Tag: ranked solo (Page 1 of 2)

      I miss the Season One reward grind

      September 30, 2011 /

      I was worried this would happen. As the end of Season One drew to a close, I had a goal in mind: I wanted to get gold rating. There wasn’t really a personal reason, either. There was a reward; a reward that I wouldn’t use very much, but still, it was something I could point to and say, “I got that because I did X.”

      It was a grind, too. I had to play a lot of games to hit gold. The grind pretty much killed any desire I had to play Lee Sin beyond the finish. I got incredibly close to the 1520 mark and then dropped ELO several times. But still, it was a goal. It was something to shoot for. It was a lot of fun.

      Fast forward six weeks or so and I’m having a little trouble enjoying the game like I used to. There aren’t any in-game goals for me to strive for. I could try to rank up my solo queue ELO, but to what end? More ranking up? Not exactly a compelling sales pitch.

      I know League can’t always be my number one game, but I do think there’s a lot more to be done to keep veteran players interested in the game. The Jarvan skin was a great idea – why not produce more skins that could be tied to certain achievements. Win 250/500/1000 ranked games, get a cool skin. Play 10 ranked games, get a one-time, one-day IP boost. These kind of things don’t cost a lot of money to put into the game and encourage more players to try more things. My assumption, which I suppose could be totally wrong, is that the more time players spend enjoying games, the more likely they are to spend on content.

      Even if that assumption can’t be backed by data, it certainly breeds goodwill with the playerbase. Why not reward players for spending time with the game?

      What are your thoughts? Are you still going strong with LoL or are other games starting to steal your attention. Has Dominion been enough to keep you coming back?

      league of legends

      Four Tips for Reaching Gold in Solo Queue

      August 30, 2011 /

      Five days ago I was totally content to stick with my silver ranked rating. I had silver in both 3v3 Team and 5v5 Solo, which meant I had a little extra leeway to try my hand at a gold rating. I thought it was impossible. I mean that. I’m not trying to say I did something amazing, just that I was so used to losing because of things outside my control. My teammates would feed or get caught way out of position or ignore teamfights. It’s a mess I usually avoid because the combination of trying to rank up and watching a team fall apart ends nowhere good.

      I couldn’t help thinking, though, that I would like to get that Gold rating. There’s not really a reason. I don’t play Jarvan. I don’t post on the forums much, if at all, so the rewards don’t really hold anything for me. I think I was just happy to have a goal in the game, a benchmark with some sort of associated reward (more on this in a post later today). In a game that I thought would be a tough match, my team steamrolled to the final victory that put me over into gold.

      Most of my wins happened because I focused on the following four things. They didn’t work in every game, but they were key to most of my victories. If you’re trying to rank up in Solo 5v5, these are four things that can help.

      Planning in the Pre-Game Lobby

      I know. I know this one is nearly impossible. I know this is extremely frustrating. I know. But try to keep your cool when you queue up. There are enough people shooting for rewards that most of them will try to cooperate. Some of them might even pick for you and trade. I started entering games and immediately saying what I do best – jungle/AP carry/AD carry. Those are my strengths and I know it. I play a decent support, but plenty of people are better than me, so I’m willing to let them take a shot.

      Playing Aggressive Junglers

      Ever since my Champ of the Week with Lee Sin I’ve been in love with the guy. He can come out of the jungle incredibly early with enough damage to snag a first blood or force the use of Flash from an opponent. If you want to rank up fast, play an aggressive jungler. From what I’ve seen, players above the 1300 mark mostly know what they should be doing, they just tend not to do it. They overextend. They don’t ward or they ward too little. They don’t know jungle routes well enough to CV you or know when you might be ganking.

      Aggressive junglers – Lee Sin, Udyr, Xin Zhao, Fiddle and even Nocturne – can come out of the jungle before level six with tools to secure a kill. If you can support your team with ganks, you can help them win the early game, even against champions like Singed and Mordekaiser, which can often win the game.

      Buy an Oracle’s Elixir

      Vision is everything. Being able to see and predict what the enemy team is doing makes your team’s job much easier. You’ll know where to gank, when an enemy is overextended, when they’re trying to secure dragon, and what sort of items they’re buying. Continue reading »

      league of legends, News

      Current Affairs: Securing a silver rating

      August 25, 2011 /

      I’ve tried to avoid putting much stock in my ranked ELO in the past. While it is fun to try to climb the ranks, it can also be maddening, and I just don’t have that special sauce that helps people jump past the 1500 barrier and continue to climb. When I found out there were some summoner profile perks, though, I though it might be cool to try to snag at least a silver rating. As you can see in the picture above, I’ve managed to secure silver in both 3v3 and solo 5v5. Silver summoner profile frame, here I come.

      Alright, it’s not that exciting. I would love to hit gold status, but that feels pretty much out of my grasp, if I’m honest. I’ve been stricken with the typical trolls and ragers in much of my solo experience lately, so I think I might just stick to silver.

      I know some of you sitting pretty at gold status, ready to rock your fancy Jarvan skin. Anyone out there going for platinum? Any of you close to reaching one of the status benchmarks? If you haven’t heard, you can find out more about the different status levels on the official forums. You better start playing some ranked, though. Season One will be officially capped off at the next downtime.

      Current Affairs, league of legends

      Captain, there’s an anomaly in the system!

      May 7, 2011 /

      My attempt to get a ranked win with all 75 champions is going well, at least for what I expected. I’ve managed to pick up a few first-attempt wins, which feels really good. Karthus was a one shot, as were Eve and Rumble. I expected the latter two to be easy, but the Karthus win was a pleasant surprise.

      Ryze and Alistar continue to give me trouble. I’ve had solid starts with both champions in several games, but my teammates just can’t find a way to work with another. It’s painful.

      I also had one extremely frustrating game last night in which I was paired with an unranked Malphite, even though he hadn’t duo queued with anyone. You can see the teams in the screenshot above. My own team’s rankings, in order from top to bottom, is as follows:

      1324
      1321
      1337
      1320
      Unranked

      The enemy team, again from top to bottom, was:

      1356
      1353
      1350
      1376
      1315

      The last two players on the enemy team also duo queued together, which I’ve always seen as an advantage, especially when the two players are so close in ELO. This sort of thing just shouldn’t happen in the matchmaking system. Even if that unranked player was lying for some reason and actually did duo with another player, we were outmatched as far as ELO is concerned. I know ELO isn’t a very good gauge of player skill, but when a player is dumped into a match 120 points above his ELO, against higher-rated duo queue to boot, well, I expect about the outcome I got. He bought Ninja Tabi against a very limited physical team and “initiated” by ulting one of the enemy players at a time, most often Xin Zhao. It was a mess.

      Like I said, though, this is going better than expected. I just lost another with Ryze, bringing my total attempts with him to three. We’ll see if I have more tim this afternoon to try again.

      Champions, league of legends

      Why do you play ranked?

      February 28, 2011 /

      ranked_vs_normal

      I tend to go through bursts in League of Legends wherein I’ll play Ranked Solo for a while, tire of it, and go back to Normal for an extended period of time. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Ranked lately, mostly because I really don’t like blind pick, but I feel like I must be missing something. When I play ranked, I play to win above all else. When I enter that matchmaking queue, I put aside my desire to AP Trist or jungle TF or any of that nonsense and focus on doing what it takes to win the game. From what I’ve seen lately, not everyone plays ranked with winning in mind.

      In the past two days, I’ve had teammates who refuse to jungle despite the fact that they’re the only viable jungler on the team, teammates who don’t know how to effectively build champions like Irelia or Ashe, and teammates who actively refuse to buy wards (seriously, I’ve asked people to help me ward and they’ve said no). If you’re going to rush Giant’s Belt on Ashe (yes, I’ve seen it done at 2200 ELO but that’s not what I’m talking about), why are you playing ranked?

      I’ve heard the usual excuses – I don’t care about my rating, I’m trolling, I’m trying out a new champion, etc – but aside from the trolling excuse, it just doesn’t make sense. There’s a queue where all of that other stuff is perfectly acceptable. I try to be understanding when people in normal queue tell me they’re playing a champion for the first time. I had a Malzahar a couple weeks back take mid and feed his ass off, only to tell me he’s never played Malzahar. My response: Cool, say something next time and we won’t send you mid. I love trying silly builds and weird junglers in normal queue just as much as the next guy, but I keep it to normal. Call me crazy, but I think entering yourself in the ranked queue means you’re committing to the four other people on your team that you will try your damnedest to win the game, even if it means sacrificing a bit of fun.

      What about you? Do you play ranked for the wins or do you just like to watch people squirm when you play AP Caitlyn?

      Editorial, league of legends

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