Post-Vacation

So it's been a while since I posted last to this blog, and it's not because I've been taking a break from LoL (well, not really).

After my last post, I immediately dropped right back out of Bronze IV and hard, hard, down to 0 LP in Bronze V again.  That was a very, very humbling experience.  Actually more humbling than being placed into Bronze V initially was.

At any rate, that caused me to do some thinking about my strategy and about my capabilities as a player, and I decided to take some time to really focus on a couple of things:

1. Diversifying Roles.  I needed to become more comfortable outside of the Support Zone.  A couple of the games I lost during my quick slide into oblivion were the result of being pushed into roles I wasn't 100% comfortable with, and performing adequately to my own standards but not having the bandwidth left over to really affect the outcome of the game overall beyond that individual performance.  It was harder for me to practice good map awareness and leadership when I was devoting all of my attention to mechanically keeping pace with my opponents in lane or in the current fight.

2. Diversifying Champion Selection.  A few of my losses were also the result of just not being all that comfortable with tanky supports--and here I'm talking primarily about Thresh and Leona.  When my team goes tankless with jungle and top and I'm 5th pick support, I have no choice but to pick one of these two (or potentially Volibear or Malphite, which I would LOVE to develop as part of my pool but that's a mission for the future).  Because of not really playing those champs, my performance as a support really suffered.  Whether a champ is "easy" or not, playing competitively requires reflexes and instincts around the capabilities of your champion's kit that I just did not possess for either of them.  That was a major liability.

This time-out (or vacation) was part of a realization that I've come to adopt as a guiding philosophy for Ranked--when I stop advancing because my current capabilities are not up to the challenge at my new MMR, that is the time to step away, identify things I can focus on actively improving in Normal, and do it so that I can go back to improving my standing in Ranked.

The reasoning behind this is that, as long as I'm continuing to advance, working on attributes that I can only safely improve in Normals (like learning new champions for a given role, or learning new roles) are actually inefficient overall.  Staying in competitive Ranked form while accruing LP and MMR helps me to continue to become more comfortable and to hone instincts and reflexes--and once I begin to level out I can take some time to examine why I'm not moving upward any longer and really refocus myself on those areas at that time, returning to Ranked to employ newly-developed skills and to test whether my training has been effective.

This will keep me from burning out on training for training's sake--Normals played to master a new role or champ or technique but without any correlation to a Ranked payoff--and also keep me moving up as quickly as possible to test myself against more difficult opponents.

I spent some time in this break learning more about top lane and about Renekton specifically, practicing with Leona and also honing some more Mid skills with Ahri.  This has served me well and I've risen steadily since then, approaching a promotional to Bronze 3!

More to come, soon:

Current Status:

Bronze IV, 97 LP
85 games after placement, 45 wins
Support win % this week: 90

Promotion!

Well, it's fitting--Thresh, which was the champ that led me to my first Ranked defeat back in my second post two whole weeks ago now, was also the champ that brought me victory in my second promotion series match, securing my move up to Bronze IV!

Two weeks feels like a while to manage the move up one division like this, but given that it's the absolute cellar division and a place reputed to be filled with trolls and ragers, and that most of this time was spent really trying to figure out the mechanics and strategy of this game enough to compete, I feel OK with that kind of timeline.

So from here, my first major milestone, I need to begin to hone my mechanics and expand on my champion pool and role ability a bit (so far about 95% of my games have been with Nami, Thresh or Ahri).  I'll play a few more normals (been on a very strong winning streak with Ranked so wanted to continue it at least this far) to get more practice with Renekton, Nasus and Riven and see if one or more of those in top or jungle can help me perform more consistently.

And I just noticed that I also broke my second major initial milestone, the 50%+ winrate for ranked games after being seeded! And-and-and, according to Lolking, my winrate with Nami has finally reach 50% as well.  Yowza, talk about a confluence...

So at the six-game mark in my winning streak I put down my competitive gloves for a day or two and start to stretch my game-wings.  It feels pretty good!

Overall Status:

Bronze IV, 0 LP
24 Wins, 47 Games Played

870 LKS

Promotion Series!

So after finding myself at 99 LP and worried about a loss, I managed to eke out a win with a great team going 4v5 after our Tryndamere AFKed when he died the first time.  That meant PROMOTION TIME!  Or nearly.  Now I just have to win 2 of the next three.

It took me 45 total games after seeding to make it to my promo series, in which time I managed to win 22.  That's not quite a 50% win ratio, but it's nearly there and still climbing.  LolKing tells me my support winrate for the last week is 65%--I'll take that.  I'm excited that I'm finally there, with all the drama that results from it as well.  Being at a high LP sum feels a bit like floating on a cloud.  Not in the good way (well, a little in the good way), but in the sense that there's just this tiny, intangible thing holding you up where you are, and it could evaporate in a second leaving you with a hard fall.  When you're in Bronze V with very few LP, the cold cellar floor is pressed right against your face--there's no vertigo, just claustrophobia.

I guess it's the sensation of seeing myself having something to lose for the first time in LoL.  I can understand why people get so worked up about it...but honestly I'm not sure why it's the Bronze Vs that seem to.  Anyway, maybe it gets worse as you get into the higher divisions--my experience there is VERY limited.  I looked back at my season 3 records and it appears that I only played a total of 14 ranked games last year.  Even fewer than I thought, but with as much as I lost I imagine they felt like plenty.

As of the time of this writing I have won the first of my promotional matches.  I'll play the second after I get back from the gym tonight and hopefully have excellent news.

99 LP

You have GOT to be kidding me!  I was at 84 LP and assumed one more victory would be enough to get me to a promo series--I'd been earning 17-18 per game, and this marked an abrupt drop to 15!  And here I thought they had eliminated clamping (yeah, I know it's only a drop of 2, but what a pivotal moment to drop).

I'm only upset because this puts me in a situation where I can really only hurt myself with the next match--if I win, I'm in the same position I would have been in had I just gotten my usual LP reward, but if I lose I'll need two matches (guaranteed) to get back up to promo series position.  I'm confident that I'll get there soon even if I blow my next game, I'm just frustrated at being potentially 3 matches from promos rather than in them now.

This frustration stems from my realization in an earlier post that I've been gaining about 30 LKS on average per week so far, and in Season 4 I only have so many weeks.  I'm beginning to think that given the slow and incremental improvement I'm making, I won't get very far up the ladder before the season is over!  So every misstep or setback, especially at this very early stage, can be costly in the long term.

But wait, this isn't about getting high rank, is it?  I guess not, but to the extent that an improved rank is indicative of improvements in my level of play I will continue to seek it out.

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 99 LP
21 Wins, 44 Games

869 LKS

Slow and Steady

I'm not winning a race, exactly, but I am winning at my objectives, by any reasonable measurement, and improving my gameplay along with the rankings that go along with it!

Looking back at the past two weeks since I got seeded, I've improved my Lolking Score by about 30 per week with a consistent upward tilt to the line, and I am now sitting just one victory away from a promotion series to B4 (or B3, depending on what the actual situation turns out to be--not sure how that works now).

Most recent accomplishment is playing Renekton in a ranked game for the first time and coming out with not many kills (1), but dominating my lane solidly against Olaf and helping bring the game to a very quick conclusion (nexus down at about 24 minutes with most of my team around level 14).

I know Renekton is considered a freelo champ, especially in lower divisions, but since Top is not a lane I usually play and I'm pretty terribad overall anyway, I consider it a victory in more than just the "getting LP" sense.

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 84 LP
20 Wins, 43 Games Played

LKS: 859 (was 800 when I started)

5-Man Support Main in Solo Queue

I just had an incredible and surprising experience.

Queued up for Ranked solo, I'm third pick but call support preference, next person calls mid/supp pref, I indicate that I can do passably at mid if needed and have a setup for Jungle in a pinch but really prefer to play support since I'm best there by far.

The second player indicates that he, too, has the same situation.

The first player in pick order indicates that he, too, mains support.

Then the remaining two chime in--"yeah me too lol".

So we have five support mains figuring out how to arrange ourselves to be competitive.  I do end up with the support role, playing Nami as usual, along with Singed top, Yi jungle, Leblanc mid and Quinn bot.  We absolutely cleaned up, by a margin of twenty or twenty five kills or so.  It wasn't the biggest blowout I've been a part of thus far, but what was amazing about it was the level of coordination and map awareness involved--it was far better than with any team I've encountered.  We were taking objectives quickly and cleanly, consistently outmaneuvering our opponents in order to isolate champs and eliminate them before moving for bigger or tougher targets.

I THINK--but I may be wrong--that this is how the game is supposed to be played once you're out of Bronze.  It was heartwarming to find a bunch of bronze players performing like this, and it reaffirmed my commitment to improving my communication, map awareness and strategic sense as keys to victory.

Just some thoughts.

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 60 LP
15 Wins, 35 Games Played
842 LKS

Carrying as a Support

Can be really, really hard.

Apparently this is a "real" Australian sport known as wife-carrying.

I feel like my individual play level is probably about B4 at this point, but really strong carrying definitely takes more than skill at the division above, and as a support it feels like you need an even larger gap in skill to actually carry games.

Don't worry--I will HAVE that skill, and I will use it to get myself out of Bronze V.

Last game jungle trynd on the enemy team walked into every. single. bubble I dropped at him.  His movement was totally predictable, but it signals that at the very least my prediction and anticipation for skillshots is improving from where it was!  Practice is paying off a little.

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 43 LP
14 Wins, 34 Games Played

830 LKS, 11-8 with Nami this week, lifetime winrate up to 41% with her including my initial 5 losses.  This is the number I'm looking forward to getting to 50% as one of my first two tangible goals (the other being promotion to Bronze IV).

Update

So, my winrate with Nami has stabilized around 50% in ranked games, which is slowly but surely giving me more of a cushion on my LP gains/losses.  I've been as high as 60 LP and only once dropped all the way back to 0, which is not bad for the 29 ranked games I've played so far.  11 of those have been wins, which apart from the 5-game losing streak at the start is beginning to approach an overall 50% winrate which is my first major tangible goal.

I keep having my game chats dominated by folks who think they're on their way up and past the rest, usually guys with lower MMR than me who have lots and lots of advice about how every lane should be played (usually phrased as "wtf just stop already" or "omg u idiot reported for bad") but don't do much better themselves.  There has been a bit of muting, including of one Graves who was my lane partner and fed three fast kills by being overly aggressive--sometimes ADCs just don't seem to consider who they're partnering with and assume it's your responsibility to keep them alive even if they move so far out of position that the minion waves aren't helping them, you're lagging behind because you need to navigate the enemy support's zoning, and they're just blindly attacking.

Last game I had a Jinx as a lane partner who spent 90% of the lane phase in the bushes tangled up around my fish-tail against Cait and Nid, both of whom had an easy time landing skillshots because ONE OF US was guaranteed to be stuck in its path due to collision.  He gave up four early kills going HAM while I was at 20% mana--and I'm talking INITIATING fights, not just harass/trade or holding ground when they attacked him.  /sigh

Anyway, I continue to try and improve on my own game, and I think the effects are showing--I plan to do more training on Mid, Jungle and Top roles (playing Support has left a bad taste in my mouth about ADC, hehe), but I'm interested to see whether I can carry myself out of Bronze V almost exclusively by playing Support and then diversify once in Bronze IV.  I feel like I'm just a few steps away from being able to do that--so we'll see.

Lolking stats: 819 ELO/LKS
9W-6L with Nami in the past week
0W-3L with Thresh
1W-1L with Ahri
0W-1L with Lux (loss prevented, thankfully--we got completely wrecked with our tankless team comp and our team banning Ahri and Fizz, my two reasonably practiced mids, while squeezing me into playing mid)

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 27 LP
11 Wins, 29 Games Played

Dodging

So I dodged my first Ranked game at champ select this morning.  Our opponents had a great team comp with KZ, Leona, Annie and Singed in the lineup (had not yet picked 5th) vs. our makeshift comp with an unresponsive Yi and the one person who called "not ADC" left to pick adc after everyone else AND with no real tanks picked on our side...

So I dodged.  I know there are plenty of opinions on dodging, but my sense is that most competitive folks consider occasional dodging an unsavory necessity.  We were walking into a trouncing and I will gladly trade 5 minutes and 3 LP for 30 minutes or so and a dozen-plus LP.

What are your thoughts about dodging?  How often do you do it?  I hope that it will become less of a necessity as I get to higher divisions, but it may be that it happens more often as folks feel more confident of their ability to assess matchups at champ select?

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 18 LP
5 wins, 14 games played

Tutorialism

Been sick the past couple of days so my League play has dropped off a bit (you'd think it would increase but...SLEEP). 

However, right before The Crud took over my body completely I had a nice conversation with someone who saw this blog and/or the GD post about it and wanted to lend a hand.  His name is TheBlackCanon (henceforth TBC) and he is currently running around in Gold 3 after a rapid rise since the opening of S4. 

He offered to spectate specific games and offer feedback on specific aspects of my play that either I identify as needing improvement or he does, which will be a great help once we can work out a time.  Additionally, he asked me a really interesting question that I hadn't considered when I told him that I main Support.

"What do you enjoy about that role?"

Man--I know I enjoy it but I hadn't thought to articulate to myself what I like about it.  Ultimately I figured out it comes down to a sense of control and engagement with the whole battlefield.  I know that this should be something that every player is focusing on, but it seems at least at low ELO that this is especially in the wheelhouse of the Support player.  Based on that feedback, TBC suggested that I look into Jungle as an additional role to develop and offered some good advice on how to start learning it based on resources that I already have.  Thus far Mid has been my fallback, but sometimes it feels like a very small role compared to Support of even Jungle from my limited experience.  I don't mean small as in unimportant, but in early game especially I feel kind of chained to my lane without much impact anywhere else.

However, that feeling is also probably the result of my limited skill, so I often feel pressured to keep toe-to-toe with my lane opponent especially because I'm still very much a novice at last-hitting (mainly due to spending most of my time learning Support skills).

Anyway, I'm hopeful about this new opportunity and my horizons already feel broadened!

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 27 LP
3 Wins, 10 Games Played

Win #2 - on Coordination, Skillshots, Sweeping and Honoring

Woohoo!  Two in a row!  This time I finished 3/3/20 with Nami, which are the kinds of stats I like to see, and managed close to a full build (I've been moving toward maxing the Frost Queen's Claim and pairing it with Liandry's Torment for a strong late-game softener).

Although my individual stats were strong (and I did land a few very well-timed CC skillshots that turned teamfights for us), I can't really claim any credit for the win because without those skillshots I think we still would have won.  Final score was something like 42 kills for us and 21 for the enemy, mainly because of a couple of things:

1. Coordination
We were able to routinely initiate with great effect on the enemy because they were just all over the place.  Their bot lane duo stuck together most of the way through the game which is nice and chummy but they often were pursuing objectives that the rest of the team didn't seem to have any clue about.  They were easily located and isolated, and thus eliminated, and that left the rest of the team vulnerable once we had superior numbers.  There wasn't a LOT of map pinging on our side, or team chat--we just all were on the same page with needing to attack where we had strength, take objectives, and retreat/regroup before we overextended so we could catch them out when they either overextended on their counterattack or got complacent burning off minion waves.

This was hands down the NUMBER ONE factor that led to our win, I have no doubt.

2. Skillshot Placement
WOW.  Now, in previous posts I've noted that I really need to work on my skillshot placement, and you will probably think (based on my light gloating above) that this point is about self-congratulations, but you will be wrong!  Instead, the enemy bot lane (Leona and Jinx) really drove home the importance of consistently good placement and timing of skillshots that limit your opponent's options or ability to dodge them.

Both of these players had a very hard time landing skillshots.  I think the only time Leona landed her initiate it was on me and because I didn't mind her landing it because my goal was to force a fight (we had two hidden backup making it a 4v2 right under their tower).  In that instance I still managed to escape alive.  The fact that I didn't have to work as hard to avoid their skillshots gave me LOTS more opportunities in lane than I am used to having and also gave me more resources to work with (more health from less damage taken, which meant more mana from less healing, which meant more harrass which meant more lane control and so on and so forth). 

This really, REALLY made some things click for me in a way they hadn't quite before.  Seeing my own specific incompetence mirrored back at me made me aware of how much easier I was making my opponent's game.  Anyway, enough on that topic.  Suffice to say I will continue to focus on skillshot placement as a core skill to develop.

Other Stuff:

Sweeping: I did a ton more sweeping than usual this game and noticed that my instincts for it have gotten better.  I've begun thinking more strategically about where it would hurt my team to be seen moving around by the enemy.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but the whole map-awareness picture is starting to come together for me bit by bit.

Honoring: Despite a well-coordinated game with reasonable communication and a very solid win, I didn't receive any honors from anyone.  This surprised me, and reminded me that in my other win there were no honors from either side, though in a couple of my losses I've received a couple of honorable opponent honors.

Now, this might not seem like such a big deal, and honors don't DO anything, but I feel like especially in Bronze V where the mind-meta is that you constantly have to contend with toxic players, you want to reward players who are being constructive and working well with their team, as well as those who play honorably and don't talk rude smack, etc.  Granted that my sample size is small, but I'm a bit surprised.  Maybe I just put people off!

Before you think that this post is too self-congratulatory, I fully expect a devastating loss to come next, fueled at least in part by my raging incompetence and inability to really internalize a lesson until I've learned it at least a dozen times.  I just want to make sure to note what's working and what's not--and in this game, at least, things worked more than they didn't.  I still need to work on my skillshots, my early game mana efficiency, my map awareness, my communication, my...well, basically everything.

Until next time.

Overall Status:

Bronze V, 39 LP
2 Wins, 7 Games Played

Lunar Revel Event

So I'm going for path of truth because the icon just "popped" for me in a way the other two didn't.  Generally I don't care too much about summoner icons, since so many people at a given time are getting each new one--but I realize that it's kind of a collector-impulse trigger.  Folks want to get as many of them as they can, and I guess I feel that too, since a year from now you can rock a limited icon and new players will be all "omg whar u get tht icon dude?"  Or something more coherent.

Aaaaanyway, took the evening off and back to the grind a bit today.  Here's hoping for a second win soon!

A First Win!

Well, I feel like I'm more excited than I have a right to be given that it came in my 6th ranked game in Bronze V, but it was a pretty good win.  I ended 1/3/10 which is a bit lower than I would like given that we had over 30 kills (I feel like I'm not doing my job unless I've got K+A of more than half of our team's kill total, preferably above 2/3), but I had the lowest number of deaths on my team and was often well positioned to get our team kills while still extricating myself from trouble.

Once again, skill shots were a problem for me.  My Nami Q (bubble toss) only hit about half the time, which annoyed me because I was even trying to lead my targets.  I just still need more practice to calibrate things.  Yi threw me off too, of course--I would often toss a bubble just late enough that he'd be able to initiate his Alpha Strike before it hit, even when I was anticipating him. 

A big difference in this game as well was that I made more of a conscious effort to establish map control and map awareness.  I did a lot more pinging than usual (though not spam pinging), called more MIAs even in other lanes sometimes when I could see enemies moving away and our guy was out of lane for one reason or another and wouldn't see it in person, and set a few objectives for us as a team.  It didn't always work out, and the team was generally uncoordinated, but that was all good practice for me and I feel like getting in these habits will be good for me in the long run and build good instincts.

Oh, and I got 21 LP for this win.  I'm not sure whether that's a big number, a small one or an average, with this being my first win of the season, but it feels big--four more wins of that caliber and I'll be out of Bronze V...potentially.

Current Status:
Bronze V, 21 LP
1 Win, 6 games played.

First "Toxic" Player Experience

Just ran into my first legitimately problem-causing player, attitude-wise.  He was playing Udyr jungle which looked like a good plan except that he died 3 times during early laning, whether from mistimed ganks (not on my lane) or just bad encounters with the enemy jungler (Warwick).

My lane (I was Nami alongside Jinx) was at least holding its own--neither of us had any deaths and we were keeping the pressure on the opponents and trading well, but not really in a position to take any kills just yet though it seemed inevitable that we would if things continued the way they were going.

Then top lane completely collapsed with three quick deaths in a row, mid went down at the same time and we have a full-blown invasion on bot lane.  We were driven back to tower and the game snowballed against us from there.  We lost (of course) after three failed surrender votes, all of which I voted "yes" on since I could see that the 14-kill enemy Darius could wreck our team solo even if the other four on his team threw hard.

As the third surrender vote came out failed and the enemy dropped our nexus turrets, I made the point immediately above, and Udyr immediately responded, "Well, I know who to report!"

Apparently he thought I was stating that we needed to fight to the end and he was offended, and threatened several times to report me in the post-game chat.  When I realized he was clueless and angry, I wished him good luck being needlessly belligerent and exited, upon which he sent me a friend request (???).

It's absolutely amazing to me that more mental capacity isn't required to play this game at reasonably close to the level I currently play it.  It makes me feel bad about myself, a bit.

However, actual lessons learned: some of the trouble in that match could have been prevented if I had more map awareness and had communicated more to my allies about what was happening where.  At least the snowball from dropped top to mid to bot could have been slowed or prevented.  I realize it's because I'm still 90% focused on my mechanics and positioning in-lane.  Once I get more comfortable with that I hope that I can focus more attention on the broader game--but baby steps.

Current status: Bronze V, 0 wins, 4 games.

BV: Game #1

So my first game in Bronze V went about as poorly as I expected it to.

Bans were fine overall on both sides, what you expect from discussion of the meta (Mundo Nasus and Zed on our side--surprised by Zed--and Kass Voli and Renekton on theirs).

Our team comp was fairly balanced overall with Veigar, Teemo, Zac, Jinx and me as Thresh.  The enemy team comp was confusing at first with Darius jungle, Kayle mid, Jax top and Leona with Shen bot.  They played VERY aggressively with CC on bot and that caused some trouble.

Big issues for me this game were: landing hooks and anticipating when peel would be needed, along with prioritizing Wards.

With regard to landing hooks, I just need more practice.  Thresh isn't my preferred support (I'm really trying to up my Nami game as I prefer her playstyle) but we needed more tankiness by the time my pick (3rd, with ADC still to come) came around and the group demanded a Thresh.  I think if we have even one tank from now on I might just run Nami instead.

Anyway, my hook placement needs serious work.  I'm always headed in the right direction but my precision is still way off with the speed I'm trying to do it.  About 10 to 15 degrees off line with my target usually, though I get some good hooks in.

I was prevented from doing a lot of game-changing CC by enemy CC as well--I need to keep clearer of the enemy so I'm not overwhelmed by how much they can negate my ult/flay combo once in teamfight mode.

Next, my anticipation needs a lot of work.  My ADC died three times (OUCH) before level 6 due to Leona initiates that I wasn't capable of responding to in time.  By the time I was close enough to her to flay her off my Jinx, she had already gotten most of the way through her rotation and Shen was hot on our heels with Jinx at 1/3 life.

Finally, Wards.  I know they're important, I buy them constantly, but every once in a while I accidentally buy an item while in base before I realize I'm too low on gold to properly restock.  This can NEVER happen, EVER, if I'm going to be a good Support, and it hurt us once when we had a mid/jungle invade into our lane via the river when I wasn't able to properly ward it due to lack of wards.  The mid also didn't call an MIA, but that is no excuse for being caught out with no ward when I should have one.

So--things I already knew, but good to be reminded of things with a sound trouncing right out of the gate.  We surrendered at about 24 minutes with me at 1/5/3 and the kills at around 8 for us and 21 or so for the opponents.

Current standing: Bronze V, 0 LP, 0 wins, 1 game played.

Starting at the Bottom

Today I managed to complete my Ranked placement games for Season 4 of League of Legends and found myself placed in Bronze V.

Well, this is frankly not much of a surprise.  I really only played LoL for long enough to get to Level 30 and then a bunch of Normal matches before I went for my Ranked placements in Season 3, back in June of 2013.  At that time I placed into Bronze 1 and quickly dropped to Bronze 2 after a string of embarrassing defeats, with about ten or twelve total Ranked games played after placement.

Soon after, life caught up with me (had a baby, lots of job changes) and I dropped LoL entirely for about eight months.

Well, I decided to give it another go, enjoying the general gameplay of LoL quite a bit and having my schedule figured out a bit more, and here I am staring at a BV badge after going 2/8 in my placement games.  I should have known better--rushing into competitive gaming after such a long break, with aging brain and reflexes (turning 36 this year slows one down, especially with baby-sleep-brain), with not very good skills to begin with.

So I'm where I belong, really.  I suck at this game, but every match I try to do better.  As I play (and hopefully improve), I'll be posting my insights and self-reflection on what I did wrong and what I can make work for me (and the interesting things I encounter along the way), hopefully with a sense of humor and an eye toward enjoying the game even more.

Follow me on this journey, if you want--either to share my pain, offer insights, or even learn a thing or two if you're stuck down her yourself.  I'm hoping to play one Ranked game on average per day, some days more, and I will post regularly as things come up, to track my progress both in terms of ranks and stats but also in terms of knowledge, confidence, and self-awareness.