tl;dr: I jungled Taric for the first time ever in my first game in Silver II. I pulled 0 ganks and my teammates *****ed at me, but we still won because Taric is op and doesn't care how bad I am at jungle.

So yeah, some ppl duo'd bot and kicked me out of support and into the jungle. Now, putting me in jungle is just a horrendous idea. I don't play it ever, so it's no surprise that my instincts are god awful. And then the only jungler I'm halfway comfortable with ( Jax) got taken by the other team. Nobody stepped up to take jungle, so I was like, well sh*t, I guess I'll choose an op support, Taric and try to jungle with him.

Now I've seen TheOddOne Taric jungle for funsies, so I know it's doable. It basically comes down to instincts of when to gank. And as I already mentioned, said instincts are terrible.

So I go ahead and start wolves, get blue, and make my way around the jungle. I think I took a wrong turn somewhere because I end up at wolves with every camp cleared besides double golems, and I'm still stuck at lvl 3, while everyone else in the game is lvl 4+. I'm too low to do anything else, so I gotta base. Not a good start.

By the time I get back to the jungle, my bot's got first blood, so that's good. I figure I'll go elsewhere. I head up top where Renekton and enemy Darius are going at it. The moment I come near, Darius runs off. So, top's warded. Great. Now where do I go? The enemy mid is missing. Guess I'll go and clear some camps.

From here, things start to go downhill for my team. It seems like no matter where I go, someone dies elsewhere. In particular, Renekton starts to die. a lot. and of course he starts *****ing at me for the 0 ganks I've put out. And it's true, I've had 0 successful ganks. Darius warded well, so I didn't know what to do there. I went bot a couple times, but they decided to die too before I made it down there, so I wasn't sure what to do. At that point, Renekton was down 0-4, lost his turret, and I feel like the whole team is probably getting really impatient with me.

My team's mid Nidalee senses she's got to step up her game and take some risks or something, because she buys a Mejai's Soulstealer and essentially leaves her lane. Permanently. She goes and camps bot, and I follow her lead. We go and 4 man camp bot and finally, some progress. We get a turret. And I steal a kill somewhere in the shuffle. 1-0. At least I've contributed something.

But meanwhile, enemy Diana takes 2 mid towers while enemy Darius is on his 2nd top tower too. Even though we've pushed up bot, we're quickly losing map control.

Eventually, we group. Thank god. I can sorta play a 2nd support. Back into my comfort zone... maybe.

Situation: 4v4 mid. Renek up top. enemy Jax bot. Since nothing's getting accomplished, I somehow decide its a good idea to clear bot, while Renek comes to keep it 4v4 in the middle. A Nid spear hits and kills, so when enemy Jax makes it to mid to keep it 4v4, I figure that they're fine and I can split push. Lo and behold, they fight and go 3 for 3, and I get blamed for not being there. Of course. I know I could've made a difference in the fight and pulled it to our advantage, but god dammit, apparently I've messed up again. Wrong place wrong time? I thought I was doing the right thing. I have no idea. Jungler must be a cursed position for me.

Soon, we fight again, and this time it's a legit 5v5. And we win. Barely. We're still down in kills overall, but finally something goes our way and we're quickly reducing the gold difference. We go and take a couple turrets, then fight again. This time we crush them and I know it's a matter of time before it's GG. Our team comp is clearly better than theirs.

Even though I feel like I've had a nightmare of a game, we eventually came out on top, much to my relief. The start to that game felt truly horrendous for me. I felt like a chicken running around without its head. Oh well.

My end game stats: 3-0-13. I guess Taric is so op that even I can't screw up jungling him.

End game build: Spirit Stone, Ninja Tabi w/ Alacrity, Iceborn Gauntlet, Frozen Heart.