I hopped into a game this afternoon with one of the readers here, playing a Blitz/Vayne combo on bottom lane. I really thought we were going to dominate – we were up against Lee Sin and Janna, which on second thought I should not have underestimated as heavily as I did. Janna is such a strong lane partner and, frankly, Lee Sin does a hell of a lot of sustained damage with a support to back him up.

Things didn’t go exactly as I had planned. I died early thanks to an Ignite/Exhaust combo and struggled to get my farm up for the rest of our lane phase. Around 15 minutes I checked the score; our team was up 14 to 5, but I was a whopping 4 of my team’s deaths. Ouch.

My deaths didn’t tell the whole story, though. In fact, I was 4/4/4. It was more deaths than I would have liked to endure early, but I also had a nice kill count and the cash from four assists. I had been involved in 8 of my team’s 14 kills, which is a pretty nice contribution for early in the game.

I’ve always maintained that stats don’t tell the whole picture. Sure, four deaths worth of gold was a lot to give up in the early game, but my dying usually allowed my team the opportunity to turn a couple kills, which resulted in much more gold for my own team than I was giving up. It was a frustrating early game for me but it resulted in a very solid performance for my team and a handy win. Always make sure you’re looking at the big picture in those frustrating lanes. If you’re playing smart, sometimes it’s okay to be the one soaking deaths for your team, even as a carry.