Sunday, June 30, 2013

"I'm still leaving Thresh open though...oh never mind"

Our Team:

Janna Support, Malphite Jungle, Jax Top, Vladimir Mid, Catilyn ADC


Their Team:

Sona Support, Miss Fortune ADC, Vi Jungle, Trundle Top, Fizz Mid

In a stunning role reversal, I went support and Frisco played Caitlyn.

We lost our lane, but in all honesty I think we expected to.  Jax struggled a bit in lane but turned it around once the team fighting started.

Unfortunately we just never got the team fight's down.  We kept spreading our attacks across everyone and it...just didn't go well.

- 15 Points, Bronze IV, 72 LP

I'm so terrible

Before the Replay:

I'm assuming it was a 4-gate.  ZvP.  Somehow I scouted and missed the Pylon until it was too late.  Eventually I notice it's on my mini-map even though I'm staring at the mini map.  Because I'm terrible. =/

So anyway, he basically floods my front with units and I can't stop him.  Producing whatever I can as fast as I can and trying to engage smart but making mistakes.  Forgot my second round of Queens.  Didn't watch to make sure I wasn't supply blocked.  Didn't throw down Spines when I saw the Pylon late.  Bad decision after bad decision.  So bad at this game, when did I get so bad?

After the Replay:

Oh I forgot.  I also failed on getting my first Drone out in a timely manner.  Too busy "GL"ing my opponent.  At least this one threw a response my way.

He built the Pylon at 4 minutes.  That's good to know.  And he built it behind the gas of my 3rd, which is a little hard to get to on this map.  Also good to know.

I could have stopped this.  I scouted early, I suspected it, I looked for it.  And even when I "spotted" it late I still had time.  I just executed poorly.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 48

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I think I've been clear that PvP is my worse matchup...

...and my least favorite.

I'm so f-ing bad at this game.

Before the Replay:

I'm not sure what he did different.  I'll have to look.  Felt like a 4-Gate with a Mothership core though.  I guess I was thinking this was HotS, surely the 4-Gate is gone?  Right?  Wrong.  Fuck.

After the Replay:

Yeah, 4-gate.  Okay...well lesson learned.  Prepare for the 4-Gate and get my Mothership Core up earlier with more Sentries.

I don't have time for another game tonight, I have work early in the morning.  So last night I went 0-2, tonight I went 1-2 with the only "win" being a default win because he d/c'd.  I probably would have won, but I didn't get to earn it or experience it.  Bunch of crap.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 38

Insta-Loss

Random vs Random.  I spawned Zerg.  A brief thought occurred to me.  "We could both Spawn Zerg, I could not go for the 1-base Roach I plan on for vs Zerg and he could 6-pool me and I could get screwed."  It was followed by "Nah, let's just 15 hatch 14 pool like usual and see what happens."

Screwed.  Though he didn't 6-pool me.  He 7-pooled me.

Before the Replay:

Nothing to say.  He 7-pooled me and I went 15 hatch.  He won.

One interesting thing to note, he was level 90 (all 3 races leveled up all the way) and has a *lot* of 1v1 games under his belt over the past week.  I mean, a lot...according to his Match History.  But he's unranked in Season 4.  How?

After the Replay:

Nothing.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 38

Not to be deterred...

I went 0-2 last night.  Hoping to do a little better tonight.

For the first few seconds I forgot to build my first probe =/  Auspicious start.

I ended up winning, but I don't know that I earned the win.  He d/c'd as I was rebuilding my army from a relatively "failed" attempt to put pressure on him.  I had built up some infrastructure so I planned on having an army back soon and I had good vision, so I figured I could afford to lose most of my army...but still...

Before the Replay:

He hit me with somewhat early 'Lings.  I don't have a great feel for it, because I totally screwed up my opening (as mentioned above).  Built 2 Pylons before my first Gateway, started a wall-off, then changed my mind, then he rolled in with Zerglings.

I took care of them pretty quickly and the game escalated from there.  I held off his attacks and harass pretty well (I thought) and managed to get my 3 bases up by 12 minutes.  I transitioned to Templar with Storm and as I was rolling out for a second time to attack his base, he D/C'd.

After the Replay:

One thing I forgot about, he built an extractor in my base.  Not he started and cancelled and started, just built one full out.  I guess he was worried about early Stargate pressure?  I all but forgot about my plan after yesterday to go Stargate against Zerg, so I was just going with my Gateways.

He threw up a Pool at 10 (after the Extractor in my base) and threw in his Zerglings at my base and started a Roach Warren.  He only had 2 in gas though so he wasn't getting much there.

He also pretty much stopped Drone production once he started attacking me.  That makes me feel good...like I may have actually earned my win.  The only time he seems to have built drones was to replace the ones he was about to spend on buildings.  I'm pretty sure I would have won this game in the long run.

I was totally wrong about when I got my 3rd base up.  I barely had my 2nd base up at the 13 minute mark.  Wow, how did I so totally read the clock wrong during the game?  No idea.  Interestingly though, at the 13 minute mark when my 2nd base is just getting going, he's still on 1 base.    I had more probes than he had drones, and a higher income.

+ 48 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 38

Monday, June 24, 2013

Ummm, damn

Apparently Swarm Hosts do MASSIVE amounts of damage.  Like, enough to annihilate my whole front row of Zealots in NO time.

I'm terrible at SC2.

Before Replay:

He kept hitting me with little spurts of Zerglings.  I thought it was just to see what I had and test my defenses.  Apparently it was to prompt me to attack before I was ready and to run my whole-damn-army into his Swarm Hosts.

Not that I had any lack of detection, but I couldn't get anywhere near his Swarm Hosts.

One thing - I made a plan to try to go 3 base as Protoss, in any matchup, by the 15 minute mark.  That's my "goal" to keep my play motivated.  That went reasonably well.  I could have done a better job spending my money, though.

Next time, Protoss versus Zerg, I'm going with a tighter base D and air for my offense.  Less Warp Gates, more Stargates.

After Replay:

I keep forgetting that Hallucinate is free on my Sentries now.  I can throw hallucinated Phoenixes in to scout.  I have to remember to do that.

Nothing else to be learned from this.  Except that I'm terrible at this game.  Also neither of my opponents has "GL" or "HF"d tonight.  Just total silence.  I hate that, makes the opponent seem like a douche.  We're in the Bronze league, this ain't exactly Serious Business SC2.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 100

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck =/

Placement match, demoted to Bronze.

Before Replay:

He just 1 based me hard.  God.  He just massed Marines and SCREWED me.  I've never felt so terrible in my life.  I tried to get up a good defense and I just could-not-do-it.  Every time I held him off, he just had a crap ton more Marines incoming.  There was nothing I could do to stabilize and get any good offense or even harass going.

After the Replay:

He opened Supply Depot into Double Barracks.  I should have scouted the front with a Zergling...I saw he had a good number of Marines when I had my Overlord in there but I didn't realize he was going so Marine committed.  4 Barracks before the 5 minute mark.  Banelings earlier and I would have held that quicker.

He produced nothing while he attacked his Marines the first time.  He was supply capped.  I actually feel embarrassed that I lost this game.  He didn't even make an Orbital or rally his Barracks.  Neve expanded.

Okay, by the 13 minute mark he's finally got his Orbital done.  When he realized the Marine-all-in wasn't going to work?  

Lesson learned, send a Zergling to scout-the-front.  Look out for the stupid losses.

- 0 Points, Bronze League, Division Rank 100

Thursday, June 13, 2013

"I will gladly trade myself for an Ace!"

Got to roll Viktor while Frisco went Lulu support.

Our Team:

Lulu Support, Jarvan IV Jungle, Caitlyn ADC, Rammus Top, Viktor Mid

Their Team:

Talon Top, Leona Support, Nasus Jungle, Ashe ADC, Kassadin Mid

Well I did terrible.  1/6/6.  But I could have fed to Kassadin a lot more and really my job was to keep him from getting fed off me.  So I feel like I did that.

Frisco did much better 2/2/20 with a great Caitlyn to support.

I'll take the Win.

+ 19 Points, Bronze League IV, 87 LP

Monday, June 10, 2013

"Did you catch that sweet Lulu ult from last game? Huh huh huh?"

Yes.  It was fantastic =)

Our Team:

Taric Support, Gangplank Top, LeBlanc Mid, Diana Jungle, Caitlyn ADC

Their Team:

Kha'Zix Mid, Leona Support, Jayce Top, Hecarim Jungle, Ezreal ADC

Frisco support, yet again.

I don't feel good about LeBlanc Mid.  I mean she does great DPS and slaughters people early game.  But I feel like if she doesn't carry hard, she just falls off.  I guess we'll see what happens 

Ezreal / Leona should prove...challenging.  Maybe we can just bait them into bad decisions.

Early on we weren't doing bad...we just weren't doing good.  At best we were holding even with them, but they were gaining on towers.

We eventually got around to getting good at "winning" team fights but it was too little too late.  We'd clean up with 4 kills or an ACE but wouldn't be in a position to capitalize on it.  Mostly we were just killing creeps.

I kept getting chased out of team fights.  If I could stay in the team fight it was no problem, we'd win.  If I got chased out, we'd lose.  The team would focus Kha'Zix and Hecarim would jump the line and chase me out.  This is my biggest problem as ADC.  What do I do in this situation?  I don't know.  I don't have an answer.  But every time I play ADC against a team who focuses me, I get blamed for making the wrong decision with no offer of help or advice, because I got blown up.

- 16 Points, Bronze League IV Division Rank 12, 68 LP

"Should I ban Xin?" "Didn't our Jungler say he was going to go Xin?" "So?"

Our Team:

Lulu Support, Xin Zhao Jungle, Jayce Mid, Yorick Top, Draven ADC

Their Team:

Lux Support, Diana Mid, Graves ADC, Sejuani Jungle, Nidalee Top

Frisco supporting me again.

I feel like I took it on the chin a lot for our team to come out ahead in this game.  But it was working.

They surrendered at 26 minutes, I went 2/3/6.

+ 26 Points, Bronze IV Division Rank 4, 84 LP

Sunday, June 9, 2013

"It amuses me that you own all the Caitlyn skins"

I love me some Caitlyn, what can I say.

Our Team:

Sona Support, Hecarim Jungle, Lee Sin Mid, Nidalee Top, Catilyn ADC

Their Team:

Xin Zhao Top, Vayne ADC, Jarvan IV Jungle, Akali Mid, Leona Support

Frisco backing me up as Support again.  Officer Caitlyn vs Aristocrat Vayne.

This game did not start off as well.  And it only got worse from there.  Xin Zhao picked up the first kill in moments and they just snowballed from there.  They took all the mid turrets by 18 mins.

GG by 24 minutes.  We surrendered.

- 14 Points, Bronze IV Division Rank 15, 58 LP

"Please don't ban Thresh. Please???"

Frisco on Support.

Our Team:

Thresh Support, Zyra Mid, Udyr Top, Draven ADC, Volibear Jungle

Their Team:

Kha'Zix Mid, Caitlyn ADC, Darius Top, Xin Zhao Jungle, Sona Support

Let's see if Frisco Thresh can protect me from Darius and myself.

We had a pretty good opening against Sona and Cait until 4 of them came bot to kill us and take our tower.

Our Jungle was carrying hard though and it didn't slow us down.  Our team carried hard, everyone did. They surrendered at 24 minutes.

+ 19 Points, Bronze IV Division Rank 11, 72 LP

Friday, June 7, 2013

PvP vs Plat...

Yeah, so no Silver Leaguers out tonight.  Probably time to just call it a night here.

Before the Replay:

Random vs Random which, of course, turned into Protoss vs Protoss.  Man I'm terrible at this game =)

He scouted me pretty thoroughly and just out built me.  Plain and simple.  He built more than me faster than me and hit me right before my upgrades came through.  Another minute and I probably would have held my own pretty well.  Or maybe if I'd done less upgrades and gotten more Stalkers.  Either way, GG.

After the Replay:

Oh.  He actually expanded.  So he was on 2 bases.  Even better.....I really got outplayed.  This is an interesting map, I hadn't played it before.  Well my first game of the night where the Zerg quit at 2 minutes was on this map, but that hardly counts.

+ 0 Points, Silver League Division Rank 49, Remaining Bonus Pool 407

I would have rather played the ZvZ....

So I rolled up on a ZvZ and I was ready for it.  At the 2 minute mark the guy quit.

Next up was a PvT.  Protoss is always my weakest race and right now I have no idea how to play them well against Terran.  A Platinum Terran, I guess no one from Silver is playing tonight.

Before the Replay:

He just Turtled.  But he did it well.  He spread out, took 3 bases, kept me from getting 3 bases.  Built up a lot quickly.  I didn't stand a chance, I played so terribly.  Lots of Hellbats, Medivacs, Banshees.  Ugg.  I should have built more Immortals and ....and what?  I don't know.  Macro'd better, expanded better, put on pressure?  Templar?

After the Replay:

I could have expanded before he pushed out.  I just failed to.  I could have built a better army, I just failed too.  I didn't have to lose this game.  He was careful and well prepared, but I wasn't outplayed.  I just didn't bring a good game.

+ 0 Points, Silver League Division Rank 49, Remaining Bonus Pool 415

Monday, June 3, 2013

"Do you want to play some Borderlands 2 instead?"

No, no I don't.  I want to win...

Our Team:

Ziggs Mid, Alistar Top, Hecarim Jungle, Kayle Support, Draven ADC

Their Team:

Twitch ADC, Diana Mid, Darius Top, Lee Sin Jungle, Nidalee Support

Right off the bat Hecarim D/C'd.  Same guy who was complaining in the chat that we were going to lose, so we didn't have a lot of faith he'd be back.

Fortunately, we were wrong.  Unfortunately nothing else went right for us up front.  They invaded, 5 man, took our blue.  Then Nidalee and Twitch pushed the us way out of our lane and kept us there.

GG.  Then we just failed to surrender over and over again while they proceeded to beat us.  They had 44 to 22 kills at the end.  And Frisco got demoted to Silver V.  Diana walked away with 21 of those kills.

- 13 Points, Bronze IV Rank 18, 53 LP

"pref anything but jungle"

Our Team:

Sejuani Jungle, Vayne ADC, Zed Mid, Janna Support, Fiora Top

Their Team:

Talon Top, Ezreal ADC, Thresh Support, Zyra Mid, Xin Zhao Jungle

Frisco in the jungle again.

/surrender at 21 minutes.

God what a horrible game.  They had SOOO much CC.  Xin Zhao knocking you up, Zyra's Ult, Thresh's everything.  Jesus.  Kicked our asses.

- 15 Points, Bronze IV Divison Rank 14, 66 LP

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Time to debut my Jayce skills

Or discover that I don't have any.  We'll see how it goes.  Frisco's in the jungle, so hopefully that'll help.

Our Team:

Sejuani Jungle, Ezreal ADC, Swain Mid, Janna Support, Jayce Top

Their Team:

Hecarim Jungle, Lux Mid, Vayne ADC, Renekton Top, Fiddlesticks Support

Thank God they surrendered.  My Jayce was awful, he'll need more practice =)

+ 17 Points, Bronze IV Division Rank 8, 81 LP

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Please don't start the game without me in the lobby...

Our Team:

Janna Support, Diana Mid, Draven ADC, Signed Top, Amumu Jungle

Their Team:

Morgana Support, Cho'Gath Jungle, Caitlyn ADC, Teemo Mid, Ganglank Top

I think we might have the better comp, but we certainly had trouble picking.  Our pick / banner didn't call the only lane he could do...

But we did just fine.  Draven was a little...special.  He wasn't terrible, just wasn't participating.  Our Diana rolled face though.  Just crushed the enemy team.  We won with a score of something like 35 to 15 and that was almost exclusively because of her.  I'll take it!

+ 17 Points, Bronze IV Rank 11, 64 LP