So, anyone playing League of Legends?

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I was amazed to see Swain picked.

Not so amazed to see him lose, champions who can't actually handle minion waves tend to do that. Maybe not so good a pick against Ahri.

I got back to playing Brand, and holy shit it's fun for a change to play a real AP carry that deals double everyone else's damage in teamfights. None of that assassin mobility trickery, just unload everything as fast as possible and run away, or rather, probably you just activated Zhonya's and two champions are standing in wait hoping to kill you, and you're mashing WE just for a chance of blowing them up too. Funny how Vayne isn't a priority target when there's Brand, even after he already used ult. What I like about him is his great range, you can't be easily denied and you don't need to worry about defenses so much, personally I run all the movement speed I can find so I can roam to all these random skirmishes.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Maybe not so good a pick against Ahri.

Swain is a great pick against Ahri when the guy playing Swain is not shit.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

How do you stop Ahri from pushing you under your tower as Swain? Ahri has great pushing power.

 

[Markman]

Just watched the re-runs of the games. Loved how "analysts" picked Vulcan as fav vs Gambit match. I dont remember that Gambit ever lost to a US team. And I was right.
Koreans playing like shit today. Derping like that mid vs xPeke its like bronze vs diamond player. Completely outplayed. And ban that Leona, ffs. After xPeke, Yellowstar is a fucking menace on Leona.
Also loved that Fnatic Ori/Liss/Leona comp. Superfun to watch people that can play em on top level.
Vulcan-Msk, meh. Fast-forward.
Gambit-Fnatic. xPeke owned this game. 7/0/11 on Ori. Holy shit, hes sooo good, such a joy to watch. IMO, gay picks with Zac and Aatrox. I hope they get to play vs SKTT1 in qfinals.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Permanently switching to yellow augment on Viktor has to be one of my best recent ideas

How do you stop Ahri from pushing you under your tower as Swain? Ahri has great pushing power.

You kill her

 

[bloodlover]

Glad to see another win from SK. TSM were so bad... Facechecking, Dyrus giving 1st blood like a noob etc. I wish commentators would put on a more neutral commentary since in some games it's really obvious they are not impartial. Like the previous mentioned game SK vs TSM, making comeback assumptions even when they were 10k behind.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

You kill her

Ah, so, the counter is "let's hope Ahri is bad".

 

[Markman]

IMO, Group B has better matches, teams are more even in strenght while in Group A you already know who is going to quarterfinals(OMG and SK).
Only Mineski is looking noobish with no hope of winning one game while rest plays uneven matches so anyone has a good chance to advance.
Im hoping for Fnatic and Gambit to go to QF so atleast we can have 1 or 2 european teams in the top 8. I wanna see EU team vs Cloud 9.

 

[Renegen]

Yeah Group B is more fun, western powers gotta represent. But watching TSM get owned in Group A has its own rewards.

 

[Markman]

TSM should learn to play more champs tho and make some new strategies around them. Its like a 3 champ rotation for each of em. Not saying they are bad but you cant really make some new plays around the same limited champ pool.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

If you can't beat them, join them. Top lane Shyvana, retard push mode engaged, and as expected, Xin fucking Zhao never once ganks me (Lee Sin kills me alone a couple of times though because Lee Sin - like I care I'm pushing your inhibitor tower while you haven't gotten one of mine).

Outside of jungler help or even better pushing powers, what can you even do about retard push?

My build - random cheap defensive items, hydra components, giants belt item prob. Sunfire, all to make my retard push even more retarded. Four times out of five this dumbass style has worked.

Other champions that can do this : Zed, due to having an escape pre-6, energy, aoe, best last shotting in all the land, Gayle, due to being bullshit, Chogath with infinite sustain, Garen, Trynda, Asstrox. Wanna bet the enemy jungler sucks? PUSH THE CHIPS ON THE TABLE

 

[Renegen]

Shyvana is more broken than the others though. Her W movespeed allows her to dodge a huge amount of damage if she gets ganked.

 

[Markman]

Aww ye, Gold 1 finally. 5 tries lol, took a while. Ended in a epic 55 minute brawl but we ended up winning cause their team focused my tanky Malph wasting some of the precious cooldowns and having me ulting them instead.
Advantage as jungle Malph isnt really in his jungle skills but in what he can do on the map after lv6 instead. You can be anywhere and use the ult more often. Imo, its better to play him this way instead of him being stuck on top lane roaming with teleport 2 times a game.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Triforce Xin, is there nothing you can't do?

Yep, tank even moderate burst. But the tears of the ADC are worth it when you jump them. "OMG NO SKILL!"

 

[Azael]

Fucking xPeke, so good.

 

[Markman]

Well, atleast 1 Eu team is guaranteed a place in quarterfinals. Fnatic has been playing really good and I love that they pick different champs each game. xPeke and Soaz seems to have neverending champ pool. And Yellowstar is playing godlike support, really impressive. His Leona and Zyra play is out of this world.

 

[Azael]

I personally hope that both Fnatic and Gambit make it out of the group stage, deflate the Korean's a bit.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

HARMBLGLARBLE

Bring back the Russians and put Greeks on the Turkish servers where they belong.

Nidalee mid vs. Fizz ragequit, Lux bot with ignite, Doran's ring, gets grabbed over and over, autoattacks minions randomly, amumu jungle rush mercs and that's the only item, before nidalee ragequit did absolutely nothing at all, what's the common factor here, well ofc MALAKAMALAKAMALAKA

 

[trais]

What's up with the EUW soloQQ lately? It has been unnaturally... friendly.


Backstory: I've been demoted from gold due to inactivity and when I came back I found myself in silver II. So I decided to jump right into ranked matches and... I lost like 8 times in a row - 5 times because I have afker/leaver in my team and other 3 times because I was depring too much. That got me demoted to silver III, and I was 2 loses away from another demotion. Although it got me a little bit worried, even being cast down to the depths of elo hell couldn't make my butt hurt, so I decided to assume more active position in my future teams and keep playing. Turns out it was good decision.

Apparently people in silver quite like it and play better when someone is acting as a leader. Although you can't really make a firstpick who decided to go mid take a support instead, but most of the times, with a bit of rat diplomacy, you can actually make people compromise enough to make decent team compositions. Sure, prepare to play the supports a lot, but that's actually a good thing in lower soloQQs*.
Also, the amount of angry cunts has been surprisingly low in my games. Sure, there are some people who will rage no matter what, but I was expecting the friendly teams to be the exceptions. But nope, apparently most of the people in silver IV-I are quite decent human beings. Mind. Fucking. Blown.

After week of playing exclusively ranked matches (about 4 per day on average) I managed to win my promotional series to silver I. Only one division left on my way to the end-of-season gold goodies. So my message to the Codex is this: if you're on EUW this is the good time for soloQQ. Go in there, be the alpha male in your team and enjoy yourself because they almost give the LPs for free now.


* There ain't many good support players in lower stratas of elo hell, so being one is the best way to carry the games from the back seat. You can: a) get your adc some kills (because enemy support is shit and enemy carry is basically playing 1v2) and snowball him b) ward the crap out of the map and help your team catch lone enemies in the jungle/make good engages in teamfights. Only other way to have same (or stronger) impact on the game is to play roaming mid, but in elo hell to get that role you usually have to be high on picking order (and you'll get countered). Top is too isolated, good jungling is hard and if you'd try to play adc you'll get retarded support and you'll lose your lane.

 

[Hellraiser]

Good jungling in silver is hard? The Ancient Mariner Nautilus disagrees

It's in gold where he stops being a free win, unless they nerfed the shit out of him when I wasn't playing. Boots of mobility and gank the shit out of every lane.

 

[Markman]

Naut is good. I got to gold just by playing him and Maokai. And Blitz for supp.
His early game is sweet, smiteless blue + fast red=level 3=gank mid/top. Same with Mao.
Good jungling isnt hard if you're good with the champ youre playing and know how the other jungler works. Always better to pick a champ you're comfortable with instead going with "meta counters" that you suck with eventho it doesnt directly counters em.

I actually started smiting blue now and doing same old boring wolves/wraiths then red route cause I got it stolen like 5 times this week at last hit. Sneaky motherfuckers.
I can live with stolen red but without blue game is just a pain in the ass for the next 5 minutes.

 

[Renegen]

I sometimes wonder if EUNE is easier to get into gold...

For example, let me detail my jungling style which so far I am very confident will get me to gold (my normal elo being gold already). The enemy jungler picks Hecarim, I decide to counterpick with Nocturne. I know that Nocturne isn't exactly the best ganker compared to Hecarim but I pick him because the best thing to beat Hecarim IMO is to "out-carry" Hecarim, get yourself more fed than he is and then you can handle his force on the map. So the game starts, I tell my team not to feed Hecarim by buying wards. Obvious I know, but I've come to realize how critical communication for a jungler is. Mid and top give out some quick deaths because YOLO, no need to buy wards. Classic Hecarim ganks, not much to do and he shoots up to 2-0. I gank mid and blow my flash to kill their laner, a really good gank to get my weaker mid laner back in the lane. Now I could've tried to counter jungle him but except an early missed opportunity by me it wasn't really an option, Hecarim is very fast and does good damage not to mention he's now fed.

Alright, we're both level 6, I waste my ult on nothing while Hecarim uses his for a double kill bot and he gets to 3-0. Top and bot are losing to ganks and just natural lane matchups, bot lane cries that I haven't ganked once. This is by design because as my overall strategy dictates, I need to outscale Hecarim and can't really be babysitting lanes. Their bot lane goes back after the successful gank and I see Hecarim goes mid to farm but doesn't push, he probably backed too! I ping like crazy the dragon just as my bot lane gets back to lane and we take it in full view, I was just a lowly lvl 7 Nocturne with nothing but a Health Crystal. No one died for that dragon, we didn't win any teamfights, we had no pinks, just straight up map awareness and quick decision making. Score is 1-4, Hecarim's contribution is 4 kills, mine is 1 kill and a dragon. Then I just hang around the map and try to countergank Hecarim. Again bot lane is pressured as the tower is about to go down and I show up and get 1 kill on the support. The ADC cries that I "only gank when tower is at 200 hp". Then top is crying that he's losing, I give him a pity gank (my first gank top too) because there was no way their top was going to die but a great play gives us a kill. Hecarim still at only 4 kills contributed. A skirmish now breaks top, I countergank Hecarim, our mid comes we wipe them and I get a shutdown on Hecarim. GG, final score for me 7-1-11 and final score for Hecarim 3-4-3.

Was it an easy win? I had to go against Hecarim, one of the best gankers and snowballers in the game and my successful strategy called for quite an unorthodox pick. I had to give up the early game to his ganks, I had to let all 3 of my lanes live with their unfavorable matchups (though nothing too bad) but I stuck to my strategy and as soon as I gained my ultimate and I started to outscale him, his contribution fell to 0 and we won. That Hecarim is 6-1 for the week, with practically all his games hard carries. The game before that I faced off a Shyvana, which we lost but not necessarily to her, the game before that I faced off an Eve and had to be equally creative to win (I crushed her). If you really want to win while jungling, you have to get creative. "Lol, pick an OP ganker and get mobos" just doesn't cut it.

 

[Hellraiser]

I dislike jungle Maokai due to the amount of times I used his snare to start a gank only to see the target flash under their tower and murder me with its help. Also naut is simply better as a ganker and tanky jungler IMO, although his clear time is worse than Mao's. Shield and anchor are really good basic skills, his post-6 ganks are insane. The only way to stop a good naut gank is to ward the shit out of river, lane bush, your side of the jungle and be paranoid. In silver they'll ward the river bush at best. Shield which you max first allows you take potshots from towers and gank from their side of the jungle with ease, sandwiching people. Lane bush ganks are ridiculous even pre-6. And if they push they're dead, only thing you need is laners that aren't utter morons but if they're utter morons the game would be lost by default anyway. On top of that if you get caught in a dumb spot you can anchor away and the tankyness from the shield can let you survive much more fucks up than other picks, I think only Lee Sin is safer in that regard as far as junglers are concerned.

 

[Markman]

I think dragon calls is what im lamest at, I get so much into roaming and farming I remember about 15th minute that we can get it. Dont like tanking it without Spirit of Ancient golem tho.

Its not hard be good at jungle as long you remember that the most fights you have to fight are within your own team.
Like classic instapicks that cant hold their own lane. OMG this jungler does nothing. QQ, plz report. Spamming plz halp while he pushes and duels a champ 2 levels higher than him.

Oh, and gold-silver players are not much different in skill. Ive had hardest games in Silver 1 for months. Now I get mostly platinum low levels and they are even worse than bros in Silver leagues.

And Naut is mostly a safe pick for jungling. You cant go wrong with a tanky stunbot with a fast jungle clear.
Like Taric for supp. Gets boring in a while.
But one of the positive things with Maokai is that you can catch people flashing and dashing, like that Ezrael or Ahri.
When he gets a bit tanky you wont even notice those tower hits.

 

[Renegen]

Oh yeah I follow this really cool hipster stream of a Challenger adc (LoLGeranimo is his stream) and I got to play in one of his games. The game had his Challenger level friend on Ahri and a Diamond 2 Singed. Holy shit the skill difference is immense at Diamond. They kinda bungled up the early game so top and bot were winning really hard but they sure fought to the bitter end. Besides the fact Ahri is a bullshit tier champion, the Challenge guy's mechanics were so good the game just goes at lightning speed it's hard to describe. It took like 2-3 people to unload everything into him before he would run out of flashes and die. And his mid game was so phenomenal, he had so much presence he was able to almost single handedly stretch the game to 40 minutes and 3 of their players got full builds despite being down at one point as much as 20 kills.

That Diamond 2 Singed was something too, he fed quite hard for a while but was still doing his job trolling and 1v1 he was just hell to deal with. Rylai's if there's any doubt is fucking OP on Singed, even with all my mobility and slows on Aatrox I couldn't do anything to him. I played a few times against some Diamond players but nothing has come close to the intensity and skill on display in that game, perhaps it was because we were all tryharding. Despite a victory and a 20-4-14 Aatrox, I never felt more useless.