I just got camped super hard as mid and here's what I learned.
First of all, I'm a Karma OTP with over 500 games on her in ranked (plat elo) and I have never went versus a Nautilus mid. I poked him down super early, trying to be aggressive because he is melee. Then I realized, I was being overly aggressive, and I got ganked by Elise...not once...not twice....not three times...but a total of 5 times back...to back....to back. All of them were elaborate flashy plays which I was very impressed by. However I found myself, for the first time ever, tilting and putting myself down. I kept thinking, "Karma OTP loses to guy who barely plays Nautilus". Then I stopped after the last gank. I covered up my score with my finger. I realized that, what happened in the past doesn't matter, if I don't plan out the future. So here's what I prioritized:
-
Vision - Bought a 2 pink wards whenever I could. Placed my Farsight Alteration in spots that wouldn't get checked frequently.
-
Items - I got inexpensive items like Void Staff and items that would help my team rather than me like Athene's Unholy Grail.
-
Roaming - I roamed bot a lot to protect the ADC and I helped push towers.
-
Positioning - It's hard to not get caught out when they have a Jhin, Zyra, GP, Elise, and Nautilus. Once I got combo'd by their CC, resulting in a sixth death, I realized that if I can hit the enemy with a Q, then I'm too close to them. Rather than trying to offensively poke as if I were ahead, I defensively peeled and played back as I was ahead, sure to shield my carries every chance I got, which ultimately brought us to victory.
Here's what I didn't prioritize:
-
Chat - The ADC was being a bit aggressive in chat making passive aggressive remarks, but you could see the intent in his words; he wanted to win. I used pings mainly. If they were offensive, I'd have muted chat.
-
Farm - While farming may one cornerstone to winning games, if you're buying inexpensive items, it's better to let the hard-carries have the farm.
-
Blame - Similar to chat, but I didn't blame my jungler. She tried her best and I put myself in her shoes, she was a Diana, not necessarily strong early. She farmed and helped other lanes. It was pretty mutually agreed that I fucked up but was trying my best to win.
-
Carrying - You do not have to carry every game. Getting carried, isn't bad. It doesn't mean you're bad either, that was one of the first games where I could say that I single-handedly almost lost it for my team, but because of my decisions, I ensured that I didn't make anymore mistakes that would lose us the game.
Went from 0-6, to 4-6-16. If I can do it, so can you. I understand that because of my champion choice it can be easier to contribute from being behind, but you can do it with any champion. All you need to do is slow down, and think. Do not tilt. BLOCK IT OUT. Chose to win.