Greedy Goblin

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

One defeat is enough

After climbing to mid Silver 3, in late Saturday and Sunday morning I managed to sink back to mid Silver 4. How? On the surface, because of the following wonderful teammates:
  • 4 minutes into the game the player on top lane chatted "sry AFK" and indeed went AFK
  • 0/10 ADC
  • I was ambushed at blue and ran to the bot tower. Where all 3 of us died, because our wonderful bot couldn't even keep the close vicinity of the tower clear. At lvl 4.
  • "all mid push", when one was dead and I was soloing the dragon. They had all 5 at their tower.
  • I sneak in enemy jungle, bot came to "help", trailing the whole enemy team
OK, I had a really serious collection of idiots and it wasn't my fault. Except I never believed that anything about me is out of my control. It just took some time to realize what I did wrong and form a new protocol that let me climb back to Silver 3 promotion in the afternoon of Sunday. The new protocol is "one defeat is enough". If I lose a game, I leave the game for a while, doing housework or whatnot to let my brain regenerate.

How does it help? With fresh brain I play much better. For example I could notice that ADC is horrible and never run to their tower. Or I could just abandon the dragon in 30% and burn ghost to team up with the 3 pushing idiots. Or I could run out of the enemy jungle when I saw "help" is coming. Or I could go and be full-time top to even give a chance for a 4v5 win or that the AFK-er returns. And simply by not making mechanics mistakes to the point of buying two of the same items.

Below top 10% all defeats are on morons and slackers doing something remarkably stupid. Every single one of the defeats I was in could be pinned on someone doing something he definitely wasn't supposed to. No not just generally "being bad" but something yes-or-no that reasonable people wouldn't do. Like fighting under the enemy tower despite being 0/8 ganked again and again from behind. Any reasonable player would buy defensive items and stay close to his own tower in this situation. Or teamfighting without a team around. Similarly all victories are on morons and slackers on the other team. I've yet to see a single defeat where we were outplayed by superior players and a single victory where we outplayed worthy foes. Your contributions to the win in this level are:
  • Identifying morons on the other team and making good use of their moronness, like the game when I made sure that every time my ulti is up I'm at top where the enemy probably had religious objections against the use of wards.
  • Identifying own morons and help them if possible, like when I placed 3 wards at bot jungles every time they were up because our support couldn't be made to do it.
  • Not being the feeder moron, like when I warded my own jungle after being ganked by an aggressive and mechanically good enemy jungler.
  • In the meantime, do your own job, like getting that dragon at lvl 5
Yep, there is no place for intelligent and masterful play at this level. Simply "find the moron, neutralize the moron, don't be the moron". This isn't something inherently rewarding or flow-inducing. It's a chore you have to do to get out of the low tiers. And it's tiresome and frustrating, especially when the morons are worse than you can compensate. No matter how much practice you have dealing with M&S, it will exhaust your brain and you'll need to regenerate. Give your brain a break after every defeat, not to "think it over" but simply to regenerate.


PS: there is one case when you can fairly blame the game on luck: 3x mountain drake. I can't do anything about that. Since my whole jungling is based on dragons, if I get totally useless one 3x (1/64 chance), I'm done.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Gevlon, how does Mountain Drakes are useless? Like You said Objectives >>> Kills. Mountain Dragons does not help killing, but they are making securing objectives MUCH MORE easier. I mean true damage against turrets, nashor, dragons? Thats awesome, with 3 mountain drakes, Your team can absolutly wreck their base in no time.

I think all the drakes are extremely usefull, BUT if your team know how to use them. F.e Cloud drakes allows mid-laner to visit bot more often and with less risk, that their midlaner will follow or push their turret. Mountain drakes rewards pushing, cause even a support left alone with enemy turret can wreck it.

maxim said...

One more thing regarding "one defeat is enough" is that you get to really think about that one defeat you had and ways to make sure it never happens again. Very hard to get into constructive criticism mode after a losing streak (or even two different defeats).

maxim said...

Now that i think about it, the limited lives system of older games worked very well towards creating these kinds of pauses for player, whether he likes it or not. Shame the industry went back on that system in the name of flow and usability.

Gevlon said...

@Marek: it only helps backdooring maybe. At early game people don't even push for turrets, late game they provide no challenge and die in a few seconds anyway when focused.

nightgerbil said...

I think you would find this video really interesting. it ties into your posts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaohxE5ki1Q I just watched it this morning.

Unknown said...

People dont push, but that dosent mean they shouldnt. Also, after lots of teamfights only few members are left alive, having mountain drake then means, that Your 2 party members get inhibitors in time or they team manage to respawn.

Abillity to do Baron absrudly fast (3 mountains drake) its extreme advantage, that one shouldnt overlook. Its not only gives 300 gold to everyone in party and huge buffs, but also means the enemy team cant do it.

Also, I highly reccommend early/mid game pushing, cause every tower is 100 gold per team member. You just have to do it wisly. (F.e You are midlaner, You notice top is being ganked by enemy jungler and Your midlaner went to roam to bot, but they play safe and dont need Your help.) Taking down enemy turrets early, specially in games that are not kill-fest gives huuuge advantge.

I will also mention, that some champions are great at clearing minions wave, but have troubles with hurting the turret istelf. As example I will use Poppy. With Sunfire Cape, Ice Gaulnet and Titanic Hydra, she clears waves extremely fast. But all that is useless, when she goes to attack turrets (Little to none bonus AD, slow attack speed). At the same time, she is -extremely- safe champion to push, because of her W (bonus movement speed and blocks dashes), R (can knock enemies champion towards their nexus) and natural tankyness. That means, by securing mountain drakes a as jungler, You give her abillity to put a huge pressure on enemy team, cause if she is left unchecked, she gonna take away a lot of turrets solo, but at the same time chasing her is very time consuming too.

By comparison, Cloud Drakes are useless too, if Your teammates dont roam at all and dont respond to pings. Mountain Drakes gaves unique advantage that Your team should use.

Anonymous said...

"After climbing to mid Silver 3, in late Saturday and Sunday morning"


I can't speak for your timezone, but some of my worst games have been in the early morning. It may be worth your time to chart out the times of your wins and losses.

Gevlon said...

I also have a hunch that time of day matters, but I can't really have explanation as I don't have data of player demographics in various times. So such report would be inconsistent. Also due to weekday-weekend-holiday has stronger effect than hour, I would need to have dozens of baskets (Sunday morning, Sunday noon, Monday morning, Monday noon) and I don't play enough to fill all of them with statistically relevant data.

Unknown said...

WTF? You managed to want me re-install LoL, although I liked "Smite" and "Heroes of the Storm" a lot better...

Another good article like this and I will definitely have to re-install LoL...

Anonymous said...

my rule of thumb is to not play ranked during the week. i come back home late and i'm not at 100% am i'm easier tilted. i assume that happens to others as well.

and the same reason i hate premades applies here as well: when i play ranked, i don't wanna gamble on who has the better 3man group or who has the guy that already comes in with a 3loss streak and anger issues.

Unknown said...

Are you sure moron managing can't be flow inducing? You'll see when you get better that it's actually the best part of being a jungler: simultaneously keeping track of what your r̶e̶t̶a̶r̶d̶s̶
teammates are up to now and how your enemies are reacting, and then being at exactly the right place/time to exploit it. Also when you've played a million games you'll get an intuitive feeling for how strong each champion is and when their power spikes are, which will open up strategies that do not include being a band-aid for feeders because (shockingly) it's easier to detect underperforming enemy players and pressure them as they won't have access to extra resources due to being fed.

Unknown said...

mountain drake is the second most important drake.
dont underestimate it.


you are right. you should allways make a break if you loose. i do it after two losses, or if my first loss was really horrible and still tilts me.




if you really want to climb, and you are rational. try lolnexus.com if you are in loading screen.
you can check there quickly your team and enemy. it give some insight. if your adc has 200games and 15-5 stats, in silver elo, he is probably a smurf, so you can trust on botside winning.
etc. you can see weak points of your team and your opponents team. it gives an idea where you need to help.

Samus said...

Statistically, mountain drake is the highest winrate drake, even slightly above infernal drake. Keep in mind it also works against Baron and other drakes. If you get 3 mountain drakes, you should be trying to sneak a fast Baron while the enemy isn't paying attention (which is almost always, since players don't ward well at your level).