You can see Pekin's brain break while he's watching both his enemy laner and his entire team int is honestly so funny

It's so funny seeing Pekin witness the absolutely random shit that happens in lower elo games that most of us get to experience in all of our games.

"I need to just do my own thing and completely ignore my teammates." -Pekin Welcome to Top lane! :D

from watching the volibear video, the difference between pekin and zwag is that pekin laughs at his low elo team mates perform poorly instead of zwags complaining. Really just improves my look on him.

Pekin last video: "I'm winning every single game!" Can't challenge the universe like that, man.

if you're struggling to beat Illaoi, just play some Illaoi games and get a better handle on her. Perfect champ for this top lane series.

Your teammates in the first game were hard to watch

You know what they say, the best way to get unstuck platinum top is to play Renata Glasc top.

i got robbed out of my breakfast video

top lane is just a never ending rock-paper-scissor game of fiora-riven-illoai and then aatrox just floats around in the air because someone has to have first pick

Omg i almost thought i wasnt gonna have a new pekin vid to fall asleep to😭

It's funny how pekin 1 is a completely different character than pekin 2, I think there's a text above his monitor to remind him which personality he should perform.

Seeing Pekin get these kinds of team mates makes my games feel normal.

Wait till he finds out about Skarner top.

I feel like thats why top players are more one trick ponies, like to climb top you have to consistently get fed as fuck to influence the game, mid as pekin showed he can play pretty much anything while still having some influence on the game while top if you lose you're just useless

You can tell that game 2 was a tilter because Pekin usually RARELY swears in these commentary videos xD

When you get the inevitable vayne top game, you have to upload it--win or loss. We want to share in your suffering of that hellscape

Really enjoying the series and watching you break down your learning process of super unfamiliar situations

"When you build squishy, you're squishy" Wise words my man, wise words indeed.

Former Illaui main: Beating her is simple. She even shouts it at you: "move!" Her entire kit is based on her E. It triples her damage at least, healing on her, etc. Dodge that, hit her once she misses, and punish the fact that she can't push beyond her tentacles or really roam. If she hits you with e, calculate whether she has the damage to kill the spirit. If not, avoid leaving the range. If she can, get out asap to cut your losses. She has bad match ups vs countless champs, like almost anyone with a dash.

These games are so strange, yet so amusing to watch lol. Wish you good fortune with the climb!

For a few moments I got hyped about this top climb and I thought maybe I can come back to league after 3 months break and have fun, but in this one you reminded me how bad teammates can be and I don't want it anymore. Thanks mr Zigzagoon!

yes plz more fiora!! i love playing her lol she’s always been one of my mains - also i am really really pumped for your loss game lol. i am like halfway thru the first game & i feel like your team was literally never playing around you even tho you were constantly playing around them

Garen does well into Illaoi. Bait her E and then attack her. You can kill her through her ult, just Q her right as she ults, spin and ult when needed. If she's ahead of you, you can just walk away the moment she ults as well.

love the longer videos documenting your climb!

Now this is the top lane bs I'm used to. Masochism simulator has begun

This is fun to watch, feels like I'm learning with you. 🤠

Damn If i knew the first game would be like that, I would've made some popcorn

Hey Pekin, I've been playing Illaoi since she was introduced, she's my second highest mastery champ behind Malzahar, I normally play against emerald/platinum players, so I don't know quite how useful the insight I have can be. Here's a couple bits on how to engage the big kraken lady, first, you need to avoid the E, the spirit move is her bread and butter, and you can't let that hit you, she's one of the few characters that can potentially do over 100% damage if she's hitting both you and the spirit, since the spirit can take up to 70% of the total damage she's doing, as well as any damage she's doing to you, so, better get those fancy feet moving, the move itself has about 16 seconds CD on the early levels, so any time she misses you can start a trade, but don't get fooled, she heals based on missing HP per tentacle hit, so even with low HP, she's still VERY tanky. Illaoi has some mana problems at first, but later on she has a good enough pool, you need to engage her with a duelist, DO NOT bring in more than one enemy, that's how you end up throwing the match, Illaoi's ultimate spawns tentacles per enemy hit in it's AoE, so if you bring in 2 or 3 people she's gonna be a nightmare to fight, since she can pull someone's spirit before her R and add an additional tentacle to the mix, bear in mind, these tentacles do not count towards her passive spawn or the ones summoned after the spirit is destroyed, so if she ults, RUN AWAY, Illaoi is very slow, so CC and slows can make her waste her advantage, but if she gets a good ult (mind you, she can flash when she ults to gain extra range), the best option to avoid having her out-sustain the whole gank, is to run away from her till the ultimate ends, also, after the ultimate hits and for a few seconds after, all tentacles slam faster and spawn faster for the spirit vessel, so keep moving. Lastly, Illaoi is pretty bad against people like Mordekaiser, Illaoi's whole thing is being a slow, heavy hitting, constantly healing beast of a champion that thrives in short, high intensity fights where the enemy is too busy trying to out damage her, rather than outsmart her, so knowing when to engage and when to step back is crucial to winning, so mind the CD for her skills, also, remember that her W does max % HP damage, so even if you're full HP, you're gonna feel those slams, having some healing cut is a good way to mitigate her long term sustain, and playing aggressive and killing as many tentacles as you can is a good way to delay her, since at low levels the CD for the tentacles is close to 20 seconds, so early tentacles are vital to her lane phase. Overall, this is what I can share from her skills and how to engage her, I'm not a high elo player by any accounts, so I don't know many tricks beyond hiding the E inside your Q (you can slam the wave to open a path and E instantly to animation cancel the Q), but I hope this insight helps a little, in the event you run into the priestess again.

It's kinda cool seeing a high elo player get "humbled" (not the right word for what I want to convey) in plat. It shows just how different lanes require different skill sets and being good at one doesn't automatically make you good in others.

These vids in this specific series with different champs is nice!

Morde is probably the most consistent counter to Illaoi. Teemo and Kayle are good too as long as you dodge her E. That being said, Illaoi is unbelievably frustrating and if she ever gets you under tower it's pretty much impossible to recover the lane since she'll either dive you or force a horrendous back with her E spam and if your jungler ganks she'll just kill you both. I don't bother banning her since she's not picked too often but she's pretty much the only reason I ever dodge

Just as a general rule for how to simplify top lane: If you are strong and team is weak: play by self (split-push) If you are weak but team is strong: play with team Also if you are moving towards the enemy, they are controlling you, if they are moving towards you, you are controlling them. The goal should always be to control the game not get controlled. Also be very careful to not forget how you got strong, this is usually done by playing slow. It is tricky to stop yourself from falling into the trap of suddenly changing how you are playing when you get strong. You shouldn’t be playing risky if you are winning, there shouldn’t be pressure on you to make outplays as if you are losing. Try not to get mind controlled by yourself and you will find top lane to be much more consistent.

pekins character development arc is coming with top lane I can feel it

I have not played a single ranked game this split yet, because I wanted to wait out a lot of the clown games I faced when playing right after season start (30% wr at the beginning vs 75% wr later on). I thought about starting my climb this week, but being only 10 minutes into this video I'd rather wait another week or so. Thx Pekin 👍

Rather than ban Illaoi, you should try playing her! I feel like the more you play her, the easier it becomes to play against her

I'm glad you uploaded the first voli game lol happy that challengers aren't immune to low elo bs

Don’t give up I love the grind you will be challenger top!

Karrigan is the goat. His individual play is phenomenal, and his surprising underdog story of the Boston major 2018 where he took a team of relatively unknown rookies to the major finals, shows IGL skil.

Awesome vid as usual! First game if you went Nahors instead of ROD I Think it would be a lot easier for you to split sides and 1v1 anyone who comes to stop you, also you'd take towers like a beast. Your team mates though XD Damn they sucked HAHAH

One thing I notice at these lower elos is the pressure Pekin feels (or at least more outwardly shows he feels) that I don't see him having at the higher elos. The pressure of needing to 1v5 every game. The feeling of getting your hopes up from a good early game, just to watch your teammates throw. I could not understand how calm he was at higher elos. But I see the pressure and the need to perform well at lower elos in greater effect.

Welcome to second silver Pekin, I hope you enjoy your stay!

Ah, yes... The canon event of not knowing how to beat illaoi and perma banning it when you start playing top lane

Pekin: - He is building wrong Pekin dies before pressing R :D

hay! Love watching relatable streamers!

I actually like it when you have a good chance to lose, it makes it more interesting with an unpredictable outcome

thats what i like to see, clean wins. nah im just kidding still great video to see more of this series as a top laner

11:43 "Ima be honest, I think gold elo has better macro play than emerald and platinum at this point". As a player who climbed from silver to emerald 4 for the first time this season, I can confidently say that he is spot on there. Mechanically better, but no brains here.

I personally would love to see more Camille/Fiora games. If I played top back when I played League, the 1v5 champs would have been the ones I gravitated towards.

Pekin pushing top "Am I allowed to keep pushing?" Yes, This is IRON, go ahead. Sure looks like it to me.

I enjoy playing voli on aram and maxing e. People dodge in normal games but in aram, they just stand there and take it. I then push toward a more tanky build and it usually leads to a win. My favorite voli story is the first time I played him in aram after several years of avoiding him. I was high as a kite and got a penta. :D

Hearing you say that about Illaoi makes me feel better XD

The way to beat Illaoi in lane is literally to dodge her E. That's where most of her damage comes from, so all you do is basically just bait out the E, dodge it, then you can usually all in her for free (a little dependant on your champ of course). When she hits 6 it's pretty much the same thing, dodge the E but also if she ults you, literally just walk away cause the ult is stuck in place where she casts it.

If I am gold elo should I build the highest win rate items listed for gold elo or emerald+? Does it matter?

Hey Pekin, if you wanna hit E consistently use your E while youre in you Q running animation on voli, it makes it take longer for your opponents to see it

With AP Nasus you want a 2nd point in Q by lvl 9. It lowers the cd enough for you to e-q a melee then have Q back up before canon dies to get more than 1 stack per wave on canon waves. If you have a lot of gold from early kills then Q to lvl 3 at level 10 to offset the increased dmg from items.

I think this is super cool, but i think Pointy Hat is underestimating how much combat quality suffers without actually taxing the resources of the characters. Thats why there are recomendations on how many encounters are supposed to happen between short/long rests. Thats why i for example severely hindered my ToA group at taking long rests during the hex crawl, only allowing it at designated safe places. Otherwise is have read the system and its pretty neat.

I find it absolutely hilarious that whilst watching this Vid I noticed in my Shorts Recommendations to the side was a Zigzagoon Short. Even the KZfaq Algorithm can't tell the difference.

I feel like the Plat/Emerald line is just sort of the area where people who are kinda okay but don't really care to get actually good kinda congeal. So you kinda just have to assume everyone mostly sucks and never make plays that only work when your teammates follow up. Time your plays around teammates when you can but never assume they will time their plays around yours.

Pretty good example of why gold elo is so frustrating to play when you watch a lot of educational content but having to deal with these type of teammates (and are also not as good as Pekin)

I really enjoy the new series! Lost interest for a while, but this is great content. I really apprecciate if we don't know the outcome or logic behind the chosen games. I feel more suspesion this way.

i literally just played a voli game with this exact build too, super fun

Perfection!

Peakin content ❤

I thought the same thing when I climbed from gold to high plat... where I'm at right now seems like a constant coin flip due to the way my teammates play. Throwing seems to be the current trend.

14:51 : Yeah, that's why some people talk about Elo Hell. Some Champions and play styles are just so difficult to climb with no matter how good you are. Riot says Elo Hell doesn't exist, but it does on the short term when you're not talking about 50+ games. I know Rioters who avoid certain supports until they hit Emerald+ for that very reason.

It's the Pekin weekend baby

The thing people hard stuck low elo need to understand is if you want to climb out you HAVE to be able to HARD carry 1v9 every single game, you can NOT rely on your team at all, if you're not able to do that then unfortunately your probably never going to see diamond +

you are literally going through the same things i go through. probably bc you are my main source of league and learning. i play similarly (but worse) to you.

I feel like a big part of winning top is coin flipping whether your laner is a human or not

Ah yes, bone plating into volibear, one of the worst rune choices you could ever do

YOU GOT THIS PEKIN!

That first game is the emerald experience

Yo some volibear action yes

That voli build looked like it healed enemies, def need better team for that one.

Your team in that first game was actually shocking to watch.

That morgana, my eyes. She’s literally never in teamfights, just wandering the map

38:05 i hate that too, losing a fight and then realizing i forgot to use my tiamat item. i liked it better when it wasnt an active ability

hello, if you are stuck in plat, perhaps try lillia, she is giga 1v9 toplane pocket pick. also gnar. gnar. please. gnar.

the illaoi was so mad lmaoo

Wait until you get stuck in emerald. It’s hell, worse delusions than bronze

Bruh, the point of that Voli build is that you can take the "Jack of All Trades" rune for free 1000g stats value. Doran's Blade (usually) = AD/HP/Lifesteal RoA = AP/HP(dublicate)/Mana Navori = Attackspeed/Crit/Mov% MR/Armor/Haste boots = MovFlat + other stat for 10 or 11 total different stats Third item according to boots to be able to sell doran's blade afterwards.

hahhah. ah the joys of learning top lane. keep your head up champ. sometimes thing won't make sense, and thats ok. embrace the chaos, free yourself from the shackles of KDA.

Pekin, pick Yorick into Illaoi. The ghouls block her E. After lvl 6 you can just shove her in constantly and farm her like a minion.

pekin doing morgana dirty in the 3rd game, they were getting multiple kills each time he said that they're not very good

Sorry you're experiencing platinum hell, but it is a bit cathartic seeing such a good player struggle with it too.

First game was such a clown fiesta XD

Banning Illaoi no matter what? You're a real top laner now.

I never cringed so hard 😂 have patience Pekin ❤

Pekin "i reach level whatever pretty soon" woof

AP Nasus is weird. You can win lane pretty hard with it, but you have to start building tank items after 2 AP items, and then you have to sell your AP items and replace them with tank items. I think that tech switch strat only works in pisslow though.

This game validated my experience so hard. I’m def of the mindset of focusing on my own play to see how I can improve. Instead of blaming my team, I’ll watch my reply and see what I could have done better. Howeverrrrrrr if a challenger player can’t figure it out, it may be a bit egotistical of me to assume I can figure it out as well. I enjoy this game so much, but the climb to get players that are actively playing the game is too miserable Gl pekin

the most consistent way to climb out of that elo as top lane voli, in my opinion, is to just play to giga split push and force enemies to 1v3 you or lose

Ranged AP tops do well winrate wise vs illaoi such as Ryze, Cass, Teemo, Swain

Why did the first game look more troll than my bronze and silver games xd

This series is just reinforcing I made the right decision to quit league lol. Still love the game and watching Pekin and LCS but the playerbase is just.... yeah. Ok farther in the video "The funny thing about lethality Varus is people forget they can auto attack" is a full lol quote.

Finally I'm in the same elo as pekin

10:20 peak league of legends mechanical gameplay right there

It’s a 50-50 based on your team at lower ELOs (up to gold, little better but still not great above that like in this video). If you’re really good in those you can make it a 75-25, but still won’t be 100% cuz teams are so random. But if you’re just above average for your rank, you only make it like a 60-40 chance of winning which isn’t enough to climb consistently.

this video reminded me that, in fact, volibear is/was a toplane champ. huh