Spinning with the Monkey King – Bronze IV Game 6 [LOL]

Game 6 in my ladder climb was a marathon. 54 minutes of back and forth fighting that eventually ended in a very sweet victory. I had last pick in this game and was able to pick jungle and went with Wukong again. I am enjoying him in the jungle and as I play him more, I think I am getting better.

Bronze IV – Game 6 – 54 LP
BANS – Amumu, Vi, Akali/ Nasus, Kass, Mundo
Our Team – Heimer(m), Lulu(s), Draven(a), Renekton(t), Wukong(j)
Opposing Team – Jax(t), Kha'Zix(j), Vel'Koz(m), Malphite(s), Miss Fortune(a)
My Role & Champ – Jungle – Wukong
Map Side – PURPLE

Purple side – start Blue Buff

I started blue buff since that enabled me to get the most help. By going to whichever buff is closest to the bottom lane, it gives you the chance to get more help in the leash. By getting both bot laners and mid laner to help, finishing off the monster and getting the buff usually goes a lot quicker. The only issue I have seen with this so far is if the opponent has a fast jungler like Lee Sin or Udyr where they can grab their top buff and then sit waiting for you to show up at your top buff. I've had that happen a few times with bad consequences. Because of this, I usually throw down my trinket ward in the bush near my top buff before I start attacking the monsters. In this game, I did not have that problem going against Kha'Zix, and the 3 leashers (Heimer, Draven, and Lulu) got me my buff by 2:07. Blue buff in hand I had the red buff by 2:50 and was looking to cause some trouble for the enemy. MF, however, had other ideas, taking first blood on Draven by 3:01. Renekton took Jax down next at 3:25 and Heimer was doing fine mid, so I decided to farm a bit while my team got itself together.

Once Draven came back to lane, I went down to harass as much as my level 3 skills would allow, firing my Decoy (w) and jumping in with my Nimbus Strike (e) – Crushing Blow (q) combo against Miss Fortune, but she flashed out of any further damage. After some more jungle farming I hit Jax in the top lane a few times, but was too low on HP so I backed without causing too much damage.

Heimer in the Middle

Heimer was keeping both Vel'Koz and Kha'Zix occupied in mid lane so I kept jumping from bot to top lanes trying to give my laners an advantage. When the buff monsters came back, I grabbed Blue and helped Heimer knock down the mid turret. Then seeing MF over extended, I ran down and helped Draven pick up his first kill. Backing, I grabbed Red and helped Renekton take out Jax and we were feeling good. At 10 minutes, we were ahead 6 kills to 2 and had taken out their mid turret. Shortly after, though, Vel'Koz unleashed his ultimate on me and I fell to his Disintegration Ray – that thing hurts. Bot lane exchaged turrets, and when I got back to mid lane, I took out Vel'Koz to square things with him – too bad for him, his ultimate was not yet off cool down.

Mid Game

At 13 minutes we were well into mid game. We had taken down all of their outer turrets and their mid inner turret and had a 2k lead in gold. I was counter jungling and had all of the buffs timed to make sure that someone on our team grabbed them. I only had 2 kills and 2 assists, but was ahead of Kha'Zix who was stuck at 1 kill. One thing I need to be careful of though, is hitting my ult when meaning to Nimbus Strike. I wasted a Cyclone on the Blue buff instead of hitting my E – I need to make sure that my fingers are placed properly at all times. This was particularly bad since R was on cooldown when I ran to a team fight in the mid lane. I got a kill on Vel'Koz and Jax, but I probably could have taken more if I had my ultimate.

Taking down turrets

I have learned that Wukong is pretty good at taking down turrets. His Q does quite a bit of damage against them and with his Nimbus Strike, he can get a decent attack speed buff from hitting minions and then use the extra attacks on the turret. I took out the bot and top inner turrets solo while my team was fighting 4v4 and then when I came to the fight, we aced them. We were definitely looking good. At 26 minutes, we were up by 6 kills 32-26 and had a 3k lead in gold. I had the most kills on either team at 11, but my 6 deaths were not what I wanted – I will need to work on that.

Drawing it out

Around 30 minutes, we started running into a bad pattern though. For whatever reason, we were exchanging kills in such a manner that we could not take out their inhibitor turrets. We maintained our 6 kill advantage, but could not get through their defense while they could not do much against us – we kinda hit a stalemate. Even with an ace at 35 minutes, we were only able to get one inhibitor down before they came back with a strong defense. And then they turned things around and pushed down mid lane to take out our outer turret. They had some really good defense that was just keeping us from finishing the game. We managed to take out their top inhibitor, but then they scored an ace on us and pushed back up mid. It seemed we were making progress, but it was very slow and they seemed to be on the verge of a comeback every couple of minutes.

Turnaround

By minute 41, minions had taken down both of their nexus turrets and the nexus was wide open, but the game would continue for over 10 more minutes while we fought back and forth. Jax would split push and knock down a turret only for me to go take him out, but he would be back to push another lane. Their inhibitors came back multiple times and we could not keep them down. I really think we got sloppy at the end. We could have lost the game if we had not done so much damage to them earlier. At minute 47, Renekton and I tried to race to their nexus for the win, but they were ready for us and we lost out 2v5 – their reactions were very good this game and one moment they may be split pushing, while the next they were back defending base. They definitely had their communication working and were able to get around quickly when needed. Looking back, Vel'Koz and MF came into the game as a duo so they may have had verbal communication (Ventrillo, Teamspeak, Mumble) since it seemed they were so well coordinated.

Baron and Win

At 51 minutes, they pushed to the point where they took out our mid inhibitor and with the way we had been playing for 20 minutes, I thought it was over. They had overtaken us in kills 67 to 66 and were ahead by 7k gold. How this happened is beyond me – I know Jax and Kha'Zix are good late game champs, but I did not expect this when we were dominating so much early and mid game. We were desperate so we grouped up and took out the Baron at 53 minutes. I'm not sure if it was the buff or the fact that we were actually all together as a team at the end, but at 53:57 we took out their nexus and won. I finished with the most kills at 22, but am not happy about my 14 deaths even though everyone had double digit deaths in this one.

What I learned

• Wukong is NOT a tank. I went into fights too many times with low hit points only to get killed. I may have damaged many of my opponents, but I am not sure if the death was worth it since it opened opportunities for the enemy.
• Be careful to only use my Cyclone when I want to and not by accidentally hitting R.
• I need to work on not getting caught by myself – Wukong does much better with a team around him because of his passive bonuses.

Game Result – WIN
My K/D/A/CS – 22/14/14/201
Final Build – Ravenous Hydra, Frozen Mallet, Randuin's Omen, Spirit Visage, The Black Cleaver, Mercury's Treads with Homeguard