Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXXI

Qualifying game 8. 

I'm going to play Anubis.  Bans: AMC, Bakasura, Freya, He Bo, Medusa, Ao Kuang, Ullr, Kali.  Since he wasn't banned, I'll take Baron instead.  I'm going into Skadi.  I think I can handle this, just gotta watch out for that dog. 

I go 5-2.  I do 16K damage to his 13K damage.  But because of this stupid 300-ping bug, I lose a fight and my objectives die.  I finish ahead in gold, kills, and XP.  And I lose.  Because some bug in the system is jacking up 300 ping.  *sigh

Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXX

Duel - Game 6 Qualifier I ban AMC, opponent bans Anubis. I respond with a Freya ban. In return, the opponent bans He Bo. My third ban is Ullr, opponent's is Kali, I use every second to ban Medusa, and the opponent responds with Bakasura. Baron, for me. The opponent picks Ra. This will be spicy. I'm going to rush Pestilence here. I overestimate my early damage and take too long to drop the blue buff, twice. This allows the Ra to get an early kill on me and take my tower as well. But once Pesti is finish, its pretty much over. I go 5-1 and force a surrender after the 3rd straight ult kill. Feels bad for the other guy, man. Game 7 Qualifier Bans this game are Chang'e, Freya, Baka, Artemis, He Bo, Kumbha, Kali, and Hou Yi. I take Anubis into Izanami. Its a close match. For 17 minutes, no one dies. Then, I get a kill. I can't take tower. A bit later, I get caught out with no mana and that's when the stalemate ends. Iza gets me and quickly takes my tower and my phoenix. Feelsbadman, game over.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXIX

Current Rank: Silver II - 36 TP During this week of casual-ing, I've worked on Arachne jungle. The idea started with "what other gods besides Merc can abuse Golden Blade?" I decided that Arachne would. I also envisioned Silverbranch Bow with her. I have been straight owning people. Unfortunately, my third pick doesn't get to take jungler because our 1st ELO goes Thanatos. Our second goes Ra. The enemy team has a Baron, which I figure for solo. I try to decide what might go well into him, and I decide to take Odin. I immediately second guess myself, though I think he's a random enough pick that I may be able to work it. I feel like I can bully Baron, which is a good way to approach him. The enemy team drafts an Erlang, which could spell trouble for my Odin. They still don't have a supp, so the Baron could supp and I may have to deal with Erlang in solo. The other team takes Geb with the last pick. I'm guessing Baron solo with Erlang jungle and Geb support. Well this ends poorly. I decide to start playing Duel Game 1 - Fall Qualifiers I pick Arachne, the enemy takes Tyr. I handle him pretty easily. I mess up my build. After a slow start, I stay way ahead after level 4. I use all the farm on the map, and keep him pushed back. I methodically win a 5-0 surrender at the 16 minute mark. Game 2 The second game, I draw Ullr. This guy gets me a lot. I foolishly run away from him, and get stunned from behind a lot. In retrospect, I shoudl have bought Magi's Cloak to protect against that, or been more aggressive. It was hard once he got the level edge, though. I couldn't stick to him. Game 3 I decide to go Cupid, I'll be into a Guan Yu. I get handled pretty easily. Game 4 I take Anubis into He Bo. Aye, this could be bad. For He-Bo. I dominate. I use my 2 very well Game 5 What do do here? I'm going to try Anubis again. Why not? Looks like I'll be playing against Nox. Spicy. This was by far the most competitive game. I held the edge for most of this 29-minute match, but I made a couple of mistakes in the end. That's all it took for Nox to rock me.

Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXVIII

Current Rank: Silver II - 22 TP

Sunday morning ranked.  I'm last pick, so let's just roll with whatever happens.  Bans = Freya, Pele, Mercury,  Baron.  The enemy team first picks Poseidon.  We respond with Ao Kuang and Medusa.  They go global with Athena and Cherno.  Our last pick before the next round of bans is Erlang Shen.

Bans 2 = Bakasura, Geb, Serqet, Agni.  I get Sol with Sylvanus.  The other team takes Da Ji and Janus.  We are going to be moved on, hard.  They have such a global presence. 

It turns out, they must have just picked meta gods without knowing how to play them.  But the real difference in the game is our Ao Kuang. He straight murders. Top damage in the game at 21K.  No two players on the enemy team did as much damage as Kuang.  We crush the other team mercillesly, knocking out mid and right phoenix with only one tower gone on our side.  I didn't have a great game, but I was useful in team fights.  Still, at the end of the day, I got carried.  And I'll take it. 

Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXVII

Current Rank: Silver II - 34 TP Today is the opposite of yesterday's top ELO win. This time, I'm 4th pick. Let's take what comes to us and make it happen.

 The Picks and Bans phase leave both Cherno and Merc open. (Bans: Baron, Freya, Pele, He Bo). Our enemy first picks Cherno; we get the Mercury. Our 2nd goes Iza (mid), while the enemies counter with Ao Kuang and Athena. That Athena + Cherno presence is going to kill.

The second round of bans gets rid of Kumbha, Ganesha, Geb and Agni. I decide to take Fafnir, and someone on the other team dodges lobby. Back to queue. I debate just not playing, as this may be a bad omen.

Second try, I'm second pick. Bans this time are Baron, Freya, Merc, Baka. Our top pick takes Medusa, with Pele, Cherno, and Athena available. The enemy takes Neith and Pele. I get trapped in a no bank time situation because the lobby was communicating unclearly and end up just locking in on whatever god I have. It's Ravana. I freak. I take Serqet right before 0, since she was right beside Ravana on the god pick screen.

 I decide to call supp. I've done this in casual and had some mixed results, but it could be bad in ranked. Or great. Let's do this. I actually Serqet pretty well. However, my team is a bunch of people all wanting to do their own thing. I wouldn't even go so far as to call it a team. We are pretty bad overall. We lose, as to be expected. Our Ymir jungle gets owned. Ah well, what can you do?

Tales of a Bronze Bastard LXVI

Current Rank: Silver II - 20 TP

I'm top ELO.  Oy vay.  I ban Freya and Pele, the enemy bans Merc and Cherno.  The enemy takes Freya 1st, and I respond with an Artio flex pick.  The final team comp is my team: Baka, Ullr, Athena, Anubis, Artio.  The enemy team is Freya, Hachi, Thor, Bellona, The Morrigan. 

I am flexing into solo against Bellona.  Aight, let's do this. 

Bellona and I stalemate during the first few minutes.  She started Warrior's Blessing and then went into Ninja tabi, so I go use my first back to finish CD Boots and then TP back.  I gain a bit of pressure, but she takes it back.  After another long back and forth, I go back for T2 Breastplate of Valor.  Once I finish breastplate, Bellona doesn't win a fight against me.  I can't kill her either, but she can't kill me and can't leave lane.  I do get ganked by 3, and with that one death the tower falls. 

This was a really closely matched game.   One small thing was going to flip the scales.  I felt like we could beat this team.  Once I got into a few team fights, we were just owning the opponents.  Artio solo is a beast, she levels up fast and becomes a nightmare to deal with.  I have so many options available to me and I haven't hit a really bad matchup yet.  I am sure there are some bad ones for her, but I've handled myself against Warriors, Guardians, and Mages as her, at this point. 

I positively reinforce this team, even though Baka is regularly flaming Ullr for not playing well and saying Ullr is trolling.  Knowing that I was top ELO and only Silver II, my guess is that Ullr is a newer player.  I use positive comments to try and keep the group focused.  I tell them I think we are a better team.  I tell them to group up.  I tell them when something is behind them.  I place 12 wards, top on the team.  I make FG calls and then vocalize it in the voice chat for emphasis.  I have to argue with another person who was calling to attack middle lane.  I explained my reasoning, and everyone came and helped me.  And we got FG and crushed the middle tower and phoenix. 

Another hard fought bit later, we were going for a second FG and I saw Morrigan coming in.  I call to retreat and cancel the FG, thinking she will try to steal it.  She's the only one on the other team that is even alive.  No one pulls back.  She comes out of invis, ults, and steals FG.  I sigh into the mic, but I start stunning and crippling people and we actually kill 3 of them quickly, and chase the other two down.  I am a beast right now, nothing can stand up to me. 

This is one of the funnest, most competitive games I've had in a while.  The one thing that swung this game, was my positive play and focus.  I didn't let BM got me down, I put GM out there to drown out the noise.  I finish 3-4-26.  We win in glorious fashion with a decide, a phoenix rush, and a Titan pull that involved killing 2 more that had re-spawned.  The final game was 44-48, and epic battle worthy of gods!