Third Time’s the Charm – Bronze IV Game 3 [LOL]

After losing 2 matches in a row, I was surprised that I did not fall out of Bronze IV back to Bronze 5. My understanding is that there is a grace period whenever you go up a level, but I am not sure how many games you can drop before the game feels you really don't belong at the higher level. In any case, I stayed at Bronze IV and took a break before going for my third attempt to get a win at this level.

Bronze IV – Game 3 – 0 LP
BANS – Nasus, Thresh, Fizz/ Kass, Leona, Amumu
Our Team – Darius(t), Wukong(j), Heimer(m), Karma(s), Sivir(a)
Opposing Team – Ahri(m), Shaco(j), Renekton(t), Caitlyn(a), Blitz(s)
My Role & Champ – Jungle – Wukong
Map Side Blue

This game, even though I was second pick on our team (4th overall), I decided to go with a relatively new role and champion for myself – Wukong, Jungle. I've only started playing Wukong in the past couple of weeks. When I got him, I wanted to expand my capabilities – I 'could' jungle, but did not feel comfortable at all with the role. When I did go jungle, I would usually take Vi if she was available, but since she is so popular, often the opposing team would get her and I would have to scramble to try a Rammus or Nautilus jungle. While I can make them work, I have not had much success in ranked with them. Once I got Wukong and tried him in normal games a few times, he became my go to jungler. With him or Vi, I now feel pretty confident that I will not make so many mistakes that I lose the game for my team. So I went with Wukong this game since Heimerdinger boasted that he would carry us from mid lane. Along with Heimer's confidence, we also had a Duo on our side – Sivir and Karma joined the game as a team.

I started at the blue buff with 5 health pots and a Hunter's Machete, headed straight for the red buff after, and cleared my top jungle. As I cleaned out the wraiths, I saw that Shaco was down bot lane harassing Sivir and Karma so I went to help out. We caught Shaco in the tri-bush and I got an assist to Sivir's kill on Shaco – first blood. At the 8 minute mark, Darius put the hurt on Renekton and I ran up to help him knock down the top outer turret – at this point we were 4-0 with a turret advantage.

I also started coutner-jungling their buffs and got their blue at 12 minutes after getting a kill on Cait bot lane. At this point I probably should have pinged for a dragon attack, but I am still not very comfortable giving directions to my team – I need to work on that. When Cait came back bot lane, she immediately overextended and I got a double kill on her and Blitz who tried to protect her – we also downed the outer turret.

At the 20 minute mark, we were comfortably up 22-7 with 3 of their turrets down to 2 of ours, and a 9000 gold lead. I felt pretty good at 7/1/4 and was able to pretty much grab any of their buffs whenever I wanted. At this point, Renekton decided to try split pushing and he cleared the top lane to our inhibitor turret, only to be stopped by Darius backing and threatening him out of lane.

At 30 minutes, we had a 35-14 kill lead, 7 to 4 turrets downed and had taken out their mid inhibitor. I was surprised they did not surrender, but I've been in many games like that where I refused to give up because I wanted to learn something. It is much better to learn something from a loss than to surrender and give up in my view. But the writing was on the wall. At 32:09, we took out their nexus and won the game. Heimer lived up to his boasting with 11 kills, Darius threw in 11 as well, and Karma only had 1 death. On the whole it was a good game for us.

One thing I realized about my play as jungler in this game was that I seemed to be fixated on buffs. I would go out of my way to get to a buff when I knew it was available, sometimes getting to team fights later than I should have. In this game, it was not too detrimental to my team since we were doing so well, but I can foresee trouble if I don't use better judgment. While the buffs are good for me, I need to be there for my team.

Along with the win, I received an honorable opponent and a teamwork honor.

Game Result – WIN
My K/D/A/CS – 10/3/9/139
Final Build – Ravenous Hydra, Black Cleaver, Spirit of the Elder Lizard, Mercury's Treads, Kindlegem, Vision Ward, Warding Totem