Life on the Fields of Justice

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Monthly Archives: January 2013

AHGL: Raytheon

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I was worlds away from having most gold on my team, but I was still a contributing factor thanks to the stacks from my trusty Soul Stealer!  I always doubt myself when I buy that item.  It does set me back quite a bit of money, that I have to make up somewhere else.

800 gold is the equivalent of 40 Ability Power.  That means I need to break five stacks to make it even.  Two kills and an assist just to not be upside down on a purchase in a video game!  That’s a lot of work!

Laning against Kha’Zix was not an enjoyable experience.  Despite harassing him early, taking his Flash, and beating him in CS, he was still able to pressure mid successfully.  His Void Spikes just out-ranged any of my abilities and moved so quickly that I couldn’t dodge them effectively.  I normally stand up far enough to zone the enemy mid player, but against Kha’Zix I didn’t feel like I could stand up far enough because I would take damage from his spikes for free.

The one time I did flirt with death was when I knew Olaf was waiting in the wings.  I stepped ahead of my creep wave and ate a full Kha’Zix spike right in the face.  It dropped me critically low.  Let me walk you through it.

In this first picture Kha’Zix’ spikes had just dropped me to 187 HP, but he was mid-jump ready to end me.

187 HP LB

 

Luckily for me my Distortion was available, so I flew over the wall to safety with plenty of hit points left!  All 47 of them!

47 HP LB

With two people chasing me I saw the perfect opportunity to bounce back to my friendly Nautilus who had made his way to mid lane.

snap back LB

The enemy team saw that I would be trapped if they circled around me, so that’s just what they did.  Olaf doubled back down through lane and Kha’Zix circled around above me, but not before sending me a lovely parting gift of SPIKES!

55 HP spike dodge LB

I figured that since I had only regenerated to 55 HP it may be wise to avoid those spikes or suffer the consequences.  With those narrowly missing me I walked back to the edge of that bush in safety and waited for the enemy to close in.

closing in

Seeing them this close I knew my time was now.  I couldn’t afford to have Kha’Zix hit me with one auto attack, ability, or summoner spell; my time was now.  If Olaf had time to land a Wreckless Swing or Undertow then I knew I would be dead.  It’s time to Mimic my Distortion to blink over the wall.

Escaped! LB

It was seconds after this escape that Kha’Zix showed his sportsmanship and wrote “really well done lb” which made me smile.  The casters could appreciate some clever juking skills as well!

For my next trick, I’ll make their life bar disappear.  At the time of that juke I was merely 1-0-0.  By the time I got around to juking again I was 5-1-7 and sitting on 11 Soul Stealer stacks, which rounded me out to 728 Ability Power.

I made the mistake of seeing their red buff up and thinking “Oh goody! We’re going to get this for free!”  However, I walked right through a ward to get to my current location so Raytheon knew exactly where I was.

1 walked thru ward

I had no idea anything was going wrong.  However, when the support is willing to run at a LeBlanc with 728 Ability Power you start to think you’re in trouble.  Here’s a glimpse at what I saw that set me into a panic.

2 what I saw

That Dazzle mid-air means anything but harmless.  For a champion as squishy as myself it means to make like Tom and cruise.  Here is what my spidy sense were tingling about:

3 what they saw

I knew I was in trouble so I did what any person would do in a panic, I used Distortion to separate myself from the serious pain I was experiencing.

4 distortion out

Even at this distance I was still eating auto attacks from Miss Fortune and at serious risk to eat one Undertow from Olaf and get slowed into my death.  I needed more room.  So I Mimicked Distortion to push myself further.

5 Mimic distortion

Then the realization set in that this was warded.  Of course it was, that’s how they knew I was coming in the first place.  I needed to disappear.  I needed somewhere to go to escape.  Turning left honestly seemed like the best option in the moment.  If only there was somewhere else I could go.

6 yellow distortion point

A picture like this is a priceless gift to a LeBlanc player; when you see that they have committed to chasing you the direction that you double blinked.  Thank you, Riot, for changing LeBlanc to allow plays like this.  While my champion stepped left, possibly into the fog of war, I blinked back to that beautiful yellow spot on the ground.

7 MF auto attack

Miss Fortune actually auto-attacked me on accident after I snapped back, dropping me to 56 life.  Out of shock I obligatorily used Flash to widen the gap between her and myself.  It was in vain as after auto-attacking me once she began to channel her ultimate exactly where I would have been if I hadn’t blinked back to my original point.

8 MF ult channel

I quietly slipped out to the river and recalled with the safety of my team members creating a meat shield around me.  Thanks, meat shield!

9 my loving meatshield

At the end of this game Caitlyn and I were recovering from this battle of epic proportions.  We were walking down mid while the other three members of my team were in bottom lane.  I could see super minions flooding in from top and mid where we had already taken the inhibitors.  I made the call; force a fight with the enemy team to hopefully bait Shen out and we would take their base.

Caitlyn and I were walking up the stairs into the blue base, and Nautilus threw down his ultimate to get the attention of the enemy team.  Each member was tied down with some form of crowd control, preventing them from retreating back to help their poor ally, Shen, who fell almost instantly to the burst of LeBlanc and critical strikes of Caitlyn.  With Shen down we quickly took the Nexus turrets and stepped back to prepare for the battle that was surely going to follow.

I fell dangerously low, and had to step back and out, allowing my clone to scout and bait for me.  In the meantime, Caitlyn actually fought Miss Fortune one on one and beat her, eating through her health, forcing her Guardian Angel to save Miss Fortune, and then continued to battle her.  At the last minute Nautilus swooped in to assist with that kill.

Luckily, Olaf, being a good guy, walked back into Caitlyn at the very last second to let her finish him off to improve her score slightly and make the score screen that much prettier.  It was a battle well-fought, but SecurityMetrics prevailed in the end.

AHGL vs Raytheon Game 1

Honorable Evaine

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During champion select I requested that our first pick leave Ryze up for me to play in mid lane.  However, the enemy team banned out Kayle and then immediately first-picked Swain.  Not wanting to brawl with Swain as Ryze, I opted for my champion of choice: Evaine LeBlanc.

I was much less calm going into this match up.  I don’t know why, but every time I play LeBlanc I get very nervous and shaky.  I think it’s the fear of falling behind and being completely worthless in fights later.  The fear of missing out on kills in mid lane and watching the enemy mid become the snowball that I longed to be.  I hoped that wouldn’t be my fate.

I took Swain’s Flash at level three, but had to use my ignite to get it.  I should have known that I could take it.  He doesn’t get a chance to respond to my mobility and burst.  Once his Flash was down I checked its cooldown: 300 seconds.  I knew Swain had no Flash until 8:30.  I messaged Shen and let him know that Swain’s Flash was down for a good while.

When Shen came to gank I made a few key mistakes.  First, I responded just a second or two too late and had to walk through an army of creeps.  Second, I missed my skill shot E ability.  Technically I didn’t miss it, but I’ll explain what happened.  The creeps proc’d my passive, so I got a clone.  I walked the clone down into the river to face-check the Swain while I walked around the back side in case Swain was running.  My clone found Swain, which kept me at a safe distance so that I couldn’t get bursted.  Shen got to just beat on Swain, but Swain is a durable monkey.  I wanted to get in the mix, help Shen, and make sure to pick up the kill on Swain.

You have to understand where I am now!  I just looped down the ramp to the river where if I turn right I walk over to the dragon pit and if I turn left I walk into a row of bush that leads to mid lane.  I am shooting Swain from that bush.  My Q lands and I shoot my Ethereal Chains to hit Swain and A MINION STEPS IN THE WAY!!!!!  Why on Earth was there a minion tanking for Swain?!?!  Ugh.  So Swain ISN’T silenced and proceeds to unleash all of the spells he’d been holding on me.  Sad face.

So now I’m headed back to lane and I’m 0-1-1, Shen got the kill on Swain, but Swain is a kill up on me and I didn’t get any extra time in lane to myself.  By the time I get back to mid my blue is about ready for me to get.  I go and pick it up, it had eight life left, so I was thrilled to get to kill it with an auto attack.  I walk back to mid, having just leveled to six, I see Swain using his ultimate to clear the creep wave.  He probably knows whats coming.  I blink into the lane, get my full combo down on him, and finish him up with another Q when it came off cooldown.  Swain is dead, but Ignite and his E are ticking on me.  I’m dipping lower and lower.  Potions aren’t healing fast enough.  I’m going to lose blue buff.  Suddenly I’m shielded.  By the time Shen lands he’s already walking away to go farm more of his jungle.  All he says is “I didn’t know if you’d make it!”  What a pal!

I clear out mid lane and run back to buy my first item: Mejai’s Soul Stealer.  This has been a pretty core item in my LeBlanc build lately.  My decision was based on my belief that if I could kill Swain with just an Amplifying Tome before, then if I got a couple levels and had my Soul Stealer then I would be just fine against him.

I don’t know if Shen saw my Soul Stealer purchase but it seemed like he did because he swung past mid to gank a couple times.  Each time he did I netted myself two stacks.  Eventually I started to roam bottom because top was winning on his own.  Bottom was doing quite well themselves; the enemy bot lane was 0-3 combined at the time.  When I went down and snuck through the lane in the bushes the enemy team was too afraid to come out and farm, so I wandered up the river to Dragon and the enemy blue.  We were converging on what was beginning to look like our first team fight.  The enemy team had a much harder time fighting with us in close quarters.  We cleaned up anyone who got too close, stole their blue and took Dragon for free.

By this point we owned their jungle.  I was walking towards their blue, chasing Lulu and Miss Fortune when Hecarim started to pincer me from the backside.  Hecarim was below half.  He must not have realized that I wanted him to chase until he was close enough.  He was within range and still charging fearlessly.  As soon as I hit the bushes I turned back on him and instantly destroyed his health bar.  I was walking towards him as I cast the two spells that dropped him.  I walked right through where he was standing to the tune of a double kill.  I was left unscathed, but I wasn’t ready to leave.

Shen was standing in bottom lane while the enemy team grouped to stop his push.  He wasn’t afraid of them, but couldn’t exactly engage them either.  I was in their jungle, but got as close to the lane wall as I could and waited patiently.  The enemy team grew tired of Shen taunting them and they slowly pushed forward.  I blinked over the wall and instantly wrecked Lulu then blinked back.  Nothing left.  The enemy team tried to chase but they were met with chains of ethereal.  Shen and I walked out, laughing.

At the 20 minute mark the surrender vote came out.  I could be considered a feeder this game, but I prefer to be called the feeder that helped force the surrender vote.  After all was said and done I was honored by each of my team mates for achieving 16 stacks in a matter of 20 minutes.  They all thought that was pretty special.

quadra honor

 

1051 LeBlanc

Poke Comp: Sivir Style

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Last night’s ranked games were a learning experience for all of us.  Jack probably got to learn the most because he got to experience solo mid twice!

In retrospect I think that Jayce would work better in our team comp, especially where we want to clear waves and pressure turrets.  His kit works so much better against dive comps and hard engage.  He has his gate which the whole team can use, he can smack someone away with his hammer, he can shoot three fast shots at the turret, and he can shock blast either a full creep wave or a large chunk of the enemy team.  If we have good snare from mid and bot then I think Jayce works perfectly in this comp.

I tried Sivir out in this game to see if she fit well into the comp.  I was too scared of facing Caitlyn and Nunu in bot as Kog because I knew I wouldn’t have an escape.  I didn’t want to play as Ezreal because I wanted higher sustained damage to the turret.  Sivir seemed like a solid pick because of her long poke range and insane wave clear.  What I didn’t realize was that her spell shield blocks so much of Caitlyn’s and Nunu’s damage.  This allowed me to play extremely aggressively in the lane.  Also, that same shield blocks all of Master Yi’s damage, and a good deal of Akali’s burst.  Sivir’s wave clear trumps Kog’s without a doubt.  Kog has more range on his sustained damage, but Sivir has higher poke potential on a target that can’t move.

This game turned out in our favor thanks to us grouping early and taking towers.  The only scares were when we would get flanked by the enemy team.  Vi had enough engage to destroy about anyone on our team before the fight started.  This would sometimes result in Master Yi getting a reset.  Akali is also benefits from those same resets.  Caitlyn had a surprisingly good game, but in the final Baron fight she only attacked me, which meant that I got to attack her back, and with the extra health from Frozen Mallet and bonus lifesteal from Bloodthirster I came out ahead.  We squeezed out of that fight and pushed down the enemy base before they could respawn.

This turned out to be a much closer match than we wanted it to be.  We won all of our lanes and had decent pushing power.  I think our lack of focus and vision resulted in some of us getting picked off early in fights which really hurt us.  If the enemy team was able to flank us then they normally would win the fights.

team ranked 8-7 Sivir

AHGL: Poking Down Zappos

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In our third and final game against Zappos we decided to run a poke comp.  It was a slight deviation from our regular poke because I was playing ADC instead of mid, but we had a good idea and we wanted to run with it.  To replace Morgana we decided to pick up Kayle.  We figured Kayle would have solid range, good poke on her Q, and provide a bit of sustain, which is something we’re normally lacking.

We discussed on the Skype call that we would lane until the side lanes were level six, and then we would immediately group.  We won our lanes (despite watching Corki escape with two HP), and then called to group at level six.  The first tower that we sieged was bot lane’s.  However, while we were pushing bot lane down, Vladimir started to push top.  Luckily for us our team pushes quite a bit better than a Vlad does!

After we had taken the second turret we returned to base to stop the Vlad push, but not before picking up Dragon.  We marched down mid and started to siege the enemy base.  We took tower after tower, just brute-forcing down the enemy team.  At one point I got caught where Ashe and Blitz were between myself and my team.  I was doing my best just to avoid the Blitz hook and Ashe volley, but I knew they would eventually catch me out.  Just then Jeff said “Come towards me!”  I stepped into range of Jeff and he landed his ult on me.  I turned and started pumping out the damage.  I knew I was still going to die, but at least this time I got to DPS and then use my passive to contribute towards the team fight a bit more.  We cleaned up easily, going four for one.

When I respawned I sprinted down mid to join the push.  It was only a matter of time until we had their middle inhibitor.  The push continued.  We pressed our advantage further and further.

Finally we were pressuring top lane.  We had a wonderful idea.  The only person who had been helping to counter our poke composition was Blitzcrank, because if he lands a hook on an important team mate, then that really shuts down what we’re able to do in our pushing.  We decided that Mundo should try to get hooked intentionally, then pull tower aggro, and then we would use Kayle ult on Mundo.  This happened over and over again.  It got to the point we could almost hear the enemy team saying “Ugh, not this guy again” as Mundo would go flying into enemy territory, turn on Burning Agony and pop his ultimate and start to tank the world.

It was in our final push in top lane that Mundo got hooked into the enemy team, they scattered like mice, and we cleaned up for the win.  We were ecstatic to come back against such a strong team and win two games in a row!  We had survived against one of our stronger competitors!  Our poke comp actually netted us a better KDA than our OP champ picks!  I was really impressed by that performance!  Excellent work, team!

PS: I think Jake helped us all to see the truth.  Thank you, Jake.  We all realize now that Elise is OP.

AHGL vs Zappos Game 3

AHGL: The Zappos Scare

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As part of our After Hours Gaming League we played against Zappos this past Sunday.  At the very last minute they agreed to a best-of-three series.  It’s a really good thing they did!

Our first game could not have gone worse.  That’s all I will say about that game.

Our second game we knew the pressure was on us to win or suffer a loss.  None of us wanted to ruin our untarnished record, so we played our most OP combination: Lux, Panth, LeBlanc, Mundo, Malphite!

I “accidentally” stole red buff from our Mundo at level one.  It hurt our Mundo a lot, but it was a necessary theft.  Well, actually it was 100% unintentional.  I was auto-attacking red buff and Steve used smite and red had a few hit points left, so my super strong auto attack stole it.  Whoops.  However, I did hit level two almost immediately in lane, which helped me pick on Kassadin more than I normally would have.

I never hit 20 stacks in this game, but I still felt like it was a strong LeBlanc game.  The highlight of this game was when I dove Kassadin and then outplayed Xin with a huge juke.  We did goof off a bit at the end of this game, but it was still a solid win that set us up for our next game… but that’s a story for next time!

AHGL vs Zappos Game 2