League of Stories – Page 9 – Life on the Fields of Justice

Amazonian Scrim

Posted on March 1, 2013 by AdyEndrus

Posted in League of Legends, Video Games 5 Comments

I want to apologize for piquing your interest and then dropping the topic on these Amazon scrims. I haven’t had a chance to play League lately, and so a lot of my drive was just absent.

I also apologize for the brief explanation of this first game. I don’t want to call people out because normally this blog only does that to strangers, but we had a couple key misplays early that cost us too heavily in the rest of the game. Amazon applied a lot of early pressure with the Hecarim pick, and it did work. We made sure they weren’t going to get that pick again. Also, I felt like Thresh was a key factor in their success, so we made sure to take that away from them.

Going into game two we told ourselves that we would run poke. In Champion Select we actually baited the Vi pick. We left it up so that the enemy team could pick it. I felt like we got to counter pick ever role except for the ADC role. I picked Kog’Maw with first pick, and then let Amazon pick two champs. They picked up Miss Fortune and Vi. We had left Vi up, while banning out Amumu and Hecarim, so we assumed Vi would be their strongest jungle pick. We immediately countered with Morgana, who they assumed would go mid. Morgana does exceptionally well in our poke comp because of the disengage powers of her ultimate, snare, and spell shield. Also, she is the PERFECT counter to Vi because she nullifies Vi’s ultimate, giving her no ability to scale into the late game. It basically changes Vi’s ultimate so now she Blitz hooks herself into the middle of our team and doesn’t get to CC anyone.

Laning phase opened strong for Morgana and myself because we had such an early Black Shield. I forgot to mention that it blocks all of Leona’s damage. It blocks her stuns, her extra passive damage, everything. It completely shuts down a support Leona in lane. It got to the point that Leona would go to engage on me, and without any of the CC from her abilities I would walk right through her towards Miss Fortune and MF would be forced to run away, leaving a poor Leona to die for her.

Our mid game had a few hiccups, but was otherwise flawless. We grouped and started taking towers and the enemy team could do nothing but watch. To think that we destroyed their Nexus at 24 minutes is really an amazing feat. Also, feeding your ADC by taking free towers and picking up Dragons is such a bonus. With the amount of global gold we had it was like everyone on our team was fed. I can see why most teams will take a four minute tower in a side lane now. It really made us all so big.

I felt really privileged this game to be the recipient of most of the spell shields and a focus for the Kayle ultimate. I felt like we were playing a real “protect the Kog” strat when really we just wanted ranged poke. It also was SUPER helpful that we had five ranged champs and ~~two~~ three melees!

It had been awhile since I had acquired double the gold of the enemy ADC, but it felt wonderful to have it happen in this game. At the end of the game MF went to trade autos with me while he was standing between her two Nexus turrets. After two autos from me she Flashed back towards her fountain, but my third auto was already in the air and finished her off. I was only 12-4 at that point, I had to pick up two more kills on the fountain itself.

This last game was for all the marbles. I was a bit nervous as they had bested us in the first game. We got pretty far behind in this third match up which really sucked as a Tristana player because Akali with a Kayle Intervention is enough to kill me. Luckily, while Akali was chasing me in the back of the team fight, Riven and Ryze were doing work on the rest of the enemy team.

Ryze got real big this game. Close to the end of the game Iggie said “I just need a bit more gold for my Arch Angel’s staff” and I interjected and told him that Ryze doesn’t get that anymore, he only needs Manamune to upgrade to Muramana. Iggie didn’t fight it or question it, he just said, “Ok.” With that Muramana his damage was literally almost doubled. He started flipping out over how strong he had become after that one item. It was a game changer. He picked up big team fight triple kills, which really helped us push this game over to our favor.

We were down close to 5k gold, but brought it back to tie the kills at 26 to 26. From there we kept our late-game pressure as high as possible. Our whole team had immense late-game potential, with Ryze scaling as long as mana items exist, Tristana just gets longer range, one Blitz hook ends the game, Riven buying second lives, and Hecarim tipping the “unkillable” scale, we were a mean looking team to have to deal with.

AHGL: Twitch

Posted on February 27, 2013 by AdyEndrus

Posted in League of Legends, Video Games Leave a comment

I have good news and I have bad news. The bad news is we lost our first game against Twitch in our best-of-three series. The good news is my client crashed crazy hard which prevented me from saving a screenshot. Sadly, it also crashed my LolReplay, so I have the first game’s replay file, and screenshots of the second and third game. Spoiler, this best-of-three series went to three games.

After miserably losing the first game, we subbed some players out to give Twitch a run for their money. They were a bit skeptical at first, but after some roster checks they saw that our guys were members of our team and the games continued.

We ultimately just wanted to see if we could get Lux and Pantheon in the bottom lane. We knew that if we got that combination we would be set. In the first game Miss Fortune had dominated us with some intense damage and wonderful play. We were not going to let her have that opportunity to outplay our bottom lane again.

I got to hang out with djWHEAT in mid lane this game. I really didn’t know it when it happened. We had figured that because he plays Ori so much it would be a smart ban. We left it up for him this game, and he did quite well with it. I would venture to say that laning phase was a bit rough for him. I started Flask, so I had slightly higher mana regen in the earlier levels, so I abused that to harass him down. Once I saw him drop to 100 HP and stick around a quick Flash Ignite auto attack combo finished him off for First Blood. I didn’t want to cause death by Space AIDs. No, I’d save that for next time.

We jumped out to a comfortable lead and realized it around the 13-4 mark. They were seeing our team’s full armada right now. We were synced up and playing well together, however the game was not yet over.

We realized too late that our lack of an AD carry was a very poor pushing option against their area-of-effect comp. We would need to pull something trick out of our sleeves.

Our opportunity arose when SirSpam and I were pushing top lane. The enemy team made a five-man siege down mid lane, expecting to take a turret or win a fight. They vastly underestimated Malzahar’s ability to push. I spawn minions! My spells are all area-of-effect (technically) except for my ult. My minions not only tank turret, they also help to push waves and turrets. The enemy team fights mid. Choppes picks up a kill in a 3v5. The enemy team tries to retreat and my team chases them out to stop them from getting back. Our push took the second tier turret, inhibitor turret, inhibitor, and both Nexus turrets uncontested. While I was trying to kill the Nexus they finally got back to defend their base. By this point the game was mostly over.

Our next objective was bottom lane. We picked up Dragon, and while doing so we found our old friend, djWHEAT. First we could only see the Orianna ball poking its head around the corner. Shortly after that we saw him walk around to get his blue buff. A Malphite Unstoppable Force stopped him where he stood. That was followed up with a Pantheon Aegis of Zeonia, a Lux Light Binding, and a dead Orianna. Now was our chance to push!

We are already pushing up bottom lane. Pantheon goes for a kill on a person right on the turret. I’m still sprinting to get to the action, so I cut through the jungle to the outer wall of the team’s base. I’m pinging for Choppes because he’s now between three enemy players. I call out and say “If you can get to this point I’ll save you!” He doesn’t respond. He doesn’t react. He doesn’t even walk towards me. He turns to the next enemy player and chunks them down. Double kill. Ok, Choppes, it’s ok, I’m almost there buddy, hold on! He still hasn’t turned. Jarvan is the only one left. Choppes fears no man, especially a Jarman. TRIPLE KILL! I just stop walking. It was one of the sexiest things we had ever seen. Aced. Mantheon strikes again. Welp, 13-1, he just earned himself a ban.

We tried to prep for a third game, but without knowing what bans were going to come out we just hoped we could replicate our bot lane from the game before, but we were almost certain that Pantheon would be banned out. After Pantheon was banned we picked up Kha’Zix to fill his shoes. We knew the Mantheon would live on in our hearts, but Kha’Zix would have to win bot lane.

They picked Kayle, and we concluded that Morgana is one of the stronger counters to Kayle, so I was taking Morgana mid. In the loading screen we were all scratching our heads. They had already switched up lanes on us once, but now we were lost. Picture this:

Kayle: Barrier Flash

Xin: Barrier Flash

Anivia: Heal Flash

Jayce: Ignite Flash

Vi: Smite Flash

We were pretty sure that the super annoying bird and her heal were coming back mid, and that Vi was going into the jungle. Other than that, we were completely lost. We eventually decided it was probably a kill lane in bot. The combined slow of Kayle and Xin would be enough to make anyone miserable. Their burst damage and sustain would be a huge bully, and if you thought you were about to win a fight, they would Barrier and beat you. Panic ensued. We didn’t know how to play against this because we had never seen it before.

They sent their Kayle and Xin Zhao kill lane to bot with that double Barrier comp. I would say that maybe they had never seen Choppes and Iggie before, but they had just dealt with them in the game before. Resilient players wanted a second chance at playing against Choppes and Iggie in the bot lane after they took away the Pantheon pick. I should upload more replays so that people could watch Choppes and Iggie do their magic dance.

I only played Morgana because we thought it would be a counter to Kayle. It actually did decently well against they cryophoenix as well. Eventually, Anivia was pushing me to my turret, but she loved to harass me after she cleared the wave, and we baited it a couple times to allow my jungler to sneak in behind her. This really allowed me to roll in mid lane and roam.

My first trip to bottom lane resulted in me ulting and us picking up two kills, but then I didn’t leave. I just hung out and laned while I waited for Choppes and Iggie to return. As soon as they did I had my ult back up and figured why not kill this bot lane again? We had enough CC and burst that the enemy team didn’t stand a chance. Vi came to counter gank and something amazing happened. She tried to use her ultimate on me, but I quickly self-cast Black Shield and Vi zoomed over to where I was standing, popped herself up in the air, and then slammed herself into the ground. I took damage, but I was free to leave. I had forgotten how broken Black Shield really is. I had no idea it would counter Vi that hard. The only thing that breaks Black Shield is magic damage and it expiring, so all of Vi’s CC was blocked because she couldn’t get the shield down.

The best was after I left bot lane I was pretty beat up. I was probably down to 400-600 HP and just walking from blue side’s bottom jungle up to mid. Vi saw me just waltzing through and saw how low I was. I knew the bird couldn’t be far. Vi tries to gap close and just presses R on me. As she gets closer I pop my Black Shield. I block all of the CC. I snag her in a snare as she tries to do her charged dash. I walk away almost unscathed. Again, I’m abusing poor Styles. The worth of his champion in this game was just fractured. It’s nothing that he did wrong, we really just got lucky!

The final push didn’t happen in a lane. We caught Twitch in their jungle near Wraiths and a fight started. Before anyone could react, Czarni went charging in like a hero. The enemy team started to scatter, but it was too late. We egged Anivia, and then just walked away from her. People started freaking out in our Skype call saying “hey guys, we gotta kill this bird!” We turn our attention to Eggnivia and finish her off. We switch from her to the next enemy and chase and chase and chase. Eventually we pick up the last kill on Vi to hear the announcer call out the Ace. At this point I started laughing out loud. I looked around me and saw all four of my team mates standing with me next to the enemy team’s inhibitor in mid lane. We had dove past two turrets in mid lane and were all standing in the enemy team’s base. The clock said 24 minutes, and the surrender vote was passed immediately.

It was such a good feeling to dive as a team and follow each other up as we pushed into the enemy team’s base. At times our team will split when trying to work together which usually results in a free death or an objective lost. It was great team work. After the game we were complimented when shiftkeyisbroke suggested that our team be in the A League. He had played in the A League the AHGL season before and felt that based on the way we played we could hold our own in the A League. This was such a huge compliment because our team isn’t all gold and platinum players, we just have games where we are able to work well together, communicate, strategize, and do well. Keep up that good team work, SecurityMetrics!

Late-Game Miss Fortune

Posted on February 26, 2013 by AdyEndrus

Posted in League of Legends, Video Games Leave a comment

This game had one of the closest team fights because of a late-game Miss Fortune that almost wrecked us. However, she made a critical mistake and instead of the penta kill for her team, she picked up the ace for our team.

Our whole team had an extremely high level of kite potential. We never really put it to good use until the final team fight. We lost a fight at Baron and were scattering down the river towards mid. As we were passing over mid, all members of my team below 1/4 HP, Miss Fortune came bustling from just south of her team. She was at full health and had the build you can see below. It looks like she forgot to pop her Red Elixir, but I don’t think it would have made a difference.

She chased us down the river, with the potential to kill almost any of us with one click. Staying just outside of her range we waited for cooldowns. Her strut put her in range of my Noxian Corrosive Charge. When that landed on her I think she realized she was dead. Enabling my Terror Capacitor allowed for my Acid Hunters to slow her movement and crush her HP pool. After a barrage of Acid Hunters I could see that she wasn’t going to make it. I can’t remember who snagged her with a skillshot, but either Lee or Lux pegged her from range and just finished her off. This immediately ignited our hopes, and we turned the fight around. With Miss Fortune down, and Akali killed in the earlier engagement we knew we had the victory.

Urgot can still be strong in Solo Queue, but I had to dominate my lane, while avoiding Zyra plants, and it wasn’t easy. Even with my lane dominated, we still got plenty of action in bottom lane from the enemy jungler and Zilean. This tie game goes to Urgot, for making sure his team didn’t throw.

I just wanted to throw in the fact that this Jarvan was an idiot. We had won a team fight, but weren’t strong enough to take Baron, so we shoved mid. We called to retreat so we could get to Baron fast enough before the enemy team did. I stepped to recalled, bought Home Guards and Oracles (because my team had negative KD’s and I had money) and rushed to Baron. At this point I did exactly what I was supposed to do. I was not the one who called the retreat, I was respecting someone else’s judgment call to avoid getting caught by the enemy team. I was at the objective we were trying to secure, I was clearing wards, I was full health. The rest of my team stayed mid, pushed another tower, took inhib, and got caught. Were they expecting to escape from Zilean and Akali? Why? It was such a dumb move that put them further negative and just made the game harder for us as a team. Idiots in Solo Queue, let me tell you what I told my team that day: “Greed loses more games than anything.” Close games are lost by greed. Overstaying your welcome, trying to dive for that one kill, extending for that last CS without a ward, it’s these little things that cost you games. Get back, heal up, get in position for Baron as five. Don’t allow a late-game Miss Fortune to ruin your day. You’ve already won the game because you are getting carried, don’t make it more of a burden on your team. /rant

Qualify for Gold Division

Posted on February 22, 2013 by AdyEndrus

Posted in League of Legends, Video Games 1 Comment

I told myself that I just needed my first win of the day, but really I wanted to qualify for gold. However, going into the game calmly really helped prepare me for the carnage that was coming.

In Champion Select I saw that we had two “high rolers”. No one else got the joke, but we had a Role King and a Role God. I’m pretty sure it was one person playing on two computers, which is quite impressive, but Olaf had five kills (which I’m positive he stole) and only three assists, for a combined kill participation score of eight. Not only did he not carry his weight in team fights or ganking, but he took every blue. I literally only got blue from taking it from Zyra this game.

First blood actually was a funny scenario. I had warded the enemy team’s wraiths at level one so I would see Fiddle coming to gank. By the time he came around to get me I had an Olaf standing the bush he was about to face check. I snuck over towards him to give him hope that he could gank us. I landed a gold card, threw my Wild Cards and Olaf used his Reckless Swing and Fiddle was gone. No chance to Flash, not chance to silence, fear, and walk away. Dead. Sadly, Olaf stole the kill, so instead of me getting double buffs, Olaf got double buffs, that he already had. Sigh.

I knew that if Zyra got a hook on me that I was dead. That player only picked Zyra because she does so well against Twisted Fate. However, I was pretty sly at dodging her root, and avoided as much plant damage as possible. I didn’t mind pushing her up to her tower because, as I discussed with Czarni, I don’t need anything at the start of the game. I’ve literally been starting two wards and six health potions because I sustain mana on my own, so if I can just stay in lane topped off I will be fine. If my lane came pre-warded I may start boots, because I love the mobility of Twisted Fate.

I camped bot so hard this game. I didn’t want to let Draven and Taric get ahead at all. I’m pretty sure that I used every ultimate to jump to bottom lane and cause some havoc. Akali was holding her own in top lane, so I just went bonkers on that poor bot lane. They hated me. Draven started raging in all-chat. It was really humorous. That is the power of Twisted Fate. His global presence really plays a step ahead of an unorganized solo queue team.

My KD was pretty amazing this game, especially considering I had a kill participation score of 27! That’s 27 of my team’s 34 kills. Varus came in second place at 20, which is still more kills than the enemy team had.

A small note about this game: I really noticed the power of Void Staff in this game. Normally I would go for an Hourglass after I finish my Deathcap and Lich Bane. This game I went for Void Staff and let me tell you what it did. At the end of this game I ported onto Draven where he was fleeing from a team fight. With my insane movement speed I closed the gap on him and thew a gold card. I saw where he would be after my card landed and threw my Wild Cards at him. They didn’t hit him because my gold card killed him from half health. One shot. I shocked myself, but still appreciated my team saying “lol tf”.

A win is a win, but qualifying for gold is really the next step in getting out of this silver prison.

Welcome to Our Humble Adobe

Posted on February 22, 2013 by AdyEndrus

Posted in League of Legends, Video Games 2 Comments

I was really done for the night, but then I got an invite from Tai Feng to come play with his guys. He had four guys ready to play a draft pick normal. I had turned him down in the past, and really wanted to have a fun game with these guys, so I went for it.

After I joined their party I asked if they had any voice communication methods like Skype, Ventrilo, or TeamSpeak. They confirmed that they had Vent. When I joined their channel they were quick to throw down the humorous: “Welcome to our humble Adobe!” I thought that was pretty fun, and very friendly, so it put me right into the mood to win some games.

Tai suggested that I play mid when we were in Champion Select, so I obliged. I’d be more than happy to play mid, it’s what I do! Looking at their team comp we were pretty sure it would be Kennen mid and Malphite top. Boy did they pull the switcheroo on us!

I had a terrible time mid vs Malphite. At first I was bullying him around because I have unlimited mana and could hit him with blue cards whenever he tried to throw his shard at me. However, his jungler was adamant about killing me. Luckily, I knew that the damage Malphite would be pumping out would have diminishing returns, and if the mummy didn’t build some ability power he would be in the same boat and they would lose late without an AD carry. Time to gank bot.

Ganking bot actually turned out to be a terrible idea. I had a number of times where I would show up in bot lane, teleporting down there with my ultimate, only to be CC locked by Alistar and followed up by a Varus ult. The Adobe bot lane would say, “aw, nice try” and then they would see me Flash under turret, land a gold card on Varus, and finish him off with Wild Cards. I would have made it out, but I thought Taric needed my help, so I stepped out only to realize I was out of mana, had cancelled my recall, and now Kennen had found me. Boo.

We were slightly behind in this game because Malphite was staying pretty even in mid (let’s be real, it’s Malphite in a short lane, his ultimate carries him back to turret, that wuss), Kennen was doing really well in top lane, and bot was only slightly ahead. We needed to make some magic happen to win this game. I decided it would be best to split push.

I shoved out bottom lane while my team grouped mid. When the enemy team tried to transition down to stop me from pushing my team followed up with immense pressure and actually caught some of the enemy team out of position. We were making our comeback! We had a team fight in bot lane after one of those transitions where we aced the enemy team and didn’t lose a single member of our team.

Eventually we were pressuring top lane and Adobe managed to gift me a triple kill to save my KD. The enemy team would throw their ults down, we would survive through them and then have more sustained damage to help us win the fights.

I’m still having too much fun with Twisted Fate. I love his mobility. I may make the switch to Boots of Mobility, but I’m not sure if it would be worth it to sacrifice my spell penetration especially where I’m running movement speed quints. Maybe I’ll try it out for a game or two, but I don’t think I could put the extra movement to good use where my ultimate can already teleport me out. Maybe Boots of Swiftness? We’ll see. GG Adobe!

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