User blog:Care Level/Solo Queue: The Bronze Adventures of Care Level

Hi, my name is Care Level, and I'm a shit-tier Bronze player that mains ADC (look it up on lolking!). I like to think that I'm pretty good at it; I generally do well, personally, when I play that role.

Better Nerf Hurricane
This was an... interesting match, starting with champ select. Support asked to trade with me, so I picked Taric for me and asked for Vayne (my preferred ADC, by far); unfortunately, Vayne fell victim to a pick by the enemy team. I've no one but myself to blame for the way it played out after that: I was tabbed out of League, having already picked, and didn't notice that Vayne had been picked up. Our support asked me who I wanted; I didn't answer, so they picked Varus. I'm not an amazing Varus by any means, but I didn't really have a choice, at that point; perhaps making nachos or whatever I was doing wasn't quite as important as picking an ADC I'm actually good with ("good" being in contrast with my "fairly mediocre" skill with Varus). I think that laning against Vayne was easier, because I play her so much. I think I know the situations that she excels in, so I did my best to deny her those opportunities to, well, be Vayne. Her Thresh was rubbish (we're talking "doesn't poke with AA"-tier rubbishness on Thresh) but, on the flip side, my Taric wasn't fantastic, either. Vayne and I were relatively evenly-matched in trades, but I managed to stay ahead in CS (I finished the game with 349 to her 245, largely due to...); she made up the gold with assists on her Kha'Zix's kills (what are wards?!). I couldn't have been said to be truly winning lane until I finished a Runaan's Hurricane as my first item. Now, you're probably thinking, "What? Why?", as my team certainly was (I can tell because they flamed me for it mercilessly), but let me explain. Vayne has a cripplingly short range for laning; Varus's isn't much better on its own, but Hurricane effectively extends a champ's AA range because it can hit targets behind the main target. In laning phase, it's really just unfair, and especially so with Varus: because Hurricane applies his W with full effectiveness, it acts as decent (free) poke on its own, and since it builds Blight stacks, it increases his damage potential in trades or with dedicated poke. Vayne wants to go hard on me, but that's a significantly less-appealing option when she's got Blight stacks on her, just waiting to explode. At the same time, and this is a no-brainer, Hurricane pushes harder than most anything else most ADCs can build. Vayne can't push lanes, so Hurricane allowed me to force her to farm under tower, where I could still harass her with impunity while keeping the wave pushed. What's more, it allowed us to take bot tower relatively fast; I considered it a victory, not letting Vayne have her long laning phase. When all was said and done, I finished laning phase a bit ahead, but nothing to write home about. Nontheless, "Hurricane first item noob varus wtf" followed me all game. Meanwhile, my team went horribly negative, which continued throughout the game. I don't think anyone's surprised, really; such is life in Bronze Solo Queue. I did a fairly decent job of stopping advances and pushing lanes; Hurricane is amazing in that capacity, and I was still glad to have it. Our team fights were weak because we had no real engage or tankiness, so teamfights largely consisted of someone getting picked off by Kha'Zix, then everyone else retreating to tower. "I'm Varus and I have no escape; please fight so I can do damage" didn't really hit home for anyone. When we did have full-blown fights, I did well (my gold was insane because of, you guessed it, Hurricane), with my presence overshadowing Vayne's in every fight. I finished the game (1) having dealt the most damage to champions, period, (2) having taken the second-least damage on our team (Taric took less than me, since he can be largely ignored in fights), and, of course, having the highest CS, most gold, and largest total damage by far (guess why: starts with "H"!). I finished 13/9/6; the next-highest on our team, Garen, finished 8/9/10. That's not rubbish until you look at the opposite team who finished 49/33/70, with the worst score being a 2/9/23 Thresh and their second-worst being a 10/7/7 Singed (which is better than our second-best). For reference, their best score ended up being 14/6/13 Vayne. In the end, though, Hurricane won the game: in a final play, our team got divided, so they pushed our base. 5 of them plowed through a creep wave and took down our inhibitor turret while 3 of us and Hurricane pushed just as fast. They couldn't take our Nexus turrets fast enough with two defenders and a creep wave (with super minions) spilling out of the Nexus; Hurricane didn't care much for their minions. Or their towers. When their defenders arrived in base, a bit late, a final Chain of Corruption held them nicely in place while 70%-more-attack-speed-than-their-Vayne-icane went hyphy on their Nexus. It was close, for sure, and that's where we'll get our conclusions out: When you're the only person positive on your team, when they're up 11k (our 69,151 to their 80,676) in gold, the match shouldn't be "close". Hurricane OP; better nerf Hurricane. Now, (shameless self-promotion) this fits nicely into the "MVP" theme. And, no, I'm not talking about me: their 14/6/13 Vayne and 12/6/15 Viegar and 11/5/12 Kha'Zix and 10/7/7 Singed and (maybe) 2/9/23 Thresh all had good games. If Vayne and Viegar came out MVP and Runner-Up (though, in actuality, Vayne and Kha'Zix had the best games) and recieved a reduced LP penalty, I'd say "That seems fair". As it stands, though, they get "gg" and some honor and a "Hey, sucks about your LP". I wouldn't mind improving their gameplay experience.
 * Varus (ADC): 13/9/6 (33/49/48 team). Victory! (lol what)