Recruiting: Old school styles... In a new game league.

If you have been frustrated with a lot of solo and duo ranked play... You should read this whole thing. And then possibly talk to me about a 5 man team.. Or don't. Could care less. Haha.

Let's be honest. Everyone and everyone is “great” and they seem to think they know everything or that they have mastered a specific lane. Especially in solo/duo que. I have been playing LOL for about 2.5 years and moved up from my first time playing in bottom of the barrel Elo to surpass Gold recently, and move up the chain. Only coming back into gold, to try and help my friends. But over this time what I feel has been missing from the competitive play (at our level if you are reading this) are a few old school things...

Shot calling.

I've been playing competitive gaming since I was about 12. Been awhile now. For the most part of my teens it was in Counter-Strike. I've you know what I am talking about then I guess you might understand if I tell you at one point many moons ago I was CAL-P. Never got to Invite (I think it was my age). But in CS 1.6 and CSS on 5v5 teams, there was always a shot caller. Some times it wasn't even the captain of the team. Just someone who could multitask the map, and be aware of surroundings and also able to place people in certain spots. Wasn't always just “All Mid to Catwalk into A” on Dust2. Sounds familiar right? Because I am fully aware, and believe that, that is what competitive gameplay has turned into at mid elo levels. We're fed, their dead. Push mid. Too many countless times I have seen this slap back into peoples faces and end up throwing games.

Just recently I played a game where we had won a big team fight understrength (Bad enemy move) and then everyone had this mindset of push mid push mid.. Now in certain situations, yes that can win the game. But not in our case. Long story short, we ended up loosing the game instead of playing the map. Top inhib down. Our mid inhib was down. Top is pushed..... Why not leave 2 mid to hold mid and put pressure on bot lane with 3. resulting in top wave pushing sustaining mid and pushing mid. Yes... split pushing. But done tactically. I have seen this is many LCS matches, but it blows my mind that people now just don't do it. I get it... solo/duo ques. But just the slightest common sense would tell you such things. 3 enemy showing bot.. one spotted by ward at dragon, and another mid....... So push top out as far as you can and roll back. Things like this, we would do back in CAL-P days when split pushing A site, loosing a guy and seeing the entire team rotate A... Remember Back dooring B site with the bomb? Sounds familiar again doesn't it?

Adaptability.

Everyone calls their spots in solo que. I happen to be able to pretty much play everything when needed. I'm the guy that calls “fill”. Now don't get me wrong, all the LCS players have their roles on the team, but they don't get to that point only playing one spot to ELO climb.. Let's be real. Yeah. You can always only play Nid, but how often will that work in your favor and for how? When I play with a group of friends I usually jungle. I play with two other people I know from work, and with them I always play mid. When I solo Que with a plat buddy, I play support. It goes back to that old school Quake CS UT2K style of play. When I was CAL-P I never awped. But when I picked up an AWP and was solid for that match, I became the go to for AWP. Too many times I have played with groups of people that say.... I only play top. Well, maybe with this group, you would be a better jungle. Who knows. But they are so stubborn to change their mindset.

Awareness.

Yes map awareness. It goes back to what I was talking about in Shot Calling. Too many times you will see the whole enemy team ravaging through the woods (jungle) on their way bot, and your allies more then happier to meet them their. Annoying right? Or times when your partner in bot is telling you not to push the lane and put pressure on it (when you clearly can) after you just spotted the enemy jungler near baron via ward. It's simple stuff like that some of us old school CS 1.5 guys have translated to LOL (If any of them are still left).

Anyway if you made it this far, thanks for letting me rant I guess. Hahaha