u/Ivanoho

I saw a post the other day on this sub where someone said that Master is when you're finally "good at fundamentals". It caught a lot of flack, because people took it to mean that you aren't good at the game until Master+, and maybe I'll catch flack for this too, but to a marginal extent, I somewhat agree.

I still feel like there's so much I need to work on, so much that I can still learn. I'm not saying Master rank is bad, but rather I'm acknowledging that there's still a ton of room for improvement, and as I've gotten better and better at the game over the course of these last few months, it has opened my eyes to how high the skill ceiling is for this game and how much knowledge I still lack.

Things I still need to improve on:

1. I HAVEN'T PARRIED A SINGLE THING. I keep telling myself I'm going to just play a session where I focus only on parrying things, but it just ends up slipping my mind in the heat of the match. I know a handful of moves I should be able to parry on reaction, but I'm sure there are a ton I don't know about.
2. There are some moves that I straight up don't know how to block, and I guess I've been too lazy to look them up specifically. For example, one of Yasuo's assists, I don't actually know if that crosses up or not like his HoldS1 (I actually had to go into training mode to see what button he presses to even do this move). Warwick's jump where he goes above your head and swipes at you with his feet, sometimes when he's directly above me, I cannot for the life of me figure out which direction to block from. Etc.
3. I think I just need to play the other characters more. I don't really know anything about the other characters' kits and what buttons they press to perform the actions they do. I couldn't tell you the differences between Darius' M and H, his S1 or S2, their respective follow-ups, and honestly that goes for most of the cast aside from Ahri and Jinx, which I play. I know what their moves look like visually, obviously, having played nearly 3000 matches, but I think it would help me to know exactly what buttons they're pressing to understand their flow of gameplay better.
4. I need to mix up my approaches more often, but I don't really know how. I usually lead with Ahri, so I'm oftentimes approaching from the air, and when I end up in long sessions with someone in casual lobbies, they start catching on and anti-airing my approaches. I have no clue how I'm supposed to really approach someone on the ground. Dancing in and out and dash-blocking to get in on zoners feels really clunky to me, like I'm just mashing my dash macro and alternating between going left and right, which sometimes baits out a normal I can punish, but sometimes I just dash into a move they throw out. It feels really hit-or-miss and I feel so out-of-control of my grounded approach. (As Jinx, I don't really approach lmao)

These are some of the things I had top of mind not an exhaustive list. Feel free to share some things that you guys feel like you still need to work on with your own gameplay!

The charged H was supposed to be a charged jH!

I even did another attempt with the taunt added in before the S2 super

I was talking to the old man here who asks you if you have any regrets. I hit the button to select something to the effect of "I made a promise I couldn't keep." (Which is an obvious allusion to Phrolova). I kid you not, my Spotify playlist, which was on shuffle, started playing Reveries in the Crimson Beyond, which is Phrolova's theme that plays in the Sonoro Sphere she created of her hometown.

My eyes were already watering, but this old man wasn't done, he proceeded to tell me his own story of something he regrets, which I won't spoil here, but it really hit home, and by the end of it, I was in shambles.

I was just trying to complete exploration of the Dimmr Plains man, instead I was forced to explore the back of my hand as it wiped tears from my eyes.