Level at the beginning of day 44: 29

These two days were HUGE for me – probably my most significant in a very, very long time.

Obviously, as indicated by the title, I hit level 30, which I knew was going to happen but is still a nice feeling nonetheless.

Bigger than that though is that I got my first S, which I had just accepted was never

going to happen for me. It was with Soraka, and while I was playing the game, I felt like I was playing pretty well, but I didn’t think it was possible to get an S if you died more than once, and I had died 4 times. But I guess I had enough kills, assists and other objectives that it somehow balanced it out. While I was playing I didn’t even think I was going to get an A, let alone an S, so it was such a great surprise, and I was playing in the morning so it was a nice way to start the day.

So, let’s try to learn how that happened, shall we? Some numbers that might be important for the support role:

KDA: 1/4/27
Wards placed: 14
Damage healed: 35.6k
Gold: 12.8k

The chart I’m looking at right now has no information on turrets/inhibitors for some reason but it’s possible I got 1 or 2 of those as well.

So, I guess that is what I’m going for with Soraka!

It was interesting though because I did do two things differently that game – I warded a bit more than I usually do, and I used her E ability a few times.

I had actually completely forgotten what her E ability even did because I literally never use it. Its effect is not always clear and it is very easy to just walk out of so it felt pointless to me. However, I watched a video that showed me circumstances in which it is actually very helpful, such as in a team fight where everyone is clustered and there’s nowhere to run. It can also be easier to take advantage of when used in combination with the Q ability, which has a slow (didn’t even know that). I also never used E because I thought that it dealt no damage. Not true! It does! It’s just that it only deals its full amount if champions stay in it long enough.

So I’m attributing my success to that, which likely gave me more assists (even if it was barely helpful at all), the fact that ever since that day that I was mad at my boyfriend and was clicking super fast, I’ve continued to click faster and therefore heal/use Q more, and of course the rest of the team.

A couple people commented after the game, “where’s my S??” which like, true, the rest of my team obviously played very well too. So I said, “you all deserve S’s!!” in an effort to make them feel better.

Getting an S also meant that I got a chest finally! And boy was I ever disappointed. For one thing, I thought that chests contained a few different things, not just one. And what I ended up getting was totally useless. I got a champion shard for Aziz, who I have never played and have no real interest in playing. And I couldn’t even re-roll it into something random because you need 3, or turn it into the champion for real because I didn’t have enough essence. LAME. And you can only earn one chest per champion per year, so I can’t get any more with Soraka.

And, um, I don’t see myself getting S’s on anybody else. But who knows! At this point, anything could happen.

(Sidenote: why S??? why doesn’t it just stop at A and add an F (or an E) before D instead??)

Other things happened that weekend too! Like I got to try out the new champions, Xayah and Rakan. I like them both – Rakan takes some practice and you have to be a fast clicker for sure, but he’s fun. Xayah is fun as well but she doesn’t feel as unique as I hoped she would – she feels kind of like Kalista except less annoying.

For the rest of the weekend, I focused on improving in mid-lane. I meant to focus on Lux, but I ended up playing Anivia in one game because a teammate wanted to play Lux as a support.

I don’t think I really improved at all, but I didn’t get worse, either. 2/3 games met my goal, anyway, so that’s good.

Except CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE GRADING ON LUX AGAIN, because the same situation happened again:

Game 1: 5/4/9, 9.3k gold, 87 CS. Grade – C+
Game 2: 0/8/2, 7.4 k gold, 118 CS. Grade – C-

And yes, that IS a worse grade, but not proportionate to how much worse I played. And I don’t see how 5/4/9 is ONLY a C+. I feel like it’s at least B-worthy.

I also learned that Lux vs. Ahri (or any other mage/ranged champion, really) is a terrible match-up, at least for me. But then again, I was against Syndra in the first game, and while that was still very difficult I managed to do okay.

I also ended up playing another game as Soraka because someone else wanted mid and I said I’d trade – my numbers were 2/8/21, which does not meet my goal because of dying more than 5 times, but I still got an A. So maybe I need to re-evaluate my goal?? I don’t know.

That said though, my success with Soraka made me think that maybe I WILL try ranked after all, playing support exclusively. I’m good enough to at least not fuck up anybody else’s game so what’s the worst that could happen? I suck and I just don’t make it? That is already the case so…idk. Could be worth a try. Just to see what it’s like. Just to see if it’s as scary as everyone says.

But before I do that, I must start getting As consistently with a second support champion in case Soraka is for some reason taken or banned. I feel like that’s unlikely because everyone underestimates her, and that if they were going to ban a support it would be Blitzcrank or Sona, but still. Gotsta be prepared. I am planning on buying Sona as soon as I can afford her, but until then I’m going to try to split my focus between mid games with Lux and Anivia and support games with Janna or Morgana (hey, that rhymed). As much as I want to get to mastery level 5 with Soraka…priorities. (Alternatively, too, I could also play Lux as a support, but I would only do that if the mid-laners didn’t want her, and I also feel like her shield is not that reliable since you have to aim it. I’m getting better, but still.)

Just for fun, I calculated which champion I have met my goal with in PvP games the most so far. And because I calculated it as a percentage, Soraka, Veigar, Anivia and Lux were all tied at 33%. Out of those, the highest average margin between kills/assists and deaths went to Lux at 10.5.

But of course, this is extremely flawed since Soraka is the only champion with a decent number of games to study (30), so really, I think she wins. (I mean, obviously she wins.)

The real calculations begin now, with my S game with Soraka. Excellent start to level 30, I’d say!!!

Level at the end of day 45: 30

Games played: 8

Hours: 4 (except really more than that because I had 20 min queues all damn day)

Champions played: Lux, Anivia, Soraka, Xayah, Rakan

Death snack of the day: Lindt bunny