I don't really know what to say. Pacov had a huge week of stuff so I can totally relate to having a short fuse when stressed out. So whatever shit happens, people piss people off and I usually just leave voice chat when I get fed up. It helps me focus when I don't have to listen to anyone.

We also were playing vs a team that collectively was better than us (everyone of us had some one on the other team that had a higher solo queue rating than we did). That being said I specifically crafted that team for one purpose in champ select and that was to kill vayne in team fights when I picked leona for pacov and suggest malphite for brad and picking viktor. The lane phase didn't matter we could of gotten 3-5k behind them and still destroyed them in team fights (which we did once). We just had to chill, ride out the lane phase, and destroy them when we grouped up.

If we executed 5v5 team fights there was no way they could ever win one. Malphite ult is insanely hard to out play and all it took after that was a flash R laser from me and she would die every time and there goes 75% of there teams damage. We could of won that game but we would of had to all stayed level headed and followed brads initiations (and not get picked). 

Anyway we had our good moments in that game for sure. We are really close to beating these teams that are better than we are as individuals so at least feel a little proud of that. 

My apologies for tiltcov.    

anyone else see c9 games today - one of my fav teams.  Starting thinking they were trash due to play  -came back beast mode

c9 is starting a trend...

CLOWN 9

well... my 2 weeks of on call awfulness are almost done.  70 hours last week -this week TBD.  

Let's see... I like the mastery system.  It actually motivates me to play more team builder to get my mastery maxed with supports.  As soon as I complete 1, though, I don't want to play them and move onto somewhere... which is a little bad considering the ones I've mastered are the ones I have the most experience with.  

Played some darius - 1 game of complete outplaying/crushing an olaf.  One game of getting rekt but realizing why.  Incredibly strong if you get rolling and aren't a dumbarse.  Doing real well with lissa out of top.  Consistently winning my lane and getting better with mechanics. Need to get a little more solid with csing, though.  Still adapting to the new ping, but it helps.

My isp is a POS at least once a night - thankfully it doesn't last super long, but I consistently have one game where my ping goes to crap and then comes back down after 2-5 min.  

Not all that excited about ranked atm.  Kind of just going back and forth between LOL and marvel heroes.  I'm really curious what preseason will bring us this year.  Just think about all the crap they added last year.  Currently, I don't think they are doing anything all that cool, but we will see.  I expect we'll see that ranked team builder pilot soon (1-2 months).  We'll also get that new client perhaps.  But seriously, we obv need a new client.  I don't' get all that excited about it.  

randomly

here:

Man - I'm liking team builder more and more as I grind out support games.  Got me to wondering - will i be able to consistently get the role i want in ranked TB.  I'd kind of hope so if I put support as a primary (as its likely in higher demand)... but I'm not sure how they decide what you'll get... will it randomly put me in my secondary role?  No idea.  

OK - so we know some nerfs are inbound on pbe for a few of our juggernaut pals, which is good.  I want to talk a bit about those juggernauts, but 1st - the team builder experience atm is not such a hoot.  Those project skins are resulting in fiora/yi most games.  So, we end up with 2 super snowbally folks in most games.  This is quite problematic, as it only takes a few weak people to turn snowballers into potential giants (and its teambuilder, so you have to go into blind pick assuming you need hard cc at least).  Anyway, tb not quite as fun atm, but that will die down.  

Also - fun fact - folks that play blind pick generally don't just pick those "op" champs we typically ban.  As they get to play that crap whenever, you are less likely to see them in blind pick - in my experience anyway.  Note - I'm talking blind pick here and not team builder (blind pick).

Oh - and I think skarners in a pretty reasonable place now.  He's definitely been toned down a bit - not sure if he UP or not.  Hopefully not as its... you know... nice to see variety in the jungle.

Championship skins vs victorious skins - I was getting really annoyed with folks asking about what the victorious skin was going to be, when we already know that championship kalista is on pbe.  Oh well, so I'm slow.  We still have an unannounced victorious skin to be released.  

Back to juggernauts - or I guess lets's focus on one in particular - darius.  So, for those that don't know (you prob should), darius is particularly strong because he can build full tank and not only do a bunch of damage, but that stupid heal enables him way too much.  Rito's goal was obviously to help him survive and reduce some of the kitability, but the values are way too high.  As in, if you play your crap right, unless the other team is well fed (or his team is stupid...), the odds of him being alive long enough to deal major damage and tank major damage go through the roof.  Now, when I think of juggernauts, I think of giant tanks that can just roll over you.  As in they do exactly what darius is doing - get tanky and crush.  Where I think the real problem is (outside of the ridiculous STACKING heal stats (30% max health), is that he does not need to snow ball all that much to become a lane bully.  For as much mid/late game power that he has, its incredibly way too cheap without much in the way of trade offs.  

Anyway, I said there are some nerfs on pbe - darius' GIANT heal % of 15% per champion hit is dropping to 12%.  This is valuable during gank situations potentially. BUT.... and here's where rito loses me again - they are currently BUFFING his total % heal to 36% of his hp.  So, if he hits 3 people and he has 2k hp, that's 720 hp restored.  And if he's actually super tanked up with 4k hp (1440 vs the 1200 he would have gotten before).  The good news is that his mana cost is slightly up so now its ACTUALLY POSSIBLE TO RUN OUT OF MANA.  Fun fact.. it was not possible before.  Did I mention that his q is on a 9/8/7/6/5 second cool down without cdr. Oh, and there is no debuff timer for that heal applied, so he can heal quite a bit during fights.   It's kind of stupid.

Speaking of other stupid - mord.  Now, I actually think mord is rather weak and find him more annoying than anything else.  I kind of think he was just tossed out as a joke really... but it sadly eats up bans.  I mean, he can take and use the drake.  Stupid.  Can he be dealt with?  Sure.  Can't remember the last game I lost to a mord in tb or draft.  Does he still get banned because folks just don't want to deal with it?  Yeah.  So, mostly I'm annoyed to have to ban a POS gimmick.  His damage is quite real (and ridiculous on that 3rd aa), but he's easy to deal with in lane and in game imo.  often even if you have folks feeding him.  Compare that to other champs when fed that become actual nightmares.  He's just this slow moving turd that was buffed foolishly to try to make him viable in lane... seriously - that full XP buff for shared lane experience to ensure he's stronger than the other folks in lane.  Idiotic balancing.  

The last week has been pretty much awesome for picking up other games on sale.  I typically just hold off a long time and get games when they go on sale.  This week I got the new batman w/ dlc for $12, shadow of mordor for $15, and mad max for $15.  Mad max is easily the best new game I've played in years.  Absolutely love it.  Anyway, came across the deals on slick deals. worth a google "slick deals mordor" etc.  

http://pickem.na.lolesports.com/

World's pick em - you get an icon for just picking a few teams.  If you are magically right on all picks, you get championship riven.  

el testo

Random recaps.  Been playing a bunch through Mad max.  I think I'm getting close to the end, but its been a really fun experience.  I highly recommend the game, particularly if you can get it for $12-$15 like I did (google mad max slickdeals).  

Finished ranked team rewards top tier ward awhile back, so I'm pretty well happy with our ranked team stuff.  If we play again, swell, but I hit my goal at any rate.  

Teambuilder mentality comments - 1 - if you want to play support (common, proper supports that is), its always faster to queue up solo for that role in TB, than with another person. When you add anyone else, you have to host a lobby and go through the process of finding people.  Support/ADC as the most desired roles in TB in my experience, so its always really fast to queue up for those roles. 

TB match making adjustments.  Folks that play TB know that there are MM adjustments that take place whenever you play a champ for the 1st few times in TB.  This often results in having some smeh folks on your team and is in many ways why some folks think mm is skewed. MM does at least seem to even out after several games.  Once that mm adjustment goes to inactive anyway.

Been playing some ranked with a pal on a off recently. Mostly enjoying the ranked experience.  Having really encountered any super trolly people in bit, which is nice.  

Speaking of "trolly" - I've been pretty consistently running a new rune page setup on all ranged supports.  5.3 gp10, flat mr, flat arm - standard ranged support masteries.  I'm often choosing coin as starting gold item with this setup as you generally aren't taking as many "poke" risks.  Critics of this rune page setup should try it out at some point.  I found it really easy to adapt to and it frequently results in you being able to get an upgraded tier 2 gold item and sightstone/sweep on your 1st back.  After that, the added gold lends itself very nicely to a zekes rush.  The money flows in great if have that tier 2 gold + sightstone/sweep buy and there's still some laning left to do where you don't need to roam immediately (eg you are needed in lane).  And that sets a good tone for additional itemization (not just when I'm being a split pushing putz).  I'm actually finishing most games with more money than 2 different roles on my team and in some cases like a game last night, with more money than both teams... without split pushing at that.  Money's a pretty big deal on support considering what that money can get the team.  

Anyway, the runes/rush for gold tier 2 item helps a bunch and also helps get that zekes which helps your adc a ton - especially if zekes is complete when the lane is still active.  

Oh - and I did get into tb against some pissers last night.  Full dumb hook squad- thresh/blitz bot lane with naut jungle.  We, uh, predictably kicked the crap out of them.  Then they predictably proved to be asshats and afk'd for 10-20 minutes after failing.  Surprisingly to me, the fellows that stayed did not tilt and still seemed to have a good time with things.  

I use a coin start, it's great for sustain with mana regen runes, keeps up monetarily, and Talisman is excellent for flight and pursuit.  Spellthief requires risky behavior to keep up with it, and Relic just can't.  It's only serious detraction is that it wont help you win an all in.

On the other hand, it would be really nice to have Frost when your adc is Throwy McThrow and can't lane for shit...

my thoughts on the 3 support items with a lean towards gold efficiency

• relic - melee only, with the exception of thresh (only due to his w passive).  It's useful for 2 things - extra hp and you can provide sustain via the heal.  I think its generally only worth it if you can safely rush the tier 2 upgrade safely (eg you can still get needed wards).  The tier 1 item is kind of smeh imo.  2 stacks and it recharges 1 stack per 60 sec... which cuts way down on gold efficiency AND it has no passive gold generation.  It also lends to a HIGHLY predictable style of play (eg the support clearly wants to get this cannon - now is the time to be aggressive towards them).  The tier 2 upgrade really gets you into the money making sweet spot.  3 charges max with a charge every 30 seconds.  That's a huge difference in money gained.  But a complete waste if the lane phase isnt' still going on (eg that's why a rush is mandatory imo).  You heal for 50 health per creep kill and that obviously means less as the game moves along.  Anyway, my recommendation is rush tier 2 if you go this item as long as you can get 2 green wards.  Tier 3 is fine, but I usually don't prioritize it
• spell thief - passive gold generation at tier 1 (2 gp/10) with a trival 5AP and a so so mana regen bonus (25% base mana regen).  Outside of the gp/10, the stats are trivial imo at the start of the game, but the passive is where things get nicer.  3 stacks stored, 1 charge every 10 sec, with a gotcha of disabling the passive for 12 sec if you kill a creep.  That can result in a predicable pattern, like relic shield, just not as obv.  That's actually quite a gotcha considering your stacks don't grow for 12 sec and you can't proc any.  You do 10 extra dmg per stack and get 5 gold per stack.  Mandatory item on most ranged supports champs that can consistently get the extra gold (morg's a good example).  If I can't consistently land aa's or spells, I'm less likely to go this item (you can proc stacks on turrets at least).  At tier 2 upgrade is also worth a rush imo (you'll notice a pattern here...).  Your dmg per stack jumps to 15 and you get dbl the gold per stack (10) - ap goes from 5-10 (meh), no gp/10 change, 50% base mana regen (so so).  The value here is in added dmg to champs/turrets increasing kill potential and that sweet extra gold. Primarily of value if you have a decent laning period - and you increase he rate that its gold efficient by getting it sooner.  The tier 3 is ok, but I generally skip in favor of other items
• coin - 25% base mana regen (smeh), 3 gold per minion dying near you and 5 health for you only.  Tier 1 is straight smeh for gold efficiency.  It does support a more passive style of play with low risk (which makes it more ideal especially on my 5.3 gp/10 rune setup).  Also absolutely important to rush tier 2.  And when I say rush, I simply mean when you'd normally go back, you choose that over sightstone if you can't afford both.  Must always bring back at least 1 ward.  Anyway, tier 2 bumps you to getting 4 gold per creep death and 10 hp, 25% base hp regen, 50% base mana regen, 10 MS, and 2 GP/10.  Not exactly bad stats and it lends itself beautifully to the gold mentality.  Nearly 100% of the time, I upgrade this to the tier 3 item.  Its just too valuable to the team imo to skip out on due to the active.  

Some stats - running the 5.3 gp/10 = 31.8 gold per min.  At 10 min = 318.00, 20 min = 636, 30 min = 954.

The other items get more dicey with the calculations and I frankly don't care to the math on X number of waves = X bonus gold, etc.  But just to do a basic extra 2 gp/10... 7.3 gp/10 = 43.8 gold per min.  At 10 min = 438, at 20 min = 876, at 30 min = 1,314.

Just for playing on SR (starting at 1:30), you gain 19 gold per 10 = 114 per min.  At 10 min = 1140, 20 min = 2280 min, 30 min = 3420.

At the 10 min mark, running ancient coin and not factoring in my bonus gold per creep death or masteries - I have 438 gold from gp/10 items + 1140 passive gold = 1,578.  That covers a sight stone and a tier 1 gold upgrade.  If you drop the gp/10 masteries, unless you nabbed some kills/assists, you are likely getting a sight stone, some pots, and maybe boots.  With my setup you are getting a tier 2 gold gen item and a sight stone.  

Keep in mind its actually more money than just that at 10 min due to the item passives/masteries.