Author Archives: hablepwn

Why I Main Thresh

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Thresh: The Soul reason to main support.

Thresh is the reason I call myself a support main.  This champion managed to turn what I thought to be the most boring role in League of Legends when I first started the game (Season 3) into my favorite role by far.  I remember when I first started playing League of Legends and getting stuck with support and playing Janna / Nami / Annie every single game.  I only played Annie because I thought it was fun and super cheesy, and this was before she actually took off as a top tier support.  Even in the Annie games I had played I felt like I was just sort of mashing buttons and standing in a bush, waiting for my next back to buy wards.  Nothing was very enjoyable down there in the bottom lane of Summoner’s Rift, and I felt like I was more of a spectator than someone actually playing on the team.

Then I picked up Thresh.  I remember how excited I was to play the champion because of how popular he was in the LCS, and I had never played him before.  His kit looked incredibly fun to play, and I come from an FPS (first person shooter) background in video games, so I absolutely love champions based on skills shots (I’m looking at you Ezreal).  Thresh’s hook is an incredibly fun mechanic to play with, and I love the constant threat that I give in lane with it.  This ability was very easy to learn and adjust to immediately, and I always smart cast all of my spells so I didn’t feel the need to practice it too much.  Thresh’s lantern is also an amazing ability, perhaps the greatest spell in the game that isn’t an ultimate.  This ability is a huge factor in lane, in teamfights, and just roaming around the map in general.  It can be used to create a gank, escape a gank, get a teammate into a good position, get a teammate out of a bad position, to give vision, and even to bluff and scare the enemy team thinking someone is going to take it.  This ability took me a small amount of time to get the range down, but I quickly learned it and it is very simple to use (if your teammate GRABS THE DAMN LANTERN).

Now onto the E… the Flay.  Oh. God.  My first few games with Thresh I was told to not smartcast his E.  I wish I had these games recorded, because they were absolutely hilarious I’m sure.  I would basically try to E, and do one of the following things:

1. Miss completely

2. Stop walking, stand still trying to figure out the direction I wanted the flay to go, and miss completely

3. Flay in the opposite direction, either saving someone’s life on the other team or costing someone’s life on mine

4. Did I mention MISS COMPLETELY?

After a few games I said YOLO, and decided to smart cast it.  This was the best decision I have made in my short League of Legends gaming career.  As soon as I started smart casting this spell, I understood the mechanics of it more and didn’t need to think about the range or the direction I was going.  It just made sense.  Put the cursor behind me parallel to where they are running = They will come back to me.  Put my cursor in front of me, or literally on the enemy, and they will go in front of me.  It was simple. It made sense.  I highly recommend you do this if you are learning Thresh, because a Flash+Flay is nearly impossible without it.

Thresh’s R is very simple to use, but it is also very simple to mess up.  The Box is his ultimate ability, and it goes off immediately upon hitting R.  Until his last nerf, the box literally went up immediately and slowed anyone who walked into the walls. This basically meant that upon landing a hook post level-6, you would follow the hook, hit R, then flay them into the back of the box.  This was almost an insta-gib in lane if you hit the ADC (or the squishy Sona/Nami support), and if you’re maxing E (you better be), your auto will take a huge chunk out of them as well. Match this combo with a Draven or any ADC with burst and you pretty much guaranteed a kill regardless of summoner spells on the enemy.  However, with the latest nerf, The Box takes a little bit of time to “be built”.  The walls need a moment to set up, and this can let the enemy escape before it even slows them or does any damage (which is a ton by the way).  I have found that I have had to change the combo up a bit here, and I will now flay them immediately upon hitting R if they don’t have flash.  If they do have flash, I will wait for them to flash, flay them immediately at the end of their animation, and then hit R.  If you let them flash AFTER you use your ult there is a good chance that they will dodge all walls and you will be left with a useless box in the middle of the lane.

All in all, Thresh is just fun to play.  Every game he makes an impact, and his utility is second to none.  He has an incredible kit for both supporting and carrying, and he can be built many different ways.  If you build a full CDR Thresh you can land a hook every 4 seconds. I do this nearly every game now because I find it to be the most fun and rewarding part of the game.  Everytime you land a hook, whether it be from 2 pixels away or max range in an unwarded part of the map, you get this satisfied feeling that just isn’t matched by many of the other champions on The Rift. If you haven’t tried out Thresh, or you don’t like the support role, I highly recommend you pick him up and play with him for a bit.

Final thoughts: Thresh top lane, Thresh ADC, and even Thresh jungle are all pretty fun to mess around with.  I prefer top Thresh out of all of these, and if your team comp allows it, build full Attack Damage and watch the enemies melt with one auto attack.

Have fun Flaying!

– Steve

My Thoughts on Team Builder

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My first thought when I opened up the new lobby type on League of Legends called “Team Builder” was “damn… am I playing Warcraft 3 again?”.  The layout was very simple to understand, and it looked like it was made for a Battle.Net game which came out about ten years ago.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing… I actually really enjoyed the layout, and it made me feel like I was playing an online competitive video game again.  Staring at an outdated client while there is a countdown at the top of the screen has never stood out to me as something a competitive game would have, so this new lobby just made the game feel more intense before it even started.

Okay, okay, I talked about the lobby enough… right? Nope.  It’s a small part of the experience, but it really is a necessary part of any online game in my opinion.  Hell, even Halo 2 had an amazing pregame lobby on the Xbox and that game came out a couple thousand years ago. My favorite part about the lobby is the opportunity to chat with your teammates while you are waiting for a match to be found.  This is a great way to get to know your teammates and joke around a bit before the match, and I felt like it got rid of much of the toxicity which plagues the fields of justice.  In this lobby you can see the champions and roles that everyone is playing, and you can discuss strategies using your team composition.  On top of this, everyone got to play the role that they asked for, so there was no need to argue in the lobby over “pick order vs. call order”.  I felt a much friendlier atmosphere in the Team Builder lobby than the usual blind pick / draft pick lobbies.

Some issues with Team Builder that I ran into during the few games that I played are as follow:

1.  The roles aren’t properly labeled.  I had a “fighter” support, and it ended up being a Darius who actually wanted top lane.  The roles mix sometimes in the pregame lobby process of choosing them, and this can make for some odd team compositions.  I had a Malzahar ADC that same game.

League of Legends Team Builder Issues

Team Builder please…

2.  You cannot establish a solid team composition without booting players on your team and waiting for the right champion to show up.  It would be nice if you could call a role and maybe 3 champions in which you wanted to play so that you could choose based on your teammate’s champion choices.

3.  My final complaint isn’t really a complaint, but a suggestion.  This lobby was really fun and reduced the toxicity in every game I played ten-fold, and I would like to see it implemented in a non-blind pick format.  As I stated in problem #2, I think that you should be able to choose a few champions to go into the draft lobby with, and choose from those after a banning phase has gone through.  In a ranked lobby, I think that you should just need to call a role and not a champion.  This would allow for both the banning phase and the picking phase to occur.  Draft would still go in order like it currently does, but you would only be able to choose a champion to fill your respective role, and everyone would be happy because they would get the role they wanted.  For example, if I wanted to jungle Elise, I would go into ranked queue with “jungle” as my role, but not Elise.  The draft lobby would go through as normal, and if Elise was up when it was my turn to pick, I would pick her.

On a completely unrelated note, I am terrified of spiders but Elise is my favorite champion in the game.  Oh what a tangled web we weave…

All in all, I really enjoyed Team Builder and I hope that they find a way to implement it into the Live server forever very soon.  The toxicity levels dropped dramatically, and I actually felt like the people on my team were my teammates rather than crazy psychopaths sitting behind a computer screen waiting to stab the next person who stole their blue buff.  The game was fun… really, really fun.

TL;DR:  Team Builder = #Worth

– Steve

“Hitchhikers Guide to Bronze”

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“Hitchhikers Guide to Bronze”
By Dragon Angel
Well hey there, champ! Looks like you finished up those provisional games and got placed in Bronze.
Tough break. Don’t fret though! I’m here to give you a quick rundown of what you might experience
during these trying times, and the necessary tools you’ll need to claw your way to the top! (of Bronze. To
get out of Bronze).
Now your special situation first is based off of tier. Here’s a general idea of the type of people you will
encounter the majority of the time you spend in these specific tiers.
●Bronze I: Mostly comprised of summoners who either
A.Are of above average skill on any given day and unfortunately caught the shaft during provisional
B.Are not nearly as good as they think they are
C.Assume they will only ever have to play one role (A.K.A. the only one they are good at)
D.Trolls
●Bronze II: This is about as middle of the bottom of the barrel as it gets. Filled to the brim with
summoners who
A.Just got freshly demoted decide it’s the worlds fault (Which is their justification for throwing your
last promo game, keeping you stuck in Bronze II)
B.Are well rounded in every role, but are also toxic jerks whose goal is to make sure you know that
they are good, and you are not
C.Trolls
●Bronze III: This is where things get scary. Many times you will encounter summoners who
A.Have average to below average skill but are doing their best to climb the ranks (not so scary)
B.Go into que pissed of and demand roles and champs every game
C.Make the most ridiculous bans based off of their previous game where they got killed 7 times by
a mao’kai
D.Trolls
●Bronze IV: Now this one is a little different. Half of the summoners reach a certain point where
they are tired of being low tier. So instead of being toxic jerks that think they’re better, they
actually start to practice and communicate well so they can get the hell out of Bronze. The other
half being delusional and/or trolls.
●Bronze V: … We’re not going to talk about Bronze V. You’re on your own pal. Good luck.
Now, there are many ways to handle each individual situation. You could be a toxic punk, be mean,
troll, and essentially ruin the game for everyone because you’re mad about your placement.
BUT
If you don’t want to go that route, here are 5 tips that could (not saying they will) help you climb the
hell-scorched ladder out of Bronze Tier
1.Don’t suck: Seriously. I’m not kidding. If you are not well versed in every role, don’t play ranked.
That’s the mistake I made and ended up getting placed low because I ended up playing a lot of
provisional in the 2 lanes I was at the time horrid at (Mid and Top .-.)
2.Remain calm: I know how difficult it can be to not explode when you’re the only one focusing the
fed Vayne while the rest of your team decides it’s a good idea to focus Shen and his straight tank
build. Which I’m sure we can all agree that decisions like that are REALLY STUPID *takes deep
breath* BUT *takes another* yelling at your team and acting like the best is not conducive to
winning games. If you start yelling and insulting people, it’s not going to make them play better or
want to cooperate with you. The way to handle things like that, is do your best to calmly explain
why certain plays need to be made/certain objectives need to be taken/certain champs need to
be focused. (Which you’ll have plenty of time for while waiting to respawn because the enemy
team just got their 3rd ace on you under 25 minutes.
3.Be the best YOU that YOU can be: At the end of the day, the only summoner whose play you can
control is your own. Sometimes you’re going to need to be good enough to carry 1 or 2
summoners worth of dead weight. But if you do your absolute best to be the best you that you
can be, not get tilted because of others poor decision making, and keep a level head, as long as
you have well rounded skills you will win more games
4.THE MUTE BUTTON IS YOUR ONLY TRUE FRIEND IN SOLO QUE:  Honest truth. Don’t stand for
nonsense, don’t fuel the fire, and don’t stoop to a moron’s level. If someone is trolling, or being
abusive, or just flat out annoying the crap out of you, just hit the damn mute button. It takes
literally 2 seconds, and you will be a better player for it.
And last but not least
5.Keep in mind that at the end of the day, League of Legends is a GAME. Games are meant to be
FUN. And if it’s not, stop playing. Not forever, just for the night. Or maybe a day or two, maybe a
week, even a month. Sometimes breaks are necessary if you ever want to get better. Playing with
a poor attitude constantly is only going to make things worse. So if you having more stress fits
than fun, step away for a bit, come back with a level head when you are ready, and go kick some
butt!
And that’s it. Do those 5 things, and there’s a good chance you can work your way up. ^_^

Champion and Skin Sale Breakdown: 2/14 – 2/17

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Champions:

Lucian (487 RP) – Lucian is in a great place as an ADC (Marksmen) right now.  He can take advantage of Trinity Force, and he can kite well with his kit.  His ultimate is great for sieging / stopping a siege and also for finishing kills beyond auto attack range. We highly recommend that if you play ADC and want to add a new champion to your pool that you take advantage of this week’s sale and grab Lucian!

Leona (440 RP) – Leona is also in a great place in the current meta.  She is a tanky support champion with an insanely powerful engage if used correctly.  Leona can carry a lane and feed an ADC very quickly, but if she gets shut down early and her lane falls behind she can become somewhat useless without jungler help.  However, she offers utility throughout the game no matter how behind she is, so she will never be useless late game no matter what happens.  Leona can build pure support / tank and be a very productive member of the team.  We highly recommend picking up Leona this week if you are fond of tanky supports with strong initiation.

Katarina (395 RP) – Katarina has been picked a few times this NA LCS split.  Unfortunately, her success rate has been very low, and her performances have highlighted the biggest problem with Katarina: she can easily be shutdown in lane and put behind for the entire game.  However, if Katarina gets fed a few early kills she can dominate the game and snowball out of control.  Her ultimate, when used correctly and not interrupted, can completely turn a team fight into her favor.  She also thrives on kills, as she is a reset based champion, and she is a lot of fun to play due to her reset mechanic.  If you play mid lane, or even top lane, give Katarina a try!

Skins:

 

Debonair Jayce (487 RP) – Bring a little class to the Rift with Debonair Jayce.  Perfect for duoing with your Valentine this year!

Heartseeker Vayne (487 RP) – Slay your enemies with style and leave them a Valentine’s Day card to remember you by.  This is a fun skin and a perfect Valentine’s Day outfit for carrying that Bronze 5 boyfriend of yours to victory!

Jack of Hearts Twisted Fate (260 RP) – There isn’t much to say about this skin.  If you like the colors, go for it.  If you don’t like the colors, don’t buy it.  If you’re not sure… Pick a card to decide.  10 or higher and you buy it!

Happy Valentine’s Day Skin Sale everyone, and save some money for chocolate (whether it be for your significant other or yourself!)

 

– Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Want to Write for The League Report?

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We are currently looking for writers, content creators, graphic designers, and anyone else with a passion for League of Legends and good ideas!  If you are interested in becoming a regular member of our team, please E-Mail us at “Steve@TheLeagueReport.com” and we will be in contact with you.

We look forward to working alongside our fellow League of Legends fans,

– The League Report

Battle of the Atlantic 2013

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The battle of the Atlantic 2013 starts on Saturday the 14th of December. The top five teams from the EU and NA summer playoffs will be attending. There are 5 best of three matches, with teams of equal ranking from each region facing off. This is the first time we will be seeing many of the teams after significant roster changes. The tournament will be played on patch 3.13, which was before any of the big changes that came in 3.14. However, Riot has said that they will be showcasing some of the new season 4 changes that we haven’t seen yet.

The first two matches will be played in the ESL studio in Cologne, Germany. The first
Match will be played on Saturday between Dignitas (NA) and Alliance (EU). On sunday, we will see Team SoloMid (NA) and Lemondogs (EU).

Over the next few days look for our what to watch for in these two matches, and our rundown of The following three matches will be coming next week.

Thoughts On Showdown 1v1 Game Type

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With Snowdown approaching the League of Legends Live Client, I have been playing the new “Showdown” game type on the PBE.  I absolutely love the 1v1 game type that Riot has introduced, and will explain why.

Rules of 1v1 Showdown:

Draft Pick, 3 bans each

Blind Pick after bans, both players can be the same champion.

First to 100 Minions Wins

First Player to Die Loses

First Player to Destroy the Enemy’s Turret Wins

01010 Day 1…

As you can see there are three ways in which to win a game of Showdown.  The most fun way to win in my opinion is to kill the enemy champion.  I enjoy playing early game champions with fast paced kits, so I mainly play Riven and Lee Sin.  Unfortunately, these champions are usually banned, so I tend to try out a lot of random champions.  Thresh and Blitzcrank were both quite fun, as was Sion and Dr. Mundo.  Showdown is a really great place to try out different champions and test out how they do in low level duals.

My favorite part about Showdown is the ability to capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes.  You don’t need to worry about the enemy midlaner or jungler coming into your lane at any point in the game, so you can control the game however you want.  If your opponent makes a mistake you have the ability to take full advantage of the game and dictate what the opponent can and cannot do for the next few minutes.  If at any point they would put themselves into a situation where they could possibly be killed, you can take that opportunity to finish the game.  I have won countless games at level 3 because of bad positioning and the false sense of security that many players have.  If at any point you see a chance to get a kill, you can go in without fear of being ganked.  The entire game is up to you, which is what makes it so fun for me.

Another thing that I love about Showdown is how fast paced it is.  Sometimes I don’t even look at the minions and just wait until I have a chance to either trade very well or get a quick cheesy kill at level 2 after they burn their abilities on the wave.  Lee Sin and Riven are both great for this early game strategy.  Sometimes I win games without even touching the minion wave.

My main suggestion for Showdown is to bring Flash with you.  Many people go fully aggressive with Ignite / Exhaust or Ignite / Barrier.  This can work, but against aggressive players like Riven who will try to all in you early it doesn’t help.  Anytime I see that the enemy doesn’t have flash and I do I know that I can force a fight, and if it is a favorable fight I will be able to chase them down with flash and end the game.  It is also great for surprising your opponent with an engage that wouldn’t be possible without the quick blink across the screen towards them.  I tend to run Flash / Ignite in every match-up.

Make rune pages!  Remember that you don’t need to worry about a lot of the threats from Summoner’s Rift, and you also don’t need to try to scale to late game.  Focus on winning the game early, and adjust your Masteries and Runes accordingly.  Make sure to create a few rune pages with and without Magic Resist, as a lot of the champions used in Showdown do not deal magic damage.

This is your chance to really improve your laning skills as well as testing the limits of a champion.  I already feel a lot more confident in 1v1 situations because of Showndown, and I will only get better as I practice more and expand my champion pool.  This is also a great place to test out unfavorable match-ups and trying to cheese your way to victory with a quick, smooth play before the opponent can even react.  Focus on your strategy in Showdown, watch for mistakes, work on your mechanics, and have fun!

– Steve

Patch 3.14 Simplified Champion Rundown

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Newly released patch notes can be found here http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-
updates/patch/patch-314-notes

We are going to try and simplify it for those who don’t want to take the time to read the whole
thing and worry about numbers. If you are looking for in depth analysis, we suggest you look at the link above or find another post about it.

Corki

● Big change to q now longer instant damage, now “lobs” through the air, and they increased the range

● E now costs less mana

● R AD ratio increased

Overall probably a buff, depends on how hard the new q is to hit

Gragas

● Q Less range but can be exploded quicker

● E now does full damage to every target, and gets cool down reduction if he hits something with it.  Changes playstyle a bit, doesn’t seem like he will stay at about the same strength

Morgana

● R now shows enemies the leash radius

Small nerf shouldn’t change much

Nasus

● Reduced passive lifesteal

Nerf, better chance to shut him down early. Still seems really strong.

Nautilus

● Passive stun duration increased at higher levels

Buff, not huge, still about same strength.

Nidalee

● Q overall does less damage at closer range, still does same damage at max range.

● W debuff time reduced

Nerf, makes Nidalee harder to play, reduced dueling potential, late game poke will still be there.

Nunu

● Q Less damage and healing early but lower cd

Keeping him balanced with upcoming changes to smite, no real change in power

Sivir

● Q damage taken away early, more damage late.

Overall just a shift in power, weaker early game stronger late game.

Vayne

● Condemn changed.  Should only affect the top level vayne players.

Nerf, but will probably go unnoticed to everyone thats not at the top of the ladder for Vayne players.

Janna

● Passive no longer global, more movespeed for champions closer.

● Q now must be channeled for full duration in order to do max damage

● W and E now scale with Janna’s ap

Implementing some of the support changes riot has been talking about, passive and Q nerfed while W and E are buffed late game.

Leona

● W Scales with bonus armor and mr instead of flat values

More support changes, Leona now scales better with gold

Lulu

● Added ap ratio to passive

● Q, W now scale with AP

● E ap ratio reduced

Overall nerf but scales better with AP

Sona

A lot of small changes, power being moved around

Should scale better with gold, overall keeping the same power

Soraka

Added scaling and reduced damage from most abilities.

Overall should be a buff, and scales better with gold

Taric

Reduced scaling with ap added more scaling off tankyness

Buffed when building tanky.

We will be releasing a Simplified Item Rundown tomorrow for Patch 3.14, look out for it!

GG and What it Means to Me

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Good Game

In most games of League of Legends you will get 5 or 6 of the players typing “gg”, or “Good Game”, as the nexus is about to explode.   Some games you get the players who type out “bg”, or “gg easy noobs”. I will be one of the ones typing “gg” at the end of every game, win or lose, trolls or no trolls, and I will tell you why I think you should, too.

I think of typing gg at the end of a game as the equivalent of the end of the game handshake in sporting events. That handshake separates the “game” from real life. To me it says what ever happened out there was part of the competition, and now that is behind us and I respect you as a person outside of the game. It has nothing to do with the game itself being good or not, rather, it is a way to ease all of the tension built up during the game.

To me typing “bg” at the end of a game is like licking your hand before you shake hands with your opponent. It is an immature reaction, and it displays a person’s inability to handle defeat. One must understand that not everything in life will go their way. I don’t care if your jungler dc’d 3 minutes into the game, it is no one’s fault, and neither team has any control over it. Unfortunately, this leads to people saying things like “bg” or “bot lane fed” etc.  In a very team centric game things like this are bound to occur rather often.  If you can’t handle it maybe you should play a different game.

Finally, let’s talk about the people who type “gg easy noobs” at the end of a game. These people make my head hurt, as it is the most cowardly way to insult somebody I could ever imagine. First off, you are hiding behind an internet name, anonymously playing with someone you will probably never play with again and certainly never play with in real life. Not only that, but you are doing it at the very last second you possibly can giving absolutely no chance for a response. This single statement leaves a bad taste in the opposing team’s mouth, and probably within that player’s own team.  It is an unfortunate note to end any game on, and the emotions it causes in the other players may even spread to their next few games.

All in all, gg is not saying “Oh that game was close,” or “I really enjoyed playing with you.” To me, it is just showing a little bit of respect to another human that shares the same interest as you.  It is a way of putting the game behind you, and moving on with no animosity between players. If you can’t do this at the end of a game by typing two simple letters, then maybe you should reconsider what it truly means to play a video game.

ggwp

Imaqtpie Stream Review

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Name  – Imaqtpie

Link – http://www.twitch.tv/imaqtpie

Roles Played –  ADC, Mid, Jungle

Champions – Plays all ADC’s.  One of the best Ezreal players in North America. Plays a lot of Zed/Lee Sin/ Kha’zix in Solo Queue, as well as a huge variety of other champions.

Description – Imaqtpie is the ADC for Team Dignitas.  This is one of our favorite streamers, as he streams almost everyday in the morning/ afternoon. You get the full twitch experience when you watch Imaqtpie stream, from top level game play, to his hilarious troll personality, the funniest queue time games, and the best of twitch chat 2013. We highly recommend you ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉRaise Your Dongers ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ

Stream Rating – Challenger

YouTube Highlights:

Imaqtpie also wrote the Book of Dong.  Here is one excerpt:

Our Scarra, who art in heaven, dognitas be thy name, thy donger come, thy dong be done, in LoL as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bowflex, and forgive us of our #heimermechanics, as we forgive those who #heimermechanic against us, and lead us not into FrankerZ, but deliver us from Odee.

Praise the Lord and everlasting Scarra, praise his son Qtpie, our savior, and praise the holy dong, it flows through us all and gives us life. For without the dong, man would not have conquered the bowflex, and the world would be lost to FrankerZ.

At the table, Qtpie took the bread, gave thanks and said “take this all of you, this is my body, it has been given up for you. Do this in memory of me.” When supper was finished, Qtpie took the cup, gave thanks and said, “take this and drink from it, this is my blood, it has been shed for you and for all so that your sins may be forgiven, do this in memory of me.” (Book of Dong 6:12)

ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉEnjoy the stream! ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ