#026. Let's Do Some Duo Queue
Scrim day two. Today's matchups are the Liens team, Becky team, and Rest team. Their common trait? They're all teams with strong bot lanes.
Last night, we rewatched the Liens team's scrims and analyzed them. The one that caught my eye the most was, of course, the 1st-tier support Commander Nyan I'd be laning against. She was the total opposite of me in every way. While I basically grow our team through direct skirmishes, Commander Nyan focuses on vision control and protecting her ADC. She also makes zero demands on her team and stays dead quiet, unlike me who bosses everyone around with orders. Naturally, main calls go to their ex-pro jungler Liens, giving their team this clean, organized vibe overall.
"We get a bit chaotic when things heat up..."
I grab the leash on Dalgisoda, who's itching to push forward—who bit who, how much Dragon HP is left, all that jazz. With SenT and me calling shots at the same frequency, things get messy.
"...She handles laning phase like a pro."
Knowing she's better than her matchup, she picks champs strong early. Among them, Most-In Lily only showed in game one—banned every other match. Commander Nyan's signature play is the tail wag: advertising her support presence to bait enemies, then turning the tables and devouring them. Two out of three games ended with their bot getting psychologically outplayed and accomplishing zilch by laning phase end.
"...Gotta keep Dalgisoda on a tight leash."
From experience, our ADC Dalgisoda plays more like a top laner. Not your standard top, but a reckless maniac, top-lane psycho vibe. She's got the exact style an ADC shouldn't have.
"Guess we'll just have to try..."
Back to now—we're in the ban-pick screen. Bans go down steadily, and Dalgisoda locks in Lady Fortune. Enemy support picks Lena. Thalia's banned, so no clunky supports like Frey or Spe against CC-heavy Lena. Leaves just one option: Shell.
Runes: Blade Rain, massively boosting first three auto-attack speeds on proc. Shell's the type who skyrockets in combat ability by level 3.
Laning phase kicks off. Commander Nyan dips in and out of bushes, baiting autos. But the second she commits, my E binds her, and we trade hard early.
"Dalgisoda, ignore Lena and just farm minions."
"Yessir!"
Dalgisoda steps up to last-hit a distant ranged creep.
"No, don't go! I said farm!"
"Huh? Ack!"
Leona flashes E right into Dalgisoda from the bush. Hits level 2, Q stun and Ignite follow. Enemy ADC Baros piles on with empowered autos. By the time our ADC flashes out late, she's under half HP.
This is bad. Baros's long range means enemy jungler's diving with 80%+ odds.
Give up the wave and base? We'd fall behind in XP, snowballing into level 6 disadvantage later.
"Enemy jungler's probably heading bot. Dalgisoda, just dodge Baros Qs."
"Got it, got it!"
Baros Q has insane range—charges an arrow, damage scales with charge time.
"Farm up max minions, hit 3 first."
Enemy jungler shows top-side. Baros Q charging simultaneously. Should've taken Heal over Ignite for greedy laning.
Enemy jungler: Serban III. Just watch for airborne skill.
Pray Dalgisoda dodges Baros Q at least.
"Dodge it!!"
"Kyaa!"
Didn't dodge. Figures. Never trusted her anyway.
Dalgisoda's down to ~20% HP.
"Hide behind tower. If they dive for real, we kill 'em. Even if Baros finishes you, I'll double-kill."
"Y-yeah..."
I warn her hard, prepping to counter-dive. They'll push wave in, target her.
Who tanks among Serban III, Lena, Baros? Clean dive with no deaths? Baros likely has shield, survives 2 hits as ranged.
Trade for kill? Lena tanks.
Higher-probability strat...
"Baros is reverse-kill bait. Dalgisoda, E from range."
"Yup!"
Wave incoming. Serban III too. Before Lena/Serban close on our ADC, Baros eats tower shots tanking E first.
No way our ADC survives with jungler here. Shell E: dash straight line, damage + taunt CC on path.
I E-flash Baros, aiming reverse. Blade Rain procs, Q adds auto damage.
Saved Ignite finishes Baros with tower. Our ADC dies too, but assist via E is fine.
Lena/Serban bail, estimating they can't take me.
"Phew. I'll freeze incoming wave. Hurry back."
"Yeah..."
Seeing me freeze, retreating Lena charges me instead. Thinks she wins now? Trusts minions? Backup coming?
I taunt-scrape, trading with her. Her dueling's no joke.
Sure enough, Lena Q stuns, lingering Serban dives. I potion up, bolt backward full throttle.
"Enemy jungler's still bot. Safe to gank?"
"Roger~"
Shake off panic, brief SenT. Close call. Was basing anyway.
Dalgisoda farms my frozen wave well on return. I shop, check lanes.
Top: Reliable Kang Hyun holding. Jungle: SenT pulling ahead via ganks. Mid: Ritsu-senpai even as always.
Nice, solid.
...Spoke too soon—bot disaster.
Assess before raging. Enemy Lena poking Dalgisoda, Baros beside.
Estimate clear.
"Dalgisoda."
"Sorry..."
"...Lena looked that tasty? Happens."
We're screwed. Pushing wave, they're freezing. Keep harassing, we'll lose farm till lane ends.
Dalgisoda's sulking, knows she messed up. Yelling at wilted teammate backfires.
"SenT, cover bot?"
"Sure~"
SenT helps sustain bot. Dalgisoda avoids more deaths, luckily.
Post-6, Shell ult online: Target ally anywhere on map, grant 5-sec shell (huge shield), teleport to them after 3 sec.
"Kang Hyun, fight? SenT and I ult in, 2v3."
"Roger, going!"
En route top, still ping bot for Dalgisoda.
"Heading out, Dalgisoda. No fights. Baros OP now."
"Yeah."
Secure top kill, return to Dalgisoda barely holding with minion block. Baros farms tower gold, hyper-scaling.
Enemy bot priority lets them stack Dragons for value. Baros's tankiness + poke makes late teamfights grim.
Pre-fight Q pokes whittle us; we hard-lose skirmish, lose big objectives, game snowballs away.
"Damn... they're good."
Not just Baros scaling. They grok comp synergy; we picked personal comfort.
Liens picked 5th-tier top but top didn't crumble—they tanked with dedicated tanks as strat.
Sturdy top/support tanks, early snowball/fight jungler Serban, burst mage mid, frontlined poke ADC Baros. Lots to learn.
We lost at 37 minutes.
Day two scrims end 1-2. Extra loss to Rest, who picked tier-1 ADC.
We drafted pure late-game vs. their comp, held slight edges everywhere. But post-ADC items, we lost teamfight, big objs, gg.
I got caught vision-scouting impatiently mid-game—my fault too.
Feedback time. Bot mistakes galore, so focus there.
Dalgisoda looks gutted, holding back tears.
I watch, then speak.
"Dalgisoda."
"Y-yeah... sniff... yeah?"
"Before tomorrow's scrim... let's duo queue."
Looks like Neru needs special one-on-one marking lessons.