FLOW

 

observe, formulate, adapt…

this has been the tagline for everything that I’ve written, but what does it mean actually?  So let me share the story behind this tagline…..

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Well… It’s kinda embarrassing but I was just too lazy to finish my very first blog.  I was thinking of some sort of way to end it, but as what you’ve probably noticed, I suck at making conclusions (my very first write up was bland, with only a wall of text, no screencaps or diagrams whatsoever. I’ll probably revisit it and make it more uhm palatable).

I just thought of something that would somewhat reflect how I approach the game.  I’ve never been a mechanical genius.  Because of this, I rely on information that might give me some edge to compensate for what I lack.  I’ve also noticed that I do better with fewer resources compared to having a lot to work with.  Somehow I get poor results with more and have better success with less.

[STOP! NERD ALERT, YOU MAY SKIP THIS PART]  Even in other games, I tend to work like this.  In M:TG, the only success that we’ve had is a standard pauper tournament back in Mirrodin-Kamigawa days.  I asked my friend to print out a card list and I looked through them overnight.  I then checked our cardpool and ended up assembling a mono-white deck filled with walls, vigilant creatures, and equipment.  We were newcomers in the LGS venue and I sensed some hostility for some unknown reason.  I can still remember the snickers of the players watching when my friend dropped a Steel Wall.  My mind said “fuck ya’ll, that’s just the beginning.”  I noticed the snickers changed into exasperated sighs as my friend dropped Yotian Soldiers, Razor Golems, Bonesplitters, and Viridian Longbows; building a wall of artifacts that he backed with Razor Barrier and other protection instants.  My friend piloted that deck to first place.   The following week, there was an increase in the number of Steel Walls on the table.  That was such a feel good moment for me.

We used to play League of Legends too.  There was this one time when I played top and my friends played marksman and support bot.  In the loading screen, I noticed the lack of marksman on the other side.  They could just be trolls or noobs but something seemed fishy and it’s not just the Tahm Kench pick.  At the start of the game, the Volibear (or the Kench, can’t actually remember) typed “we have no ADR. haha” in all chat.  That moment, I became extremely suspicious.  I quickly requested a lane change with my friends (Caitlyn and Sona), saying I’m going to go solo bot and they’d duo top against the Yasuo.  They obliged and upon going bot, I just confirmed my suspicions — Voli and Tahm are running a kill lane.  I told my friends if the kill lane goes top, we’re gonna switch lanes too.  I’ve ran kill lanes before with my M:TG friend and I know that if it works, it’s devastating as your team just loses a carry.  With Caitlyn and Sona lacking reliable hard cc, I’m certain Caitlyn won’t be able to farm properly.  With me on Maokai, I know I’m not gonna lose my lane and they’re not getting a kill from me.  I told my jungler to be wary of bot in case I have to recall.  The wet sticky bandits didn’t switch top and I was at bot home alone.  They hid in the sidebrush waiting for me to make a wrong move but I just farmed under turret.  I didn’t hug the tower all the time.  I gave them the impression that they can get a kill on me and they just stuck there in bot, leaving the Yasuo top to get butchered by my teammates, until I got to level 6 while they were both level 4 and our jungler decided to pay bot lane a visit.  Fun times.  Moral lesson:  never mess with a kill lane vet.  [END OF NERD ALERT] 

FLEXIBILITY…

This is what my tagline is all about.  This doesn’t necessarily mean changing your hero pick to fill in for the team.  Oftentimes, I encounter players forced to play picks that they don’t normally use.  In a way, that would be good as you’re adapting, but to me, that’s not flexing, that’s being a masochist.  Flexing doesn’t end in picking a hero to fill for your team.  It actually just starts there.  During the entirety of a game, you’re given a lot of moments to flex.

The last 2 ranked games I played on my friend’s abandoned account (Gold IV), I played Mina.  Mid.  Yes, mid…  Mina fucking mid.  Why?  Because no one went mid.  I got laned against a Kahlii.  I haven’t had much success with Mina pre map change but windstone kinda upped my game on her.  After some successful games (used her from Silver II to Gold IV) , I’ve grown confident using her.  I was terrible on her pre-support items, I’m wondering if that’s a factor on my success lately.

Observe

The first step is observation.  You can’t really adapt if you have no idea what you’re adapting to.  From the hero select screen you’ll get to choose on how you’ll pick your team.  After lock in, you can already think ahead regarding the strengths and weaknesses of your comp.  On the loading screen you will already get some insight on how your team will fare against the enemy team, with some glimpse on the possible outcome of the match and even some idea on how how you should play to achieve or prevent that possible outcome.  Observation requires awareness, from what’s happening in your lane to what’s happening in the entire map.  

Using the example above, this is my team vs the enemy team — balanced team versus three immobile mages and two mobile marksmen (or one marksman and a ranged bruiser) .

Balance-wise, our team fills all roles and absolutely there’s no way even if hell freezes over that we’re gonna lose this match right?  Heck, the enemy team can even be obliterated by Raz alone! 

From the loading screen alone, we’ll be able to judge the outcome of the match.  The enemy team needs to play a perfect turtle/farm game in order to win.  I can imagine Veera on heavy ganking duties, with Slimz securing every objective.  Valhein can act as the counter-engage (Veera can do so to with her stun).  Diaochan and Kahlii would have to play it safe and wait for ganks.  In theory, this can even be a formidable team, damage-wise.

Still, no matter how unusual or weird the enemy comp may be, I always play cautiously,  especially that this is a ranked game.  I don’t let myself be complacent, not until I see the victory screen.

I was already thinking of where to start.  I thought of pressuring mid at first since it’s easily harassable with sidebrushes offering ways of concealing myself.  Supports usually try to pressure jungle but I’m unsure if my team would back me up if I go invade.  I don’t want to get collapsed on early so I plan to take the safer route by trying to harass mid.

We might not be able to secure a kill but I’m certain that with Raz, we’ll be able to chunk the opposing midlaner hard enough to make him/her recall and we might even be able to invade afterwards.  I am already formulating a plan! This should be in the second step, right?  Yeah unless I have to scrap all of it because of some unforeseen unfortunate events.

Raz was AFK.  Fck….

Formulate

Using the information gathered during the observation stage, this is where we use our game knowledge to build a plan, be it rotations or item builds or any other ways of using the resources that we have to secure the game.  Knowledge is key on this stage.

Continuing from the above, I still thought of pressuring mid early since Slimz might be going mid and I decided to support him at least.  Omega already went top and Arthur bot.  Slimz went jungle.  I still decided to go mid and clear waves since Slimz is in the jungle anyway, might as well cover mid and see if Slimz would come and get some waves.  

Slimz decided to go full jungle.  OK, I’m the midlaner.  I’m now facing Kahlii.  Now what?

First, I thought of Kahlii’s kit.  She’s as slow as molasses.  I can surely outrun her.  She has a shield that gives some MS and AP and an AoE slow.  I observed her playstyle while clearing the first wave.  She tried to harass me with her AoE which I easily dodged, and she moved forward a bit and just stood in place, trying to last hit creeps.  No positioning to make use of her passive.  I concluded that she’s not a good Kahlii. 

I looked at the map and saw Omega getting pushed by Veera and Valhein.  Arthur is tangoing with Diaochan.  Enemy Slimz nowhere in sight.  Our Slimz is still clearing.  Information overload! Just breathe in deeply, a huge gulp of air, and everything will slow down.  Now what?

Focus on what’s in front of you.  

Ah yes, the Kahlii.  She’s crossing the halfway mark of mid. I don’t have the means to take her down to help Omega.  What do I have?  My passive, a pull, my spin, and some AAs.  Not enough to kill and go top.  If I had an Execute instead of Heal, it might be enough to chunk her low.  Still, I went for her, skirting around her AoE.  I know my 2-skill combo is not enough to kill the Kahlii but that would suffice to get his attention.  

Notice me, Slimz Senpai!  

I don’t advocate forcing a kill but I won’t be able to rotate top since Kahlii might shove mid.  As mentioned in the screencap, she can also roam top if I decided to go and they would have the numbers advantage over us.  Plus I’m not even sure if our Slimz would help and if the enemy Slimz might suddenly appear too.

Adapt

I’ve decided to be a full-pledged Mina mid for this game.  So, what would I need to be a decent mid at least?  I need to clear waves fast to be able to rotate to other lanes.  I might be forced to get a Mantle of Ra component for faster clear.  Gaia’s would be my primary target item though for M.Def and MS.  There’s still the Kahlii problem though.

I noticed Slimz Senpai noticing me noticing the Kahlii not noticing Slimz Senpai.  Luckily, Slimz Senpai is slimzer than Evil Slimz.  We were able to take down Kahlii with his gank while the Evil Slimz died trying to help Kahlii.  Slimz Senpai got both kills.  We were then able to rotate top and kill the VeerXVal couple.  From then, the game was easy especially when Raz was able to reconnect and turns out he was actually a good Raz.

I was not able to get a screencap of the match history but we ended up winning (as expected from the loading screen).  Yeah, it’s nothing to brag about as the enemy had a losing team comp from the get go.  Still, I just want to point out the importance of flexibility.  I could’ve just bitched in chat that Mina is a poor midlaner and Slimz should do it.  Instead, I tried to be calm and adjusted to the current.  It also didn’t help the enemy’s case that their game is full of mistakes.  Games are usually decided with the team making the least mistakes getting the victory. 

In soloQ, you really have to tough it out and be able to adapt to unfortunate events and be wary that curveballs WILL BE thrown at you.  Troll picks are not uncommon and poor play/map awareness is especially rampant.  Reporting players won’t help you win the match.  Raging won’t help either.  It’s no use getting angry at a doorknob.  You can scream at it all day and it will still stay as it is – a doorknob.

As already mentioned, flexing does not stop at changing from one role to another in hero select.  Even in game, when playing a specific role, you’d be forced to do other players’ jobs.  There will be times when you’ll be jungling then a laner decides to leave lane and take your jungle instead.  At times like this, you can flex, playing like a Punish laner — clearing the wave then getting nearby jungle creeps and taking tabs on buffs/jungle monsters.  It is hard and taxing but at least it might win you the game while bitching will get you nowhere.  Always take the initiative when such things occur as you can’t really rely on strangers.  Still, always play to your strengths.  Like when I played Mina mid, I was not intending to stay mid.  1v1 is not Mina’s strong point.  Teamfights and skirmishes are where she shines so finding a way to play to that strength was my priority.

Last night, I was forced to play marksman, which is one of the roles I hate the most (most hated is mid).  I waited for someone else to play marksman but no one switched so I just locked in Yorn as I really have no other choices.  I then noticed that I just picked Yorn into Kriknak and Batman.

 I decided to run bot and ended up with Batman and Toro.  Skud joined me and we were actually doing fairly well at first and able to push a bit.  I was thinking of fast clearing and quickly rallying mid with Skud in order to scare off Elsu.  Unfortunately, our Kahlii got killed by Elsu and then decided to go top, leaving the mid open.  At this moment, I felt really, really salty to be honest.  I hated marksman and I played it.  Now, I’m going mid with a marksman… against Elsu… with Kriknak and Batman lurking around.  I haven’t been playing lately too as I considered quitting AoV so I am unaware of Elsu’s kit.  I’ve just read somewhere that he’s like LoL’s Caitlyn so I just assumed I am playing against Caitlyn.  My mind was deadset on losing especially when my team started dying from Kriknak.  Still, a part of me wanted to play along.  I haven’t given up any kills and I thought I can farm under turret.  I’m not able to help at all though as the fear of getting stomped by Batman or Kriknak is just too much.  I only focused on getting my items.   

Since my team ended up fighting a lot, I went from lane to lane, clearing waves while being wary of the assassins.  My first death came from Kriknak when I got caught trying to help.  From then on, I decided not to respond in teamfights until I get my items.  

It’s a good thing that Kahlii was able to assist in fights while I was trying to farm my items.  My first kill was when I was able to solo Veera on top.  I think my team was fighting elsewhere in the map by then.  I was only able to join fights after Blitzblade/Greaves + Fafnir’s + Frost Cape.  I tried my best to just wait until the Kriknak jumps on a teammate then try to spam skills + passive proc.  The remaining entirety of the game, I just went from lane to lane, clearing creeps and trying to be reclusive as much as possible, all the while responding to teamfights if possible.  We were able to secure Slayer once but ended up wasting the dragon.  I was ready to lose by then until one teamfight later where I was able to get a triple kill and three of us miraculously survived.  We were able to open toplane.  Still, I’m sure one mistake can just end the game for us.  Can’t remember what happened except for one instance where we were all bot trying to siege with the creep wave and the enemy Kriknak was able to open our mid.  I was hoping one of us would def but none did.  This is why I strongly suggest taking the initiative.  I think we were able to ace them then Kahlii destroyed the core through the top with a large minion wave covering her.

On the above stated match, I did several adjustments.  First, the flex to Yorn to have a marksman in the team; then going mid to cover lane; and then building some tankiness to survive the burst from the assassins.  I also used Heal instead of Flicker in this match as I don’t believe Flicker would be enough to save me (with my poor mechanics, I will just surely waste it).  Heal has been handy on several occasions, allowing us to survive bursts and enabling us to retaliate.  Note though that I was totally irrelevant early game and avoided fighting as much as possible.  It’s a good thing that my teammates were able to weather the storm.  I believe it’s actually more from the opponent getting complacent and enjoying killing too much that we were able to scale into late game.  There were a lot of mistakes on both sides but I guess the opponent made the graver mistake which led to their loss.

Still, I’m wondering if things would’ve been different if I just went on with my Cresht comfort pick and flex from there.  Personally, I don’t like being forced to play a role I am not comfortable with.  Likewise, I dislike forcing people into roles or heroes they’re not familiar with.  It’s almost always better to just play something you’ve mastered instead of playing something you don’t like just to satisfy the team composition.  I only played marksman so as not to tilt my team.  Chances are we’ll end up fighting at the very start of the game if no one played marksman and as much as possible, I wanted to avoid that as a civil war would just further reduce our chances of winning.

Don’t be afraid to experiment.  If you think you’re going to lose anyway, I believe it’s worth it to try some unconventional stuff.  There was one time when I was playing Superman against 3 mages.  Gaia’s and Medallion were not enough so I bought 2 more Gaia’s which gave me 15% MS which Superman needs along with tankiness.  This made it easier to cause disruption in the enemy team to allow my teammates to free-hit.

Of course, game knowledge is of utmost importance to be able to adapt.  Knowing how heroes, items, and other game-related stuff function will open up more windows for flexibility.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Being able to adjust to situations can allow you to turn unfavorable situations into your advantage, so instead of tilting or raging, take a very very deep breather and think of ways to recover from your situation.  You might still end up losing but at least you tried your best. After all, losing games is okay as long as you’ve learned something from them.

To close this, I’ll just leave a quote from Bruce Lee: 

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash.  Be water, my friend.”