My "free-skins" sense is tingling...

Whoa. 

New rewards for end of Season IV?

...when did the season begin, again? O.o

Man, feels like ages since my last ranked game. This year has been so full of... things, for me, that I barely managed to play some ARAM now and then. Ok, maybe my return to the WoW world could've had some impact... maybe. But truth is, I just didn't feel like playing anymore.

"I'll start playing again when in the right mood."

So, it's almost september and I didn't even play one single qualifying game. Not even the cuteness of Gnar could bring me back to my enthusiasm towards the game. Or the community. Or, you know, just the game.

What could possibly OHMYGODFREEMORGANAVICTORIOUSSKIN!!!

Well, that's it. I needed some serious motivation.

Wood V, here I come!!

(Thanks to who published such epicness.)

Well, I don't feel like recording every single game anymore, so I'll just randomly note my defeats and the frustration of being so rusty I'm not even able to place wards.

Wait for it.

End of an Era

End of an Era - as Nightwish would say.
(Warning! Wall-text alert!)

Season 3 ended, and in its last days I didn't feel the urge to play no-stop to raise my rating or league.

(A minute of silence for a friend who didn't manage to pass the wall between Silver and Gold. You deserved more than 0 LP per win. You may be silver outside, but you sure are gold on the inside!)

On the contrary, I was so relaxed that I spent more time playing Hearthstone than LoL.
As a "former" World of Warcraft and Magic: The Gathering player, I was really excited of the beta key I managed to receive at Lucca Comics & Games. And here I am, totally caught by this new game. BLZURD STAHP! But let's go back to LoL.

In S2 I started at 930 rating (deep Bronze of course) and reached the highest ELO of 1210: the bare minimum to be classified as Silver (it was a very close call!!). It's been a long and desperate trip.
Preseason time, the ELO reset bringed me up to 1250, and after the placement games I was listed... Silver, with a rating of 1292. In the preseason games I dropped to 1172.
S3 came, and I was thrown into the Silver V division. Better than expected, to be very honest. Game by game I managed to climb the ladder even tho I didn't play that much, and as the season ends now I find myself in Gold IV.

The time has come to ask myself the question: did I make it?
Did I finally climb out of the ELO Hell?

Well some time ago I found a tweet who was citing a reddit quote (et cetera et cetera) which I found really inspiring:

"Elo Hell is like traffic. 

Everyone thinks they are in it, when they actually ARE it."
That's it. There's no ELO Hell. I should know, I visited it and drawed a map of its circles, too XD

There are players who are so bad, they can ruin a game all by themselves.
Flamers and ragequitters do exist and lower your chances of winning by 80%.
Blame the jungler and blame the support are #1 and #2 excuses for losing a lane, respectively.
Getting sick of your teammates and wanting to surrender @ 20 without even trying is a harsh but common reality.
But I found all and if possible more of these things in both bronze and silver. And in gold it was no different.

What changed for sure was my playstile, my attitude towards my fellow teammates and the conciousness of my errors. (Correcting them is a different story, I will have a hard time working on this!!)

The Ward Call is too strong to be resisted!

What can I tell from my games history? I must thank Nami and Janna who totally carried me. That is, the characters I am most confident with. I can play them better than anything else and know their abilities and weakpoints very well. I was able to win lanes and contributing to the victory of many games 'cause of that.
On my experience I can totally suggest to master 2-3 characters per role one can play and focus on these ones to improve both playstile and rating.
Many will not agree. And it's ok with that. Someone could try a new character in ranked for the first time and still carry games (THE MECHANICS ARE AMAZING!).
But players like me, who don't feel confident with 3/4 of the available characters, should probably limit themselves to their very best heroes of choice in ranked queues.

I continue seeing some people I know still struggling in bronze, trying hard to improve their rating and play, but almost never blaming themselves when they lose a game. (Typical sentence: "I was 20/1/7! And I still lost the game, noob teammates feeders and leavers!!")
I didn't blame myself a lot, too. This is also a weak point which I want to improve in the coming season.
But I learned that a game is never really lost until the very end. Or, as a friend of mine says, "A game is only lost when the nexus is down".
A positive team spirit, the will to cooperate and help each other: that's what wins games. It really does. In Summoner's Rift, not just in Happy Rainbow Land. Encouraging a failing teammate instead of crucifying him for his errors has always proven to be a worthy choice. My team was able to completely turn the fate of an apparently lost game due to good team presence and fights. "In late we trust", as I said once XD and it worked. As a support, not only can I help my team by playing well, but also by supporting the team spirit.

I also realized (well there was no real wonder in that, to be honest) that a good warding can, in every game phase, give a huge advantage even when your team is behind in farm, turrets and kills. I never had a full build as a support, not even in 60-minutes-long games, 'cause the majority of my gold was spent in wards and oracles. And it was good as it was.

Sightstone, sight wards, vision wards, oracles: this is (or was, after S3) the only support's build!

"Whoa whoa wait: are you trying to give us suggestions? You're still a little nab, don't you know?"
Oh I surely am. But sometimes pointing out the most basic notions can be helpful, too. So why not? :)

Last but not least, I am really excited to see what will happen in the preseason, with all the changes they planned for supports.
I'll have to learn the mechanics from scratch again :V
Oh well, I'm ready. I really like the feeling of having build choices depending on situation, hero and playstyle. I guess the meta will point out the strongest combinations soon, anyway :p and some items / trinkets will soon become a must!

No matter what the new meta will be, I will continue cheering up my teammates as much as I can, even though my work often remains in the shadow.

I want to end this needlessly long post with one of my favourite mottos, which also sums up the spirit of  good team cooperation:

support the support!

See you at the start of the preseason :)

Just a little sketch I made in some spare time at work. Sushi-Zombie Nami was also my idea
for the Zombie Hero Harrowing contest, but I had no time to put up some real art.

LuccaComics&(promotion)Games

Back from LuccaComics&Games 2013... woo guys, I really enjoyed it this year :D
I was there 3 out of 4 days and managed to do all the things I wanted to (see stands - play boardgames - buy stuff - eat tons of instant ramen)!

It was the first year of Riot attending the convention. There was a "huge" League of Legends stage with some italian rioters where you could participate in small games and competitions.
I was picked in a team for a champion mime game and won a Triforce t-shirt ^^
"TONS OF DAMAGE!"

I was expecting to receive skin codes instead, so I wasn't 100% happy about this victory... BUT!!! Later on I realized that the code on the convention ticket could be redeemed to receive both Riot Blitzcrank and Arcade Hecarim skins *_* wooooo!!! DOUBLE WIN!!

And though this year I couldn't afford doing a cosplay, next year I will definitely put up some support costume... I can't decide between Koi Nami and Hextech Janna *_* (btw my boyfriend is already complaining about me going around with a fish tail all day, so I guess I'll do something simpler). Can't wait for LC&G 2014 :D

Since the convention was on Halloween's weekend, I came home to participate in the Harrowing event. My friends and I had planned to gift each other a Mystery Gift, and at the time I received Dragon Slayer Jarvan IV and Fisherman Fizz.
Nice :D I love both! Too bad I also can't play both :V well looks like it's time to learn! ^^

---
So, I came back from Lucca and my promotion series is about to expire :V oh well.
I pick Nami and go bot with Vayne, facing Blitz + Sivir... fail grabs and bad Sivir = ultra fed godlike Vayne.
GG.
W/-/-

---
Uhmmm a bad game with all lanes losing :(
Their Fiora top destroyed our lane (both Garen and Turrets) early, mid our Gragas was getting owned by Rumble, bot Cait wasn't that bad but kept flaming me and / or the jungler... Just an average bad game.
Fun fact: enemy team grouped up in our base, Rumble escaping with low HP, Cait's ulti from our nexus passes through their entire team to reach and kill the poor Yordle. XD
W/L/-

---
Last game... and I have a super-nice team!! o.o People not flaming and helping each other. Thank you, matchmaking system!
Kayle top fed a bit earlt but made up for that later, my Cait was good, we were superior bot ('cause of my lane presence of course u.u ....yeah, yeah, right).
Well, their Leona wasn't really dangerous and Cait was good at avoiding zenith blades :p
I also won the ward war!!
In teamfights our Annie was -literally- MELTING them :)
W/L/W GG!
Gold IV is it!

Sorry, Sivir. I had to do this.

Seriously. I like what Riot is doing - giving the old champions a gorgeous new look - but, seriously.

I made fun of the Victorious Elise human appearance - and I like it, though.

How do you expect me to stay still when the new Sivir is just so... so... unbalanced?
I'm not talking about her new ability set.
Nor the in game skin, her VU looks absolutely gorgeous IMHO.

But what about that splash art that has been released in PBE?

COME ON.

Of all the epic battle positions you can imagine...why has it to be the Flamingo Battle Stance? :V
Why are her buttocks higher than her head? Why does his leg reming me of an old Soraka art with a banana elbow? I thought we were over this banana thing.

Talking seriously for a moment... the picture isn't so bad. But I feel that the new "tough adult woman" Sivir concept isn't well expressed in this art. No tough woman would bend like this in battle, showing both her breasts and her rear end at the same time :-V and no warrior would throw a giant boomerang weapon with only one foot barely touching the ground.

Sigh, I know where this is going... I'll have to buy that Princess Warrior Sivir skin to get rid of this splash art. GG Riot, you won again!! >.<

AFTER SEASON ELISE X (aka Victorious Elise)

I must "thank" my job for abandoning me in these months, so I could train a lot and manage to reach gold.
Joking aside, well, yes: I was home from work for 6 months due to a deep crisis in the company I work for. Eventually - thanks to the hard work of our boss and all us employees - we were able to rise again from our ashes.
Next week I'll go back to my office and lab, and will have less time to play LoL - but more money to live.
It was a nice time, though, 'cause I wasn't in serious money shortage and could enjoy the summer like the old times, when I was a school girl: doing simple things, visiting my parents and granny, riding my old bike, even sunbathing at the local shore ^^
(And of course playing LoL all night long and sleeping all morning!!)

In the meanwhile the new Victorious Elise skin has been revealed.
I love that spider form!! And spiderlings, too!!
I know it's just a beta-release, and could be subject to changes... anyway, the human form somehow bothers me.
It seems so... like... if.... huh? You know...

Come on, you can't deny it. Just take a closer look... I proudly present you:

AFTER SEASON ELISE X

Just try to deny it, if you dare: it looks like the love child of Gundam and "Cignus" Hyoga.

Come on Riot, there MUST be something you can do about it!! You got some time to remove at least a bit of its current "Mecha" flavour. I mean, it's not even a Battlecast-themed skin.

---
Enough vent for today, let's go back to the games. Last game as a (currently unemployed) researcher.
Nida support. Oh great :-/ and I'm Morgana mid vs Fizz. GREAT T_T
Well I gave him one early kill due to lack of mana :( but then I was superior, didn't get much kills but did a good job in some team fights. Our team wasn't flaming and all went great at the end... enemy team surrendered early!
Well it could have been, just maybe, 'cause of our Cait who was 8/0 in the first 15'.
But I think we won due of my spectacularly mediocre performance! \o/
100 LP, it's promotion time!! ...when will I be able to play those games, anyway? Doesn't matter, had job :<

And the division is...

Faith in community: almost lost. BUT...

Faith in community: lost.
My sunday gaming opens up with a fail game, destroying my already fragile good mood. (One of my friends calls it "the Red Days of Public Destruction". Could be a good title for some metal album.)

On my first game this sunday evening I cannot support 'cause there's a premade duo that asks for bot, telling us (almost cit):

"OMG let us support I'm on smurf 100% win bot 99% win games let us premade OMG FFS BBQ"
...of course [spoiler] they failed hard bot :V

No problem, I sigh: I pick Maokai and go jungle. And I did a really good job early, I took FB from enemy Ryze diving our Cassio (no assist from her btw, so it was not a steal ^^) and gave both mid and top a couple of kills in the first 10'. Bot was too pushed to gank and lane brush was warded, so I left the guys alone for a while :-/ just warding now and then when I was passing by.

...and still top and bot were dying because enemy Shaco was ganking and that they could do nothing about that. (Woooo! Shaco is ganking! Who would've imagined that??)

I told them to ward properly and also warded for them most of the times, but still no result.
Our mid to late game play was terribly bad, everyone was running alone around the map, couldn't focus in team fights (were there teamfights ever? I can't remember well). Long story short, we were outplayed and lost in the most annoying way: team mates not being a team.

It was a well deserved fail, tbh. Well, I think I played pretty well early and mid game :-( but still coudln't do a thing in late, so its my fault too. I was really nervous due to this Taric and Graves spamming and complaining all the game long (caps lock power unleashed, obviously).
I was so nervous that I even forgot to check my rating :-/ I should've lost around 33 ELO, though. So I guess I was around 1230.

---

I won't give up. I'm still angry from before, and decide to go support no matter what others say. If I can pick support, I do it. Stop.
I write in chat I'm going to go support, and someone else tells me "no I go support I can only play this role". I feel my already compromised calm breaking, and answer that "if you can manage to play only one role, you shouldn't queue up for ranked". And since I was before him in champion select, I pick support.

Here's the dialogue that followed (cut&paste'd):

S1: let her go support plz
S2: i'm a girl and i just know to play support :(
S1: its the only possition she can play
Me: I am a girl too and have no pity for other girls
S2: ahah
Me: again dont play ranked if u dont know other roles :)

...well, wanting to play a role and begging others to let you 'cause you're a girl? Wrong move. I hate this kind of behaviour. I'm a girl too and I play LoL, but I NEVER - not even once - did want others to do something for me just because I've got boobs. And believe me, I do. Whoa!! Anger level rising to 120%! The last thing I want to meet is a girlie girl who uses this "wohooo I'm a female" thing to justify the fact that she can't play well. GROAR!

Besides that... looks like she finally chose Teemo and went top. Later on, we discovered that it was a boy who was playing Teemo. He was playing on his Aunt's account, 'cause she only could play Sona.
Again, this just made me more angry about the whole thing. You can only play one character (not just only one role, but one damned single char) and you still want to play ranked games? No. Just no.

As I could imagine, Teemo top had only support mastery/runes too, and the boy fed enemy's top early. Still he was complaining in chat that it was my fault (sure, I was the one who forced you into ranked queue... sigh. Couldn't you just leave instead? -.-) and I was answering that he shouldn't play ranked then. Team spirit: disrupted, even before the game actually started.

BUT.

I was bot with this Corki. We managed to hold the lane but weren't really shining either. He played a decent Corki, I was a bit rusty with Leona (I picked almost only ranged supports recently). However it wasn't his gameplay, but his attitude that really impressed me.
I didn't notice it at first, but he was only writing nice things in chat, trying to cheer up the entire team and encouraging us to do our best and not to give up. At first I wasn't paying attention to him: I was too busy "chatting" with our top (it wasn't a real flame, but almost became one). I thought he was one of these honour-seeking addicts who just writes something nice to receive others' positive votes after game. But he wasn't one of them.
This guy kept our morale raised the whole time, giving tactic suggestions, not blaming anyone for a team fight loss and cheering for our wins. Without him, we would've certainly lost this match. He surely was playing a good ADc, but without him keeping up our team spirit we would've surely loss due to flaming and nervousness. He kept us focused and we gradually forgot about our complaints and rage. We've turned the situation around, and changed a sure loss into a well deserved win.

After the game, he added me to his friend list, and I gladly played another match with him. Infected by his good mood, I started acting like him and we both were raising our team's morale. We won that game too. Besides, we were a good match in bot lane, quite on the same wavelenght. It was a pleasure to play with him and I hope to repeat this experience soon!

2 matches, current rating: 1294. Faith in community: restored!

---

This positive experience made me change my mind about a lot of things, and I understood the real meaning of  the "supporting" role.
I can't win games alone by playing a support.
However, I can help my team win by being actively supportive.
I think I am almost ready to climb this ELO Hell ladder now :-)

End of Season 2

So, Season 2 has finally come to an end.
I couldn't do more solo queue games, I was basically too busy doing 5v5 matches or too tired to do anything more than normals or co-ops.

I'm glad I could at least reach the silver rank just by playing supports, and mostly with all random people in team. I didn't manage to go past 1210, but I hope to do better next time.

My team got stuck on silver in 5v5 but managed to reach gold in 3v3. Too bad I think I'll not receive the new Janna skin :-/ 'cause once I left and rejoined the team right after in an attempt to understand the way the system was chosing the players' order during champions select. It didn't work of course. But since I guess this happened after september 1st, and I can't recall if I won 5 ranked 3v3 games...

I also wrote to the support in an attempt to find out wether I already had the requisites to obtain the skins or not. But the only answer I had was a recap of the season rewards rules :-/ even when I openly asked to know my current status... "I'm glad I could solve your problem!" ...but you didn't O.O you just cut&pasted some forum info which I already knew... Sigh. He continued repeating general things which I already knew the whole time. Trolled by a support? This is too much!! XD

Well, I guess I'll just find out when the patch comes live. But I think it will not be e a good surprise :-/
I already have the super gorgeous Hextech Janna skin, which is definitely my favourite... so I won't miss the Victorious Lady (not too much tbh).

Happy rewards, everyone ;-) can't wait for Season 3!

Who supports the Support?

I just finished arranging all the notes I left about the past games, so I guess I can take some time to do a  little consideration. (WARNING! WARNING! WALL TEXT ALERT!!)

I played a lot as support, and even though I am not the best player who you can find around, I am able to distinguish a good work from a bad work. And in some games I can say that the bot lane was won mainly cause I did a good job supporting our AD carry. I really don't want to sound arrogant, 'cause I know when I do mistakes - and I do them often, that's why I'm stuck at low rating.

But sometimes - let's say in 1 every 10 or more games -  I can proudly say that bot lane was won / the carry got fed / a team fight switched to our advantage- mainly 'cause *I* did a really good job. Could it be by saving the carry, disupring a bad initiation, throwing a shield - heal exactly at the right time, letting a gank fail, keeping good vision all over the map at all times (mostly all of these things together, or I couldn't have a good impact on the situation).

And even if I'm the only one to think that I was crucial to the situation, this keeps me wanting to play supports. 

My work goes usually unnoticed, expecially during team fights when there's a lot of mess around. And obviously everyone (me too) compliments the carry, the one who makes the kills. Sometimes my carry applauds me with a "gj" if we do something nice early in the game, but after that usually forgets about me. I play supports 90% of the time, but the people who thank me for my good work are a minority. I'm not thinking of flamers, arrogant ones, trolls etc, but even people who appears nice and kind simply looks at who makes the kills, and cheers at them. It's just natural, 'cause there's a large sign in the center of the screen saying "Whooohoooo he killed him! He's so strong, come on let's cheer at him!!". And that's what I do too, it's somewhat their job to do kills so we're happy if they do.

Now that this honor thing is out, it's even more clear that support's role has a low consideration. I try to be friendly all time of course, but that's just my attitude. (If I'm mad at someone, I usually ignore him.)
After a good game, when I feel like I've done really good and take some time to thank with honor the teammates who are deserving it, I expect a small token of recognition from my team. Well, it isn't so common. Ok, then, maybe people aren't used to this honor thing yet, or just don't want to spam honor at all.
But i see my friends receiving honor when all they've done was doing kills, and having an amazing score. Ok, this can be... but I know some of them instalock a lot, and I really don't feel like they're friendly all the time. They're my friends, I play with them and I know how they usually behave -  they're not jerks at all, but are definitely not saints.

Jealous?
Yes, a bit. Why, it is wrong? I just would like to have my work appreciated, as the others do. When I do a good job, of course.

In my experience this honor thing just pointed out more that supports are ignored by the large majority of players. Come on dudes, don't marginalize supports! Care about them too, don't think at them as automatic wards vending machines. Or as self-propelled healing stations. Shout some "gj" when they save your running asses, thank them when they die in your place, don't let their good actions pass unnoticed!

Support your supports!

They'll make you live longer. ;-)

53rd to 55th try - "Just a quick match before work..." + a little thought

I went to work later today cause of some workers trying to improve my house, so I thought that I could do just a quick match before leaving home.
Just...one... must... resist.... ok, I failed.

It was so difficult to start a game :-/ many leavers, it took 5 minutes to finally go to the champion selection screen, and other 10 to start a game.
I also was experiencing several client bugs, such as champions disappearing in the selection screen, all bans credited to one team... it was only visual errors, though.
So, let's start the fail!

---
1.
Meh. Our Garen top is failing hard vs Teemo. Also was always out of position and fed horribly. Besides, he was obviously flaming hard all game long, so it was really annoying.
Our Trundle jungle was really useless. Very few ganks, failing to counter jungle and feeding.
But our real nightmare was Blitzcrank. AP mid Blitz. On enemy team. Was killing everything in sight (and out of sight, thanks to the grab). We had a good lane bot (my Tristana took several kills), but our late game was horrible and our team lost.

-13 ELO, 1139 rating, dat AP Blitz!!

---
2.
Ok, maybe it's not the right time to play Leona, I need to go back to my super defensive favorite one.
...I "won the support" and bot lane was fine, but everything else was failing so hard... enemy Brand and Vlad got fed and begun killing things AoE, our team wasn't focusing right and even though our Galio was good, we just didn't have team spirit anymore and lost.

-14 ELO, 1125 rating O.O ohmahgad so low!! STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!!

---
3.
I can't go to work without at least a single win >.< come on dudes, don't be fail this time too!!!
I was bot with Graves, facing a Blitz-Vayne lane. We avoided almost all grabs (and could escape to the ones that didn't miss). My Graves was smart enough to play aggressive or safe as it was needed, and we managed to do several kills.
But!!! The true winner was our jungler. It was the first time I ever saw Jayce jungle. He did an amazing job, putting pressure on all lanes and getting fed. Our Annie was also decent and the game was ours from the beginning. I think they just surrendered.

+14 ELO, 1139 rating, YAY for Jayce!

---

Now just a little thought... which support shall I take to "carry" the game? Supports don't carry, someone might say. True, but sometimes you clearly see that a Leona / Blitz / Nunu / is so good that killing everything near him is just easy.

I always focused in playing supports that are best in saving teammates (Janna, Soraka, Sona, Lulu), but that are not really beefy.

I'm training hard with Leona to improve myself lately, 'cause I see that the girl can make the difference in a teamfight. But I'm usually dying too much with her, even when we win, and that's bad.

This week I begun a hard training with Blitzcrank too. As many can see, a good pull can win a game. But it's so hard to have good grabs! Sometime I just pick their Ashe out of nowhere and we win, sometimes the bush gives me an Alistar instead :-/ I guess I'll just continue training hard in normals...

Another thing I thought I could do is going on with Lux. I think I can be pretty good with her, but I cannot build her as a true support, lacking much utility items. Good is, I can save my carry / win bot lane AND do massive damage / shields in team fights. Double cage is too good to be ignored. I'd need to give it a serious try, I only played her randomly in ranked games.

New season, same goal...

Ok, going out of the ELO-Hell zone (whatever it may be) was the primary objective of my ranked play. 

And  I really wanted to do this as a support, for two main reasons:

1. 'cause I'm born to support. It's the role I like the most and for which I'm best suited. Plus, I'm not really performant in the other roles, though I can play decently as mid and not-so-terribly-bad as AD or jungler;
2. to show that supports can be decisive in determining the fate of the game. All-shame and no-fame, the supporting role is always underestimated. Everyone praise who makes the kills, noone cares of the one who's busy avoiding horrible deaths to the party and preparing kills for the carry.

With the end of season 2 approaching, I have now a new (unrealistic) goal: to reach the gold tier. Which means over 1500 rating for solo queue. Starting from just over 1150, which is the lower Silver rank.

To show the world how powerful supports are?

To gain self-esteem and prove myself that I'm able to do it?

To have a new reason to motivate me doing ranked games and blogging of my daily failures?

Nope.

...seriously, did you hear about the exclusive War Hero Janna skin? *_* 

Here you can find the complete summary of the new ranks and rewards for Season 2.

Janna is one of my favourite characters of all time, and even though I really like the Hextech skin (my very favourite, since I'm also a Steampunk lover), I'd gladly alternate her with another one.

Well, I'm very aware of my limits and know that this dream will not come true. But hey, Janna is too sweet not to give it at least a try!

So I'll be training hard and queuing for ranked every time I can.

Wish me luck. :<

Oh, and of course, if you happen to be on EUW server and want to boost a 1176 ELO scrub out of Hell... you're welcome XD

--
Edit: well, sure, I could always try and reach 1450 with my 5v5 team... but we have hard times playing together lately, we're too busy working / studying and can't be online at the same time :-/

Abstinence and theories

Meh, it's been so long since I last played a ranked game.
I was pretty busy working, furnishing my future home (yep, and first thing I bought was the internect connection service...), and avoiding the "bad-gaming" hours.

I'm not an experienced LoL player, but in the last months I observed a correlation between the number of victories and the time of day. (Oh, come on, I am a scientist! I have theories on everything.)

After some experimentation, I came to the conclusion that the best time (for me) to play a ranked is just before dinner (around 6 - 7 PM) on weekdays. And that the worst possible moment to play is on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

What is the most plausible explanation for this phenomenon? I have many ideas about it. At first I thought that avoiding the times of day when kids are usually home from school could be a good idea. The "avoid kids" theory. That is, assuming that most of the (really) bad LoL players have less than 16-18 years, which of course is not true. Then I came up with the "starving" theory: games played just before meals are better because players need to go eat; they want to win fast and avoid distractions. But this ground is also rather weak. Playing after eating could also reduce performances due to the insulin-related postprandial sleepiness. Well, at least this thought has a rational basis.

After all this theorizing, I came to the conclusion that the best time to play ranked games is around 6:30 PM, Monday to Friday, one single game a day. 

...for me. 

I guess it's a "personalized theory". I identified the times of the week in which I am more "prepared" to play well, and limited my first progression games to that moments only. This approach has brought me luck so far, so I'm determined to continue in this direction, for now. I obviously play lots (and lots and lots) of normal games in all the other times of week :) so that I can improve my play style.

I hope that all those who think to be stuck in ELO Hell will find their (personalized!) lucky moment. Let's keep trying!

What if ELO-Hell was real...

I was wondering if I could draw a map of the ELO-Hell zone along the lines of Dante's Inferno (no, not the videogame!! I'm talking about the famous epic poem).

I had lots of idle time at work today, so I modified an existing diagram to the following picture. Yes, I'm really having fun with little things like this XD

I'm proud to present you the "exclusive" Dante-inspired ELO Hell MAP!

(Hey! Give me credits when sharing this image ^^)

I wish to clarify that the types of "sins" written in the various circles were chosen at random from all the (more or less) negative behaviours one can find in his gaming experience. Since these behaviours should have been sorted by their "severity", the order in which they appear reflects my personal point of view (and some graphic needs).

This painting was obviously created with the intention to joke about a very common theme in the LoL community (i.e. ELO Hell and bad gaming behaviours), and not to marginalize or judge the behaviour of anyone. Just saying ;)

8th try - blame the support!

When everything goes wrong, blame the support. I understood that this is how it works. 
The support is responsible for early top ganks, counterjungle, too many wards around, missing pings, low ink on "ss" marks, poor teammates play, ugly skins, no RP gifts or IP boosts, Irelia nerfs and sudden headaches. Oh, and nuclear war, I guess.

So, I'm the last one at picks. 
"I can support but also mid if needed. Pick your best, I'll take what's left :)"
Some complaint about two wanting to solo top, some cv request, same old stuff. I ask my carry if I can go Lulu or if he prefers another support. He asks me for Sona, and I please him picking the mute maiden. I like playing Sona, but I have not played her for a long time. Let's give her a chance.

So we're Rammus, Wukong, Ashe, Kennen, Sona vs. Sion, Mundo, Mordekaiser, Blitzcrank and Sivir. Looks like we're facing the Macho-Macho-Team (except for the Battle Mistress of course).

Early levels make me understand what will be the trend throughout the game: QQ. Or, to say it clearer: Q.Q

I was trying really hard to save my Ashe (who was getting grabbled by Blitz every 30 sec), and still everyone in the team (not watching the map, just aware of the death alert) was continuously spamming:

"go uninstall"
"noobs"
"nab bot"
"mother******"
"why why why omg OMG"
"go tutorial"
"OMG nabs stop feeding"
"Report Ashe and Sona"

...and so on.

I lost almost all my fun in gaming in the first 10 mins, but continued to do my job, asking to stop complaining and start focusing. Of course they started spamming harder and harder. Luckily, our Wukong seemed to be a bit wiser, and started leading the team instead of insulting each member ("group up! GROUP UP!").
A massive, early TF bot lead to an unexpected ACE to our advantage. Now WHO's the support who kept everyone (barely) alive, huh? :<

So the game continued, and somehow we happened to have a massive turret advantage. We tried to do Baron, Mundo came in to steal it and... succeeded. I stunned him with my ulti, and right after that Rammus *forgot* to TAUNT him or even SMITE the Nashor. But hey, he's the one who asked me to uninstall, and now nicely begging not to report him for his mistakes. (I'm not such a heartless bastard: I reported him only for negative attitude, not for the poor play.)

However, after some split-pushing that resulted in the death of one or another teammate, we managed to push bot together while they were doing Nashor. Even though they were buffed by the power of... nashorness, we roflstomped them at their Nexus and victory was ours.

I feel happy for the outcome but really nervous for the poor behaviour of the people who happened to be in my team. How can you blame the others and make them feel bad when the game is not being lost? (And also why argue when game is lost? You can't make it better this way, no matter how hard you complain.) Why can't anyone simply focus and write only "ss", "river warded" and so on? Why must I QQ so much about the morons I were in team with, even though we won? And why is my english getting worse and worse in the process? I should behave like the support I played, and simply answer: "......"

+19 rating, 1069 ELO, The support is dead! Long blame the support!

3rd try - Kittens, kittens everywhere

I went home today after the dissertation of my Ph.D. thesis and totally felt k.o., so I took a nap and woke up one hour ago or so.
How better celebrate the day if not by pressing the solo queue button of random despair and infinite serendipity? :D


..."serendipity"?

Forgive me, I think I made too many toasts. Cheers.


Here we go, I'm 3rd in pick order. Weird bans, Cassio and Urgot... I don't know how it is at higher ELO, but I've never seen them banned before, so I'm like "?" but ok, whatever.
I ask for support as usual, chat stays silent. I pick Lulu anyway, no-one complains. Sweet, I guess.


So we're Caitlyn, Ryze, Lulu, Wukong, Olaf vs. Ezreal, Fizz, GP, Shen, Graves.
Support Shen and solo top Fizz on enemy team? I'm not so enthusiastic about it. I played a couple of times as an AD carry and a friend supported me with Shen. All in normals. And we were dominating the lane every time. Besides, our Cait doesn't have heal, and their Graves does. Infinite harass, bait, heal, taunt, smoke, burst, enemy double kill? We'll see.


Game starts, I'm bot with Cait and the other 3 are guarding our blue. Someone asks why I didn't take cv, but other 2 answer in my place that exhaust is way better and they already like me for that. Whoa. Stunned by such an undeserved appreciation, I thank the dudes and head to my bush for guarding my side of the jungle (we're on the blue side).


Suddently a wild enemy team appears to steal our buff! I'm too far away to join the party, so I watch helplessly as our team gets pushed away. I take the chance to cross the river and ward their golem. GP comes right after to take the blue buff helped by Ezreal, so I turn around the wall to steal it from behind with a well placed glitterlance. I obviously fail, but our Ryze comes near to find GP with low life and jumps to [flash + Q + ignite] the hell out of him. And it's a FB! (And an assist for me, and a blue buff for our midder.) Ezreal tries to avenge his friend, but that's not a smart choice since we're 2, so I got the second kill with a super-cute glitterlance as he's trying to escape to his turret. Yay! Great start :D


This Shen is not so pro as a support, and bot lane luckily isn't that hard. (Got really lots of luck recently...). Wukong faces Fizz without problems, Ryze owns Ezreal mid, Olaf doesn't get himself killed by minions. Excellent.


This game was quite fast, I don't remember any proper team fight happening. Some harass, lots of ganks from enemy team, lots of CC, but we're always pushing, and eventually we make our way to their Nexus. GG!


One thing I remember from this match is... err.... kittens. Lots of kittens. To keep it polite, as always. I remember that on many occasions my teammates called a couple of us pussies 'cause some of us were playing pretty defensive. Like when 3 of us, with low life, were destroying their nexus turrets and the entire enemy team respawned. Maybe I'm a little coward, but I remember too many games lost due to a predictable ace when we were in clear advantage. So i prefer being a pussy rather than a loser, I guess XD


+ 16 rating, 980 ELO, Suppordle is too cute to lose.

(LOL, I just realized that my stats are the same as last time XD)

Descent into madness

So, it has come to this.

I stumbled into League of Legends months ago. I never liked DoTA-like games, so I was pretty surprised when I felt myself totally LoL-addicted after only a few moments of play.
I remember that in those days I felt anxious playing PVP games, and I stucked in AI games most of the time. Day by day I got more confident, and begun playing with a couple of IRL friends. Well, the path to damnation was undertaken, and there was no way out.

Little by little I managed to know the game better and play slightly better (consistently with my skills), and after I reached level 30 I knew that I could enjoy the sweet delights of ranked gaming. After more practice I finally plucked up some courage and selected the "ranked" option.

Oh, sweet merciful gods!

The pain! The horrible feeling of total defeat and lack of order, judgement, rationality!
I never encountered so many trouble (leaver, ragequits, AFKers, instalockers, feeders, trolls, jerks etc. etc.) as in my first ranked games. Don't get me wrong, I know these things exist in LoL (and many other games) and I have to live with it. I just didn't know there was SO MUCH MORE harassing and all at once in ranked games, at least at low ELO.

Long story short, I crashed into the "Hell Zone", one game after another.
It is my fault for sure, as I don't always have brilliant games (to keep it polite). But I couldn't stop believing that much of the fail I faced (let's say 50%?) was also due to "bad" teammates. This thought kept me from playing ranked games for a while, so I ended up solo queuing only once or twice in a month. I guess many players are or were in my situation.

I recently decided to try again and climb out of the Hell Zone.
To make it more fun and challenging, I decided to keep a diary of the whole process. 
Which could lead to capturing moments of eternal winz, or just (more likely) hopeless fail. 

If someone happens to read this, please feel free to insult me in a constructive way. I always appreciate suggestions, and always ignore jerks.
So... let the challenge begin!

Day 0 - 930 ELO - Hell Zone