Special Request: LAN Edition

We tried to get a five-man LAN going this Friday and it almost worked out.  Choppes couldn’t come, so we only had four guys there.  Choppes did play with us, he just wasn’t there to enjoy the pizza.

After a couple losses in a row our team needed a win.  We had managed to win two custom games, but those don’t carry the same weight as an old-fashioned normal game.  I said that I wanted mid.  Those present at the LAN suggested that I play as LeBlanc.  The only problem I have with playing LeBlanc is that it’s a Blind Pick game, so the enemy doesn’t get to see who I’m going to be playing as, which doesn’t make it very fair.

I think I’ve beaten Swain in mid before.  I think if I was Swain I would know how to beat LeBlanc.  It would be a lot like Brand; the base damage on abilities would be enough to kill a LeBlanc.  I think the secret would be to smart-cast the full combo before LeBlanc could get her silence off and then stay in your ult.  Make sure not to fall behind before level six.  If needed I’d take extra points into my Torment so that if I needed to I would have guaranteed damage and bonus damage on my ignite if LeBlanc committed early.

Laning against Swain wasn’t fun.  Not because of anything Swain did, but because of his silly horse companion.  Hecarim literally ganked me six times before I had a kill.  I was starting to get desperate!  I hadn’t gone back at all, so I was looking fancy in my boots.  I was right on the brink of killing Swain.  Just as I’m committing to finish him off Hecarim shows up.  My team was blue side, so I run slightly up towards the enemy wraiths as Swain retreats with almost no health.  Hecarim comes through lane and chases me towards his jungle.  I look back and see Swain standing in lane with almost no life left.  The only thing standing between him and me and this stupid centaur.  I step back towards mid and W to get closer.  From there I immediately flash back into lane and inside turret range to get one final Q off on Swain.  Hecarim has turned to chase me under the turret so I activate the second charge of my W and blink back out to safety.  Swain doesn’t die.  I still need to watch the replay to see how low he was.  I’m sure his health reached single digits at that point.

When I finally did kill Swain his horse was there to clean me up.  I didn’t mind.  I was level seven and Swain was only five.  I was also almost double Swain’s CS and the enemy Hecarim had spent so much time chasing me and ganking me that he was behind by quite a bit as well.

Now, the attendees at this LAN had joked about playing LeBlanc, but not just any LeBlanc, they specifically said “Soul Stealer LeBlanc” which is a really scary build.  However, the first time I was back at base I had about 2000 gold.  I grabbed Soul Stealer and finished my boots and marched back to lane.  I was a poor and innocent 1-1-0 LeBlanc.  However, Shen started handing me blue buffs, and I took Swain’s every time he was gifted one.

I started making some plays with my measly 20 AP and 29 flat magic penetration.  I killed mid and swung top.  We picked up the Cho’Gath and then killed Hecarim, putting me up to five stacks.  I went back mid, killed Swain again and rotated bottom.  Bottom definitely wasn’t losing, but they aren’t as comfortable with the Lux and Pantheon combo when Jeff is playing as Panth.  It’s still effective, it still works, it’s just not as well-oiled as with their roles swapped.  I show up and we murder bottom so hard.  Before I leave I’m sitting on 14 stacks.  Another trip to bottom after taking Swain’s blue (not from the jungle, but from him) puts me at 20 stacks.  I recall just as the game is nearing the 20 minute mark.

Deathcap.  500 AP before the 20 minute mark.  I’m a walking insta-gib.  Anyone I see I can rip to pieces.  We move to invade the enemy jungle after we had all healed and grouped.  We have a ward in the bush near wraiths and so I loop past that, waiting for anyone to walk out of their base.  Lux sneaks in to stand next to me.  Darius is just below and Shen is Shen.  The enemy team decides to camp this bush that we have a ward in and wait for someone to walk by.  Instead they see a Pantheon circle open with them in the exact center.  As Pantheon starts to man-drop on the enemy I see Blitz walking into the team fight.  I blow him up to keep him from having an impact on the fight.  With him getting obliterated his team knows where I am but it’s too late.  We have them totally surrounded.  Between Lux and me we have too much crowd control.  They can’t get back to their base, but Mantheon, Shen, and Down-right Darius are closing in on them from the left.  We pick them off with surprising burst one after another.  Cho was the only survivor, but he jumped onto the same surrender band-wagon that the rest of the enemy team was already on.

Dan’s number one complaint: People died before he could come down with his slam dunk.