User blog:Deshiba/Solo Queue: Item Choices.

Hello fellow summoners,

Today I'd like to take a bit of time to talk about items, item efficiency and why you should or shouldn't be picking them up.

Ain't nobody got time for dat
Sometimes you have to buy items that you normally wouldn't or don't feel comfortable with, because they don't fit the meta. But every purchase is important, as it could change the outcome of the match. Don't throw your game, adapt to the situation and team, keep on winning!

Human Decency
Well what do you know, I actually found a team that was willing to communicate like decent human beings. We arrived at a consensus about who would be playing what position after a hard fought impasse caused by three people saying "I want to Mid", or variations there off. After a bit of back and forth, quoting the almighty Summoners Code seemed to fix the problem.

"Being a good team player begins at champion select. Be open minded when considering the needs of your team. If you’re the last one to pick, try to fill a niche in your team that hasn’t already been filled. If everyone’s picked and something stands out as s deficiency in your team composition, try asking for another player to fill the gap, or change roles to embrace that responsibility yourself. Remember, that by taking on a role you don’t normally play, you’ll learn more about unfamiliar champions and increase your own skill level." -Summoners Code, first topic, second paragraph.

Teams, a composition
Our team composition for this little excerpt consisted of several champions that work well together, although a bit on the unbalanced side. Now, without further delay:
 * in top lane.
 * in mid lane.
 * in the jungle.
 * in bot lane.
 * in bot lane. (yes, I still play Galio, sue me)

The other team was like this:
 * in top lane.
 * in mid lane.
 * in the jungle.
 * in bot lane.
 * in bot lane.

Normally that wouldn't be a problematic match up. However when they have more skill then you do, that changes things.

Ready? FIGHT!
The match started, I get my usual kit on, consisting of 1 , 1 , 1 , 1 and 2 s. My lane partner  picks up a.

We dance around their blue a bit before we all go to lane without any significant poke hit. So basically a fair fight, as we go back and forth a bit we do okey, about equal farm, no kills and no deaths. As we reach level 5 though, things change dramatically...

Bum rushed
...As we have them on the ropes, and we're actually zoning them under their turret, raking up a 20 minion lead, suddenly the sound of a laughing pirate fills the air. As the starting shot has been fired, right on cue, a battle standard drops from the sky, furthering our dire situation. If that wasn't enough, a locust plague jumps the wall from their jungle side.

At this point it doesn't really matter what you do. The that was sitting in the bush to try and kill the 8% HP  is nothing more then symbolic. A sudden 5 VS 3 is not something you turn without a miracle, which sadly doesn't happen. Evelyn does realize that we can't escape though, and flashes after Ez arcane shifts towards us, to snipe him down. Making it a 3 for 1 exchange at least.

Exploit the weak spot
This pattern continued throughout the match. As was already loosing her lane, and not being able to stop Kha from roaming. We kept getting messed up by 3-4 people in bot lane, where we could do nothing about it. The only one that was actually winning the lane was, doing a great job of suppressing the pirate.

Do not loose hope
Even though the situation was dire, and we had 7 to 19 kills with a fed J4 and Kha, we still didn't give up. Knowing that we had a stronger team fight when it got down to it. We hung in there, trying to find a way to kill them dead.

And then it happened, 4 turrets down, mid lane pushing and the opponent suddenly falls back with full to near full health. This can only mean 1 thing, Baron Time! As we cleared mid to have it push back, we went to contest baron. And they were actually doing it, instead of trying to bait us.

Fight on
As they were on it, inched closer to get in position, being the fastest on the team, she was basically alone at this point. As we ran to get there, she actually rushed in and started bashing the hell out of their support. Dealing some nice damage, before running to top lane, Ulting the 4 men that chased her, slowing them all and taking off about 20% of their max health pool, but still getting gibbed in the process.

When we caught up, these people were still all slowed, so it wasn't a hard choice. As unleashes the dreaded Flash-Ultimate combo,  opens fire with her crazy laugh. As we burn them down to near nothing, bursts down a taunted  and  takes care of the Pirate, who tried to orange his way out of a bad situation. Even though the MF ult got interrupted half way, due to a Sporting  and counter ulting, we still manage to clean up.

The point?
We manage to win the game, but it wasn't because we were better, we would have lost actually, if it wasn't for 1 crucial thing. ITEMS.

So what exactly did the Item choice do? First off, when you look at our team composition, we have a lot of Magic damage and quite a bit of that damage is over a percentage of your health pool.

So when the enemy buys  without any actual magic resist, he becomes easy prey to an  and. Some went for, who didn't have any MR to speak off, only a big old. On top of that, no one in their team had a.

On our team however, we had an Elise and Evelyn that bore a on top of their HP-based spells. We also had a with a  and a  with a

In the end
We won not because we were better and not because we were more fed. We won purely on choosing what items to buy and how to deal with what they had. Some might argue that it's part of skill, but I feel it's greater then that. It's also part of communication and trust.

You need to be able to break your own set of items bought, and maybe even the way you play, if your team requires it. Adapt to the situation and focus on what you can do for the team.

Sincerely yours, A wielder of, and.