Climbing the Ladder: Bronze to Diamond 1 - My Story, Goals, and More! With Updates!

Hey everyone!

About Me

A long time ago I used to play Counter-Strike (1.3 to 1.6) and Day of Defeat at a "Challenger" level. Although, back then it was Cal-Invite. =p My goal here is to prove to myself that if I dedicate the time, passion, and energy I used to in video games I can still make it to the highest level. While I think it will be much harder this time around, I think I started with a reasonable enough goal that I will then add on to.

Why I Want to Stream

Well, on top of it being a story of my progress.. I'd say the biggest reason is because I enjoy talking with people, and would love to establish an active community like I had back with my team in counter-strike/dod. Another big reason is because I feel like if I had people chatting/helping me during my streams it could have the same type of motivation that playing with my friends from high school every day did. I feel like back then, when I got to go to school every day and talk with my friends about games it all drove us to be better players.

Implement Planning

I started out following the same techniques I learned way back when in Counter-Strike.. Implementing strategies and practicing them a ton!

I want to have the ability to play any role on the map so I went through a list of champions that I feel comfortable playing in the current meta/solo queue.

Champ List

• Top: Riven, Vlad, Tryn

• Mid: Veigar, Ziggs, Vlad

• Jungle: Vi, Udyr, Shaco

• ADC: Graves, Ezreal, Lucian

• Support: Sona, Annie

With solo queue there isn't as much planning that goes into the game as I had with my team in counter-strike.. but I do think I can still develop a nice list of strategies to implement to help my teammates get a head in lane! I will update this with ones I feel that worked well for me as I progress. Feel free to post any you have to help out! Maybe we can put our heads together talking on stream. =)

Stream Information

Twitch Stream Link!

I hope to hear from you guys, and look forward to taking on the climb!

Updates

[Day 1]

I played four games this morning. My first Udyr game started out ok, but boy was I rusty! I felt like my team didn't really click too well, and we were very unorganized during team fights.. I definitely need to learn some methods on getting my teammates organized in the chaos. The next 3 games went quite well. I had two strong showings on Vlad, and I had a much better Udyr game! I learned what warding the enemies jungle buffs can do if you time it properly! I not only forced a fight we won, but I stole his red and managed to snow ball that into a couple tower kills/dragon! Going to play more games now. =)

[Day 2]

Won the first game of the day on Udyr. I mainly just focus'd on counter ganking / jungle since Kass had things in order mid lane. Team got a bit on tilt for no reason at all around the middle of the game. I found it odd because we were pretty far ahead.. Maybe they were hungry! Anyway on to game 2 playing Vlad mid lane!

Annoying two games in a row w/ players disconnecting pre 6 and not coming back.. I lost lane by a bit in my Vlad game, and the 2nd game I managed to get a decent lead with Riven, but all in all it really didn't matter.

I finished off the morning session with a game on Akali. I feel like I did quite well mid lane. Managed the lane until I was 6, and waited patiently for Panth to work his way around for a gank. After that I had a nice groove going between lane clears that really worked out well. If anyone on the other team was over extended I could punish them for it! I feel like I can definitely replicate this play style if I have enough vision on the map.

Pretty frustrated with the loss prevented system not picking up on both my games this morning where one of my teammates either a.) just didn't load in, or b.) either lagged out or rage quit 5 minutes in.. However, I manage to get them for normal mode games that don't really matter? Maybe I'm missing the point of the loss prevented system I'm not sure..

I wanted to queue for some games during a night session, but it appears ranked is going to be down all night again. :(

[Day 3]

I got placed into silver 1. Kind of bummed out about the two games my teammates dropped from, but now I get to move on to the grind! I think it's for the best anyway, I'm a bit rusty at the moment so the extra games should help.

Day 3 was an absolute disaster lol. Hopefully I don't have another day like that ever. I played a lot of games, ran into a lot of people with horrible attitudes, and people disconnecting every other game. I don't think it was a lag issue either because I never seem to get loss prevented. Anyway, it just plain sucked.

In most of these games I noticed that positioning is probably the biggest reason people lose in this bracket. I guess this is linked with positioning, but people also get caught ALL the time it's crazy. I had at least 4 games yesterday where my teammates and I get put into a 4v5 situation while they siege our base because someone gets caught out. The sad thing is, most of the games myself and one other person ask nicely to stay in base until we can get some wards up. :\

Anyway, it's a new day! Hopefully today's games are more fun! I do have some goals going into day 3 that I want to get in the habit of doing:

1. Being friendly with my team mid game to get everyone to buy a ward or two. I noticed in most of the games yesterday pretty much no one bought wards. As frustrating as it is, I think just talking with the team on such a small task could get everyone on the same page and playing well together. It also brings the obvious positive of having a ton of map vision if it works. =p

2. I want to play Shyv more top. The one time I lost lane yesterday I was playing Shyv, but I could just sit under tower and farm managing the lane. Now had my team gotten crushed in their lanes the game probably would of been a loss, but they didn't. Mostly they managed lanes as well, and just worked together pretty well mid to late game. Anyway, I think Shyv is a safe pick that transfers well into late game. I know the pro players like her a lot in the current meta.

3. I also might play some normal games to get comfortable on Lulu so I can play her middle. I was watching a stream yesterday of a high rated player, and I noticed how powerful Lulu can be mid to late game.

[Day 4]

It's a new day! I hope the games go well today, and I look forward to trying out the goals from day 3. =)

I noticed being vocal about wards if people have a slot open in there inventory resulted in a purchase of at least 1 ward.. so that does improve the map visibility a bit. My Shyv games all went pretty well today. I felt quite comfortable in lane. and I think I only fell behind once in lane, but I still was quite useful mid to late game. I did mess up my item build one game, and I feel like I probably could of carried if I didn't.. oh well lesson learned! I didn't play any Lulu games, but I still feel like that is on the agenda down the road.

Most of the games today were better, but there were a few Riot lag out games sadly. Also, I only managed to get loss prevented for one of them.. I'm starting to feel like top lane is going to be my primary role going forward. All of my games today I felt very comfortable up there. I knew what I had to do to get going in lane even when things looked like they were going to go south.

I think jungle will be my 2nd role going forward, but I do feel like I need to work on my gank paths a bit more. I know it will be a bit different at a higher level though.. I've noticed players don't exactly do the right thing sometimes. I guess I just have to be more vocal about what I need them to do before hand and hope they follow up properly after.

As far as progress in my league, I pretty much went no where today.. I'm not too worried though.. As I mentioned about top lane, while it wasn't bad before, I think I only fell behind once in lane today. I feel like my play is starting to become more dominate now, and I think I'll start to control more of the game then I did before.

The stream is a lonely place sadly. :( I feel Mumu's pain.

[Day 5]

I keep getting to the game before my placements and lose a bunch in a row. :(

Today was another rough day. At this point not making any progress is starting to be really stressful. It's just really taxing to do well every game in lane, and have other lanes go down 0-3 in 5 minutes. There are so many games in this bracket that get out of hand early. :\

Anyway, I'm starting to enjoy Riven and Shyv top lane a lot. I like Sona support a lot as well.. Although I find a massive skill gap between ad carries in this bracket. It's such a huge disparity so you have to adapt your play style every game for them. Kind of a bad update, but I'm not really in the mood to write this tonight lol. I'll be back tomorrow with more games.

[Day 6]

Today was a great day of games. I decided to jungle all day today, and I think I only lost 2 games out of well a lot... I climbed nearly 2 divisions, and I'm almost in my gold placements now.

I've gotten quite confident in my Udyr jungle, and if he got picked out I went with Amumu. Mumu worked really well granted he has some mana issues early game. Also I got jungle in all but one of my games today, but if I don't get it Shyv is my go to top lane with Riven at a close 2nd.. I suppose it depends on what the other team picks. The one game I did play I was Shyv and pretty much couldn't die it was a nice time.

Big thanks to those that watched the stream today. It was nice talking to people about the games!

[Day 7]

Didn't really get much accomplished today sadly.. I should be able to hit gold tomorrow barring no really bad games. I played Udyr most of the day again today. The morning games I ran into a bunch of trolls and just stopped queuing. I played a few more games tonight and got the LP back.. should of came out ahead, but that game my teammates and I threw was so bad lol. Oh well, I'll be playing again tomorrow..

I really need to take some time to get more comfortable on Elise and Lee so I have them to play when someone takes Udyr from me. I also think those two are far more useful late game over Udyr. Anyway, on ward to tomorrow.

[Day 8]

I managed to get into my gold placement games, and I'll be playing them tomorrow. I think jungle and top are my two best lanes at the moment. I do need to get more comfortable on other jungles though.. I've gotten quite comfortable on Udyr, and now I'd like to at least have Elise to fall back on as I've said before.

I did have to play one game as ADC yesterday, and we actually threw the game really bad lol. I saw it happening and tried to organize the team, but they kept going in one by one until we let the other team back in the game. :\ I actually didn't play too bad.. I guess just playing quite a bit again has made me fairly comfortable mechanics wise in any role. I did enjoy Lucian as much as I guess I could.. I just don't really care for the adc role.. It's soooo slow and boring. :\

Anyway, on to the games tomorrow, and hopefully onto gold and then plat! =p