Double Winning's Gaming Blog

Xin Zhao Rework Incoming!

2012-07-06T13:37:00.001-07:00

Xin Zhao Rework

You heard that right! Xin Zhao is getting a rework! I called this a while ago (a few posts back) and I'm so happy to see this coming! If you want proof, click here for the Red Post.

Or if you don't want to click the link, here is a quote!

It's been a while since I gave an update on this.... so...

He's close. I'm in the stage of balancing numbers on him now and barring setbacks he should be ready to go soon(tm) [but prob not real soon(tm)]

Keep the faith Xin fans! The end of the wait is near! (Crosses fingers)

So I don't know about you guys, but I'm so excited. Xin Zhao was my favorite champion for a long time (replaced by Mr. URF Fizz Man) and it sucks that he's not all that viable. Fun fact I've won my last 8 games I've played with Xin Zhao. If you want to see how big of a fan I am of Xin Zhao, check out my Xin Zhao videos!

My Life In "ELO Hell"

2012-06-28T20:20:00.002-07:00

How to Get out of ELO Hell

How to Get Out of ELO Hell
Chapter 1: <1000 ELO

A lot of people come to me and ask me, how do I get out of ELO Hell? It often makes me laugh because I don't really believe people know what "ELO Hell" is. Generally the consensus is that ELO Hell is where you get trolled in ranked. Some even put it to the extreme that you cannot get out of ELO Hell, due to people being SO BAD or SO TROLLY that you cannot possibly carry yourself out.

I'm sitting comfortably around the 1,350-1,400 Bracket. If I had a more consistent schedule I'd probably be around 1,450. Do I believe in ELO Hell? No. However, I still believe I can help people by telling them my story of ELO Hell. My chronicle of how I got from my first twenty or thirty ranked games to where I am now.

When I first started playing ranked, I was bad. I didn't have the right rune pages, I hadn't mastered any champions, and I didn't really know how to win. So my placement matches ended up throwing me into around 900 ELO. This was embarassing for me, since most of my friends were around 1,400 (now they're 2k haha) and so I decided I wanted to do something about it.

Mistake #1 was not playing consistently enough. I would play ranked every 3 days or so, just one solo queue game and usually lose. I would get SO worked up about playing that it messed with my game. Then when I made mistakes (which I made tons, I was freaking 900 ELO) I got even more frustrated. What did I play? I played top and jungle, playing anything with a sword or spear. Xin Zhao, Master Yi, Pantheon, Tryndamere, Garen. I did find some success with Gangplank jungle right after his deny rework (his jungle was stupid good back then). So that really left me with 2 roles. I couldn't play ranged AD because I didn't understand the mechanics of last hitting, harassing, pushing, pulling, holding, etc. I absolutely couldn't play AP mid. The one time being when I played Vlad and went 6-9. (Mind you in lane that was like 1-4) If I played more I probably would have done better.

So how do I help you? If you are going to play ranked, after you've mastered at least 1 champion for each role, play consistently. At least twice a day. Master 5, and be good with 5 more. Some champions can play dual roles, so those are good. Examples of good dual role champions are:
Kennen Top/Mid/ Sometimes even AD Carry. (Personally, I hate all Kennen players: sorry!)
Vlad Top/Mid
Just about any bruiser can go Jungle/Top and any Sustain/Escapeable AP can go Top/Mid!

So what would be a great line-up to learn going into ranked right now? (June 28th~)
Master: Kennen for Top/Mid (Kennen can and will hard carry games and has a easy laning phase)
Vlad for Top/Mid (If your team lacks damage and you don't need more CC, his ult gives your team all the damage they need!)
Udyr or Lee Sin for jungle/top. They are spectacular heroes that you really can't go wrong with. Lee Sin is very early game dominate, while Udyr is a very safe bet.
Ashe/Varus if you need more CC/Initiate. Graves/Vayne for Damage. Tristana/Kog'Maw if your team has a good frontline.
Soraka/Alistar. Passive and Aggressive supports.

Of course this is just a general suggested list. With this list hopefully you can get out of elo hell. If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post or get a hold of me through
http://Facebook.com/doublewinning
http://Twitter.com/doublewinning

Where Are My Videos?!

2012-05-30T19:04:00.000-07:00

Where are my videos DoubleWinning?

Sorry guys, I was going to upload those videos (Fizz/Voli/etc) but with the recent graphics updates, it screwed up all my files so that everything is messed up with them. I'm really sorry guys. I'm probably about as upset as you guys are!

Xin Zhao buff incoming?

I'm not positive, but with a Xin Zhao free week, Xin Zhao going on sale, and talks of not nerfing champions just because "low elo" can't handle him smells like some Xin Zhao buffs coming! I would be so happy about this, maybe I should brush off my XIN ZHAO skills. If you guys haven't checked out some of my old Xin Zhao videos, check them out here: 1, 2, 3, 4!

Why the wait on videos?

If you're wondering why it takes me so long to get videos sometimes, its because I rarely have time to record. I have to wake up before anyone else in the house, and then wake myself up, and then record. Its just what I have to do and since its summer for the kids soon, its going to get harder. I'll find a solution sooner or later.

That's All For Now!

I hope you guys enjoyed this blog post. I tried a new format, takes a bit longer but I think it looks pretty. If you guys like it, be sure to leave a comment! If you have any questions or comments about this post or anything at all, post here and I will get back to you! As always, stay classy and keep winning!

DoubleWinning

www.youtube.com/doublewinning

www.twitter.com/doublewinning

www.facebook.com/doublewinning

www.twitch.tv/doublewinning

doublewinningg@gmail.com

FAQ

2012-05-23T18:29:00.002-07:00

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I add you on League of Legends?
If I have room, sure!

2. Can I play a game with you?
90% of the time, no. I'm a busy guy but sometimes when I have time I'll accept.

3. Why don't you make more videos?
I don't have a lot of time in the day to record games due to background noise.

4. Do you make money off your videos?
Not right now, but when my partnership settles in, I will.

5. Can I spam you with messages?
Sure if you want to get deleted!

6. Can I do a video with you?
Possibly, I ask that you have had your channel for a while and put in a good amount of effort. I didn't get my first collaboration till I had ~1,000 Subscribers.

7. How do I get better at League?
Practice, research, consistency, and realizing and fixing your problems every game. Are there some games where you play perfect? No. There's always something you could have done better. Try to focus not on what your teammates could have done better. There are some games you can't win, that is true. There is never a game where you can't walk away with some knowledge.

8. You're not even X Elo, why should I watch your videos?
I'm constantly learning and trying to get better, maybe you can use my knowledge better than I can. I truly believe that if I had a more consistent playing schedule I'd be X+ elo. Also, I like to think that my videos are informative and sometimes entertaining.

9. Why do you have a blog?
Its a way I can update you guys at all times. If I have a small update, I'll tweet/facebook it. If I need help from you guys, I'll tweet/facebook it. If I have bigger things I want to post, I'll blog it.

10. I have a question!
Either message me in game or email me! If you email me, you'll most likely get a better response. Its harder to get a reply on Youtube, since 95% is spam so I don't spend a lot of time checking which is not.

Charity, Partnership, and Bears Oh My!

2012-05-19T00:18:00.001-07:00

Jaximus

Make-a-Wish Jaximus Livestream

Hello winners, its DoubleWinning or Nick! Sorry I haven't been updating my blog, I'll try and get at least a post out a week from now on, but sometimes life gets in the way. Blogging is a good way to produce content for you guys without having to commentate, because its kind of hard with all the noise here sometimes.

First off, I want to say congratulations Summoners, we raised almost $500,000 for Make-A-Wish foundation! I would like to say that I had my little share it in with the video I made and encouraging all my friends to buy the skin. If you missed the video, be sure to click here! I'll be doing the livestream with viewers pretty soon, and whoever has proof they bought Jaximus will be able to get in on the action with us!

How do I get proof you ask? Well that's simple! Either you screen/video capped your purchase OR go to your purchase history and then take a picture of that! Why should you purchase Jax and or Jaximus? Here's a Jungle Jaximus gameplay you might enjoy!

Here's what it should look like:

Obviously it should have your summoner name :P

Then just make sure you're following me on Twitter or Like me on Facebook (which I assume if you're reading this, then you are!) and you'll be informed of when the livestream starts! I don't think I'll be streaming it myself, I'll probably have my friend do it since he can stream in HD!

URFF!

New Fizz Gameplay Commentary!

You guys have waited long enough! I'm sorry that I didn't rush out some Fizz videos when I got him, but because of your patience, I got the Fisherman Fizz skin so it'll make the video oh so much better! The video is in Spectator mode format, so I don't know how I'm going to commentate it, but we'll see! The video will not disappoint, because I think I'm getting pretty good at Fizz and boy is he fun! So when that video is live, click here for the video!

Partnership for DoubleWinning?

Holy talking in third person Batman! In all seriousness though, I'm going to get my channel partnered! What does this mean? Before I could monetize my videos on youtube, and I got a little money for my videos. However, there were a whole MESS of problems that I'd stopped even bothering to monetize some of them! With this new partnership with TGN (www.tgn.tv) I'll be able to make money and not have to worry about issues! It also means that I'll be able to have thumbnails for my videos, I might be able to get a decent GFX artist (rather than just me doing simple edits in paint) and I can raise money for you guys!

I'm not selling out or anything, things are still business as usual. I still plan on uploading non-league videos, I've just been practicing my Let's Play abilities. I'm not quite sure what game I want to do first. Dark Souls was a bust because my roommate sold it. So if you guys have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Bear Bear Bear Bear Bear Bear BEAR

Bear With Me For Some Volibear Gameplay!

I've got a pretty good Volibear gameplay in the archives, I'm not quite sure if I wanna post it though. I might use it for another Life Commentary if you guys would be interested in that. I say that because it wasn't really a difficult game. It was mostly just me... well being a BEAR. You can't bear waiting for a Volibear video? Check out my old one! I'm sure you can't bear anymore of these terrible puns. So I'll wrap this up!

That's All For Now!

DoubleWinning

www.youtube.com/doublewinning

www.twitter.com/doublewinning

www.facebook.com/doublewinning

www.twitch.tv/doublewinning

doublewinningg@gmail.com

How to Get out of ELO Hell 101: Part 5

2012-03-22T19:51:00.000-07:00

??? (7:35): i hate my ELO.....
guy random locks in
their team is all melee except for karthus
DoubleWinning (7:36): You only have 40~ ranked games. Unless you're an amazing player, it'll probably take around 100~ games to get to where your ELO should be at.
So keep at it, never blame others for your loss. Only focus on your own mistakes, when you can honestly say you never made a single mistake, all the while making plays
and decisions for your team. Then you won't be in that ELO! :)
??? (7:38): i need to get out of ELO hell
DoubleWinning (7:39): You aren't in ELO Hell.
??? (7:39): i have not had a decent team in ages
DoubleWinning (7:40): You're also being placed against enemy teams of the same caliber. Meaning you have to play above and beyond. If you blame your team, you will NEVER get better.
I was 1000~ elo Season 1. Stopped blaming my team, learned from my mistakes, and I've gained 350 ELO. ELO hell is just a cop out.\

I ???'d out the person's name. Put yourself in their shoes though, is that you? Well that's what I have to say about it. Also I realize I was a bit of a douche in this, but it just frustrates me.

RP Giveaway?

2012-03-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

In case you guys have been under a rock, I'm doing an RP Giveaway on March 23rd! This is mostly a celebration to my fans and such, but its also to solidify that I'd like to be doing this a lot more. I love making videos, I love playing games, and I love creating commentary (whether text or vocal) and you guys have supported me and I think you deserve some love too! So how do you get in on this FREE RP?

You'll have to be subscribed to me on Youtube (www.youtube.com/doublewinning)

Then you'll have to either follow me on Twitter (www.twitter.com/doublewinning)
OR
Like me on Facebook (www.facebook.com/doublewinning)

Then on March 23rd 10PM PST, at www.twitch.tv/doublewinning I'll be livestreaming and during that I'll be doing a RP Giveaway! I'm not sure how much I'll be giving away. At least two $10 RP Cards. If I get a big turn out I'll give out more!

If you would like to help me financially with this give away by donating, email me at doublewinningg@gmail.com with the subject "Giveaway Support". Thanks guys, stay classy and keep winning!

RE: "Playing to Win 1: Secrets to get to 2,000 elo"

2012-03-12T19:47:00.001-07:00

http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/36929-Playing_to_Win_1_Secrets_to_get_to_2000_elo

This is a reply to the above article. I highly recomend reading it, as it articulates what a lot of people have trouble with. Basically it states that last hitting is the single most important part of farming GOLD in League of Legends. This is something that a lot of people in ELO Hell don't understand. LeBlanc going 10-0 with 50 CS 20 minutes into game, isn't that much ahead of Gangplank with 150 CS and has a few assists.

The reason you kill someone is not for the gold, but to stop THEM from getting gold. If they're dead, they can't farm! You get experience, they don't, and if you can last hit properly, you start to build a lead that will eventually amount to an item of significant value. So guys, if you can't hit 80 Last hits by 10:00, practice.

Practice.

Practice.

Go to bot games where you won't have to deal with harass. Just work on your last hitting. 80 Last hits in 10 minutes should be a standard thing for you. Getting that in an actual game is a bit more difficult, but you should still aim there. Also, don't neglect creeps when mid/late game shows up! Champion kills stay static, creeps don't! Their value goes UP! You see top lane pushing to your tower? Don't let the tower eat up all that gold, go and farm it, push it out and make the enemy lose gold to their tower!

There are some champions in the game that are exceptional for this. Champions I can lose lane and still end up winning the game because of their farm are Twisted Fate, Talon, Master Yi, Vladamir, Tryndamere, etc. Just farm farm farm, and you'll become this beast when you get back to fights. HAVE map awareness though, don't be farming when theres an objective going on (unless this is planned, Shen ult, TP, etc).

Anyway, enough of my post. Go check out the post on SK Gaming!

Also! I hit more than 500 Subscribers, so I'll be doing my RP GIVEAWAY on March 23rd. If you need more information on that, check out this video!

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/doublewinning
http://www.youtube.com/doublewinning
http://www.twitter.com/doublewinning

http://www.twitch.tv/doublewinning

Intel Extreme Masters Hannover #1

2012-03-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

MUST WATCH!

Holy shit. Excuse my language, but this tournament has been crazy! If you missed the first two days, they play reruns during the day, but if you want to catch it live you're going to have to stay up. (Unless you're from the East, where you luckily don't have to stay up till 5AM to watch all the matches) The tournament definitely has taken a few swings that I didn't expect and a few things that regretfully I saw coming.

I'll start with some SPOILER FREE stuff, and then I'll put a big wall before I go over some spoilers. I HIGHLY recommend watching some of the games, there were some definitely great games and a few really sad game throws. What did I notice in this tournament?

Shyvanna is still M5's favorite champion it seems. They just play her so well and it works so well in their gameplay strategies. Basically a must ban against them! Its cool to see that Shyvanna wasn't just a one shot wonder surprise pick, but instead becoming one of those top tier picks along with Udyr, Lee Sin, and Skarner. Surprisingly not a lot of Skarner seen, which I predict is because he gives away what position he is taking. You show your cards if you pick Skarner, if you pick Lee Sin, Udyr, or Shyvanna they can go either top lane or jungle. Yes, Skarner can go top: its just not that pretty.

Corki got a lot of love from some teams, which is something I always like to see. I think Corki takes a unique amount of skill. He has the best escape of the ranged ADs, has a good mix of armor shred/magic damage to mix it up. He has amazing poke, and can get kills pretty easily in lane.

Kog'Maw has dominated this tournament. Its so great to see Kog'maw making a return as I felt that he was never really taken down. His slight nerf to his bio-arcane barrage wasn't enough to kill him, then with nerfs to Graves, Vayne, and Sivir it's given him his highlight again. Also, the Nunu Bloodboil + Kog'Maw is just GROSS.

Graves didn't do all that well. I believe its because his range just makes him not as viable in comeptitive play. He needs to get way to dangerous to really put out some damage. He has the problem that Vayne does without an almost continuous stealth, because of this all his damage is hard to actually put out. He does fantastic in the laning phase, but unless you can really force that advantage, someone like Kog'maw will scale way better.

Tristana wasn't seen as much as I would have hoped. I'm thinking its because Kog'maw is essentially a higher damage version of her WITH a long range poke (ultimate). Tristana unfortunately becomes a purely auto attack champion late game, which Kog'maw makes good use of 2-3 of his skills late game.

Okay, those were just some things I noticed (sorry they were mostly ranged ADs) but here are some slight spoilers, so WARNING!

SPOILERS!

Okay

Team Solomid choked hard. Regi wasn't playing well at all I felt. So many wasted flashes, mistimed flashes, bad ultimates, etc. Chaox was constantly caught out of position as the ranged AD, something that I feel is due to a little bit of "Solo Queue" syndrome. (You get a lot more squeezing room for positioning in solo queue) TheRainMan I felt played okay, except he just got bullied in so many games, with 3 man gank tops, etc. Xspecial seemed to do well most of the games. TheOddOne played a lot of junglers he doesn't main, which to secure a pick is good, but it left him at 90%.

CURSE COP oh my goodness. I remember watching an event a while back, where Westrice just domianted with Vayne. That was Cop with Kog'maw. He had a game where he went 14-0, where SCUMBAG Elementz stole the Penta, haha. His positioning was just excellent and definitely was a flagship for ranged AD players.

Dignitas with the biggest game throw I've seen in a long time, Scarra was pretty upset. Its rare to see Scarra get so upset. But whatever, they made to the next day, where they will have their chance again hopefully. I'm a big Voyboy fan, but to be honest if it comes down to Curse vs. Dignitas I want to see Curse win. Why? I think it'd be fun. It used to be OH MAN SOLOMID VS COUNTER LOGIC GAMING! No, I want more top teams. I want OH MAN CURSE AND DIGNITAS! Which they've already proved they are great teams, I just want more big name wins.

M5. Ugh, cocky bastards who just seem so fake. I know I may get a lot of hate for just disliking them, but I'm sorry. They are immature and unprofessional, they're like a classic heel for Pro Wrestling. I feel like they want you to dislike them, because it keeps you on their mind. M5 is the villain of League of Legends, haha. However, I do applaud them for being great players and having strategies that continue to shake up games. BUT JEESH. BAN SHYVANNA, TAKE JANNA.

So how do I sum up the first two days of the event?

Oh OddOne haha!

That's all for this post, I'll try and keep up to date with the tournaments, however staying up that late really messes with you when you have school! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to be part of my upcoming RP GIVEAWAY AT 500 SUBSCRIBERS, click here to subscribe to my channel on youtube!

Want to watch the Event? http://www.twitch.tv/esltv_event
While you're there, follow me http://www.twitch.tv/doublewinning

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/doublewinning
http://www.youtube.com/doublewinning
http://www.twitter.com/doublewinning

http://www.twitch.tv/doublewinning

Feb 28th Ranked Games

2012-02-28T03:23:00.000-08:00

(Just kept normals for authenticity)

Game 1
Udyr 1-2-15

Pros
Learning to play Udyr!
Counter jungled and learning when Udyr becomes god mode
Communicating with my team worked wonders

Cons
Kinda low in farming and twice I just dove enemy team without assessing my team
I need to killsteal more

What to work on
Have smite ready for objectives
Make sure team can follow up when I initiate

WATCH THIS GAME: (will put link here later!)

--

Game 2
Tristana 15-5-4

Pros
This was my first Ranked 5s with my new Team (Team Kevin Blows)
Tristana kill lane is just ridiculous
Got to play my Guerilla Tactics lane (Tristana + Leona = first blood level 3 np np)

Cons
Need a bit more team coordination and ward coverage. A couple blown ultis and deaths because we were caught out of place.

What to work on
Positioning and general map awareness for whole team

--

Game 3
Tristana 9-2-5

Pros
Guerilla tactics TOO strong (Lux + Tristana = level 2/3 first blood np np)
Kept up my farming as well as kills
Denied enemy carry of a lot of farm as well as made their jungler come bot always
Good supports = FREELO

Cons
Lux KS'd me :[
Died at an awkward stage so I went triple dorans and vamp scepter. Didn't matter though, ended building PD + 3 Dorans for maximum early game advantage.

What to work on
Talk to team before match, if they can play a good Leona/Lux = Guerilla Tactics gg
If not, play a solo lane/jungle
Started: 1329
ELO: 1353

RP GIVEAWAY AT 500 SUBSCRIBERS, MUST BE FOLLOWING MY LIVESTREAM AND EITHER LIKE MY FACEBOOK OR FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER!

That's all for this post, this is the format I will be using for LIvestream recaps from now on! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/doublewinning
http://www.youtube.com/doublewinning
http://www.twitter.com/doublewinning

http://www.twitch.tv/doublewinning <--- FOLLOW SO YOU DON'T MISS A LIVESTREAM! :)

Livestream Feb 23rd

2012-02-24T03:00:00.000-08:00

Pretty fun livestream, hopefully I'll catch more of you guys next time!

Game 1
Tristana 0-6-0

Pros
None really

Cons
I had terrible last hitting, every lane lost including mine, I died to Talon/Lee Sin ganks
Lost morale and basically just played dumb last 4 deaths because the game was already 2-15 with every dragon theirs and all out towers gone

What to work on
Last hitting and putting more pressure on Enemy, find more openings.

---

Game 2
Shyvanna 4-2-6

Pros
Counter jungled Nocturne early, was able to grab his red but not quite fast enough so that he didn't notice
Had good dragon timers except last which was off by like 45 seconds
Had good wards to prevent counter jungling
Stopped half their blues
If lane has good CC, easy ganks (Annie stun OP)

Cons
Not using health potions early while fighting, coulda saved life
Using smite knowing dragon/baron
Need to communicate better with team when objectives are up

What to work on
Keep more timers and communicate with team about them

---

Game 3
Graves 3-2-6

Pros
Pushed Caitlynn well so that I out CS'd her
Kept good dragons again so we controlled them no problem
Support sucked but I carried her jk

Cons
Kept running out of mana, consider Mana Regen for a push lane/use soraka instead of Sona
Invaded red without wardage, got caught and pooped on, need to pay attention to lanes if i'm going to make a big play hero mode

What to work on
Paying attention to lanes so I can make big plays

---

Game 4
Talon 7-6-13

Pros
Incredible Dragon/Baron control
Farmed well enough to matter late game
Ganked pretty well with Boots 5, shoulda got Mercs though

Cons
Got jewed early by Lee Sin and Vlad having <50 HP (DAMN YOU LEE SIN SHIELD!)
Got rocked by Vlad in lane, feeding a little
Died too much early

What to work on
Getting double kills while under pressure aka turn and burn better
Switch lanes earlier if needed
Pay more attention to what boots to get

Started: 1290
ELO: 1329

http://www.twitch.tv/doublewinning <--- FOLLOW SO YOU DON'T MISS A LIVESTREAM! :)

Made Me Feel Happy!

2012-02-23T02:25:00.002-08:00

Read in the Red!

I was playing some ranked (been on a downturn recently, so I took a bit of a break to work on my last hitting and such in normals) and I plugged my youtube like I try to do when I do well. I was paid a pretty cool compliment that made me happy. Also, we carried that Tryndamere so hard. (He was 0-3 against a Garen up top) Vlad was actually down against Ryze for the beginning of the game too. However, Soraka and I made some pretty damn fine plays down bot and got me fed and farmed. I had a full build around 35 minutes.

Pros
Heal on carry is pretty nice early game, got a nice heal bait on Janna who came to clean me up and ended up dying.
Soraka was really good, didn't need instruction
I was doing a pretty good job at last hitting and harassing at the right times.
QSS is a beast against Ryze snare and Rammus taunt.
Set up good Barons/Dragons and kept timers and reminded my teammates (example: "1 min till dragon, shen come bot" "baron up in 1 min, oracles/ward and group up"
Had good positioning and dipped in and out of fights well

Cons
Whiffed two ults pretty bad, gotta remember resistances.
Jumped onto Garen blindly (who then spin to winned all over my face)
Got a little irritated with 0/3 Trynd for starting brawlers gloves

What I Learned
Shen is OP. First pick or Ban every game.
In a teamfight as Ranged Carry, don't fight the other ranged carry. You may kill them, but its too risky and you won't live as long. Try and do the safest amount of constant DPS.
Everything freaking cancels Rocket Jump

That's all for this post! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. Click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning <-- FOLLOW ME GUYS :D

MMM dat Poppy Rage

2012-02-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

MMM beat Poppy in lane SO hard that he built an early Ninja Tabi + 3 Chain Vests.
I still beat him. Hahaha.

New Heartseeker Vayne Skin

2012-02-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/vayne-tumbles-valentine%E2%80%99s-day

New Valentine's Vayne Skin was released! I won't get all angsty and emo and talk about how this depresses me cause I can't see my girlfriend and that's why I won't buy it. In fact, I wish I could buy it: but I already spent all my RP. I do find it funny that they developed this really nice looking skin after nerfing her so hard. I do think that Vayne is still a viable pick, just not the dominating AD force she used to be.

Then I look closer and see that FUCKING BITCH KILLED MUNDO! Otherwise, she hit him with a "cupid's arrow" type and thing.. well when that's just some kinky cartoon shit that I won't get into. Rule 34 anyone?

In case you guys didn't know, this was more of a fun post, just reminding you to have a good Valentine's day. You don't need to be in a relationship to like Valentine's day, just like just because you're in one doesn't mean you don't like it! Take a moment out of your time to show people you appreciate them. Then, try and continue to do that more than just on the holidays. But this is a League blog, so I'll cut this short here!

That's all for this post! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. Click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

ALL I DO IS CARRY?

2012-02-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

I'll just leave this here, lets just say, my back hurts.

FUCK YOU EVE I CARRY TOO HARD

Livestream Feb 10th

2012-02-11T02:54:00.000-08:00

You guys missed a good livestream, but if you'd like to know what happened here's the recap!

^Taken directly from my match history.

First game Tryndamere had a bit of trouble with a Renekton. I was winning in farm, I had a kill on him, however I wasn't dominating him. If you want to raise your ELO and not take chances, you have to destroy your lane and carry potential baddies. I didn't because Trundle came up three times (only once for a good reason) and because of that he didn't spend much time counter-jungling or in other lanes. Did I ask him to? No. However if I would have been winning my lane harder and communicated better than it could have been fixed. Bot lane lost pretty bad and we got to end game where we didn't have much coordination so I was barely able to stay in the fight. It was mostly me coming in a little late (to avoid CCs) still getting focused and then having to QSS, ult, and try and get out to heal. Ended up in a loss, kind of a sucky start but its whatever!

To a comeback victory with GP (1-3 beat in lane against an Irelia as GP) came back 8-4-15 GP GIVES NO FUCKS
Second game I was playing Gangplank top and the enemy team picked Irelia. I was worried because Irelia is still kinda foggy to me. She's super good and hyper carry late game and worst of all my Gangplank isn't very strong. Definately need to work on him solo top because I know he's super strong, I just play him wrong. This was a good learning experience though, because if read one of my older posts you'll know about the game with GP where I got pooped on by a Riven. Almost the same thing, Irelia was up 3 kills to my 1, but I was out CSing her and I had assists from my ult. So she was up in gold, but I knew if I played right and didn't feed her any more we'd be fine. So I gave up my tower(told my team I was gonna and why) and started freezing the creep wave near my 2nd tier tower. Then when she left my lane I'd push it out hard and do work on her tower, leaving her out on CS and XP.
We got a SUPER clutch teamfight where we caught them all coming out of a bush trying to gank and Mummy ulted and I ulted at the same time. We picked off their Ashe and Ziggs and made work of the Irelia, Maokai and Sona. We only lost one of our champs and it really brought our morale back up. Especially me since I picked up a double kill and started tanking up since I had my Triforce.
More teamfights that were in our favor and well timed dragons,barons, and pushes and we got the victory. I thanked my team for the carry and was constantly encouraging them for doing so well in the game. And guess what?

I was granted a great game from LoL Karma (no not the champion!) and I DESTROYED a game with Graves. It was a real fun game to watch. First pick wanted Ranged AD (I called top or ranged, someone took top so I asked for top). First pick grabbed Graves and said he was gonna be Ranged. I asked if he could be a bro and let me and he said yeah of course, grab me Sona. It was so awesome and I didn't let him down! We were against Corki Soraka and we ended up getting a CLUTCH double kill first blood (both for me) when it looked like Sona had gotten gibbed. She used summoner heal and ended up getting away with 30hp and while they were stabbing at her I killed both of them. It was a steam roll from there and a 20 minute surrender.

However we all know what happens when you get a good team? You've got to get a bad team next. But like I've said, win 11/20 games; gain ELO. I was duo-queueing with my friend Noodlescoop who has around 100 ELO less than me, so almost always its gonna be me first pick and him last pick. I don't really like it because it limits me usually to jungle or support to avoid counter pick. I picked Wukong as a way to confuse the enemy team into picking a counter pick for Wukong. I was actually jungling as Wukong! Then we got a Teemo top against Garen which was fine. However, then it was Pantheon Leona bottom, which meant I'd have to go there a lot or else their kill lane would be useless. Then it was Noodlescoop as Xerath against Swain mid.

Shyvanna counter jungled me hard taking my wraiths and red while 4-man ganking with mid on bottom. They got first blood and I was a little worried. So I jungled without blue and got a lot of successful ganks bot (Leona + Pantheon super kill lane, success!) but they were doing a poor job CSing, so the kills were actually only making it even. I didn't even go top once because it was even CS and Teemo up 1 kill on Garen basically the whole game. Shyvanna would walk into a mushroom and then give up.

I ended up getting crazy amounts of assists from my ganks then after some rocky teamfights (2 for 3, 3 for 2, etc) we started gaining advantage. Then I had a great call where they went for dragon while we were top, so we bum rushed baron, they came to fight, we killed, got baron and pushed to win basically. Towards the end I was trying SO hard to kill steal, but Pantheon was getting all the kills. Thus my 0-2-16 game as Wukong. However, I did build basically tank with Giant's Belt, Negatron, Wriggles, Boots, Phage(either Triforce or Frozen Mallet depending on what team needed) so I didn't really expect many kills. Just surprising I didn't get any!

Then the last game was almost the opposite! I went top lane against a Garen as Tryndamere and Lee Sin quickly got first blood on the Garen. After that I just pushed and harassed, knowing that a Mocking Shouted Judgment would do less damage than me if I was full rage. I was right and we started trading and he was losing. I outplayed him a few times by making him chase me through creeps, drawing lots of minion aggro. Eventually I shut him down once I got wriggles, netting two kills already. I was always warded and the one time I wasn't I got away with Ghost (I'm really like Ghost Exhaust on Tryndamere). My creep score was 100 more than Garen by the end of the game. I was also pushing so hard without taking tower (to deny Garen) that I made plays to steal their blue for our mid twice, farmed TONS of double golems and their wolves, and basically shut down top lane. This allowed my team to 4v4 knowing that I was getting SUPER farmed.

Everytime I had Red Lizard Buff it forced Garen to be shut down because my Phantom Dancer made it so he had to either commit to a fight (and die) or be completely zoned out. They sent Ryze, Caitylnn, Shyvanna top a few times to try and stop me and I just kited and survived. The one time I died was a good play by the enemy team where they literally shut me down (before I got my QSS) with a Taric stun ontop of a Cait trap into a Ryze snare. After I got QSS though I just ripped through their team.

That was the last game I livestreamed and I really enjoyed it! I gained some followers, however, if you haven't followed me yet be sure to click the link below and do so! That way you can join me while I livestream! Thanks guys.

That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

How to Get out Of ELO Hell 101: Part 4

2012-02-11T02:21:00.000-08:00

I kept the Sivir game in there just so you know it was a direct copy paste from my records. This was 11PM-1AMish (I usually play at night, not really recommended though)

Now I ask you, which game do you think I carried the hardest? Was it the 2-0-6 game? The 15-3-8 game? Or the 10-0-11 game? The obvious answer would be the 10-0 or the 15-3, because I got a good K/D. Then the smartass "I'm not fooled by anyone" response would be that it was the 2-0-6. However here's the real answer: none of them and all of them.

Well dash bullshit DoubleWinning!

Yeah, yeah I got it. What do I mean by this though? It brings me to my lesson that you have to Be a Leader! Each one of these games had a leader, and while I might have been a carry the leader usually wasn't me. I wasn't making calls, I wasn't making big plays, I was instead focusing on carrying as hard as I could. So who really carried? The Leader or the Carry? The General or his greatest soldier? The coach or the MVP? It could go either way.

The 15-3-8 game came from a Dr. Mundo jungle game. In champ select I asked if he'd tried Shyvanna since in my opinion, she does things that Mundo can't and does a lot of things he can; but better. He said she is a good jungler, but he intends on taking dragon at 4:50, which Shyvanna can't. It was interesting and I'll admit I was skeptical, but instead of bitching and moaning I focused on my gameplay. That's something not a lot of people do.

The game starts and I ask if Sona and I can take Golems, he says no because it'll interfere with his route. I was a little bummed but again I didn't bitch. He had a plan and I was willing to go through with it. Why? " A good solution applied with vigor now is better than a perfect solution applied ten minutes later." - George S. Patton WW2 General. So like he'd planned he hit level 4 and went to Dragon. He made sure Sona warded dragon at 1:50 to check if they warded.

Why did he do that? He had a plan. In case you didn't catch it, if anyone knew he was taking dragon so early, he would be massacred and possibly give up a free dragon. So being a leader he took charge and asked for the ward, which Sona presented. Then around 4:30 he said he was going to go for Dragon and for me to push my lane. This way Sona could swing in and give him some heals and dragon. Why? Because Mundo taking dragon at level 4 is possible, just VERY dangerous. So we did this, Mundo didn't have to use his summoner heal but they did catch on! They caught vision of Sona outside the dragon nest and threw down a ward, Mundo immediatly pinged and told mid to come down. The teamfight was starting and I ran up as fast as I could.

We got dragon and we knew we couldn't kill them with an injured jungler so he retreated. We all got away and we had the dragon timer. This is how the whole game went, we played like we were a FIVES team against a bunch of Solo Queuers. Did the whole team cooperate all the time? No! Skarner had TP and botched it a few times up top and wasted it, so we did lose some fights. However, we had most of the advantages because we had a leader.

So yes, I had a lot of kills and was very very strong. Did I carry? Yes. I killed most of the enemy team and towers and such, but Mundo made the plays. I followed him because I trusted him and put my faith in him. He proved he knew what he was doing, and we were rewarded with some ELO for it. What was his score at the end of the game? Around 2-4-8. But he was easily MVP, and I made sure to let him know that. He deserved the praise. Plus, he was being a leader and a player at the same time, which is a hard feat.

My flawless 10 kill game? We had a Shaco orchestrating the plays. We had a quick 6-0 bottom lane spread among me Shaco and Sona within 10 minutes. Then it was immediate dragon after immediate dragon, blue buff control, all the beauties that bring a surrender. Did I carry that game? Shaco and I did, but was I the leader? Not the majority of the game.

My 2-0-6 game? That was a 20 minute surrender because we literally shut them down. We played like a team of fives, which if you're in ELO Hell: that is how you get out. Play like you're a ranked 5s team and its a surefire victory.

I know this sounds like bragging, and I'm sorry but I just had to paint the picture of what you want before I can explain how to attain it. I know a lot of you are already complaining about how "duh I know how to win Double, but all I get are $&%*$ bags and $$#( monglers!" trust me. I understand. Do all my games go perfect? Of course not. But ELO is a LOT like Baseball.

Here's something a lot of people don't realize or don't tell you.

TOP ELO PEOPLE ONLY HAVE AROUND 55% WIN/LOSS

What does that mean? 100 games, 55 wins and 45 losses. Or, win 11/20 games and your rating will grow. That means YES you will lose. There is literally nothing I can tell you or teach you to make sure you NEVER lose. If that was a secret I knew, you really think I'd be blogging about it? No way. I'd be knee-deep in trophies and checks from TSM and CLG.

I'm telling you that for every five shittiest team of all time, worst players in the GAME, if you can win with 6 decently organized teammates, you'll grow ELO. I know that is crazy, but its true.

I'm sorry for rambling, but I'll try and get to the goods. Like I stated before Be a LEADER! If I wouldn't have had a leader those games, I might not have won. We wouldn't have a outrageous advantage that allowed us to control the pace of the game. So how do you be a leader? Here's a quick guide to being a good leader in League of Legends.

* Be respectful and supportive, EVEN to baddies. I had an EMBARRASSING loss to Riven up top as Gangplank and my team was wonderful to me. Udyr tried his best to gank, but he wasn't too great either, so our mid helped out. What happened? I farmed and farmed and as most GPs know, you become a pretty damn fine carry. I knew that if I collected Assists from my Ult, stopped getting caught, and farmed with my Parrley and GP/5 items (Philo Stone + Heart of Gold) that I would make up the gold I'd missed out on. What happened after that? We turned it around. Malzahar and I carried the game. Would I have been able to do that with asshole teammates? No. They were respectful and supportive and carried me all the way to late game, because they followed that rule.

* Make educated decisions and big plays. Jungler ganking top while your jungler is bot? No TP top? Bam swing for dragon and possibly their blue buff. No Alistar or other SUPER level 1 champion on enemy team? Try invading. Don't get greedy and make educated plays. You have to play HIGHER than your ELO to RAISE your ELO. Dragon timer coming up? MAKE A GAME PLAN! Maybe that's ganking bot or mid lane and then taking dragon. Or telling top to head down so it's a 5v3/4/5. Either way, if your whole team runs around like idiots, you flip a coin. You'll win 10/20 times, maybe. But you need to win 11/20 times.

* TIMERS. TIMERS. TIMERS. I don't know if you watched IEM Kiev and M5 sweep through everyone, but if you didn't I suggest checking it out. What did they do? They DOMINATED the jungle and all timers. What does this mean, warding within a minute of a buff coming up and then ganking them. Securing all your buffs, getting them on the right people OR making the decision to starve the enemy of the buff even if it means on a less beneficial character. (MOST good junglers don't need the 2nd/3rd blue)

Blue/Red spawns at 1:55. Judging by how good their leash is, you can decide whether it took them 10 seconds or 30 seconds to kill it. Blue/Red spawns every 5 minutes if all creeps in the camp are killed. What does that mean? In an unorganized team, you can usually grab their first buff they grabbed at around 7:30. Make sure your team knows this so that the respective lane can either respond in an emergency, or just come and sweep.

Starving small camps is not really worth it anymore except very early game. Its better to supplement your gold/EXP since you're going out of your way already. However, if you've got a lot of pressure on your team (bad lanes, etc) then a good trick is to leave 1 small minion at their buff, AND WARD IT. This way it'll delay their buff timer quite a bit and 9/10 they'll kill that small minion within the 3 minute ward timer. Then time the buff. This helps a lot if your buffs and their buffs are spawning at the same time and you want some more leeway.

Dragon spawns at 2:30, though its not recommended to grab it then unless you have some serious team comp. If you're on purple side, PULL the dragon out. This will stop blue side from jumping the wall and stealing. Always try and make plays before dragon to try and secure an advantage. Even if its just a quick 3-5 man gank to secure 1 kill. That will make the possible dragon fight 4v5. Also, suiciding to secure a dragon steal is worth it most of the time before 25 minutes. Even better if you can get away though. Dragon then spawns after 6 minutes of it being dead. KEEP A TIMER and prepare at least a minute before. This means pink wards, wards, etc.

Baron Nashor spawns at 15:00 and then 7:00 minutes after death. Think of the above dragon tips, but amplify by a lot. Knowing when to Baron and when to push is a big thing that you can only get through experience in League of Legends. I can't list every situation, but in general I find that Free Towers in the Base > Baron > Outer Towers > Dragon > Buffs.

The best times to get Baron is when you've netted a kill or two, but you're still waiting on some pressure from lanes. This is because if the enemy team comes to contest you, their base will be barraged. However if you chose to push, it might just be a standstill, and thus the Baron buff would have helped a lot. Also it gives you 300 global gold and 900 experience which early/mid game is huge. The buff is also crazy good.
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Exalted_with_Baron_Nashor

That is what will win teamfights. If you prolong fights around towers then eventually your team will advantage. (Unless you're against a poke heal comp)

*Accept when you made a bad play, THEN discuss what could have been done to fix it. Sometimes you make a play, expecting 100% from your teammates and they give you 70%. Most of the time it is better to say "my bad, bad play" and THEN say what would have made it work. Say you went for dragon, with your Ranged, Support and Jungler.

You guys get ganked 4v3 and lose dragon.

This is how you should go.

"Sorry my bad, bad play. Next dragon mid can you come down if mid leaves lane?"
"Dragon timer"

That way you've taken the blame (while maybe you really don't deserve it) and you've still given a way to help improve your odds. Its MUCH more effective than this.

"WHAT THE **** MID? WHERE WERE YOU?"

It makes them feel stupid and they get frustrated. Frustration loses games and just gives the game a bad rap.

If there is stuff I missed (which I'm sure I did) then please comment or message me. I have all my contact details at the end of this post. I know this one was a longer one, but I hope you enjoyed the read. I'd really love to hear what you guys have to say about this all. That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

How to Get out Of ELO Hell 101: Part 3

2012-02-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Welcome to ELO Hell 101, I'm Nick and I'll be here to teach you how to get out of ELO Hell. Whether it takes two days or two months, I'll do my very best to walk you through my best tips and tricks for carrying yourself out of ELO Hell and into at least Bronze rating. I myself found that once I was at least Bronze I felt a lot less self conscious about my rating (not that you should care, its League of Legends) and was able to more enjoy the game. Do I still rage at ELO HELL TERROR and all that? Yes. That's not going to go away, however you can do a few things to significantly lower your raging.

So welcome to class, ELO Hell 101.

Have you read Lesson 1 or 2 yet? If not click How to Get out of ELO Hell 101.

Lesson 3: ELO Hell Is NOT What You Think It Is

I feel like I'm going to get a lot of hate for this one, but it needs to be said. When I hear people complain about ELO Hell, I hear a variety of responses. However, I can't get a single definition of what ELO Hell truly is. Because if its just players being bad, well then by all means life is hell! I suppose that argument could be made also, but the truth is: What 90% of people think ELO is, only 10% are right. What do I mean by that?

* My jungler never ganked my lane and instead died twice trying to counter jungle.
* Fifth pick didn't pick support when we didn't have one.
* Our 4th pick says he can only pick AP Mid and will AFK if he doesn't get it.

Do these sound familiar? Is this ELO Hell? No. Why? Because this will not go away.

#1: "Learn to play without a jungler."

* My jungler never ganked my lane and instead died twice trying to counter jungle.

This is not ELO Hell, this is your jungler making a mistake. Berating him, complaining, and therefore playing worse is the core of ELO Hell. Instead, realize that your jungler is behind and play differently in your lane. You have to be much more safe because it will essentially become a 1v2 (or 2v3) until your jungler can catch up. If you get ganked 3 times in your lane and your jungler never ganks for your lane, most of the time: it is your fault. Now I know a lot of you guys are gonna throw your hands in the air and scream "DASH BULLSHIT!" or mutter to yourself "well in my case, it wasn't my fault" but let's be honest. When you got ganked, were away from your tower?

Now wait. Right now you're thinking idiot, no I was at my tower and they dove me! Or maybe you were away from your tower? Wards are great. Ward places that junglers could go to gank you. When you see them, DO SOMETHING. That means back up, or if you're positive they won't just jump your ass when you do it, type in chat that you see them or attack them. Sometimes it worth more to show that you know they're there than letting your enemy know you have a ward. That's sure a mouthful, what do I mean by that?

The enemy team will know you have a ward, but you either rushed their gank so hopefully their unprepared. OR they will leave and come back later, buying you more time. Its going to be hard, but you can do it. Yes, you may die anyway and you'll have to repeat this process: but don't throw a tantrum.

Also, when they dive you under tower and you have been playing safe you should have a decent amount of health. So instead of just walking away, try and fight. Sometimes you won't get away, so at least get some damage in. Sometimes the tower will screw you and choose the wrong target and you won't get a kill. However, when they dive you and its not a instagib, fight your life. Exhaust the Physical target, kite them around the tower, dash back and forth, etc. Towers hurt a LOT early game, and sometimes all it takes is one or two hits to turn a fight around, or at least make it even.

#2: You should never lose 1v1.
There is also a type of player who I just love; "0 ganks top, thanks asshole" kind of players. You're 0/3 top and the jungler hasn't ganked for you top. That sucks. Wait a second, their jungler hasn't ganked top either? Then that is your fault. League of Legends was made so that cheesing is possible, but difficult if you take the right precautions. A 5-man gank IS possible level 1. How to stop it? Don't walk through the freaking jungle when they're all MIA at <2:30!

Don't want to die in lane? Suck it up and GO BACK! You'll lose out on CS, but most of the time that's better than dying. Then when you go back, counter buy your opponent. If you're in an explosive bot lane, buy Doran's Blades. Why? The health will allow you to survive, the damage allows you to trade, and the lifesteal gives a little bit of sustain. If you're mid and its still early, 2 Dorans Rings is better than a Blasting Wand a lot of the time. In case you didn't know, Doran's Ring is one of the most cost efficient items in the game, and seeing as how the average game lasts 33 minutes, you might not even make it to the point where you have to sell it back, making it hyper-efficient. What is the Dorans just aren't for you? Asses your situation. Tell me if I didn't cover everything.

#3: "Know that you're losing and what to do"
"I can't farm": Buy gold per five items. Especially Philosopher's Stone. It pays for itself in 26 minutes, helps you in Lane a LOT and makes up for some creep score you miss. How to make it more efficient? Build it into a Eleisa's Miracle or Shurelyas Reverie. Are you a jungler? Going double GP/5 is a good strategy done by Dan Dinh quite lot. Philo + Heart of Gold. Especially if your build works towards a Randuin's Omen since it is one of the best Anti-AD items in the game. Now you don't have to worry as much about farming so you can be more safe. That being said, you should still farm every chance you have. That means grabbing your nearest jungle creeps if they're bullying you outta lane. If they leave the lane and its pushed towards your side, freeze the lane and farm there. OR if they're across the map or went b, push it hard and then go back to farming the jungle. Check your character, is there anything they can do to make up the gold? Gangplank's Parrley and his Ultimate make getting extra gold and assists easier. Ashe's Hawk Shot gives her extra gold for last hitting. TF's passive gives everyone extra gold.

"They just one shot me": Buy some freaking resists! If LeBlanc is just combo killing you, hold on the Pickaxe you were about to buy and get a Negatron. If you're dead in 1 second, that 25 damage doesn't mean anything. If you're top lane, be that guy and buy a Chain Vest. (If you're against an AD) Most likely they will keep building offensive, and thus hopefully make them gankable.

"My mid/bot/top just keeps dying.": Win your lane hard. Push constantly, keep your lane on their toes. Is it fair that you have to play twice as good to carry a player? No. But that's what you have to do to win. If the other two lanes are winning and pushing and making plays, then the jungler has to respond. This takes pressure off mid. This also allows your jungler to gank mid and thus recreate some balance.

"X champion is 5-0,": Focus them and focus them hard. If their kills aren't balanced, that is also a disadvantage. If you have 3 team kills and your team has 8, but one of their champions owns 5 of those kills that means if you kill that champ, its 3-3 (well 4-3 after the kill) in team kills. Losing one lane is easily recoverable. That being said, there are some champions you really can't see snowball, so help that lane. This is a lot easier as a jungler, but as other lanes like I said, push hard. Be safe about that pushing though, ALWAYS ward. Also don't push if your escape isn't up! I've seen so many champions push without having any escapes so they just have to accept being killed, making all that CS that they starved their opponent MOOT!

"X player is bringing down team morale" : Bring UP the team morale. Become the team leader, is it fair? No. You shouldn't have to carry these people, but that's how you win. (Seeing a pattern?) To gain ELO, you have to be better than the ELO you're at. Meaning you have to be able to lead them. Jungler not keeping timers? Then keep timers. Jungler not warding river/lanes? Then ward river and lanes. Enemy team sweeping dragon before you can get in position? Rally your team a minute before dragon. If they know that dragon is up in a minute, it'll help them not to use TP to get back to lane, or to push if the enemy top has TP and you don't. If one player in particular is being berated for being bad, be the bigger man and whisper to them. Encourage them, give them a solution. Empathize.

"X player AFK'd X minutes in" : It happens, this is one of the only times I can say surrendering at 20 is okay. However, GIVING UP before 20 is not okay. If you blitzkrieg them early, win all your lanes, you can still win. You can't turtle though, and you have to be stellar in teamfights. If you're down at 20 minutes by a lot, then yeah chalk it down as a loss and take a breather. Don't queue up with those same people.

If there is stuff I missed (which I'm sure I did) then please comment or message me. I have all my contact details at the end of this post. I know this one was a longer one, but I hope you enjoyed the read. I'd really love to hear what you guys have to say about this all.
That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see my full gameplays on Youtube.

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

Why Can't I Play Udyr?

2012-02-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty close to just never playing Udyr again. I bought him a while back and have played about 30 games or so with him. I see all these great Udyr players and I've tried different things on him. I just suck as him and I think the sooner I admit that the better off I'll be. What does this teach me though? That sometimes the Tier list isn't "easy to play" its actually how good a champion is.

Just because a champion is God Tier or Tier 1 doesn't mean you will be able to play them!

That's something I've had to tell myself multiple times. (Mostly when I try and play AP Mid) It seems like its the same for Udyr. I just die early game and don't make it to late game where it seems Udyr is this unkillable machine. People have said that he really shines once you hit your Randuins, but if you don't have a Wits End you don't have damage, etc. I just don't really like him! I suck as him top lane. I suck as him jungling.

I have many other top lanes I'm great with! Tryndamere, Wukong, Pantheon, Gangplank, etc. I have other junglers I'm competent with! Pantheon, Gangplank, Xin Zhao(lol), Skarner, Lee Sin! However, I just can't seem to play Udyr! If you guys have any tips for him I'd love to hear them. I know about Flash-Bear Stance, its fun to do. I just feel like ganking with Udyr is like screaming "I'M A BEAR WATCH OUT I'MMA GETCHA!" which doesn't seem very successful.

That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! If you'd like to see those, click here for my playlist of Full Gameplays!

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

About Me

2012-02-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

I'm known on League of Legends as DoubleWinning, however in the real world my name is Nick Gustafson. I'm a 19 year old guy in his first year of college. Currently I've got a few major goals with this blog. One is that I really want to help you guys keep up to date with important League of Legends updates. Second I want to help you guys enjoy the game more! Third I want to help you guys improve your skill or use the skill you have to get to the rating that you should be at. Fourth I want to reach out to the League of Legends community and get to know you guys! I really like meeting people online because its nice to see what backgrounds and such that people are from!

Lee Sin Nerf Needed to Calm the God-Tier Junglers

2012-01-31T05:10:00.000-08:00

As you may have seen in the recent Patch Preview, our favorite Blind Monk; Lee Sin will be getting a nerf. This has been a pattern with the God-Tier junglers as of late, even the pseudo God-Tier jungler asshole Shaco. So what's this going to do to the new jungling meta? I'd like to say that it'll introduce some new top dogs in the jungle, but to be real it'll probably just mesh some together.

Skarner got nerfed, but it wasn't a nerf to how good he was. It literally just made it so you couldn't spam your skills anymore. Simply change play style a little bit and you almost don't notice the change. Skarner is still Tier 1.

Shaco got his boxes nerfed, making them last 60 seconds instead of 90. From what I know you can no longer do the assy camp boxes at Red and then go gank a lane before they hit level 2. However, Shaco is still a good jungler, but the counters to him still stand. Since he can't just be a huge asshole anymore, he should be able to be outplayed.

Udyr got sort of an indirect nerf. However in my mind I think people don't see him as much of a threat as Lee Sin and Skarner, which is a mistake in my opinion. Not many champions have a similiar "I can kite 5 enemy champions for days" status that late-game Udyr does. The removal of dodge and thus the removal of dodge on his Monkey Stance was a small nerf, but noticable. It will make you come out of the jungle with less health, and give you less of an advantage against auto attack champions. I still see Udyr as an easy Tier 1 jungler.

So that leaves us with Lee Sin. Similar to Udyr and Skarner where their damage may fall off late game, their ability to constantly disrupt the fight, tank incredible amounts of damage, and provide amazing ganks early game is what makes them tier 1 junglers. I think Lee Sin's nerfs will make his jungling a little slower and his damage a little lower. Because of this I don't think he'll really lose that much favor. Why? Lee Sin is about his kit. He has a great kit. It is very hard to have a bad kit when you have 4+ usable good skills. Lee Sin also has a huge skill gap that allows great players to really shine and poor players not to be carried by him being a good champion. His kit allows you to be a good player, not necessarily his stats. Yes if he got his numbers nerfed to the ground he would suck, but that won't happen.

Who do I think will been seen more in the top junglers? I think Rammus and Nocturne will be getting a lot of love soon. Rammus has been good for a long time and people just seem to forget that he has some of the easiest ganks. Nocturne post-6 has a few combinations with champions that make his ganks almost unavoidable and basically impossible to ward. More situational junglers that I think will succeed are Malphite (good counter to the 3 AD meta), Shyvanna (M5 M5 M5), and Trundle.

That's all for this post, I hope you guys learned some! If you have any questions or comments, please comment here or contact me through Facebook or Twitter! If you want to see some full gameplays be sure to check out my Youtube. I'll be posting a lot of full game plays pretty soon, so be sure to subscribe! In an unrelated note though, click here to see an Anivia save my ass from a Rammus!

- Stay Classy and Keep Winning!

Nick "DoubleWinning" Gustafson
doublewinningg@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/doublewinning
www.youtube.com/doublewinning
www.twitter.com/doublewinning

How to Get out Of ELO Hell 101: Part 2

2012-01-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

How to Get out Of ELO Hell 101: Part 1

2012-01-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

Introduction to My Blog!

2012-01-24T02:31:00.000-08:00

Hey guys its Nick and first off I'd like to thank you for checking out my new blog! To start off if you have any questions, I ask you to go to my Facebook or Twitter. Just give me a like or a follow and post your question or comment! I'll try and get back to you as soon as I can! If its something you'd rather keep private, feel free to give toss me a email to my personal account doublewinningg@gmail.com. I'll also get to that as soon as I can!

So why should you bookmark or follow this blog? First off its very easy! Just type in your email address and you'll be sent updates about blog posts I do! I'll be sure not to spam your inbox as I almost will never post more than twice a day! However, if you do follow my blog you'll be able to keep up with me and my thoughts on League of Legends. This is stuff that I don't feel a video is needed for, or I'm not exactly sure. The biggest part of these blog posts is I want input from YOU guys! So I 100% encourage you guys to respond to my posts through either the blog, facebook, or twitter! I'm interested to see what you guys have to say!

What does my opinion really mean though? That's a fair point, I'm a Silver ELO player currently so why should you take advice from me? Because I know what a lot of you guys are going through. I've been in that wretched elo hell of the 1000s. One could argue that ELO hell never stops, it just gets less frequent. I'm here to help you guys get out of there and start playing with people who actually know how to play the game. Which in my opinion starts around the 1400 mark.

I'll keep you guys up to date with

Flavor of the Month NEW OP Strategies,
anaylsis from professional events,
cool stuff I pick up on livestreams,
weekly tips for assorted champions,
patch note analysis,
new weird viable builds on champions,
team strategies,
tips on how to improve your gameplay,
tips on how to work with people on your team,
detailed stats on my videos.
and much much more!

So why wouldn't you want to follow? Still not convinced? How about free stuff? Once I get my blog rolling and the viewers flowing, I'll be doing RP giveaways exclusive to my Blog followers! You really don't want to miss out on free stuff do you? I know I wouldn't!

So have I got you convinced? Well then be sure to Bookmark, Favorite, or Subscribe! Whatever is the easiest and will remind you to check back here often! The easiest option I think is by putting your email in the bar I have to the side, don't worry I won't spam you!

Thanks for reading, be sure to check out these links!
Like me on Facebook!
Follow me on Twitter!
Subscribe to my Youtube!
How to Beat Nasus Top + Other Videos I think You'll Like!