALREADY![/color][/h3][/center] [list] [*]I will be maining Solo Top in Season 3, though I still expect to play support and AD a lot too. I expect my main champion to be [[Lee Sin]]. [*]My strengths right now are my farming, map awareness and team communication. My weaknesses are losing a lot of that map awareness when trying to make plays, my positioning and decision making in teamfights and helping out my team(mates) in other lanes. [*]My Season 3 Goal is Platinum. I am not a platinum player, but I believe I have the potential to become one. [*]The thread will have screenshots of games like this one and additional features, including more videos and (most likely) a working stream. [*]I feel silly writing such a long post as it gives the suggestion that I think I'm awesome and everyone should be interested in me, which I assure you is not the case at all. [/list] ----- Will leave this open until I make my new thread (probably won't make it too soon as I'm not planning on diving into ranked as soon as Season 3 starts; instead I'll take some time practising with my top lane champs while letting others reach their rightful elos so I don't randomly lose games because I get in a team with 800 elo teammates who are at my elo because of the reset). Thanks for skipping/reading this post and good luck in Season 3, everyone! :)[/quote]

[quote=Minho]My god that post is long. Great self-reflection here, Wayne![/quote]

[quote=Luther3000]good god that post[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]And here I thought you were spending time with your friends. :3[/quote]

[quote=Wayne3100]Oh trust me I did not type this in one go. Notepad OP. And yes I did spend time with my friends and it was lovely tyvm for asking.[/quote]

[quote=Crows foot]Thanks for that long post :-)[/quote]