Actually we started off with a bad game. I have a small network of friends to play LoL with, and they're online in something of a cycle, according to their time zones in different parts of the world. We're on skype, so you may be able to understand my confusion when one of my friends just wanders off mid-match with no explanation. Hey, you were supposed to be our carry, come back here. And then, of course, our High-Ranked Friend (HRF) is like: "why aren't YOU doing any damage?" and I have no answer for him except: I'm bad at carrying. He and Super High-Ranked Friend (sHRF) are always phrasing things like questions, when they really mean them as insults. "You really thought that was a good idea?" "Who rushes Lich Bane?" "Where were you guys?" That kind of thing. At any rate, it was a ridiculous loss, and I feel sorry for the random 5th guy who was forced to lose with us.
After that, our leaver friend properly left, and HRF also had 'things to do' (more likely he wanted to stop losing with us losers) and left. A few more normal-ranked friends came online, and we proceeded to romp. I'm a big believer in the ranking system. I don't think it's all my imagination, either. I think there's a substantially higher chance that you're matched with proper players when you're not smurfing around, and I definitely feel like I'm getting facerolled when we play with HRF or (heaven forbid) sHRF. More on that in another post. The point is, we joined forces with some other players more properly at our level (and had a bad w/l ratio) and we were properly matched with a really nice 5th man, and Soraka shone brilliantly.
Our random 5th carried us to victory, while Shen and I saved him at every turn. The other team was savvy enough to realize that the Kassadin was the only one worth hunting down (the Twitch was invisible!) and he got focused a LOT. But somehow, we'd always pull him out of the fire. And he was super grateful! Very polite. I always appreciate it.
After that we played a few more 20-min victories where I saved folks and never got targeted. Amazing fun. Xian practices some Nocturne (who he loves - the nerf bat is a-coming, though!), Z practiced his Twitch, and Lin continued his AP Sion.
What to theorize from this? Don't play Soraka with HRF or sHRF. First of all, enemy team is probably too good. Second, our random 5th is invariably bad. Third, HRF at least, is way OVER aggressive when Soraka is nearby. He quickly gets himself into situations that I just can't save him from.
Then the problem becomes... what to play instead when roped into HRF games.
Maybe the real answer is, to not play with HRF or sHRF...
