Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXII

Current Rank: Silver II - 27 TP Alright, let's see if this 30-second Saturday AM queue does anything for me. Nope, cannot find a match for me. Rather than be a priority for the next 9 minutes, I decide to practice an off roll in casual Casual - Role: Mid God selected - Anubis. I figure, what the hell and why not? I start with Mage's blessing and Tiny Trinket and 3 multi-pots and 2 wards. I'm going up against Thoth, who went blessing and T1 towards Chronos Pendant. I'm going to have to move quickly to stay out of position against this opponent, so I take an early opportunity and go back to get T1 boots. I end up losing the tip of my tower, but I call out that I'm returning to base and get a great cover from our Awilix, who helps defend my mid. When I get back, Thoth hasn't backed and my extra movement speed helps me juke him and gain advantage. I am hitting my wrap really well in the early game to survive an early Thana gank. I notice as I take a slow advantage that Thoth uses his 2 to get away from mine, so I decide to really start pushing the gas since he seems to be reacting to me and unwilling to attack. I learn a lesson about mid that I'm more successful when I just push minions into towers, and not go in to attack them myself. I take down the enemy T1 tower, and start rotating. Our Awilix is a force, just being everywhere and doing everything. We put on the pressure. We coordinate on two Fire Giants. We win pretty handily. Let's see how a ranked game goes. Silver II - 27 TP I'm second pick. The enemy team first picks Baron. Our top ELO takes Erlang solo, so I take Artio Supp. The enemy team has no Hunter. They are running Loki ADC, my guess. So this troll pick rolls all over my idiot Apollo, who just keeps running out and letting Loki invis behind him for a backstab. Like...literally every single time, he does the same way. This happens 4 times. I pretty much give up on the game at this point. Anyone with that much of a lack of awareness is in trouble and we're probably going to get rolled. That's pretty much what happens. I have a rough game, but the main problem is that Da Ji does no damage. She literally has less than my damage in a full tank build, when its said and done. She doesn't come and help with fights. The Apollo wants to split push, but dies numerous times by overextending himself. I try to stay positive and tell everyone we have a great late game comp. Ultimately, we have a chance to win with FG buff and their mid phoenix down. 3 of us call for retreat, and the bull-headed Erlang decides to charge in. He's 1v4-ing while literally everyone on the team is telling him to pull back because we have no health and need to regroup. If he'd listened, we would have won. As it turns out, he didn't and it was the turning point in the game. From there on, the enemies destroy us with a classic case of Loki split push. they take down all of our phoenixes and laugh on our graves.