Monthly Archives: November 2013

Season 3 Is Over – Now What Happens?

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As I’m sure you know, League of Legends Season 3 has ended.  What exactly happens now?

In the preseason, ranked queue will be available.  While games won’t play a huge factor in your Season 4 Ranked Placements, they will still effect your MMR.  Your MMR will be used to determine who you play against at the start of Season 4, and will help you get into a higher division right off the bat.  If you are serious about your rank, continue to go for victories in ranked during the preseason!

That being said, the only players required to play ranked during the preseason are Challenger players.  This is the only division which will have Inactivity Decay applied to it, meaning if players don’t play ranked for a certain amount of time they will be removed from the division.  No other division needs to worry about this, so don’t feel the need to play Ranked Queue during the preseason!

There will be huge changes being implemented throughout the preseason, some of which have already been revealed.  A few which have been announced so far:

  • New jungle camp
  • Baron changes
  • Support and Jungle gold changes
  • New Gold items
  • New ward / trinket system
  • Team Builder

There are many more changes coming to League of Legends in the near future, so keep an eye on this website for articles about those.

Courtesy of LeagueOfLegends.Com

Season 4 will begin about 1 month after the preseason begins.  You will be required to play Placement Matches again, with a “soft MMR Reset” hitting your account.  This reset is currently said to take your current MMR (end of preseason) + 1200, and then be divided by 2.  This equation is not 100% confirmed yet.  Once you play your 10 placement matches in Solo Queue you will be placed into a division based on your MMR.

I hope everyone is happy with the rewards they earned in Season 3, and let’s have a great preseason and Season 4!  I will update this website as new information is revealed about Season 4.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask below!

League of Legends and Working Out

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I have been a gamer since I was 5 years old, and damn did I look it all the way until I was a junior in high school.  I didn’t much care about my appearance, nor did I care about my diet or exercise plan.  Don’t get me wrong, I played tennis at a near collegiate level, and I played soccer all my life.  I was good at these things, but they were never things I had to really work hard on.  When I was a junior in High School I weighed the same amount as my skinny mother.  I was near 6 feet tall, and built like a string bean.  Great for tennis, sure, but it wasn’t a good look.  Junior year I started pounding away in the gym, lifting weights and eating as much as I possibly could.  I would drink a 24 ounce water bottle 7 times a day.  This would eventually lead me to gaining a significant amount of muscle, and evening my height and my weight out a bit.  I still work out 5 times a week, and I am addicted to it.  I love the satisfaction that it brings, and I love how good it makes me feel afterwards.

Why am I telling you this on a League of Legends website?  Well, it’s simple.  When you workout, whether it be playing a sport, lifting weights, or doing cardio, your body releases endorphins.  These endorphins make you feel great, but they also have a positive effect on your mind.  I always have my best gaming sessions after a good workout.  The good feeling involved with working out can carry to your gameplay, and the new found focus can bring reaction time and decision making to a new level.  Diet is also an important piece of your daily life, and if you have a good diet your mind will excel. I tend to plan gaming sessions around my workout times, so that I can benefit from the post-workout effects.

“Do you even lift?” – Alistar (Quote may not be accurate)

I recommend that if you don’t play a sport, lift, or run, you try some things out.  I can almost promise that you will get addicted to your new found fitness hobby, and it will carry positively to other parts of your life, even League of Legends.

Do you workout?  What is your favorite routine / lift / machine?  Do you notice a change in your gaming afterwards?

 

Try it out, and leave a comment if you do!

Champion and Skin Sale Breakdown: 11.12 – 11.15

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Champions:

Volibear (487 RP) – To Da Mouf! Wait, I’m not Trick2G.  However, when you play Volibear you feel like a monster and can roam wherever you please.  Volibear is a great tank jungler who can also carry the game with his early game ganks.  I would recommend Volibear if you want to add a champion to your jungle pool.

Renekton (440 RP) – Renekton is one of the strongest top lane champions in League of Legends right now.  He deals tremendous damage to his lane opponent while building pure tank.  He also has built in sustain and an escape, making him hard to kill.  Renekton is a great champion to learn, and I would recommend him if you are looking to add another champion to your top lane pool.

Olaf (395 RP) – Olaf recently got reworked and seems to be doing pretty well.  He was a running joke in League of Legends for a while as a champion who got nerfed so hard that he they deleted him from the game.  However, he has been seeing play recently and feels quite strong.  I do not recommend buying champions who cost less than 4800 IP using RP, but if you really want Olaf, go ahead!  He is viable.

Skins:

Blight Crystal Varus (487 RP) – This skin is a bit disappointing to me.  The artwork looks very cool, but in game I don’t think it holds up.  The animations are also nothing new.  I personally would not buy this skin.

Dragon Trainer Lulu (675 RP) – I really like the concept of this skin.  The splash art is nice, and the in-game model is also nice.  However, the animations don’t really change much at all.  Her butterfly is not a dragon, and she can poly-morph enemies into dragons rather than squirrels.  The ult animation is pretty nifty.  If you play Lulu a lot, I would recommend this skin.  If you don’t, I would save your money.

Commando Xin Zhao (260 RP) – It is Xin Zhao with sunglasses.  Take it or leave it.

Here is a playlist I put together on YouTube with this week’s Champion and Skin Sale Lineup: 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Champion and Skin Sale Breakdown, and leave a comment with the loot you will be picking up!

Today is the Final Day of League of Legends Season 3!

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Today, November 11, 2013, is the final day of Season 3.  This was the first season that I played League of Legends, and I must say that it has been incredibly fun.  I can’t believe how incredibly huge this game is, from the champions and skins available to the massive player base.  Looking at the World’s event this year, it is incredible to see how many fans will pay money to watch a video game live.  I have been gaming since the age of 5, and to see it grow this much is really awesome to see.

Season 3 World’s courtesy of Gazettenet

Today is your last chance to get challenger, get to Gold for rewards, or hey even get to Bronze lV.  Did you reach your goals for this season?  I can tell you that I just wanted to learn this game as much as possible in the few months that I have played it, and made it to Silver lll… In my placements.  I am currently Silver V with around 70 LP, and probably won’t be playing enough to make it to Silver lV today.  I am happy with that, however, because I learned a lot and got better at the game.  I always try to remember that every game is a learning experience, and if I can catch at least one mistake that I make in a game it was worth the experience whether I won or lost.  I plan on climbing the ranks in Season 4, but we will save that for another day and another post.

My best champions in ranked for Season 3 were Elise, Nami, and Diana.  I had a 55% win rate with Elise, and a 90% Win Rate (9-1) with Nami.  Who were your most reliable champions this season, whether in ranked or normals?

Good luck in any last minute division climbing efforts, and see you in the Preseason!

League of Legends – “The Basics” Video by Riot Games

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Riot Games has created a video tutorial for League of Legends.  This tutorial highlights how the game works, the main roles in the game, objectives, how to win, and why League of Legends is such an amazing game.  The video comes off as more of a promotion for the game in my opinion, but it is very well done and entertaining.  I also feel like it made me appreciate League of Legends more just because it made me think about the basics of the game.  The graphics, commentary, and overall feel of the video were very professional

Great video by Riot in my opinion, what do you think of “The Basics”?

“One For All” Details and Analysis

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As some of you may know, Riot announced a new Gamemode last week called “One For All”.  This mode hit the PBE a few days ago, and I have had some time to play around with it and form an opinion.

To start, I just want to explain what “One For All” is in my own words.  One For All is a 5v5 battle on the Summoner’s Rift, where each team consists of 5 of the exact same champions.  The game is played out like any other game on Summoner’s Rift, and there are no changes in items or objectives.

The Pregame Lobby – A team captain gets to ban 3 champions from the game, just as a normal draft lobby is conducted.  This results in 6 total banned champions for that game.  After the banning phase, each player gets to choose a champion which is then up for vote.  Each player’s respective team can see their vote, however, the other team cannot.  It is a majority rules system, so whichever champion has the most votes will be the champion that is played by all members of that team.  If there is a tie, or no majority, the game will randomly choose from those which are tied for the most votes.  Potentially you could have 5 different votes, meaning it will be a 20% chance for each of those champions to be chosen.  Each team votes on their own team’s champion, so it’s not a mirror match 5v5.  This means you could potentially have, for example, 5 Garen’s Vs. 5 Syndra’s.  You could also have 5 Garen’s Vs. 5 Garen’s.  It depends how the vote goes, and it is blind to the other team.

The Game – The game is conducted like any other League of Legends game on Summoner’s Rift.  Depending on the champion selected, however, the meta will differ.  Some teams will have a jungler, some will not.  Some teams will go 2-1-2, which means two champions top lane, one midlane, and two bottom lane.  Sometimes you will even see all 5 players go mid, making it somewhat of an ARAM.

My Thoughts – I like the idea of this mode, mostly because it gives players something fun to play that differs from the current meta.  I do think, however, that the game is decided too quickly based on which champions are playing which.  Hard counters exist in League of Legends, and if you are playing 5v5 against your counters, you probably don’t have a chance.  The fun factor of this game can die quickly when one team has complete advantage over the other team just from level 1.  Some games are close, but for the most part they have been very short and one sided.  This makes it a bit frustrating at times, and has already somewhat kept me out of that playlist.

I would almost like to see the champion select be random.  I think it would be more fun if every player on each team had to choose a different champion, and then the game randomly chose one of those champions for the team.  This means teams could not always pick the “most OP champion”, because it would still end up being a game of chance.  It would also force variety in the playlist, which I think is a big part of the potential fun the playlist brings.  Once players find a few champions who excel at this playstyle, we will probably see little variety in champions chosen.  My idea would force games to be a bit more random and exciting.

What are your thoughts on One For All?  How do you think Champion Select should work?

Skintimidation in League Of Legends

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Skins have always been an interesting concept to me.  Someone is actually willing to pay for something that doesn’t enhance the gameplay in anyway, but just makes something maybe more aesthetically pleasing or personal.  I am in no way discounting skins, as I have only been playing League of Legends for about 6 months and have already spent around $300 on the game.

Skintimidation is a term I like to use when someone has either a rare skin for their champion, or they have a skin for a champion who not many people play.  I like to think that people who have a skin for a champion that isn’t used much are probably pretty good with that champion, hence using it enough to justify buying a skin.  On the other hand, if someone has a rare skin from the past, they also have “skintimidation” because they have been playing the game long enough to own that skin.

My list of most intimidating skins is as follows:

  • Human Ryze
  • Black Alistar
  • Pax Twisted Fate
  • King Rammus
  • Any Galio Skin
  • Any Viktor Skin
  • Any Sion Skin
  • Any Malzahar Skin
  • Any Swain Skin
  • Any LeBlanc Skin

What are the most skintimidating skins or champions to you?

League of Legends World’s Game Statistics

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Amazing infograph of statistics from this year’s World’s tournament.  Riot did a great job with the design as well as choosing which stats to show.  My favorite part is definitely the champion win %’s along with their key item builds.

What is your favorite stat?  Click the image to see it full-sized!

Source: http://euw.lolesports.com/content/worlds-game-stats

League of Legends Introducing New “One For All” Gametype

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Riot announced today that they will be implementing new gametypes for a limited time in the near future.  This means that there will be multiple new gamemodes and they will be rotated in and out of the game as new ones are introduced.

The first game mode is called “One For All”, which is a 5v5 on Summoner’s Rift where everyone is the same champion!  This sounds like a ton of fun, and I can’t wait to try it out.

5v5 Cow Herding sounds too fun.  The amount of headbutts and knockups… Imagine it!

Poppy Ultimates everywhere also sounds like a crazy team fight.

So many options!  Who are you looking forward to 10 manning on the Summoner’s Rift?

Source: http://na.leagueoflegends.com/node/8328