Memories & Looking for Advice

(tl;dr At the Bottom)

So I've been playing League since 2012. September specifically, during the Syndra Patch. I remember wondering if Syndra was like the main character or why was she on the loading screen. I remember playing Miss Fortune and Ashe top, and telling a friend I knew what I was doing. There's some quite unique experiences one has when you start playing the game. I remember being thrashed during a game where I wasn't doing very well, and telling the harassing player (A Graves) I was new at the game, to which they responded I shouldn't bother and uninstall. I always wondered if that Graves was punished or if they ever reformed. Something I'll never know.

I remember seeing my friend (who got me into the game) play a bunch of Talon and get on those 25 killing sprees that used to be more common back in the day, particularly in these Leveling to 30 games, and made want to become better. Despite what my name is right now, I got to 30 on Lux actually, and to this day she remains a somewhat good fall back champion I can always play if I feel fed up with the game. Of course, the Lux I used to play can't really be done nowadays. I remember rushing Void Staff and bullying the heck out of the enemy laner to just fast push the tower, but nowadays you just don't rush Void Staff. I guess it was weird even back then but it was with the old Void Staff. Cheaper and with a heavy focus on the Magic Pen part of it.

I remember playing a 5v5 ranked game with that Talon friend and feeling SO NERVOUS about being my very first Ranked game. I used to play Blind all the time back then, so going to the Draft Mode was pretty intimidating, and being in the game suddenly felt like being on one of the newly formed LCS teams. Again, experiences you only may get during your first time playing Ranked. We lost btw lol.

After that, I actually swapped and became a Kat main for a while. Not OG Kat, but the First Rework Kat. I found her to be fun and super easy. Must have ended up around Silver during that season. For Season 4, another group of friends told me they needed an ADC for their team, and combined that with the fact that 2014 was the year where I became a hardcore FNATIC and Rekkles fan, that I pretty much transitioned to being an ADC main, though always being somewhat decent at every other position except Top, which remains my worst role to this day. I used to play a lot of Ashe, Jinx and Cait during that period, and looking to expand my Champion pool is that I picked up OG Trist and never looked back. With the recent Trist hate that happened prior to the recent wave of nerfs, I often wonder if people remember Pre-Rework Trist, the one that had insane natural ASPD making her Q far more powerful than has ever been after the rework, and the insanity that AP Trist was. I think that was the season I've been ranked the highest, with my last game being my promo game to Gold 2 on Amumu Jungle and winning it.

Season 5 I barely played Ranked. I played placements, got put I think in Gold 5 and then never bothered again. It wasn't a very eventful season for me in terms of playing the game. I remember playing a lot of Dominion. I always enjoyed that mode no matter what anyone says.

Season 6 was quite interesting, because we had the infamous Dynamic Queue system, and it was another season where I got to Gold, and was pretty happy to do it by myself, having the Solo Icon thing they gave by the end of the season.

Season 7 is where things get a bit weird for me. Everyone remembers the ADC in 2k17 LUL meme, though I never thought the class to be in a terrible spot ever during Season 7, but it also happened to be the first season I haven't reached Gold since 2014 sooo, yeah.

Right now however I'm in a bit of a weird spot. Starting with Patch 8.4 I've been on a losing streak like I don't think I've ever experienced in my Ranked history and I don't know what's happening. I feel like I have no agency in a game. I've gone 5/0 in lane only to lose that match, as well as other games where I go 1/3 and still somehow win it.

Here's where it gets weird and where I need LEGIT advice and opinions. I didn't come here looking for mocking or troll responses. And yes, I think and will admit I'm probably bias from the position I play, I won't deny that but this is why I'm writing the post to begin with. I don't personally feel this is really an ADC meta as everyone seems to believe. I feel that's only partially true, as I think the ADC class to heavily rely on a comp that allows them to perform, such as having a front line and the game being very dependent on champion select. More than ever I feel games are won in Champ Select, and it sometimes feels like the team with the worst player loses, rather than the team with the best player winning. I often find myself farming decently and going mostly on even lanes, but then moving into the mid game I feel like I'm somewhat powerless depending on the situation, but to narrow it down: It often feels like Early Game champs just take over the game, and by the time I reach late, their tanks are too strong and I end up losing fights even if my damage graphs aren't that bad, so this is why I feel I have no agency or power to decide games due to my play.

But I'm pretty sure that can't be the whole story. I must be making way more mistakes than I realize or just doing something fundamentally wrong to lose so damn much, and even if I sit down and watch my own replays, it's not the same as if someone else tells me "You're doing this right, and you're doing this very wrong" so this is why I'm making this post.

I'd be willing to post replays to get feedback from that, but I'm not sure anyone would wanna review such replays and I'm not sure how to share those through here. So let's leave that in maybe and maybe from match history, knowing my main and from what I described to be how I feel in game you guys can just give general tips? Maybe just go back to Normals for a while, maybe change my rune setup, maybe be more brave even if the matchup looks bad, maybe going for more fights even if I feel I'll lose em... I dunno. I'm quite sick of losing and while I could blame it on having a new keyboard or on Riot power creeping the game, I first wanna look into what I can do better myself, because I think that will be more fulfilling than just reassuring myself with "Oh yeah it's all Rito's fault the game is trash" or whatever.

Well, thanks for reading!

tl;dr

• Been playing since 2012, Syndra Patch
• Highest I've ever been is Gold 2
• I've been losing like CRAZY recently and I dunno what to do
• I don't come here looking for mocking or trolling, I want advice I can use to improve
• I do this to improve myself and not just blame Rito for "Game going to shit" or whatever
• I feel like I have no agency during my games from the ADC position
• I admit my view may be bias from the role I main, and this is precisely why I need other points of view