I had the most awesome game to end the season with. I managed to get into que 1 minute before they took the servers down.
Our team did ARAM, and our enemy team did all ADC team. Really an awesome game. If you guys wanna check the game out search "Tons Of Ðamage - Last Game of Season 2 (ARAM RANKED!)" on LoL Replay.
I'd been dreaming of solo queue gold for weeks now because well, I wanted that gold bonus icon and the loading screen trim. Back in beta I had a 1921 rating at one point* so you'd think it wouldn't be too hard for me, but everyone else has gotten way better and I've stayed pretty much the same. Anyway I'd play a couple games of ranked every other night or so and I was just fluctuating between 1350 and 1400, not making any progress at all. I'd pretty much given up as November 6th was creeping closer and closer, but then on the 1st I had a great run and ended up at 1439, aka within striking distance. Next day: two quick losses and then I'm out of town visiting Seattle for weekend. So I've given up, but the patch gets delayed (Morello still didn't have Gold!), and I keep trying.
And keep slipping.
On the 9th I'm fallen to 1342 and just wondering why I even bother, but I resolve to make one last push. I get in the zone and start winning game after game with Miss Fortune and Ahri, plus the occasional game with Shyvana or Sona. I break 1400 and I'm just counting down the number of wins I have left...8...7...6. I duo a couple games with RiotNova and lose both...7...8. Duo some games with RiotDangerZone and we win a few...7...6...5. The problem is that it's now Sunday night and the patch is likely a day away. So I start playing...and playing...and playing. Eventually it's down to 3 wins away...but it's also 5 AM. Play on!
Some 20 odd deaths and two furious teams later, I realize I don't play well at 5 AM. Oh well...to bed at 7, wake up at 9 for work. Sneak in a game at lunch...win. Answer emails, another game, another win. Only two games away now! I can practically taste it. But first, back to work for two more hours. No one else is free for duoing so it's time to continue on the solo train. And then...
A slow, crushing, inevitable defeat that drags on for almost 60 minutes. My team makes a key mistake in the midgame which loses us an inhibitor, and the other team (which includes a Singed and a Shaco) starts pushing all of the lanes and putting on relentless pressure. No matter how many fights we win we can never buy enough time to force any objectives, and we inevitably lose more and more of our base. When the game finally ends it's already 6:38, giving me under an hour and a half to win two more games and then start a third.
But I soldier on. Next game I have one of my favorite lane matchups (Ahri vs Ryze) and manage to mostly shut him down while a Lee Sin from Australia carries the game handily for a 33 minute victory. Maybe this can happen after all!
Back in queue at 7:21. I'm Ahri mid again and the game starts at 7:28, meaning I'm hoping for either a fast loss to end the dream cleanly or a fast win to keep it alive. I'm up against an AP Sion mid for literally the first time ever...nothing like learning on the job. There are a couple other players on my team in the same boat (two wins from Gold) so we're playing fast and loose, pushing when we get the chance and making action happen. Our Zilean support pulls off some clutch ults to turn the tide of some fights, our Lee Sin and Darius are making plays, but...the game is just not snowballing either way. The time is ticking and the kills and CS are closer than I'd like. Finally we realize we have literally 5 minutes left with no base turrets down, so we go balls to the wall and force a full teamfight outside Baron. Somehow we win handily, grab the buff, and knock down the mid inhib, but get forced out. Back to base, buy, shove mid again. It's a bloodbath, ending with 4 of us alive beating on the nexus while Vayne is killing us one by one. Up comes "Victory!"
I've never clicked that Continue button so fast in my life. Don't even glance at chat, click the Home button (oops, should have clicked "Play Again"), click the Play button, click to queue.
Made. It. In. LITERALLY three seconds later the ticker changes to "Ranked queues are disabled."
...Wow. Now I can take a breath and take my time. Champ select goes well and I'm playing Ahri again. I'm also praying that no one dodges because I have no idea what will happen...will it just say that the queues are down? Then it happens. "Summoner 3 has dodged."
..."You have been returned to the queue."
Phew. Back into champ select. Another harmonious team, another chance to play Ahri, alongside Darius, Rengar, Corki, and Sona. Sweet.
Their picks are Ezreal, Kayle, Anivia, Soraka, and Nidalee. Seems normal enough until the loading screen. Haven't seen that icon in awhile...Promote? ANOTHER Promote? Clarity? Oh dear...
I'm still running off two hours of sleep and no caffeine but my mind is racing. "Are they trolling each other? Could this be a free win? They're not going to go all mid are there? No one does that any more right? ESPECIALLY in Ranked Solo?"
They went all mid.
They come flooding in from the blue buff and I dodge a Nidalee Spear, a Flash Frost, and a Mystic Shot before mashing the ping button on the tower. Teammates show up but the push is too strong and the tower falls. I'm throwing Qs in where I can but before I know it I'm out of mana and I can't even think about getting close enough to auto attack. Head back, pick up a...Faerie Charm? Sure. Back to defend the second tower, back to base, rinse, repeat.
That tower falls. Turns out promote minions are pretty strong!
We keep them off the inhibitor for awhile but every time they win a fight we lose more chunks of our base. Inhib goes down at 9 minutes and they start on our bottom lane. I'm buying the weirdest items ever and meanwhile telling the team to invest in aura items. Mana Manipulator, Emblem of Valor, whatever. I'm also keeping an eye on the levels and calling out that we've got a lead, that we just need to stay alive and we'll win the late game. Still, the mid lane super minions are a BIG problem.
Second inhibitor falls.
This is getting bad. The structure gold is tipping the scales in their favor and we can't even win a team fight any more. Is this seriously happening? Am I going to lose out on Gold to this? At the same time though, even with all that's riding on this game, I'm having the time of my life. This is taking me back to the old days, when 5 man Promote/Rally was a viable strategy and lane matchups were just whatever sounded good at the time. Anyway, one of our nexus turrets and the final inhibitor turret go down and we're hanging on by a thread...and that's when our extra levels and gold finally kick in and we start winning team fights. Slowly but surely the inhibitors start to respawn, I can finally buy some respectable items (and sell that Faerie Charm) and we eventually manage to pick up the Baron. They make some last ditch efforts to push lanes with promoted minions but we clean that up and yesssss I'm finally triple Gold. I know it's just an image on my profile that lots of other people also have but man it means a lot.
Thanks to all the awesome teammates and opponents I've played with over the last couple of weeks. It's been a great season and I look forward to more craziness in Season 3!
@Yegg, I apologise. I was on the enemy team in one of those games with you and Nova. I sadly was smurfing from plat elo and caused you a loss.
Although it did make you crave that gold more and give you a more intense sense of accomplishment once you did achieve it.
To be fair, my main is much higher Elo than this account, but I only play ADC on this one because I'm bad at it and need to practice. I probably should have gone my main roles for Yegg.
Though I didn't get to see the game, Riot Danger Zone, who sits right next to me, spectated it and told me all about it, as did Yegg shortly after. What a tale!
By contrast, since I had no rewards to play for on my accounts, I have an ARAM as my last game.
Your last Season 2 game?
Our team did ARAM, and our enemy team did all ADC team. Really an awesome game. If you guys wanna check the game out search "Tons Of Ðamage - Last Game of Season 2 (ARAM RANKED!)" on LoL Replay.
http://i50.tinypic.com/24mrwaf.jpg
What was your game like?
Good bye Season 2, may Season 3 bring lots of positive ELO!
I'd been dreaming of solo queue gold for weeks now because well, I wanted that gold bonus icon and the loading screen trim. Back in beta I had a 1921 rating at one point* so you'd think it wouldn't be too hard for me, but everyone else has gotten way better and I've stayed pretty much the same. Anyway I'd play a couple games of ranked every other night or so and I was just fluctuating between 1350 and 1400, not making any progress at all. I'd pretty much given up as November 6th was creeping closer and closer, but then on the 1st I had a great run and ended up at 1439, aka within striking distance. Next day: two quick losses and then I'm out of town visiting Seattle for weekend. So I've given up, but the patch gets delayed (Morello still didn't have Gold!), and I keep trying.
And keep slipping.
On the 9th I'm fallen to 1342 and just wondering why I even bother, but I resolve to make one last push. I get in the zone and start winning game after game with Miss Fortune and Ahri, plus the occasional game with Shyvana or Sona. I break 1400 and I'm just counting down the number of wins I have left...8...7...6. I duo a couple games with RiotNova and lose both...7...8. Duo some games with RiotDangerZone and we win a few...7...6...5. The problem is that it's now Sunday night and the patch is likely a day away. So I start playing...and playing...and playing. Eventually it's down to 3 wins away...but it's also 5 AM. Play on!
Some 20 odd deaths and two furious teams later, I realize I don't play well at 5 AM. Oh well...to bed at 7, wake up at 9 for work. Sneak in a game at lunch...win. Answer emails, another game, another win. Only two games away now! I can practically taste it. But first, back to work for two more hours. No one else is free for duoing so it's time to continue on the solo train. And then...
A slow, crushing, inevitable defeat that drags on for almost 60 minutes. My team makes a key mistake in the midgame which loses us an inhibitor, and the other team (which includes a Singed and a Shaco) starts pushing all of the lanes and putting on relentless pressure. No matter how many fights we win we can never buy enough time to force any objectives, and we inevitably lose more and more of our base. When the game finally ends it's already 6:38, giving me under an hour and a half to win two more games and then start a third.
But I soldier on. Next game I have one of my favorite lane matchups (Ahri vs Ryze) and manage to mostly shut him down while a Lee Sin from Australia carries the game handily for a 33 minute victory. Maybe this can happen after all!
Back in queue at 7:21. I'm Ahri mid again and the game starts at 7:28, meaning I'm hoping for either a fast loss to end the dream cleanly or a fast win to keep it alive. I'm up against an AP Sion mid for literally the first time ever...nothing like learning on the job. There are a couple other players on my team in the same boat (two wins from Gold) so we're playing fast and loose, pushing when we get the chance and making action happen. Our Zilean support pulls off some clutch ults to turn the tide of some fights, our Lee Sin and Darius are making plays, but...the game is just not snowballing either way. The time is ticking and the kills and CS are closer than I'd like. Finally we realize we have literally 5 minutes left with no base turrets down, so we go balls to the wall and force a full teamfight outside Baron. Somehow we win handily, grab the buff, and knock down the mid inhib, but get forced out. Back to base, buy, shove mid again. It's a bloodbath, ending with 4 of us alive beating on the nexus while Vayne is killing us one by one. Up comes "Victory!"
I've never clicked that Continue button so fast in my life. Don't even glance at chat, click the Home button (oops, should have clicked "Play Again"), click the Play button, click to queue.
Made. It. In. LITERALLY three seconds later the ticker changes to "Ranked queues are disabled."
...Wow. Now I can take a breath and take my time. Champ select goes well and I'm playing Ahri again. I'm also praying that no one dodges because I have no idea what will happen...will it just say that the queues are down? Then it happens. "Summoner 3 has dodged."
..."You have been returned to the queue."
Phew. Back into champ select. Another harmonious team, another chance to play Ahri, alongside Darius, Rengar, Corki, and Sona. Sweet.
Their picks are Ezreal, Kayle, Anivia, Soraka, and Nidalee. Seems normal enough until the loading screen. Haven't seen that icon in awhile...Promote? ANOTHER Promote? Clarity? Oh dear...
I'm still running off two hours of sleep and no caffeine but my mind is racing. "Are they trolling each other? Could this be a free win? They're not going to go all mid are there? No one does that any more right? ESPECIALLY in Ranked Solo?"
They went all mid.
They come flooding in from the blue buff and I dodge a Nidalee Spear, a Flash Frost, and a Mystic Shot before mashing the ping button on the tower. Teammates show up but the push is too strong and the tower falls. I'm throwing Qs in where I can but before I know it I'm out of mana and I can't even think about getting close enough to auto attack. Head back, pick up a...Faerie Charm? Sure. Back to defend the second tower, back to base, rinse, repeat.
That tower falls. Turns out promote minions are pretty strong!
We keep them off the inhibitor for awhile but every time they win a fight we lose more chunks of our base. Inhib goes down at 9 minutes and they start on our bottom lane. I'm buying the weirdest items ever and meanwhile telling the team to invest in aura items. Mana Manipulator, Emblem of Valor, whatever. I'm also keeping an eye on the levels and calling out that we've got a lead, that we just need to stay alive and we'll win the late game. Still, the mid lane super minions are a BIG problem.
Second inhibitor falls.
This is getting bad. The structure gold is tipping the scales in their favor and we can't even win a team fight any more. Is this seriously happening? Am I going to lose out on Gold to this? At the same time though, even with all that's riding on this game, I'm having the time of my life. This is taking me back to the old days, when 5 man Promote/Rally was a viable strategy and lane matchups were just whatever sounded good at the time. Anyway, one of our nexus turrets and the final inhibitor turret go down and we're hanging on by a thread...and that's when our extra levels and gold finally kick in and we start winning team fights. Slowly but surely the inhibitors start to respawn, I can finally buy some respectable items (and sell that Faerie Charm) and we eventually manage to pick up the Baron. They make some last ditch efforts to push lanes with promoted minions but we clean that up and yesssss I'm finally triple Gold. I know it's just an image on my profile that lots of other people also have but man it means a lot.
Here was the end of game screen: http://i.imgur.com/McdrJ.jpg
Thanks to all the awesome teammates and opponents I've played with over the last couple of weeks. It's been a great season and I look forward to more craziness in Season 3!
* Here was the top 500 list back then: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/...ad.php?t=33949 (I'm ahead of Maknoon! clearly he wasn't trying yet)
tl;dr: I wrote a novel. In before "Cool story bro"!
Although it did make you crave that gold more and give you a more intense sense of accomplishment once you did achieve it.
Although it did make you crave that gold more and give you a more intense sense of accomplishment once you did achieve it.
Though I didn't get to see the game, Riot Danger Zone, who sits right next to me, spectated it and told me all about it, as did Yegg shortly after. What a tale!
By contrast, since I had no rewards to play for on my accounts, I have an ARAM as my last game.