Reign of Gaming

Hi,

I currently main Jungler in low silver, but I'd like to work on improving my other roles. This post relates to my attempts at ad carry.

I believe I can play several ADCs reasonably for my ELO, and assuming I get a semi decent support to lane with, I can often contribute well to my team in this role. However thinking back, I can also recall several games where the rest of my team has blamed me for a loss.

Situation 1

Mid game.  I see a large creep wave pushing into our bottom outer tower. I want the farm, and if I don't take it, our tower will take damage. So I head to take this wave.

At this point, my other 4 team members decides that since our top lane is pushing, the enemy top tower looks very attractive.  They head for it, the enemy team spots them incoming, either with a ward, or because they are slow to secure the objective, and a 4v5 team fight ensues. My team loses it hard.

I get blamed for not being with my team. I could argue with them. I could say "you didn't ask for me to go with you" or "you decided to push without me". But all I'd get back is more blame, and the situation would only get worse, so I stay silent.

So then the team decides to push again. I go with them. This time it's 5v5, but since the enemy team was fed the earlier kills, and are at tower, the fight is again lost. Since the team is already in the habit of blaming me, this time I'm blamed for not doing enough damage.

Then the team decides to push again, in a blatant and obvious fashion, for a third time. I think "why are these idiots pushing into an enemy when our team is so far behind". I don't go with them, and instead decide to make the best of a bad situation, split pushing and taking a tower. They wipe again

At the end of the game "Report ad carry. Never with team".

Now I know this isn't entirely my fault. If I'm playing jungler, and leading a push, I'll pay attention to who's with the team, and ask for the carry when needed, whilst also allowing them other times to farm. If I'm playing support I'll try to ward around the area we're pushing, so we can see what we're up against.

However, what can I do as an ad carry when I'm playing with a team without tactical awareness? It's hardly a position from which to lead.

Should I just accept the fact that such games will be lost, and just concentrate on my own play?
Should I slavishly follow my team's tanks in mid game, and miss out on large amounts of farm, just in case they decide that now would be a good moment to push?

Situation 2

I'm playing Varus and my support is Leona. The enemy has chosen a kill lane - Caitlyn + Pantheon support.

I know Pantheon will be useless in mid or late game if he doesn't get kills early. So I tell my support "don't feed Pantheon and we've won the lane".

Wham. Second she hits level 2. Leona dives straight in on Caitlyn with a stun. That's quite normal for a Leona. But in this matchup?
Result: I try to follow up. Pantheon dives on me, also with a stun. At level 2, Pantheon vastly out-damages Leona - and I die.

I return to lane, still with very little farm and a level or two behind the enemy. The minute I arrive Leona jumps straight back in again. We both die. The enemy bot lane is 3-0.

By the time I get back to lane, I'm still  level 2, whilst the enemy is level 5.  I can do nothing but sit at tower, where I am zoned from farm. The lane is completely lost, and before long, the enemy jungler turns up and we are tower dived.

I'm blamed by the entire team for feeding and for my crap farm. I'm too weak to be the slightest use in team fights, and the game is lost.

Anything at all that I can do in this situation? Thinking back, at the start of the game, I should have made it more clear to Leona "Do not initiate without jungle support until level 6+. Just protect me and keep brush control". However at low ELO, a lot of Leona's won't listen to that - people don't pick her when they want to play passive.

So assuming she dived in, what should I have done? Just ignore her?

Are you playing normals or ranked? If ranked then at what level? Some champions work better in bronze, whilst others work better at high ELOs.

Just came up against: Twisted Fate, Sona, Kennen, Miss Fortune, Zac

Scary team. Tons of cc, aoe damage and poke, and Sona for sustain.

Swap out TF for Lux, and you're pretty close to an ideal team.

Solution - play a team fight jungler who is also a strong late game duelist.

Examples include: Hecarim, Sejuani, Nasus and Zac

Giants looked weak because ATN seriously out micro'd them in almost every team fight.

MYM score 3-4th place in both IEM Sao Paolo and IEM Cologne. So their recent record isn't so bad. They admittedly didn't do well in the IEM world championship, but they were playing against LCS and Korean teams with plenty more pro-level experience. You have to take into account that all of the new joiners will improve after a few weeks of regular high level play, just as teams like Wolves, GGU and Vulcan have improved immensly.

By comfortably beat CW, you mean they 2-1'd them. But I don't base my predictions around a single match.

During the second half of the season, after Bjergsen joined, Copenhagen Wolves managed to score 13 wins for only 6 losses, a win ratio that would have put them into 3rd place if they had maintained it for the enitre season. They are simply a better team than EG.

Meanwhile EG, despite starting the season with vastly more experience than many of their rivals, only just about  managed to scrape a >50% win ratio. Towards the end of the season they were losing more than they won. If they were struggling in Spring, Summer isn't going to be any kinder to them.

Quote from Pikohchu »

Wait, did you say you got demoted from Silver to Bronze? I thought that wasn't possible.

It's easy - just take a break from the game for a few weeks, then come back thinking "I should practice some normals in order to get back into the game". Next thing I knew I received a demotion message due to inactivity.

Quote from Gurotesque »

For those of you that it's been easy for, you were lucky enough to not face enough trolls and feeders. That's all you had. Luck. Not a special set of skills or anything mythical. Get over yourselves.

Why is it so hard to believe that some players are simply better than you? I'm not so far ahead of you  (silver V, hopefully IV soon), but I've played with and against gold rated players. They are simply better than I am - to me it's completely obvious. I believe that if I continue to play as I do currently than I'll be able to fight my way up to silver IV or silver III. But I also know that if I want to go any higher, then I need to get better at this game. I know there are things in my play that I need to fix. Gold is the top 10% of players, and I'm simply not good enough to be in the top 10%

It's really odd to me that other people can't see that about themselves. Here's some simple questions. Answer them truthfully:

Do you know how to attack move? Can you pull it off under pressure?

What proportion of minions do you get last hits on in each wave? And can you also farm well when playing under pressure (e.g. a melee AP champion such as Kassadin farming at tower whilst dodging skill shots)

Do you remember to use active items when appropriate?

Are you good at dodging skill shots?

If there is a gank in another lane (e.g. top if you are bot, or vice versa), are you aware of it? How do you adjust your play when you see it?

Can you quickly understand what's going on in a 5v5 team fight, and quickly decide on the right target to attack/cc?

Suppose you are playing a fed bruiser (e.g. Reneketon). When is it appropriate in a team fight to dive the enemy carry, and when should you hang back and defend your own carry?

Are you capable of playing all roles well with several champions in each role?

Do you know which champions counter your normal selections and why?

Do you have a good instinct for correctly making important decisions in the game (e.g. when to invade, when to dragon/baron, when to tower dive etc?)

Do you alter your champion build according to circumstances?

I could go on - I know I'd fail on some of these questions. A simple example - in the game I've just finished, I was playing Xin Zhao and deliberately face-checked a bush that I knew the enemy were in. I knew we were ahead, and I figured I could ult them and get them scattered/stunned to start a team fight. But I didn't figure on the amount of cc the enemy had (cho'gath + alistar). So my ult never went off. I simply died. Bad decision. Still won the game, but it wasn't because our team was good - we simply failed less often than the enemy.

But those kind of mistakes are why I'm still silver. I'd be interested to know your answers to the questions above.