S10 Recap

A year with massive changes. Kobbe and Dardoch were both members of this spring, but they are already giving me a "down past years" vibes like MikeYeung or Grig. Based on hints from aftermath interviews, it was almost feeling like a miracle that we gave C9 their first loss.

Without solving the problem from the root, reuniting with Doublelift was nothing but relying on their individual performances. I still remember that when I saw the "choose the player with better scrim performance between Biofrost and Treatz" announcement (which was deleted in less than 24 hours), "what the" was all I could say. But we somehow managed to win our seventh championship, I don't know if it's plot armor, or the competitive level of NA was just too low.

For worlds, I had a real expectation for them. Why can't this year be the year? Now, I hardly remember those 0-6 gameplays. Some of the clips of the summer playoff, like FBInt or "They're fucking inting!", was reminded several times, whether intentionally or unintentionally. But I wish I can just forget the memory of 0-6.

To be honest, I didn't feel extreme sorrow for Bjerg's retirement; I guess he's staying as a head coach is a big reason. TSM management needs changes is the fact that every bayliever knows, and Bjerg himself as the biggest victim, after years of peak competitive performances were wasted, his decision was to stay and solve this problem by himself.

It's the ultimate sacrifice; it's the ultimate loyalty.

What more can you say?

I had my first Clash before the start of season 10. I found my team on the official LOL JP forum LFT section. I was shaking nervously during the ban pick, like I used to when playing ranked. The result was not ideal, but the first play, as five people premade with voice chatting in years, still felt great. The best part, which I mentioned in "A taste of competitive gaming", was that when I don't have to be distracted by worrying if my teammates are tilted and concentrating on my own play, I found myself having way better performances than I usually have in solo queue. I believe all players in Clash felt the same. Especially for me that have been playing alone for years, such a feeling is addictive.

Living in a foreign country, I don't expect to have a stable starting position in any team, so my plan was to improve my individual skill and champion pool to earn my reputation as a mercenary. I started to intentionally practice more picks after my first Clash in December 2020, which results in that my available picks increased from only Lucian/ Xayah at the start of the season to Caitlyn/ Senna/ Jhin/ Ezreal/ Lucian/ Xayah at the end of the season.

I attended as much Clash as possible. Later, because the official LOL JP forum closed due to "everybody is using discord", I have to find a team on Twitter. I played with one of the teams (precisely one of the captains) twice, but the second time he only intended to play the first day of the two-day Clash. There were me and the jungler who wish to play the second day, so we decided to create our own team. It was the day of the second day, so we could only try to recruit on Twitter or a Japan discord LOL community "LJD". Somehow these five random guys all have mechanics good enough, and our playstyle fits each other; we managed to win my first 8-teams Clash championship on the first day of the team.

When you're winning, every problem has an answer. This team was founded in late June and only had 2-1 or 3-0 records in every Clash after that. We even played in a personally held tournament in August and September. Our team atmosphere is far from try-hard; you could hardly get enough people to practice, and we were not playing a lot of solo queues as well. Rather than criticize each other and improve, we prefer to enjoy and play LOL. At the time, I always had the mindset that when our win rate starts to drop, the team dynamic is going to change.

We were runner-up at our first personally held tournament, so we had high expectations on our second attempt. I myself was not very confident, and it turns out we lost in the first round. They seemed really don't care that much about the result. Of course, people were still saying they were "upset," but there was no particular way of improving discussed at all.

I was extremely disappointed with such a team atmosphere. I even decided to quit after our next Clash. But after I collect myself, I followed so many years of esports, and I don't want myself to be the toxic teammate who whines and contributes nothing. Also, I'm 30 years old, and I don't want myself still being unable to face the problem and solve it, only to be salty and a quitter. I wish to improve this time. I thought back about what I want from playing with a team for a week. In the end, I decided to stop chasing results. If the team wants to enjoy and play, I will enjoy and play.

The last time we play as five was the 16-team Clash in October. I took a day off to watch TSM play. The day I was back, we won another Clash. That was probably the best memory I had with this team.

After that Clash, our mid says that his IRL friend is level 30 now, and he is going to play Clash with that friend from then on. We held a pretty serious try out for new mid. The ex-mid also filled when we didn't have enough people to try out as five.

He was the only member that left in a good term.

In our team practice the other day, I and the support had a serious call conflict with the jungler and the new mid, which results in 2 deaths for our bot lane. The voice chat was intense. I also felt that jungler's tunnel vision was unbelievable, and it was not the first time. But it was also true that bot lane didn't actively call for engaging. We still managed to win that game, but the post-game voice chat was still very heated.

The next day, the support suddenly says that he's going to attend Clash with his friends. That was his last message, and he left the discord server days after. The jungler, who is captain at the same time, was shocked—probably blaming himself, too. He opened a hidden channel in the team discord, discussing team direction with me and the top, trying to prevent things from happening again. But the atmosphere had changed a lot compared to what it was when the team was founded.

The top left after not so long. I said that I have no intention to leave, but I won't be as try-hard as I was, back to play like a mercenary. I don't know if my Japanese failed to say what I meant,

but the captain thought when I said "play like a mercenary", I meant that I'm willing to give up my starting position. When I realized there was already a new AD to replace me.

When I talked to the captain about this, he provided me a chance to back as the starting AD. But the team dynamic at the time, the unstable members and environment, plus I did have thought about leaving; I decided to think about this "chance to leave" from another aspect.

I spent quite some time on Clash directly or indirectly this year. On game day, I have to empty my schedule all day for stuff, including warm-up and team practice. There were some obvious weaknesses in the captain's play, and it didn't improve after my hints or advice. I enjoyed a lot of pretending myself playing esports. Most importantly, I can't imagine myself pretend that the history of this team doesn't exist and play LOL as nothing happened. I chose to leave in the end.

From the first one to the last one, the team collapsed in less than a month.

The other day, I saw the captain looking for a team on Twitter, then I checked the team discord and found it disappeared. I don't know if it's I'm kicked, or the team disbanded. But the new members didn't seem to be particularly passionate about the team operating; it's quite unlikely they kicked the captain. It was probably disbanded. And about the reason, I have no way to find out.

During the last weeks finding new players, we spent some time in every position, which is absolutely different than what it was when we were looking for members to found the team. But look back, the first five player's playstyles fit each other like a miracle.

Top is the best player we have, lane kingdom every game. The opponents always have to send two to defense, only to fail most of the time.

Jungler strives at map control than ganking. Unless we just straightly lose team fights, we hardly lose objectives.

Mid is good at roaming and teleporting, brings huge side lane leads for us.

AD is not so good at laning but performs at late game team fights.

Support has good mechanics, and decisive engages. He is also the mood maker of the team.

Our playstyle is always like top pressures the side lanes, AD pushes mid lane, jungler controls the map, and mid looking for kills during the opponents' rotation. No particular one has to sacrifice; no particular one has to have pressure.

It's such a shame a team that clicks like this didn't get a happy ending. But maybe it's lucky that a team with five random people can make it to four months. Maybe I should not sorrow for its end; I should smile for it happened.

Like I mentioned before, I was intentionally improving my champion pool. I was inspired by xFSN Saber and decided to pick up Caitlyn in December 2020. After a month or two, I started to perform at rank games. The ban/ pick rate of Caitlyn was normal; she was just an ordinary pick with strengths and weaknesses.

Then, Caitlyn suddenly received a huge buff. Although it was silver, I didn't feel that Caitlyn needs any buffs. I realized that Caitlyn is probably going to be a popular pick. And so it was. Caitlyn became the most contested pick in both rank and pro play.

This may be the first time that I have my main become the FOTM in one night. And because of that, I have the most understanding of a lane's meta evolving in season 10.

Caitlyn's playstyle is lane bully, even in pro play. It's just her range advantage; whoever has Caitlyn as an opponent is going to have a hard time in bot lane. Therefore, when Caitlyn become a first pick-worthy AD, the bot lane meta is just "who can fight against Caitlyn".

Ashe and Jhin rose. Ashe lane against Caitlyn toe to toe, and Jhin can hold himself. There were also Senna, who has both good range and sustain, and the safe pick Ezreal. All the season 10 were just those picks. Hypercarry picks that were popular the previous season, like Kai'Sa or Xayah, were gone.

This year I spent the time to pick up new picks, and the best for were: Caitlyn, Ezreal, Senna, and Jhin. Including Xayah, who I added to my champion pool last year, I feel that from play a champion first time to a level where I can accept my performance, I have to spend an average of at least 20 games. I feel pretty good of my play once I picked it up, though. The end-season score for me was:

And the champion who can represent my season 10, is undoubtedly Caitlyn.

Caitlyn is all about bully your opponents with your range all the game. The most popular rune is Fleet Footwork, maximize the laning strength with long-range AA poke and sustain. But in some scenarios that higher DPS is required, Lethal Tempo can be considered.

Useful in both pushing and poke, but remember to pick one, for Q's damage after the first target is not so ideal, except for champion who's trapped. Therefore, always Q first, then auto if an enemy is trapped. It may require some time to get rid of that muscle memory, though.

Caitlyn's bread and butter. Other than AA and positioning, A Caitlyn player's level depends on his trap usage. If you would like to know what's a good Caitlyn looks like, my advice is to watch xFSN Saber montage.

Traps behind the turret or at choke points of objectives are the basic. The intermediate way to use it is in team fights. Caitlyn should always be thinking about the next trap in team fights. W is not a skillshot with a projectile, so it's easy to lose track of. Places like the enemy's way of engaging or disengage are good for traps.

I would say the first step of practice trap usage is when someone is CCed in bot lane, and there is going to be a big trade or fight, what you should do is not looking for AA targets but watch the enemy AD positioning closely, and be ready to put a trap on his way in or out.

Most of the time I go QWE, but if the enemy support has gap closers (ex. Alistar, Leona, etc), I may go QEW. Good for both disengage and burst, so think clearly before use it.

I like to use the ult to help skirmish, dish out damage when I'm still rotating. It's okay if I can't get the kill. Other usages are just finishing up team fights or a combo. Game time is shorter than before, and there are a lot of early game fights, so I'm not big fan of use it as a poke once you see your lane opponents.

Caitlyn's attack speed scale is relatively low, so her playstyle is not orbwalk and crazy damages like Xayah or Ashe. She actually has good burst potential, but it depends on if you have headshots on the intended target. Getting used to such "One shot, one kill" playstyle is a path you can't avoid when trying to be good at Caitlyn. When you know how to use your W and E properly, alone side the long-range, you can toy your enemies.

30 years old, the 10th years for LOL, maybe my most competitive year, the year with the best performances of me.

I searched for any videos and resources, trying to get one bit better than I was, like it was season 2. I followed TSM's games for a whole year. I also had the most ranked games in years, not chasing ELO, but improving myself as an AD carry player.

I finally had a taste of competitive gaming. I had victories, I had defeats. Hell, I even had dramas.

I'm very happy, and very appreciated, for after I started working for so many years, I still get to be obsessed with a particular game.

I hope there are a lot of things waiting for me in season 11 as well.