Legendary Archives - League of Stories

Laning Versus LeBlanc

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We knew this day would come. In our Ranked Fives matches the enemy team picked LeBlanc. Iggie was immediately upset because he was supposed to be going mid, but nubehound was trading a champion to him, so Iggie would have to pick from nubehound’s champion pool to face LeBlanc in mid lane. The enemy team had picked Garen to try to stop me top, so I offered to go mid against LeBlanc.

LeBlanc has boundless potential because of the varying abilities in her kit. She brings good crowd control and amazing mobility to a team. As Akali I was worried that she would be able to burst through my health pool and then trap me to prevent me from dashing and getting away. I knew the early laning phase would be the worst part of the game, but I could play back and just wait for the mid game when I can really shine. I just couldn’t let LeBlanc get early kills on me.

At level one I had my Mark of the Assassin and LeBlanc had her Sigil of Silence. We traded those one for one. I went to step back but saw LeBlanc running away. I immediately knew that she didn’t want to trade with me so I stayed up as close the creeps as possible.

I recently made a rune page and a mastery page specifically for Akali. I had copied them from Crs Voyboy who designed them to give him both of his passives at level one. I used to question why he needed both, but I felt the benefit from it immediately in that lane against LeBlanc. I had sustain in lane, and LeBlanc did not. After we would trade I could use Crescent Slash once in the middle of the creep wave and heal to almost full.

I beat LeBlanc to level six, which is a big part of laning against her. If she can beat you to level six then she has the potential in her base damages to kill you from full. I waited for my ult to get an extra stack, then baited out LeBlanc’s Ethereal Chains. If she landed a chain on me I wouldn’t be able to sustain damage on her and could potentially get trapped under her turret. Those easily make the list of things I don’t want to have happen.

My moment of opportunity finally came. LeBlanc hit a creep with her chain and I went berserk on her. Even with her trying to blink away I stuck with her and finished her off. I escaped out from under her tower with about 300 life left, most of it from spell vamp. However, I was not alone. Lurking in the tall weeds near the river was a doctor, waiting to hit me with one of his infected cleavers. I had picked up the kill on LeBlanc, so I had an extra stack on my ultimate. As Dr. Mundo charged at me I kited just slightly into my creeps. That extra damage, coupled with my ignite let me finish Mundo off before he could retreat. I was on a roll.

I started wandering the map after I would kill LeBlanc, looking to pick up kills. This game snowballed so hard. I was honestly shocked when the enemy team didn’t surrender at 20. I felt bad for Sheik9 because I knew how to play against LeBlanc better than most people would. I added him as a friend so I could give him words of encouragement and some pointers for his next game, but my friend request was never accepted.

I would like to point out that this is probably the fault of Riot’s Match Making system, and also that Sona did a fantastic job at having more gold than her mid, and leading her team in kills. Way to go, Sona!

Three Kill Lanes

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My bouncing baby girl was born on the 9th of January, 2013, so I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and blog! However, I found some time to get a couple games in, and this game was special in its own regard.

Choppes had messaged me and told me he was on a seven game losing streak. He was getting back to some old-fashioned jungle Olaf. I offered to play a game with him, but I picked an AD carry so that if things went poorly I would be able to help carry! However, my heart slumped when I saw what the enemy team was going to be.

Nidalee was top, which was pretty standard, but with Xin ganks every lane is something you don’t look forward to. Mid was Jarvan IV, the dunk master. Bot lane was Pantheon and Poppy. At level two they discovered that they could walk past my Nunu and kill me. This made bot lane very scary, because Poppy and Pantheon have no problem diving, and with Xin showing up bot lane to keep me behind this game was beginning to look very bad.

Then there was mid. Jarvan IV is wrecking face. The guy literally went Legendary. When we collapsed on him in mid I watched as their whole team’s focus turned to me and J4 comboed me. I told Choppes “I’m not showing up to another team fight until I have items” and that’s exactly what I did.

I walked top, farmed it, helped Choppes kill Nidalee, shoved lane, recalled. Pushed bot, recalled. Pushed top, etc. I finally had my Infinity Edge and Phantom Dancer. Now I could play with the big kids!

A team fight starts mid, but it looks like the enemy team is kiting out the fight. They are running from our tier-two turret in mid lane to the bush near wraiths. We have a ward in that bush, and sure enough, J4 is standing in that bush just waiting for someone to get close. Not anyone though, he didn’t care of Olaf or Vi or Nunu or Veigar went into that bush. Oh no. He wanted someone else. I made sure to keep a fair distance, and Jarvan got tired of waiting. He did his Demacian Standard combo, Flash, and ulted me. What a jerk. Who blows EVERY ability to get to the guy hanging out in the back of a team fight? Well, good sir, you’re not the only one with Flash. I Flash out the back side of his ult and start laying down crits. Jarvan realizes his mistake and starts to retreat, but he’s in the middle of my team now. We get to clean them up, which felt really great. It was so nice to see them all trying to retreat without doing any damage as Kog just ripped them to pieces from the safety of the back of the fight.

I would have gone Legendary (I started like 1-4 or 1-5) but I made the noob mistake of responding to an instant message in game. Gabe was messaging me to see if I was going to play another game, and when I tried to respond a Jarvan flag landed next to me and before I could react I was dead. Ugh!

I referred to Nunu as “Silent but deadly” and not because of anything that he did in the game.

First Win of The Day

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I honestly only played this game because I wanted my First Win of The Day bonus. However, when Ezreal disconnected after we traded two for one in bot lane, Leona and I were left to fight Zyra.

Zyra really held her own until Shaco came to gank. We had it warded so we backed up. Shaco stood in the bush at half health. I figured we could fight him and just lock him up as Leona and blow him up with Twitch. Instead, we ended up eating a newly-acquired Zyra ultimate and we both died, putting Zyra on a rampage! Nope, bot lane is going just fine and dandy.

At this point I was 1-2, but I had just saved up enough to start getting my build rolling so I showed back up to lane with a B.F. Sword. I stealthed so I could walk right past my creeps and I unloaded my damage on Zyra, dropping her very quickly. I then pushed out the lane, and started damaging Zyra’s turret. When Zyra returned we killed her quickly again. We had gotten the attention of Shaco again.

Shaco came bot, but this time I was ready. He tried to fight me and Leona again. This time I had him to 50 health in just a few auto attacks and my E primed. Blinking as Shaco doesn’t stop you from dying to Twitch poison. I then turned to Zyra and finished her off. I was 6-2 now. I knew we had the potential to win this game, especially with Ezreal disconnected.

We took mid inhib after we caught two people out and noticed the rest were trying to do Baron. Shaco and Garen both flashed the Baron wall to get away, so we got ourselves handed a lovely Baron buff which we used to siege the mid-lane inhibitor. With that objective successfully destroyed all we had to do was stand in a side lane and wait. When we had taken the inhibitor I had stayed to make sure that both towers were down as well. Their Nexus was unprotected and vulnerable. If we just stayed in a side lane and dragged out a fight we would win.

This is where the story has to stop. I can’t pin the blame on anyone because it was a team effort. I think once I hit 16-5 and the announced called me legendary, the enemy team knew who to focus. We really lacked focus and just put ourselves in situations where we were going to die without achieving anything for it. Multiple fights resulted in the enemy team acing us, only to run back and save a tower or another objective before our minions had a chance to destroy it.

Ultimately, I think when mid inhibitor was down I would have had time to walk into the enemy base, stealth when I got close to creeps, come out of stealth with the attack speed buff and take the Nexus, but only if I had creeps backing me up. Without any creeps I would take too much free damage from the creeps spawning at their Nexus and I’d be too low to survive hitting the Nexus while being chased by the enemy team. Maybe it could have worked, but maybe I’m just telling myself that because I hadn’t lost a game in eight games. All good streaks come to an end.

AHGL vs Oracle Game 1

Cloud Nine Game

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I really don’t know if this game should count against my record. I really didn’t want to play any more League of Legends tonight. I had just gotten a Pentakill in the game before, and was really only playing to humor my friends. So I picked LeBlanc.

Now before playing I see to it that my internet connection is accessible, so I use a secure SD-WAN network. Well, this game went poorly. The other team had a strong start as they jumped out to a 2-7 lead against us. I had the two. Sadly, I had traded kill for kill with Twisted Fate. Luckily, I get to mid-game a lot faster than TF does. His potential late-game can have a huge impact on the game, but he has to make it there.

After we traded kills the second time I bought my Soul Stealer. Better to start early, right? I raced straight to 20 stacks, not missing a beat. I snowballed mid lane so hard that I had the game tied at nine by the time I had eight kills. I was matching the enemy jungler, top, mid, and bot by myself. The request I kept hearing from my team mates was “Don’t kill them so quickly so we get assist credit.” I’ll see what I can do (while vigorously shaking my head).

The enemy team was very willing to pressure when I was dead. I specifically remember pressuring their top lane’s inhibitor turret. Dan had cleverly pulled Garen over the wall. I helped to make him go away. However, the enemy Blitz pulled this same witchcraft on Dan, and Dan went bye bye. We started to retreat with Blitzcrank leading the charge. Steve asked me, “Can you strafe his hook?” At that moment I turned around and started walking towards Blitz. He turned and ran. Steve just started laughing out loud. I was such a threat. There wasn’t a target on the enemy team that I couldn’t kill. I proved that to myself later.

Our mid inhibitor was down and I had been killed. The enemy team went for Baron and my team had no way of contesting it. That’s fine, they were smart to defend the base anyway. However, when I spawned I ran for Baron. I caught Garen outside the basin and killed him quickly, only to reveal Twisted Fate in the back of the Baron pit. He had cancelled his recall and was sitting on a blue card. If you think a blue card is going to save you from me you have something coming. I step towards him and he flashes over the wall. So be it. I walk around Baron pit and find TF recalling just on the back side. I blink into range and land a Q and E combo to silence him. I know his Flash is down, so I save mine. Just as my E triggers for the second time I see a Mystic Shot shoot into the bush by the Lizard Elder, which I’m conveniently standing right next to. Zing, zing, zing, POP! Ezreal’s dead. Kha’Zix is coming for blood. I’m on cooldown. I walk to tri-bush above Baron. I see Kha’Zix pop his ult so I can’t see him coming. I know I’ll be dead before I can cast. I walk up and right to the bush by double golems. Kha’Zix face-checks. In the words of Voyboy, “See ya!” Boom, four people on the enemy team just lost Baron buff to a solo LeBlanc.

Then they all bought Banshee’s Veil and moved as a group. When my team had 28 kills I had 23 of them. However, I only finished 24 of 31. I hit 20 stacks multiple times in that game. It was a lot of fun, but still a 44 minute loss. Better luck next time! Maybe then I’ll be down from Cloud Nine.