First game with Champion Mastery...

We'll see if it's a compelling system at all.

Our Team:

Zed Mid, Thresh Support, Caitlyn ADC, Cho'Gath Jungle, Xin Zhao Top

Their Team:

Tristana ADC, Jayce Mid, Volibear Jungle, Braum Support, Vladimir Top

Zed got Fed.

29/4/9 Fed.  And that was the game.

I got "Grade A" which makes me feel good I think?  +1375 points or something.

Anyway, Zed Fed and Carried.  That's all there is.

Win, + 26 LP, Bronze IV 30 LP

Last 2, happy to fill

I mean the last 2 picks on our team should be happy to fill anyway, but it's nice when it just works out that way.

Our Team:

Caitlyn ADC, Vi Jungle, Lissandra Mid, Braum Support, Ryze Top

Their Team:

Akali Mid, Sion Top, Poppy Support, Vayne ADC, Rek'Sai Jungle

We should not have won that game.

Caitlyn was struggling with CS out of the gate.  She was missing them left and right.

But we still were winning our lane.  Barely but we were.  Why?

Because Poppy never joined.

I couldn't get her to zone out Vayne and freeze the lane.  She only understood pushing the CS under the tower.  So Vayne happily sat under her tower getting XP and picking up almost as much CS as Caitlyn, but out leveling us with solo lane XP.

The rest of the team was seemingly as awful it felt.  Vi was not bad but it was hard to tell if she was good or just riding a good champion.  But she wasn't bad, either way.

And every time we'd do 1 thing right, like win a fight, we'd do 2 things wrong like give up Dragon and a tower.

Yet it was still a win.

Win, + 25 Points, Bronze IV, 30 LP

Home sick...

But I can't sleep.  So let's play some LoL...

Our Team:

Jarvan IV Top, Zyra Mid, Warwick Jungle, Vayne ADC, Amumu Support

Their Team:

Lucian ADC, Shaco Jungle, Morgana Support, Gnar Top, Yasuo Mid

Game went well.  Bot lane started slow, they got first blood but then gave away a bunch of kills as Shaco camped them hard.  I did okay against Gnar, my first time really laneing against him, but I eventually figured it out.  WW came up to help me out a few times.

At the end we struggled to work together, everyone was off taking their own objectives and making bad decisions.  But we did eventually get there and pull it together for a win.

Win, + 19 Points, Bronze IV 19 LP

YouTube Coming

Caitlyn win's lanes, not games

Really she doesn't even always win lanes.  But we'll see...

I'm first pick / banner for our team which bodes well for my second promotional series game...

Our Team:

Caitlyn ADC, Darius Top, Udyr Jungle, Rammus Support, Orianna Mid

Their Team:

Lissandra Mid, Warwick Jungle, Tryndamere Top, Jinx ADC, Blitzcrank Support

In this case, Caitlyn doesn't win anything when Darius doesn't bother to show up.

Darius apparently never loaded.  He eventually joined the game at 21 minutes claiming his internet died.  Probably did, no reason to doubt him, his loading screen paused at 15%.

Rammus went top.  I accidentally approved this, thinking I was approving Udyr going top and not reading closely enough.

Rammus picks up a few good kills top while losing the tower, meanwhile I'm getting raped in bot lane.  Jinx and Blitz have me completely zoned out but at least I'm not giving up kills.  At first.  Eventually it happens.  They push to the tower and just start diving me.  When that's not working well enough Lissandra and WW come down and invade and the 4 of them start diving me.  Pretty soon I can't leave the base without getting ganked by their whole team.  My choices are to sit at base or die.

Amazingly, Udyr and Rammus are meanwhile getting crazy fed.  By the time Darius comes back, we've already turned the game around.  It's not long after this that we start to be able to push, driving the enemy team out of every team fight and eventually win the game.

Series 2 for 2, Promoted to Bronze IV

YouTube to follow

Jungle Tank

Our Team:

Blitzcrank Support, Teemo Top, Corki ADC, Ahri Mid, Jarvan IV Jungle

Their Team:

Riven Top, Sivir ADC, Evelynn Jungle, Heimerdinger Mid, Sona Support

So we started out bad and it just got worse as the game went on.

Ahri gave up a bunch of kills early to Hiemerdinger, she was apparently expecting a much easier lane than she got.

Bot and Top lanes were pushed hard so I couldn't get in for a gank.  Teemo kept getting ganked and bot was picking up kills, so I went mid and farmed my jungle.

Eve farms jungle a lot faster than JIV apparently, because she was 6 before I was 5.  And she was cleaning house whereas my ganks on Heimer weren't going well, even cost Ahri her life a few times, though she over committed imo.

Anyway...we kept loosing almost every engagement and every dragon.  But we finally won one and pushed down an inhib.  Split pushing Teemo pushed down another.  We finally got a dragon, then lost all the fights again....

At the end of the day they did a 5 man push on mid.  We did a 4 man defend and lost, but took a few with us.  Meanwhile Teemo pushed down top and took the inhib since winions had already destroyed the turrets.  Win.

1 - 0 Divison Series

YouTube Coming

Happy to Fill

Recently people have been thanking me for saying I'll fill.  While they meanwhile demand a particular lane.

I don't know what I think of that yet...

What I do know about my thoughts is that the last pick on our team is upset that the other team picked Lee Sin.  Best to assume Lee Sin is 100% pick / ban, if he wasn't banned and you're last picked, expect him to be picked before you have the chance.

Our Team:

Zed Mid, Nidalee Jungle, Quinn ADC, Braum Support, Wukong Top

Their Team:

Xerath Mid, Jinx ADC, Lee Sin Jungle, Kayle Support, Fizz Top

This Quinn seems willing to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

She keeps suiciding in.

But she didn't die enough to cost us the game.

I qualified for my series!

I finally feel like I can really make a different with Braum.  I an get into team fights, be disruptive and help my team get kills and take objectives.  It feels like I'm helping my team do well, making a difference between winning and losing, not simply being along for the ride.

Series Qualification

YouTube to Follow

Friendly group in pre-game chat

Everyone talking and making jokes.  Typically that translates into a good game....

My ADC says that ADC is his worst position, so I wish he'd said something...I could have done that instead of support.  I went support because people prefer to not play it...

She also brought Teleport.  I...hope that was intentional....I think.

Our Team:

Ahri Mid, Braum Support, Xin Zhao Jungle, Darius Top, Vayne ADC

Their Team:

Gragas Mid, Volibear Top, Sivir ADC, Trundle Jungle, Morgana Support

Well we won.  But only because of Xin Zhao.  Darius was not good, and Vayne was awful.

YouTubetoFollow

Pantheon Top

I think I'm 0 for 2 or 0 for 3 with Pantheon top.  So statistically it doesn't bode well...

Our Team:

Pantheon Top, Vi Jungle, Leona Support, Zed Mid, Jinx ADC

Their Team:

Annie Mid, Nunu Top, Kha'Zix Jungle, Varus ADC, Zielan Support

Well, we won.

Sorta.

We rolled them pretty hard, but Kha'Zix left about the time we really picked up steam.  So it's hard to count it as a win because his not being there really gave us some positional advantage.

+ 19 LP, Bronze V, 84 LP

YouTube Coming

I hate doing the picks / bans

I also hate choosing first.  I like to fill now that I can hit all positions comfortably...

Our Team:

Braum Support, Tryndamere Top, Nidalee Mid, Caitlyn ADC, Warwick Jungle

Their Team:

Leona Support, Udyr Jungle, Corki ADC, Teemo Mid,  Cho'Gath Top

We rolled this team as well.  Unfortunatly it turned out their Udyr D/C'd...but I feel like we would have won anyway.

Caitlyn and I got off to a good start.  They came back and established some domination in the lane but by then we were doing okay.  Got some help, had some team fights and things were going well.

Teemo..was a bit of a problem.  He ended up going 14/7/4, earning a tie with Nidalee for the most kills.

Anyway I'll take it.

+ 17 Points, Bronze V, 80 LP

http://youtu.be/wXu6uQWZpD4

Hooray pre game chat!

At least from a few people.  Someone who picked a somewhat lane ambiguous choice (Annie, so mid or support) declared the lane they were going to play.

Let's see if it translates to a better game....

Our Team:

Annie Mid, Graves ADC, Morgana Support, Jarvan IV Top, Fiora Jungle

Their Team:

Jinx ADC, Ziggs Mid, Janna Support, Nocturne Jungle, Darius Top

I went Jarvan IV top.  Fiora and I were last to pick on our team and she asked me to swap if they counter picked her in champ select for top.  They "did" apparently with Darius, so we swapped and I ended up on top...so to speak.

I forgot to take teleport though, so I'm a little upset about that.  At least I switched my runes / masteries and my smite for ignite.

Our team rolled them.  Hard.  Znnie went 10/3/5 just stomping them.  Ziggs died 8 times, Jinx 7, Darius 6.  Darius and I each only picked up 2 kill in the top lane, until Annie came up and helped me gank him for a second.  He pretty much drove me out of lane hard but I held back, didn't feed and waited for my opportunity.

Win, + 19 Points, Bronze V, 63 LP

http://youtu.be/PrSz9eupCnk

Well I don't know what to say to that one...

Our Team:

Graves ADC, Brand Mid, Braum Support, Garen Top, Rammus Jungle

Their Team:

Nidalee Support, Jax Jungle, Heimerdinger Mid, Olaf Top, Varus ADC

Our team started off strong...then it totally fell apart.  But on the back of Garen and Brand we came back hard, despite Graves' best efforts to kill us.

Win, + 21 LP, Bronze V, 44 LP

http://youtu.be/brDA_rzvCFA

Why can't people communicate in the pre game chat?

I don't understand.  Is it so hard to read the chat and respond?  Seriously?  Ugg...  One guy requests mid.  No one speaks up.  Another guy who picks before chooses Zed.  That's fine, he gets to pick first, I have no problem with him choosing the lane he wants.  But he could at least speak up and clarify "yeah, I'm planning on going mid".  And if not, he could speak up when other people in the chat ask him for clarification.

It's a team game.  Please...some minimum effort for communication would be great.

Our Team:

Corki ADC, Zed Mid, Nidalee Jungle, Yorick Top, Galio Support

Their Team:

Tryndamere Top, Viegar Mid, Jinx ADC, Malphite Support, Pantheon Jungle

Just as I came out of the jungle for my first gank all 3 lanes got a kill, almost simultaneously.

This was the theme of the game.  We won at 22 minutes with 18 to 3 kills.  My teammates didn't need me...I didn't do anything, I was carried to victory.

An odd reverse of the usual, but I'll take it.

Win, +23 Points, Bronze V: 23 LP

http://youtu.be/3cb31bd4UrQ

I pick first...

Being just placed in Bronze V having no points, this worries me that I'm at the top of my group.  Especially when someone says they "main ADC" and have "50 games played with Vayne this season".  I hope a few of those were wins..

Our Team:

Jarvan IV Jungle, Vayne ADC, Hecarim Top, Nami Support, Ahri Mid

Their Team:

Karma Support, Vi Jungle, Gnar Top, Orianna Mid, Jinx ADC

Wow did our Vayne carry.  She scored 28 of our team's 53 kills.  I guess he wasn't lying about being good with Vayne.

Bot ran hard picking up kills left and right.  I ganked Mid and Top and Bot a few times, but for not much effect.  However it didn't matter...our Nami was great and worked well with Vayne and their team just crumpled.

+ 72 Points, Bronze V, Rank 4

YouTubeToFollow

Hooray for pregame chat...again =/

We have most everything worked out.  Except our second pick hasn't spoken up.  He grabs Lissandra, still refusing to speak in chat.  Another player is planning on taking mid, but the other team first picked his mid so he declares a pref for top.  Then our player takes Liss and he says "well now that's out too".  We try to clarify with the Lissandra player if he's playing top or mid, but he doesn't respond in chat.  Hooray.

So it's his pick now and we're asking him what he's going to take.  He says he'll do ADC but he's garbage.  So the other player picking switches to ADC, tells him to take Mid and he'll be ADC.  Meanwhile he chooses ADC as well, Caitlyn and Draven.

So...

Our Team:

Braum Support, Lissandra Top, Caitlyn Mid, Draven ADC, Maokai Jungle

Their Team:

Heimerdinger Mid, Taric Support, Warwick Jungle, Yasuo Top, Miss Fortune ADC

Why are all my ranked games like this?

Very quickly it's clear that his self assessment is right.  He comes bot with me as Draven while Caitlyn takes mid.  Quickly MF and Taric have us pinned to our turret and we stay there.  She opens up an early lead of 2x the CS and keeps it for much of the game.

Lissandra only communicates with us once, to complain when Mao doesn't abandon mid lane to Heim to come save her lane when she's losing her tower.  He's covering mid while Caitlyn's dead.

Despite everything...Caitlyn and Maokai are cleaning up.  Hard.  They're driving Heimer out of lane, forcing WW to spend a lot of time there and Mao's solo'ing WW like it's nothing.  I run in and help them defend Dragon at one point, picking up Taric, Heim and WW for no losses on our part.

I wish I had recorded the game because suddenly we're winning.

Eventually we start getting inhibitors and soon it's all over.  I went 1/0/20, getting in on 21 of the 32 kills.  Maokai picks up 12 kills, Caitlyn 10 and Draven even picks up 6 with a triple kill making up part of it.

Of course once we're done we see that Heimer dropped somewhere toward the end.  I'm not sure it cost them the game, but it does deflate the victory a little.

8th Placement Match: Win

Placement Match 6...

Our Team:

Braum Support, Warwick Jungle, Ashe ADC, Shyvana Top, Syndra Mid

Their Team:

Gragas Mid, Nami Support, Riven Top, Varus ADC, Diana Jungle

Frisco's here back seat playing.

Game went well...we won.  Syndra carried hard with Shyvana right on her heels.

6th Provisional Placement Match: Win

http://youtu.be/90sIKikEAIY

Apparently I'm bad, and I should feel bad

Maybe it's just me.  Maybe I'm a terrible support?  Maybe I'm terrible at LoL.

Maybe.

Our Team:

Vayne ADC, Warwick Jungle, Master Yi Mid, Braum Support, Volibear Top

Their Team:

Teemo Top, Ahri Mid, Twitch ADC, Thresh Support, Rammus Jungle

Our Vayne was over committing just a bit too much.  Not so much that I felt like she was playing too aggressively, but just enough that made me question if I was doing my job well enough or not.

I think I was...

Then Yi would come down and try to clean up.  He'd fail.  He'd tower dive Thresh.  He'd die.

Fantastic.

However, towards the end of our laning phase we got WW and Yi down bot and executed an Ace.  Then....we snowballed.

We still tried to throw the game away, many times.  But amazingly we did not.  An actual win!

3rd Provisional Placement Match: Win

http://youtu.be/xdV-jNINy40

Volibear Support

Our Team:

Nautilus Jungle, Vi Top, Varus ADC, Fizz Mid, Janna Support

Their Team:

 Brand Mid, Volibear Support, Nasus Top, Caitlyn ADC, Warwick Jungle

 We tried so hard to throw that game.  I don't know how we didn't.

Frisco went 9/8/25 from the Jungle and I went 3/3/29.

Varus managed to have less CS all game than Cait despite Cait being zoned out most of the game.

Fizz died 12 times, Varus 10 but their Brand 16 times and Warwick 14.

Qualified for a Promotion Series!

"Are you going to play breast-tech Janna?"

Our Team:

Nautilus Jungle, Nasus Top, Kennen Mid, Tristana ADC, Janna Support

Their Team:

Renekton Top, Swain Mid, Ezreal ADC, Trydamere Jungle, Lux Support

It did not open well.  Tristana got a first blood, but then I threw away a life.  From that point on it looked ugly for a while, especially in bot lane.  We were getting pushed to our tower hard, lots of ganks coming in.  Bad.

But we managed to turn it around.  Their momentium ran out and we started to build on ourselves.  Nasus split pushed hard and we managed to pull out a win.

I went 1/6/11, Frisco went 2/3/12 with his "Nautilus wins all games" build.  Not terrible.

+ 22 Points, 97 LP, Bronze IV

4 Skins vs 2 Skins, we win

Our Team:

Nautilus Jungle, Aatrox Top, Caitlyn ADC, LeBlanc Mid, Janna Support

Their Team:

Darius Top, Master Yi Jungle, Veigar Mid, Lux Support, Ezreal ADC

After that disaster of a last game, Frisco has joined me with his new pro Jungle Nautilus.

22 minute surrender.  Our LeBlanc got stupid, quick.  She went 13/1/3.  We rode those coat-tails all the way to the end.

Not to discout anyone else.  Aatrox went 8/3/1, Frisco 3/1/6.  Good game.

+ 23 LP, Bronze IV, 75 LP

Don't feed the Darius!

Our Team:

Shyvana Jungle, Kassadin Mid, Tristana ADC, Nasus Top, Janna Support

Their Team:

Lee Sin Jungle, Darius Top, Miss Fortune ADC, Leona Support, Zed Mid

Frisco out of the jungle and me on Support.

Wow...so I'm not gonna lie, we rode Kassadin's coat-tails.  Kassadin went 10/1/7.  I went 0/1/10 myself counterwarding Leona as hard as I could.

They /surrendered at 26 minutes.

Promoted to Promotion Series!