Painting a Picture of My Perfect Support

Last night was one of those nights. Everyone was gathered on Mumble making small talk when Yunsuk interrupts the conversation by asking Michael to "paint a picture of his perfect woman." It was boy talk night again, so I put on my favorite ambient music, listened, and made loose tangents in my head.

 Loose tangents... Loose... Loo...Lulu! Credits to Poki-grzyb on Deviantart.

Warren, being the well-grounded person that he is, brought up the first relevant point. Nobody can accurately describe what their ideal partner would be like. I feel ya, Warren. Ever since you left your post as my lane partner, I've been thinking about the best type of person to replace you with.

The group agrees that their ideal partner doesn't need to be in the top percentile of attractive people. My support doesn't need to be in the top percentile of players either. I'm a pub at best when it comes to playing physical damage carries, so having a huge skill gap wouldn't help either of us. As duo queue partners, it'd be nice if we could learn and grow together. I broke out of my mental rant to say something about growing with your perfect woman. The contribution was a success.

Chemistry between players is unforeseeable, yet crucial. You could play with the best support in the world and still be off-sync with their actions. On the other hand, you could play with the worst support NA and still have a great time failing. I remember a certain Blitzcrank who missed every single one of his pulls, fed the enemy team, and still made the game fun by chatting up a storm when I couldn't push the lane any further. In a DoTA 2 co-op vs. bot game, a Dazzle saw how terribly I was farming and ran around announcing that there was nothing to fear, because Dazzle was here. It didn't make me play any better, but it sure sucked less when I fed first blood to an AI.

Okay, maybe that's not so reassuring. Credits to Halycon450 on Deviantart.

My perfect support would also have to complement my strengths and weaknesses. I need somebody who knows that I'm awful at moving in for ganks without giving away the ganker's position. I need someone who understands that Graves destroys me in lane, no matter who I'm playing. I need somebody who can make safe and smart decisions, because I'm a careless and inconsistent player.

In between the inner ramblings, I hear the guys throw around words like "independent" and "redhead". There was a moment of silence after their ideas ran dry, and it was then that Bo said the most intelligent thing I've heard him say all week.

"You know, I just want a girl who can put up with my shit."

YES! That's exactly what I want from my support. It's not the once-in-a-lifetime plays or the funny taunts that make a good duo lane. It's not even the thorough knowledge of the metagame or the shared thirst for victory. All I want is somebody who can put up with my missed CS, my faulty focusing, my whiffed ultimates, and my overextensions. My perfect support is exactly what the role implies -- supportive. With that in mind, I happily concluded my inner monologue and made sure to take a cheap shot at Bo on Mumble.

I'll find a perfect support one day, no doubt. But for now, I'm just happy soloing mid.