User blog:NeonSpotlight/NeonSpotlight's Ranked Diary

So, I've seen quite a few of these documentary/diaries around the web and decided to make one myself, especially with my recent dedication to ranked games.

Preface
As of starting this blog (May 1) I am at 1435 elo, 65 wins and 56 losses, and have a top rating of 1472. I've been going up slowly but steadily through a myriad of wins and losses (usually bouncing back and forth 12-13 elo before breaking out). Earlier in the season I started playing but that was back before I started getting better in terms of things like farming, warding, and map objectives and usually offered to play supports whenever possible. Because of this I sank back down to around 1180 elo (had around 26 losses and 25 wins at that point) and sat in that area for a couple months before picking up ranked up again.

I believe I have what it takes to get to gold before the end of the season, something I kind of which I did for Season 1 (in which I played 91 games and didn't really take it seriously, it was also very similar to my early Season 2 play).

Things I've done since my previous ranked endeavor:  Learned to play top (still somewhat limited in picks, mostly play Vlad, Irelia, and Lee) Expanded my mid champion roster (can play any typical ranged mage as well as Talon, Fizz, and Morde) Expanded my support champion roster to include aggressive melee supports, esp Leona and Taric Opened up in terms of jungling (used to only jungle as trundle, now jungle as Ali or Maokai), my jungling skill is still limited and I avoid jungling as much as I can Improved farming and harassing skills Got a better grasp on map objectives Improved on punishing enemy mistakes Improved map awarness and pinging to alert allies (if I see a jungler I won't just assume they saw him too)</li> Controlled temper a bit, really helps with team morale and more importantly my own morale for when I play multiple games in a row</li> </ul> And a bunch of other little things that make me play better, like experience and frame of mind.

The reasons I am playing more and more ranked and looking to at least achieve gold is because I know I know more about this game than 90% of the community. I know I can play well enough to get to that level (in normals I play with golds frequently, after S1 ended I saw so many Victorious Jarvans it was sickening). I know that I do like to call people bad, and having that high Elo to further back up my statements would be nice. And just overall it would be a nice thing to have.

Diary
This will be the section of this blog where I will write down summaries of my games: my score, team score, outcome, what I could've done better, what my team could've done better, and just my overall thoughts on the game. I'm also thinking of adding replay files to these entries but I'm not sure how useful they would be.

Game 1 - Win
Got into champ select and I'm third pick, automatically someone says "ad bot." I feel a little sad, because I love playing ranged carries but whatevs. Champ select goes smooth, no real bumps. I was offered mid, if I really wanted it, or support by our 4th pick and went for support because he asked for mid earlier and I'm a fine support. Our AD picks MF and I wanted to go for Leona but he asked for Janna, which is fine. Our final lineup is Shen (jungle), Brand, Wukong, MF, and Janna against Vayne, Sona, Morde, Alistar (jungle), and GP.

Was a pretty normal stomp game, except for a bumpy early-game. Enemy Sona had 40 AP at level 1 with her Q up which resulted in me getting bush-ganked and giving up first blood as I was going to ward drag early because of boots Alistar ganks. Vayne picks up kill and laning phase continues as normal; until Wukong dies twice to GP. There's a little rage from Wu at Shen for lack of ganks even though GP is "overextended day and night," but nothing too harsh and out of control. We aren't doing extremely well in lane but it's pretty even, MF is a little behind in CS consistently but it isn't by much (5-10~), even after a successful gank from Alistar who came in through our jungle which I didn't have warded. Game gains momentum when Brand starts getting kills on Morde, both solo and with Shen's help. Brand and Shen come bot to abuse Sona's lack of wards (she rushed tear, started with ring, and got boots pretty early), allowing us to grab a kill and grab an early dragon. From this point on the game just snowballs for us with a lot of enemy raging in all chat about who's to blame and who's the worst player. We ace and push down a turret before they surrender. Easy 13 elo, up to 1448 now.

What I could have done better: Not facecheck bushes and keep bases covered with wards when dealing with strong gank-oriented junglers (mainly tri-bush).

=== Game 2 - Win Champion: Urgot Build: Boots of Speed, Manamune, Frozen Heart, Bloodthirster Score: 4/3/14 Team Scores: 34/6/59 to 6/34/8 Team Comp: Urgot, Janna, Nocturne, Talon (Mid), Annie (Top) v. Graves, Soraka, Jarvan (Jungle), Lee, Morgana

I was worried that Annie would get absolutely destroyed top against Lee, she had no armor masteries or runes and had 4 bars of health, her only defense was her boots of speed. Lee turned out to be awful and died to her a couple times. Talon destroyed Morgana mid, especially with Nocturne's help. Bot lane was fairly uneventful for most of the laning phase, Graves' passive and Soraka's heal, I kept up in CS though and eventually beat Graves. We traded some kills with mid/jungler assistance (always me dying). Ended up just being another stomp.

What I could have done better: Played a little safer to prevent my deaths.