The Bronze Bastard Qualifies for Summer Split - III

Qaulifying 3

Game O

I literally just played the saltiest match of my life.  I'm not so sure coming into ranked is the best idea, but I'm hoping to get away from the complete troll-level player I just saw. I want to call solo/supp.  I think I may go back to my Nike call.  She's good for me.  If I lose with her, its usually because the whole team is trash.  Which is true of any god I play in the solo lane.  I lost in this role thinking I was bad at it, but as I review my log of prior games I am seeing that I actually played pretty well in that role, I just wasn't able to transfer my advantage to the rest of the map and thus would lose if not grouped with a strong team.  I made the mistake of thinking I was bad at solo and that I should try another role.  But now, I think I should stick with solo and just get better at it until I CAN carry that advantage to other parts of the map.

4 minute queue on a Saturday afternoon, here we go.  I am 4th pick. I make a solo/supp pref call.  We go Agni & Nemesis 1 & 2, with an Ullr 3rd pick that calls solo.  Ok, I'm going to go Fafnir supp into a Kumba/AMC Duo.  My 5th pick takes Sol ADC. At least our team comp wil throw them. Our 3rd pick Ullr solo exits the lobby and throws us all back into queue.  Ah, the joy of ranked grind.

6 minutes into this second attempt at my first Ranked game of the day.  And this time I'm 3rd pick. I throw out solo/supp pref. 1st pick takes Ra mid.  2nd will take Da Ji Jungle. 5th pick wants solo.  I will take Artio.  I'll play her supp or trade her to 5th pick if he/she wants Artio solo.  5th goes Osiris Solo.  I'll have Neith with me, going into Geb/Medusa.  The Geb is a 1-diamond.  We have a 1-Diamond Serqet.  I hope this is good.  As F. says, jungler-driven league.  Ranked guide is not the pros by any means, but the concept applies here too.

I'm not sure how to go into Geb and Medusa.  I'll need some Pesti, prob.  I start with guardians', but decide to take Iron Mail for some health and prots.  I am mobile as Artio, and take Heavenly Wings for extra mobility to overcome the lack of boots.  Their Supp starts mid, first time I've seen that in S5.  It sufficiently disrupts my flow.  The whole team is slowed.  We don't know how to handle it and aren't in coms.  I'll look for full boots on my first back. I end up getting T1 boots.  I die 4 times in the first 12 minutes.  We don't have any early damage and the other team is hyper-aggressive.  O Fuck me. We are all under-leveled. I make a solid rotation to the duo-which-has-been-solo all game and spearhead a double kill with Neith.  It's our team's only highlight. ur supposed 1-star Serqet goes 2-5 and quits.  Arena main.  Such is the life of the Bronze Bastard.  In retrospect, I think I should have just duo-pressured the hunter in the left lane and let Ra hold out in the mid.  Oh well.


Game II -- Qualifiying 4
Well, once again I'm third pick.  I call solo pref, so of course top pick takes solo.  I'll pick Mercury in the 3rd spot.  Let's hope my second Ranked Jungle game is better than my first.  We draft Artio, Izanami, Mercury, Agni, and Fafnir into Scylla, Ganesha, Skadi, Awilix, Chang'e.  I won't lie, Awilix scares me a bit.  She rode us hard, last game.  This one is a diamond Awi.  My Merc is going to be hard-pressed to make a big impact early.

Funny thing is, I ended up making way more of an impact early than late because the ADC didn't do anything. Argh. I blink-gank midlane after clearing left buff, get the kill. I rotate over to right and and get the kill. I clear enemy buff.  This is the best 5-minute start I've ever had.  So, of course the solo Artio decides to start talking trash about me "not helping him."  This is the Artio, mind you, that was winning lane.  And we had an ADC that couldn't carry my jock strap, much less a game of Smite.  So by my helping the weakest lane out, I'm apparently bad at being a jungler.  It doesn't take long for this troll to start talking shit to everyone.  I quickly mute him.  We play well, but horribly as a team.  The Izanami insists on split-pushing and letting our team die.  We lose pretty spectacularly.  Such is the life of the Bronze Bastard.

The Bronze Bastard Qualifies for Summer Split - II

Welp, I knew I should have left queue after having people ditch in the lobby.  I stayed around, and got trashed by a good opponent and a horrible team.  I am going back into the snake pit.  But I swear, if I have someone leave lobby again I am taking it as a bad omen and de-queueing to normal.  It only takes about 2 minutes to pop queue.  Profgo doesn't accept the game, and we queue back.  I don't consider this a fail, because the person didn't actually accept and then exit from the lobby.  This is probably going to ruin me. But hey, maybe I'll learn something.

I want to get solo.  I just feel like I know it best.  Its what I'm least likely to mess up.  I may not be so strong that I can carry the match, but we won't lose because of me. 3ish minutes for this queue to pop.  I am 4th pick, I can work with this.  Our top pick takes Ravana jungle.  The opponents first pick Chaac.  I want to take Cerberus against him. Chaac is my only diamond, so I feel like I know well what he will want to do.  I will be out-pressured early and will need to hold on tight.  I think I'm going to go for a defense/sustain item instead of my typical boots starter in solo.   I choose Warrior's Blessing and Glowing Emerald.

I hold out well in the early exchanges.  On my first back I'm able to get second level of Stone and first level of boots for some extra movement speed to help me get out of Chaac's 3.  I've got some great sustain. I'm able to get my second back fairly soon after, and finish pen boots.  Chaac and I are stalemated.  My passive cuts his heal and helps sustain me even further.  All the while, our Ravanna Jungle is running roughshod over the enemy team.  Then, Raijin starts picking things up.  These two guys own the field.  I continue stalemating my Chaac.  I pick up the first two pieces of Divine Ruin on my next back.  Teleport Glyph is my friend.  My last back, I finish Divine Ruin AND get Void Stone.  Solid effort, I must say.  It's about here where the other team F6's.  We finish the game at 15-2 in under 25 minutes.  Chaac and I both went 0-0-0.  Stalemated.  Perfect, that's a win for the Bronze Bastard.

The Bronze Bastard Qualifies for Summer Split - I

Well my first split in Ranked was brutal.  I qualified at Bronze III, and then fell to Bronze IV.  In two separate promotion games, I got stalled.  I did put in what I felt was still a pretty good series of efforts.  I am not going to shy away as much in summer split.  I've got a lot of work to do to improve.  I'm an old man.  I can't match the mechanics of these teenagers who can just eat, sleep, and breathe this stuff.  I have to use my brain.  I have to have experience and knowledge and use that to overcome my mechanical disadvantage.  I've been studying and watching games. I've been working on specific builds and expanding my god pool.  I'm ready to be a Bronze Bastard once again!

First queue of the first day of the patch is a little intense.  4 minutes to queue. I'm second to pick.  I decide to take Mercury and go Jungle.  I'll have to check, but I don't think I've ever jungled in Ranked.  This could be bad.  But Merc is probably my best jungler, and I have what I think is a pretty potent build for him. and then, of course, someone bails on the lobby and I go back to queue.  sigh.

6.5 minutes in, and I finally catch another game.  I am top ELO.  Oh no. I ban Terra and Thoth.  Opponent bans Cerb and Achiles. Something inside of me tells me to take Ratotaskor, so I do it.  The opponents take Thanatos and He Bo. Oh no. We draft Scylla and Geb.  In the last lobby, the whole team was in coms.  In this one, only Scylla has voice.  Oh no.  Opponent bans Cu Chulain.  I sit Discordia.  Mistake, I should have banned a carry based on their team comp. They ban Ullr and I bench Hachiman. They pick Izanami at 4th spot Our carry takes Skadi.  Our solo goes Tyr.  The enemy rounds out their team with Sobek.

My build starts with Acorn T1 and the Katana, with Assasin's Blessing.  I take two mana pots.  Since I blundered and let an enemy He Bo mid through, I'm going to cut in on Mid after I get Front Harpies.  I ping my path on the map for Scylla to see, she thanks me.

This game was absolutely awful. I got killed early.  The SWK solo owns me, stunning me out of all my moves.  The He Bo is just too powerful.  I don't know what to do, I am starved for mana and down levels.  This is painful.  Our duo lane gets absolutely rolled, dying 7 times in the first 16 minutes.  This one F6s.  Some causes are just lost.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard XIII

Current TP 87 Bronze IV
Well, I just lost my second promotion game, last time around.  4 more wins for the split reward.  I really need one here. 8-minute queue and I'm last pick.  I like last-picking.  Top ELO goes Susano jungle, no questions.  I like it. 2nd pick is Agni.  The enemy takes Hachi and Loki(!!!).  Cerberus solo from our third pick.  I'm in the duo lane.  Looks like we'll be laning against Ares + Hachi.  I'm taking my boy Ganesha.  The opponents have a 10-star Diamond Tyr.  Yay.

Well, I play Ganesha very strongly.  We kill the duo lane early. But the Anhur goes back to fountain instead of pushing tower.  Then I notice he is building Transcendence.  Oh no.  I continue playing very strongly, making calls and placing wards.  I'm in good coms with our Susano, who gets some good help to the mid lane.  But my Anhur is bad.  He throws his Obelisk in weird places and prevents me from using my 3 to lock people down for what would be easy kills, if he had any power/pen in his build.  This is frustrating.  We eventually lose tower, and the whole team just crumbles.  Anhur was a huge weak point and we got rolled.  I got 2 kills.  As Ganesha.  I lost so many assists due to Agni not knowing how to use his 3, and Anhur not even so much as breathing on the enemy tower.  He literally backed every single time the wave was pushing.  The Bronze Bastard played well, but the team was outmatched by a superior Loki who just would not die.

Game II
Current TP 77 Bronze IV

I'm salty.  This moron Loki at our 3rd pick spot just used all the bank time to third-pick the god he suggested from the beginning that he wanted.  Really?  I can already tell this game is going to be a pain in the ass of the Bronze Bastard.

Boy, was I right.  The Loki feeds and builds the most garbage stuff I've ever seen.  I almost wouldn't believe he was a real person, if he wasn't mouth-breathing into his microphone like it was a hot dog.  There's not much to write about this match. We surrendered at about 16 minutes.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard XII

Ok, I'm up for promotion to Bronze II with a win here.  Queue pops in 22 seconds.  I'm 3rd pick.  This usually spells trouble. Top and last pick both pref ADC.  Top ELO goes Ravana.  Our 4th pick drops.  Back to queue, with me.  8 minutes later...someone does not accept the match.  Back to queue, with me.  45 more seconds pass...and now I'm second pick.  Great.  Everyone calls preferences and I'm left Mid.  So I guess I have to go mid.  I take Agni.  He's good in this meta and I know him pretty well.  Going into a Discordia.  Hopefully we can make this work.

We are in trouble.  The Ullr ADC is unable to hold off an aggressive Anhur and just gets whipped hard.  The Ymir is pretty good and comes over to cover me after Athena decides to come for an early gank.  Our Thana is present in the early game but falls way behind the enemy Serqet in levels.  I hold my own, but also fall a couple of levels behind Discordia after i get 1v3'd by Discordia, Serqet, and Athena. Life is rough for the Bronze Bastard in Midlane.  This team lost in the draft lobby, and fell apart under its own weight.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard XI

Current TP 81 Bronze IV

Queue pop at only 3 minutes.  I'm last pick.  Hope I can slide by not being horrible.  The 1st ELO appears to be a good shot-caller.  We get role prefs sorted out in lobby.  I am going Ganesha to support a Rama (leaderboard-gold) into a likely Vamana/Tyr Freya combo.  Spicy.

Poseidon is our mid and gets the first tower at only 7 minutes.  My start as Ganesha gets me two early deaths against the Vamana/Freya duo, but I know I'll be better with my gear.  This Rama is playing well, and about minute 11 I think I can safely leave him be.  I start rotating to help with pressure in various areas, but I still get lit up for the first 15 minutes before I get Sov fully online.

I'm now a lot tankier.  The Rama is insistent on taking towers and objectives while we are teamfighting.  It is highly frustrating because we miss a lot of kill opportunities.  Our Ne Zha jungle is soooo salty about his refusal to join any team fight.  Still, even in uneven matches we are staying ahead of this enemy team in kills and objectives.  Rama continues to chop down towers, Ne Zha continues to BM him...and At 53 mintues, the Bronze Bastard grinds out the grindy-est of wins.   1-13-29 with the same player damage as Rama.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard X

current TP: 89 Bronze IV

9+ minute queue.  Alright.  Come on.  Give me somethign to work with, matchmaking.  I'm 3rd pick.  4th calls support.  Last pick does not want to be solo or ADC. Ugh.  I am going to be stuck with solo.  I think I will go Cerberus solo.  We got a gold Hachiman at 2nd pick.  I end up actually being the jungle.  I pick Ne Zha, who I have played exactly once.  I did have a very strong game with him in casual, so I hope that translates a bit.  Looks like my opponent jungler will be He Bo.

He bo destroys all he approaches. I die twice in the first 5 minutes.  I get a kill in duo, then die again. I am dying a lot.  This He Bo jungle rolls me over for 5 deaths before 15 minutes.  I finally get level and at about 25 minutes I start hitting harder.  I push the right T2 tower and ALMOST take it before losing a shoot-out with a slightly higher Apollo. We get a good defense of FG, but can't steal it.  My late game and team fight improve quite a bit.

We take a couple FGs.  We are fighting better as a team.  39 minutes in, and there's cause for hope of a come back. We take another FG and get both towers.  Minute 53 and we are 3 phoenixes against 3.  Tough match.  I lost, and it was totally my fault.  I missed my 3 a lot.  I missed my ult.  I played a god I didn't know well because I had one good casual game with him.  I'm a bronze bastard.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard IX

current TP: 96 Bronze IV

I've been on a roll.  Is new matchmaking helping?  Is my studying paying off? Am I just better at roles than solo?  I guess we'll find out soon enough.

7+ minute queue pop.  I'm last pick again.  I hope I can hold on, a promotion game is in my sight.  2nd pick wants to support.  4th will ADC.  1st ELO shows Janus and then goes Nox. We have a Ravana (gold leaderboard) jungle. Looking like I'll be solo.  I decide to pick Camazotz, who is ranking high on a lot of tier lists and doing well in the SPL.  It also just happens to work really well since we have a warrior jungle.

Well, this team sucks.  The duo gets crushed.  The Ravana jungle just dicks around getting farm and never ganks.  The enemy Da Ji jungle is an ever-present force in all lanes, which makes our farmer Ravana even more painful.  The duo lane gets rolled over like a wave.  The events elsewhere on the map are very disheartening,  but I actually hold my own really well and push tower.  I take the advantage over an aggressive Chang'e. This Cama in solo thing is real, and I'm doing it well.

Unfortunately, the rest of the board is not faring well.  We degrade into a lot of internal BM-ing.  Eventually, the enemy jungle realizes that Ravanna is just farming and not ganking or even helping at all in lane.  Thanatos takes turns 2v-ing every lane until each of our T1 and most of our T2 towers fall. This pitiful team surrenders.  Such is the life of the bronze bastard in the solo lane.

tales of a bronze bastard VIII

current TP = 81 in Bronze IV

5 min queue, not bad.  Thank god, I'm last pick.  2nd pick has a support pref, so I'm not supp.  ADC seems to be sliding.  Hunters are not big in this meta.  That's worked out well for me in recent games.  Mid is called.  So yeah, I'm jungle or ADC.  Enemy team first picks Achilles, we take Thoth and Ganehsa (leaderboard gold).  The enemy team takes Cama and Neith.  3rd pick takes jungle, so I'm going to be ADC.  Iza or Hachi?

I went Izanami after they banned Hachi.  We're playing into Neith and Athena.  We have 2 X's and I'm a IX Iza.  As far as god experience, we may have the advantage.  The duo lane is hiding their masteries, though.  Athena and Neith are good.  Both good individual players.  They aren't working super well together, though.  I take hunters blessing and Devo's T1.  Ganesha and I are meshing well.  He grabs them, I fire.  I get an early kill on a very aggressive Athena. We eventually chase down the Neith and get a kill, but the jungle covers and we are too depleted in mana and health to push the tower.

I finish Devo's on my first back.  I grab a couple wards.  I'm feeling good.  As the game proceeds, the 1st ELO mid Thoth owns his opponent.  We take damage on our towers, but every wave they push results in at least one death on their side.  This lets our solo and mid push their towers.  After dying a couple time and getting T2 boots, I end up having an extended kill and farm session and end up with enough for Deathbringer.  I start hitting hard now. We take down a couple of gold furies and crush their remaining towers. The other team is tactically and mechanically outmatched.  We cruise to forcing a surrender at the 23rd minute.  I finish 8-5-5 with 13K damage.  Maybe i'm an ADC after all?

Tales of a bronze bastard VII - Take 2

currently Bronze IV with 50 TP
Take II.  I was so upset after 5.5's game crashing issue that i've taken a break from ranked.  now, i'm back for more masochistic mayhem.  i've been playing a fair amount of casual primarily as support, and having some luck.  I ran a Jing Wei jungle yesterday due to a Hades/nemesis duo that didn't call and i wanted a flex pick.  Won't do that again.

OK, after a 10-minute queue I'm last ELO so this is probably a good chance for me to not eff things up.  Top ELO is tacking Arachne.  I like it when top ELO jungles.  Oh my.  4th pick takes Ymir as support.  That leaves me ADC.  Iza is banned and would be my go to.  I am going to try Hachiman.  could be trouble.

Ymir and I get early pressure hard on the duo lane, pushing them back to tower.  Our Arachne comes over and gets a kill on the enemy jungle and the ADC.  This is how you start a game.  We keep the pressure going.  I quickly take down my left tower.  I help right side, and take down the right tower.  we get Gold Fury at 15 minutes.  I get mid tower. We get T2 towers taken down.  We are still down 6 kills at the 20 minute mark, but have a 1K gold advantage.  A 23rd minute triple kill sends us towards fire giant, which we take.  We crush through the Phoenix.

Final stat line = 1-2-4 with 11K player damage and a whopping 6900 structure damage.  I was an objective  master on this one.  My map and teamfight awareness was good.  I liked my ability level up order.  I got my 2 up first and then chose to level my 3 before my 1.  T made extensive use of my 3, treating it like my Izanami escape.  Having more beef to it was pretty awesome when I wanted to finish someone off.   Score one for the Bronze Bastard. + 15 TP

Game II --Bronze IV with 65 TP

8-minute queue.  4th pick.  Let's see what happens.  Ok.  Ravana jungle from top ELO.  We get a Sol ADC.  I end up getting mid and am trying Neith into Nu Wa.  Let's see.

I start with transcendence, skipping boots thinking I don't need movement speed in the mid lane.  I also go mages blessing. 

Well, I have no problem handling Nu Wa.  Actually, her clay soldiers give me farm for my stacks and help me level.  I get good presence from my jungler. After one good gank early, I crush the mid tower.  We get both the Gold Fury and the Fire Giant by 15 minutes.

The enemy Osiris runs into our T1 mid tower and suicides.  The enemy team's surrender is soon thereafter.  Mid Neith for the Bronze Bastard results in a 2-1-4 line with a team-leading 6.7K player damage.   +16 TP.