Climbing the LoL Ladder – Bronze IV Game 1 [LOL]
This is my first game as Bronze IV trying to move up the League of Legends ladder. I Have been to Bronze IV before, and even to Bronze III, but never quite made it to Bronze II before falling all the way back down to the bottom of Bronze V.
For those that are unfamiliar with the League of Legends ladder system, there are six different tiers. In order of low to high – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Challenger. Each of these levels is broken down into divisions. Bronze has 5 divisions with Bronze V being the lowest and Bronze I being the highest. To move between groupings, you have to accumulate League Points(LP) by winning games (you lose LP if you lose a game). Once you reach 100LP in a division, you enter into a promotion series where you have to win 2 out of 3 matches to advance to the next higher division. I just finished my Bronze V promotion series and made it to Bronze IV. Once you reach the highest division of the tier you are in, Bronze I for instance, if you get 100LP, you qualify for the tier promotion series in which you need to win 3 out of 5 matches. If you win that series, you advance to the next tier, division V (Silver V in the example).
Anyway, I just made it back up to Bronze IV and I wanted to track what I am doing so I can get better and hopefully continue to move up the ladder. I haven't been playing League of Legends long, but I think I can improve my game play and get better.
Bronze IV – Game 1 – 0 LP
BANS – LeBlanc, Kassadin, Thresh / Dr. Mundo, Blitzcrank, Teemo
Our Team – Morgana(s), Trundle(t), Ahri(m), Yi(j), Sivir(a)
Opposing Team – Ziggs(m), Amumu(j), Garen(t), Caitlyn(a), Leona(s)
My Role & Champ – ADC – Sivir
Map side – Purple
I started out with Doran's Blade and a Health pot as I usually do with Sivir – Doran's giving me some health and attack damage which I need. My spells were Flash and Barrier – usually I like to take Ignite for the extra killing power, but I decided to try Barrier since I've seen many successful ADCs run with it. I helped Yi with a leash on blue, and headed down to bot lane to farm which didn't go so well. Caitlyn's poke really hurt me and kept pushing me away from last hitting. When I did decide to stick around, Leona cast her Zenith Blade and Exhaust, and while Morgana threw her Black Shield on me to try to save me, I made the stupid mistake of re-engaging rather than running back to hide under the turret. I gave up first kill to Caitlyn and that is pretty much how the game went.
About level 5 I realized I was putting points into W instead of Q which didn't matter so far, because I kept missing my Q skill shots, but it was not the build I wanted to go with – I like to max Q first. Around 8:45 I started suffering Cait's poke again and thought I would get away with Morgana's shield and my Spell Shield, but Amumu came down and helped finish me off – 9:15 in and I had died twice. A few minutes later, I managed to get a kill on Leona, but Cait nailed Yi and was getting really well fed 3-0 in the first 11 minutes. I seem to have a tough time as ADC figuring out when to be aggressive and when to back off, and that was the major story of my game – I need to work on retreating and backing to base as my judgment in this game was not working for my team.
Beyond my mistakes, the opposing team had a clear focus – they always went after me and Yi to try to shut us down, and for the most part it worked. Trundle handled his lane, top, but was not enough to help bot and mid. By 25 minutes, they were up 15-13 in kills with me and Yi contributing 5 deaths each, and they had a 2700 gold advantage – not insurmountable, but not good for us, and it only got worse. They got our mid inhibitor at 26:11, but on a positive note, Trundle cleared the top lane to their inhibitor before they killed him at 29:30. The roll continued, getting the bot inhibitor and the Baron before acing us in base and taking our nexus at 34:23.
Looking back at the game, while I know I did poorly and could have done better – particularly in the early stage of the game, my team did not do so good overall. Trundle had no problems with his lane, but he didn't get any kills on Garen or anyone. Yi ended up with the most kills on either team, but as he was Yi, it did not take a lot of skill. He also tied me with the most deaths – 7. I definitely started playing safer towards mid game, but the damage was already done. I think when I run into an aggressive Cait/Leona combo, I need to play more conservatively especially when I have already died to them. I think not changing my approach gave them a few more kills that allowed them to gain a big advantage.
Game result – DEFEAT
My K/D/A/CS – 2/7/1/154
Final Build – Statikk Shiv, Doran's Blade, Last Whisper, Berserker's Greaves, Vampiric Scepter, Warding Totem