So, didn't have too much time last night so I think I only got to play 1 ranked on my main last night.  I queue up, get support, and immediately the guy playing mid asks if he can support.  Eventually he gets enough people to swap around and I end up playing pantheon out of top.  I pull up some stats when we hit the load screen and our team looks like trash on paper (we've also got no tanks into a 2 tank enemy team with trundle/zac).  

Now, I've been playing panth on my alt account at a bit lower elo (~gold V vs ~plat V).  I've had pretty good success there.  Anyway, I end up against a trundle top.  Trundle gets absolutely crapped on by panth in my experience.  Trundles ult benefits the most if he's fighting against tanks.  Against panth that rushes dmg... much less so. I run stormraiders surge (which I'm now starting to consider the gold standard for pantheon).  I rush the proper build.  I absolutely, solo for the most part, annihilate the enemy team.  I end with 83% kill participation and completely carry my team.  Feels good, man.  Haven't had a game in a bit where I'm literally and clearly the reason for a win, so that was encouraging.  

Anyway, dr boaz is back in a series again - I think he's trying to go from silver IV to III.  1/0 in the series if I remember right.  Need to talk to him about one of his weird build choices.  On sej, if he's playing her top, he runs hunters potion for some reason. Not entirely sure why he chooses that.  He seems to run that item on most of his junglers but apparently chooses it also in lane.  Which seems weird.  

So ziggs is good now. The buff to his ult makes his team fight damage very very high. I have been consistently outputting 700-1000 damage to enemy champions per minute which is pretty high. I have been able to do it from behind as well. His Q can still be difficult to land and he is very hard to play versus assasin teams but I'll be working him into my mid games now. I think he is better than brand right now as brands ult is very unreliable again for damaging champions and his build path is more expensive than ziggs.

Yeah - i thought you'd like the ziggs changes.  I remember him being one you used to play a bit.  Good stuff.

Been using the lol friend connect app.  Works fine.  Actually been able to touch base with some folks I haven't spoken with in a bit, so that's cool.  Haven't really used it too much for getting into games with folks per se, though.  Don't think I'm super likely to drop w/e I'm doing to play a game if I see someone come online.  Maybe that's what some folks do...

I expect that I'm going to be continuing to play less and less during the week.  Been exercising a bunch and decided to just stop playing whenever I start to get bored.  So, I'm going through my normal routine, get to nerd time and play some games, then bugger off earlier.  Think I'll still be playing a bunch on weekends, but def a few hours less per night anyway.  

Reddit with the best rage quitting tips:  PSA: You can ragequit faster by pressing alt+f4 two times in order to skip the 5 second delay

mr boaz hit silver 3 last night. 

Planning on taking the day off tomorrow, so I'll likely be on late tonight nerding it up.  

recap of the night - ended night qualifying for my series to plat IV on my main.  Played 1-2 ranked with pals, then 2 solo and hit the series.  

Lots of easy games tonight.  Lost 1 with me as panth top.  I played ok - we were significantly handicapped by a jungle kalista on our team, but I could have played better/made better decisions.  A few bad calls from me, but honestly mostly fugged over by the shite doing that crap in the jungle.  

played with cow/karl/soupcup tonight - mostly soup.  

I don't feel like I've even kind of hit a wall with ranked yet this season.  Realistically, I think I could have made plat III easy last season if I put the effort in.  This season, I'm not sure - kind of think plat 1 atm.  I like to try to not overestimate my elo, so I think I'm probably pretty close.  

oh and we hit a wall with ranked due to cow.  I think I'm probably the only one of the group that can play ranked w/ him currently in diamond, so ranked is a bit of no go (and the reason we had a ASKJLODALKDJALSDJSALJD jungle kalista #normals).  

Don't cut yourself short. Go for diamond and join the big D club. Maybe it will inspire some of our other friends to sack up and grind some elo if yee ol' pacov can do it.

New solo queue apparently 1 1/2 months off

https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/48ydr1/solo_queue_confirmed_notscrapped_supposedly_1_12/

https://twitter.com/RiotSupport/status/704710112846348288

#thanksreddit

No, I'm sorry but he's not a Diamond player.  He's only a Platinum I 87 LP caliber player.

I keed I keed!  He should definitely try for Diamond this season but I don't know about inspiring people to play more.  I should really play less or I'm gonna get demoted to Silver.  This season has been rough for me guys!

I try to be realistic and then aim above.  Last season I actually felt like i hit a wall around plat IV.  Meaning I would have had to grind things out a bit to move on up (win/lose, get better, work hard, hit plat III and so on).  This season I haven't hit that wall yet.  I'm still feeling pretty strong, not getting outplayed much, etc.  Did get plat IV tonight though.  Hopefully I can keep on moving up ala the jeffersons.

I have been wait listed at one university and accepted without funding at another. I wish a school would just be like, "you're accepted with a TA". These half assed acceptances are extremely trying on my mental health.

Didn't karls tell you it was going to be a bit of a nightmare?  Sorry its a pisser man.  

Happy to say I'm sticking with my ever so slightly more disciplined routine during the week.  This usually means I allocate a little under 2 hours for nerding and will generally be done by 9PM or so (that's still in flux).  Working out, eating all proper like, and running.  I get all that stuff done, then play for an hour or 2 until I'm bored with LoL.  I think I'm going to stick to that Mon-Thurs, so I'll be less available.  That's also helping a ton with any tilt concerns. I'll still bitch if I get a crappy team and I'm performing like a god, but I generally don't run my mouth at teammates.

Speaking of availability, trying to level in ranked certainly cuts down on that availability as well.  Even having multiple accounts so I can play ranked with folks that can't play with plats means that I can't level my main and try to help people bust up into gold.  And any normal game takes away from ranked time.

Happy to say I still haven't hit a Plat IV wall.  Played a couple of ranked solo games on my main yesterday and crushed it.  Sitting around 60 some LP in Plat IV and still feeling very strong/I'm playing at a higher level than my competition. Keep in mind that's primarily playing as a support.  My odds of winning still go down quite a bit when playing in other roles, but I'm rocking out support with a great win rate on my champs (fair to say I'm a morg main at this point but feel just fine with all the other supports). 

As elo distribution is starting to settle, I'm starting to feel like games are often easier playing solo where the elo's get less skewed by multiple folks of varied elo.  I also find that as the true solo queue is still somewhere off in the distance (1 1/2 months RITO time... - how dem replays comin?) I'm slowly starting to take my elo here more seriously.  Not to the point that I'm anxious or anything at least, but enough that I'll have some second guesses about playing ranked on my main with folks.  Hopefully I'll get over that.  I still believe that the lower the elo, though, the harder the games are (even just as a general role where I'm solo queuing).  Glad I started playing ranked early on the season before all the elo started to settle.  

By and large I'm really enjoying the new season and the benefits of the new champ select.  Knowing I get 1 of 2 roles has made a HUGE difference for ranked anxiety for me.  It freaking sucked to go in blind every single time and not know if I'd get to play the role I wanted, have a shitty duo queue take/adc support, etc.  Just skewed stuff.  

A quick thought

I'm actually considering dodging matches I expect things to go awful based on composition.  I don't look up folks stats in the lobby itself, but if the comp is garbage, I consider dodge.  I was about to dodge my 1st ranked game of the night yesterday - rengar top + squish in all other roles.  That actually turned out to be the best team I've played with in quite some time.  We'll see though.  I don't mind the idea of losing a few LP for a dodge now though.

gots to go...

koral/boaz should be happy - buffs inc in 6.5 for sej and vi.