Thursday, 8 March 2012

Hanover

Obligatory tournament update post! (Sorry to anyone who reads this for not updating regularly, I just moved house and only just got net sorted - Regular updates coming soon!)

So, Hanover is going on right now and it's been awesome so far. I'm not going to go for a rundown of every match - the replays are up on the site - but it has been really awesome. SK did amazing and really impressed me because I'd totally written them off after Kiev - it seems that Dedrayon and Kevin are some much needed fresh blood and are really pushing the team forward. Ocelote is awesome and.. well.. it's Oce - he's an asshat but we love him. Nyph and Candypanda are really looking like the weak link in the team and, although Candy did some amazing plays, his laning his been very weak every game and Nyph hasn't done anything particularly spectacular all tournament. I think a new bot lane would really get SK recognised as a real contender once again.

Curse did great as well - they got hammered by CLG but up until that point, we saw the best performance from them so far by a long way in any offline event. TSM performed disappointingly to say the least - they're still my favourites, though (FK IT BAYLIFE) and I'll keep cheering them on. Generally, this tournament has really shaken things up so far.

As for who I want to win..? I'm going to say that I want anyone other than M5 win. I don't like one team to dominate the whole scene, it makes competitive play feel worthless and boring. It removes a lot of the tension and drama from tournaments. I want M5 to be knocked out in the semi finals and for CLG to take the victory (Because I love them almost as much as TSM). Sorry for the lack of support, aAa, but I'm English - I could never support a French team! (Note, this is a joke, I have nothing against the French and really enjoy watching aAa play, I just find them less entertaining than other teams).

Anyway, I'll post more tomorrow after the semi-finals!

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Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Hmmmm

I really am inconsistent with updates, aren't I? Those of you who aren't in the know might be forgiven for thinking that it's because I've got a life outside of online gaming and it sometimes means I forget to update this blog and don't have time to play. If only that were true. In reality, I'm just very lazy. Too lazy even to do things that I enjoy doing, like playing online games and updating the blog. That's pretty fucking lazy, right?

So, what's going on in LoL right now? Honestly, I'm feeling lazy so I'm going to open the launcher and talk about the first thing I see... Hold on a moment... Right what do we have to choose from?

"Get ready for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship!" I'd rather not.
"Fansite Focus: Shoutcasting & Ziggs" Yeah, sorry, I don't care about fansites. This is a fansite that I run and I still don't care about fansites. I'm not about to publicise other people's fansites - mine doesn't get any publicity, anyone else who wants publicity can go fuck themselves.
"New Free Champion Rotation (Season Two: Week 11)" Not a lot to say about that but it is annoying that they wrote "Two" and used numbers for "11". That's just inconsistent, Riot, step up your game.
"Headhunter Master Yi Stalks the Jungle on Summoner's Rift" That'll do.

So, it's a slow news week at Riot HQ, it seems (I know IEM World Championship is big news but when I had the idea for this amusing blog entry, it wasn't there so cut me some slack) and I'm left trying to piece together something from the void. I've decided that I'm going to bitch about Riot's strange marketing strategy in regards to legendary skins (And I'm sure this Yi skin will be legendary given the stupid amount of fuss being made about it).

Now, I like skins. We all like skins. They look cool and it's a way of everyone not looking the same. That's totally fine with me. Legendary skins are pretty expensive, though, you know? I'm probably not going to fork out on a legendary skin for a champion that I don't play because it isn't viable. Master Yi legendary skin. Just let that sink in.

Master Yi is fun, I'll admit that, and I do like the champion. But viable? No. He is not viable. Like, at all. He works okay in solo queue, I guess, sure, but the sort of thing that we like seeing is tournaments, right? We're never going to see this skin in tournaments! Ever! And yet all those awesome champions that we see in tournaments all the time still don't have legendary skins! Why? Why is this? I might actually buy a legendary skin if Irelia or Gangplank had one.

Now, the one positive I see is based on something I said in the past. I said the legendary Valdimir skin was pointless, right before we saw Vlad being played a ton in solo top and him getting a big revamp that made him really strong and really viable. I'm hoping this skin is a sign that Master Yi is about to get some nice changes that make him totally viable again. I would love to see Yi being played once again, perhaps as a counter-jungle champion (That's what's big right now) or a decent solo top. Let's see what happens.

Oh, yeah, Ziggs was released. He's okay.

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Monday, 30 January 2012

Kings of Europe Final Tomorrow!

Kings of Europe final tomorrow between CLG.eu and Moscow 5. I'm pretty fucking psyched to see this! I genuinely can't wait - I love these kind of tournaments and the commentary from Jatt and Deman is awesome too. I'd love to have more EU tournaments like this going on in Season 2!

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Friday, 27 January 2012

Kings of Europe

Watching Kings of Europe right now on Own3d - http://www.own3d.tv/live/211743/OGamingTV_International - and it's pretty crazy so far. M5 are shaking up the meta even more with AP Malphite mid - that's so cool, I really love watching these guys.

Really good tournament so far, much more professionally handled than Kiev (Though, admittedly, it isn't a LAN event so it's logistically easier to organise) and the commentary is a lot better, mostly due to the absence of Phreak. I love Phreak, don't get me wrong, but the guy knows next to nothing about tournament level League of Legends to the point at which he's actually giving bad advice to new players during games.

Still, go watch Kings of Europe if you're not already. Tomorrow we'll get to see the first tournament play from CLG.eu too and personally, I'm very excited to see that.

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Sunday, 22 January 2012

Kiev summary

So, it's late and I really can't be bothered to write a lot outside of: Holy shit, Moscow 5 are very, very impressive.

I'm not going to go into every single detail but those guys are -really- good and I strongly urge anyone interested in the competitive scene to check them out.

Head to http://iemkiev.leagueoflegends.com/ to watch the replays if you missed it. Those guys are incredible.

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Thursday, 19 January 2012

Kiev Day One

Honestly, they may as well have just put TSM straight through to the semi-finals. Their group stage was a joke. SK, no offence to them, haven't been playing well for a long time and their loss to TSM showed that but the other teams in the group - White Lotus and Curse (Who, along with SK, were invited to fill a gap left by another team who couldn't attend) were clearly outmatched by teams with so much LAN experience. Curse also didn't seem to be playing their "A-Team" and that might have had an impact on their play. White Lotus, though, played pretty good considering they're comparatively so inexperienced so kudos to them for turning up and doing their best.

Otherwise, I have to say, the first day was very boring. I don't think anyone is surprised by the results at all - looking at the teams playing tomorrow, I'm thinking there might be some surprises. Sypher have surprised me in the past and I've not seen aAa since Dreamhack but thinking back, they were a force to be reckoned with at the time so with any luck, they'll be at that point again tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

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Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Sejuani Patch Notes - My Thoughts

So, Sejuani patch any day now and it's pretty interesting - lots of huge buffs and nerfs that weren't talked about in the youtube video. I kinda hate it when something huge is changed in game and Riot sidesteps around it because they know it will be really unpopular - it just makes people more angry when they see the patch notes.

Anyway, if you haven't seen the patch notes, I posted them below. Here are my thoughts about the list - a lot of things I don't have any opinion on because they don't matter (Chat window reskins for example) and I also have no idea what the change will be until tomorrow anyway so I will be picking out the things I do have something to say on. The patch notes will be against the black background and in grey text, my opinions will be black text with a white background. If I haven't voiced any opinion at all on something fairly big, it's probably because I have a lot to say about it in a future post and don't want to negate that by saying too much now (The Volibear changes for example).

PVP.net v1.52


  • Ranked Teams
    • Ranked Team roster size has been increased to a maximum of 9
    • Provisional Ranked Teams will now be automatically disbanded after a certain period of time to prevent name squatting Could you be more specific, please, Riot? This information doesn't mean anything without knowing the time frame that you're talking about.
    • Made it easier to invite members of your Ranked Team to a group chat
    • Team Tags will now show up in more parts of the PVP.net and in game UI
    • Team Game invites will now play a different sound to differentiate from normal invites
    • Team Member status will now show up in the Team Profile screen so you can see who is online and available to play
    • Cleaned up the Ranked Team creation process to be more clear
    • Tweaked the Ranked Team matchmaking algorithm to be more accurate - Again, this is ridiculously vague. What does that mean? How has it been tweaked? What change has been made? What is the result of this tweak? Are we likely to see longer queue times as a result? Are we liked to be facing players closer to our own rating? Why are we denied this information when it seems really obviously beneficial for us to know? I can only assume that the result of this will be longer queue times otherwise we'd be given the full information. I hate it when game patches contain partial truths to avoid having to bite the bullet about a change that people might not like.
  • Spectator
    • Fixed a bug where Spectators would sometimes get stuck at the loading screen
    • Fixed a bug where the last few minutes of a spectated game get sped up
  • General
    • Summoner's Rift (Winter) has been removed from matchmaking - What? Really? Why? Seriously, why? People are bored as shit of Summoner's Rift as it is! Gah, I'm sick of fucking looking at Summoner's Rift's bland and boring skins - I loved having another skin to look at and I want more new skins for it, not fucking less! Jesus Christ, Riot, why the fuck did you think this was good? Also, in most of the world IT'S STILL FUCKING WINTER! It'll still be winter for a lot of people for another month at least! I'm not sitting here in 2 T-shirts with a hot water bottle because it's Summer or HALLOWEEN. Why is the fucking Halloween skin staying? That skin is the ugliest pile of shit ever anyway. Remove that and give us the winter skin back, please. Asshats.
    • Chat windows and buddy tooltips have been re-skinned to be visually consistent with the rest of the buddy list
    • The horizontal “arrow button” scrolling (for when you have more than 4 chat windows) has been removed. Chat windows will now scale down their presence in the task bar so they all fit. - Yeah, man, that arrow was confusing the shit out of people.
    • Text input focus stealing on new incoming IMs has been removed
    • Fixed a bug where chat windows would scroll down to the bottom for every incoming message, regardless of your current scrolling position - I like this enough to comment on it. I hate chat systems that scroll to the bottom when a new message arrives so you can't read something else. Thumbs up for this one, Riot.

      League of Legends v1.0.0.132

      Sejuani, the Winter's Wrath
       - I'll comment on the champion as a whole when I've had time to see her in action but based on her kit alone, I'm really not interested or exciting in her. She'll be flavour of the month for a couple of days and then we'll never see her again. She doesn't have the damage to top lane effectively which leaves her as a jungler with mediocre ganks that involve her staying in melee range to do damage which, unfortunately, she doesn't really do. She's pretty poor all around, I'd say. Probably functions as a decent tank late game but there are much, much better choices right now. Also, her ult will be fucking useless against a half-decent player. Skillshot CC ults are so easy to waste. Pretty bad champ, to be honest, but I'll write a full review when I've bought her - this is just what I'm judging from the kit and spotlight.
      • Frost (Passive) - Sejuani's basic attacks apply Frost, reducing enemy Movement Speed by 10% for 3 seconds.
      • Arctic Assault - Sejuani charges forward to deal magic damage and apply Frost to enemies. Sejuani stops upon colliding with an enemy champion.
      • Northern Winds - Sejuani summons an arctic storm around her which deals magic damage to nearby enemies every second. Damage is increased against enemies affected by Frost or Permafrost.
      • Permafrost - Sejuani converts Frost on nearby enemies to Permafrost, dealing magic damage and increasing the Movement Speed reduction dramatically.
      • Glacial Prison (Ultimate) - Sejuani throws her weapon, stunning the first enemy champion hit. Nearby enemies are stunned for a shorter duration. All targets take magic damage and are affected by Frost.
      Ahri
      • Orb of Deception mana cost increased to 70/75/80/85/90 from 60/65/70/75/80 - This is fine but all of her mana costs should be increased, not just this one.
      • Spirit Rush cooldown increased to 90/80/70 seconds from 80/70/60 - Should be longer. Not nerfed enough
      Dr. Mundo - Commenting on his changes as a whole: Pretty nice changes. I don't think they're really enough for Mundo to be being picked again but at least Riot is recognising that no one is playing older champions so perhaps we'll see more buffs or even a redesign in the future.
      • General
        • Base attack speed increased to .625 from 0.595
        • Attack speed per level increased to 2.8 from 2.5
        • Magic resist per level increased to 1.25 from .75
      • Burning Agony health cost reduced to 10/15/20/25/30 from 20/25/30/35/40
      • Sadism ultimate cooldown reduced to 65 from 75
      Fizz - Just bug fixes. Nothing to say about this, I like bug fixes.
      • Implemented the following changes to Chum the Waters which were in Ahri patch changelog, but not actually moved into the patch:
        • Fixed a bug where Chum the Waters stopped working if Fizz died
        • Hitting an enemy who is immune to the Fish now causes the Fish to drop on the ground instead of fizzling
        • Using Quicksilver Sash now drops the Fish on the ground instead of causing the shark to emerge immediately
        • Added a 3-2-1 timer like Time Bomb
        • No longer hits nontargetable units like Vladimir in Sanguine Pool
      Graves
      • Buckshot Mana cost increased to 60/70/80/90/100 from 60/65/70/75/80 - In my opinion, this should be 70/80/90/100/110. The damage needs to be reduced too.
      • Collateral Damage - Yup. Fine with these changes. Buckshot needs to be nerfed in the same way.
        • Initial damage reduced to 250/350/450 from 250/375/500
        • Explosion damage reduced to 140/250/360 from 140/275/400
        • Cooldown increased to 100/90/80 from 80/70/60
      Jarvan IV - More tiny buffs that might make him more viable top lane again. Jungle Jarvan is great but I don't play jungle. Right now, even though a few people do it, I think Jarvan is trash top lane - no sustain and will have to B even time anything happens in his lane - so these changes might just make him a tiny bit more viable. Keep him in the jungle for now, though, I think because these buffs just make him stronger at that.
      • Mana per level increased to 40 from 30
      • Golden Aegis mana cost reduced to 65 from 75
      • Demacian Standard mana cost reduced to 55 from 60
      Jax (remake) - I'll comment on the Jax remake once I've played it properly but I'll list my initial impressions here. Basically, Jax was my favourite champion when I was levelling to 30. I loved him and played him almost every game (Along with Eve. RIP Eve. You're still missed six months on. Riot have forgotten you, though, so you'll stay there forever). I will admit, recently, he hasn't been strong enough for me to play him - he went through a brief phase of being an "anti-bruiser" in top lane but as soon as Riot noticed he was beating their new champions, he was hit with the nerf bat and made more-or-less useless top lane. Some people still play him but I think he's trash right now. The changes are ridiculous. I'd say he'll probably be the most OP top lane in game once these changes are introduced. A champion who has 100% auto-attack avoidance and a big boost to his own, already very high damage, as well as an amazingly powerful gap-closer and nuke combo ability and then high consistent damage to follow it up is just too strong. I see him as a ban every game. I think he'll be a good jungler too, don't get me wrong, but I prefer tank junglers and damage-heavy champions in top lane - that's where the current meta is going.
      • General
        • Base health increased to 551 from 506
        • Health per level increased to 88 from 83
        • Armor per level increased to 3.5 from 3.2
        • Added an animation to Jax's Joke
      • Relentless Assault - Passive (Remade)
        • Every time Jax attacks an enemy he gains 4-10% increased attack speed (stacks up to 6 times)
      • Leap Strike
        • Cooldown changed to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds from 13/11/9/7/5
        • Damage changed to 70/110/150/190/230 (+1.0 bonus attack damage)(0.6 ability power) from 20/45/70/95/120 (+1.0 total attack damage)(0.7 ability power)
      • Empower
        • Cooldown reduced to 7/6/5/4/3 seconds from 9/8/7/6/5
        • Damage changed to 40/85/130/175/220 from 60/95/130/165/200
        • Ability power ratio increased to 0.6 from 0.4
        • Mana cost increased to 30 from 20
      • Counter Strike (Remade)
        • Jax dodges all incoming basic attacks for 1.5 seconds. At the end of the effect, Jax deals 40/70/100/130/160 (+0.8 bonus attack damage) physical damage and stuns nearby enemies for 1 second. This spell deals an additional 10/15/20/25/30 damage for each attack dodged.
      • Grandmaster's Might (Remade)
        • Passive: Every third consecutive attack deals an additional 100/160/220 (+0.7 ability power) magic damage.
        • Active: Jax gains ability power equal to 25/45/65 (+ 20% of his ability power) and attack damage equal to 25/45/65 (+ 20% of his bonus attack damage) for 6 seconds.
      Nunu - Probably just trying to make him more consistent with other champion's base stats and per-level stats. I think this is more for the sake consistency than to make him any more or less viable. I actually don't think Nunu is that broken or anything, he's just been surpassed by other champions and the meta has moved away from what made him strong. Perhaps he'll get a rework soon?
      • Base attack speed increased to .625 from .613
      • Attack speed per level increased to 2.25 from 1.08
      Rammus
      • Powerball duration reduced to 7 seconds from 8 - Fair enough.
      • Powerball initial speed increased to 30% from 25% - Goes without saying considering the above change. I guess they want him to activate powerball closer to the lane he's ganking but without it really effecting the speed at which he'll be able to get there. This means warding will be more effective against Rammus' ganks without actually making his ganks weak. Sounds good to me.
      • Defensive Ball Curl damage return reduced to 15/25/35/45/55 from 20/30/40/50/60 - Seems like a change to target his jungle and his ability to kill carries instantly, I think. He is pretty fast in the jungle so this seems fine to me.
      Riven - She's too strong, these changes should make her more balanced. I don't see anything to really complain about. She's still fun to play and is more-or-less the same in terms of playstyle and build.
      • Base movement speed reduced to 320 from 325
      • Base health regen reduced to 10.4 per 5 seconds from 12
      • Health regen per level reduced to 0.9 per 5 seconds from 1
      • Broken Wings base damage increased to 30/55/80/105/130 from 30/50/70/90/110
      • Ki Burst base damage reduced to 50/80/110/140/170 from 50/90/130/170/210
      Shaco - These changes only really target his jungle - he should no longer be able to take red and blue at the same time. He also shouldn't be able to place all his boxes in one brush and kill a random enemy without even going near them at level 1. He still needs tuning down elsewhere - probably next patch he'll be useless again because Riot will go too far.
      • Jack in the Box duration lowered to 60 seconds from 90
      • Jack in the Boxes now show their remaining duration (in seconds) in their mana bar
      Skarner 
      • Crystal Slash mana cost adjusted to 20/22/24/26/28 from 15 at all levels - Good change.
      • Crystal Slash slow decreased to 20/25/30/35/40% from 25/30/35/40/45% - Another good change.
      • Impale cooldown increased to 130/120/110 from 110/100/90 - Three good and necessary changes to an overpowered champion in one patch that doesn't break the champion but makes it balanced so it will still get picked but it won't be a free win anymore? Good job, Riot!
      Tryndamere - This is less good, Riot. The changes to Skarner show that Riot are listening to players who know what they're talking about and have reasoned arguments for things. These changes to Tryndamere show that they're listening to people who say "OMG NERF TRYNDA OP". The changes to his Q a patch or two ago were pretty good and made him nicely balanced in lane. These changes aren't game breaking but they're unnecessary. He's not OP in lane, why nerf his early game even more? I don't understand why these changes are being made, other than Riot attempting to appeal to the masses, most of whom are idiots and shouldn't be allowed to voice opinions on champions that beat them because they don't know how to counter-pick.
      • Base attack damage lowered to 56 from 59.2
      • Base health regen per 5 seconds reduced to 7.9 from 10.9 - This nerf is okay. It keeps him consistent with other champions who fill a similar role.
      • Mocking Shout attack damage reduction lowered to 20/35/50/65/80 from 20/40/60/80/100
      • Fury decay now begins after 5 seconds, as opposed to 8 second previously
      Vayne - I don't think Riot understand what makes Vayne OP. None of these changes make any difference to why she's so strong. She's less strong now, sure, but still too strong.
      • Base movement speed reduced to 300 from 305
      • Night Hunter movement speed reduced to 30 from 40
      • Tumble bonus damage reduced to 30/35/40/45/50% from 40/45/50/55/60%
      • Final Hour Tumble stealth duration reduced to 1 second from 1.5
      Veigar
      • Fixed a bug where killing a unit with Baleful Strike would not create the particle effect
      Vladimir - Very nice changes to one of the best and most underrated top lane champions in game right now. The Crimson pact nerf is maybe a tiny bit too much - 1.6 would have been fine for the sake of balance - but Vlad did get a lot of health for very easily. Personally, I don't build Vlad as a pure AP champion because I don't think this is playing to his strengths so I don't feel that this nerf is as big as the buffs are - perhaps people who play Vlad mid lane might feel the changes are a mixed bag, though.
      • Transfusion cooldown reduced to 10/8.5/7/5.5/4 seconds from 12/10/8/6/4
      • Crimson Pact ability power to conversion reduced to 1.4 from 1.8
      • Hemoplague no longer costs 15% of your current health and is now no cost to cast
      • Tides of blood health cost ramp up reduced to 25% from 50%
      Volibear  I think he's trash. Too easily kited to do anything useful. The changes are okay but they don't change any of the problems he already had.
      • Base armor increased to 20 from 17.5
      • Rolling Thunder
        • Damage increased to 30/60/90/120/150 from 25/50/75/100/125
        • Volibear now gains 15% Movement Speed for the duration. This bonus increases to 45% Movement Speed when moving toward enemy champions.
        • Fixed a bug where Rolling Thunder's attack would sometimes cancel against fast moving targets
      • Frenzy bonus health to damage ratio reduced to 15% from 18%
      • Majestic Roar damage increased to 60/105/150/195/240 from 60/95/130/165/200
      • Chosen of the Storm (Passive) cooldown no longer resets on death
      Warwick
      • Hunter's Call cooldown reduced to 24/22/20/18/16 seconds from 30/27/24/21/18  I'm guessing this change is for consistency with similar abilities. It makes very little difference and Warwick remains the staple of mediocrity.
      Xerath
      • Fixed a bug where Mage Chains could sometimes stun the target for 2 seconds instead of 1.5
      Items
      • Ionic Spark is now purchasable on Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline  Riot are getting really lazy. A boring and useless item that no one buys on Dominion now gets to be a boring and useless item that no one buys on Summoner's Rift.
      • Nashor's Tooth  No one builds it. It gets buffed. It's still useless on most champions, unfortunately.
        • Total cost reduced to 2735 from 2885
        • Ability Power increased to 65 from 55
      • Ninja Tabi  I honestly don't know what will happen with this. I don't see it competing with Mercury's Treads at all anymore.
        • Dodge has been removed
        • New UNIQUE Passive: Reduces the damage taken from non-turret basic attacks by 10%
      • Stinger total cost reduced to 1090 from 1140  Same deal as Nashor's Tooth. I have no idea what this change is designed to achieve.
      • Sword of the Divine has been removed
      Summoner Spells
      • Surge cooldown reduced to 180 seconds from 220  Useless spell stays useless.
      General
      • Colorblind Mode  I actually have a lot to say about this but I'll talk about that another time once I've used it.
        • New mode which improves visualization of health bars and various graphical effects and animations for colorblind players.
        • Location (while in game): Options > Video > Advanced Options > Colorblind Mode (checkbox)
      • Blessing of the Lizard Elder no longer triggers on spell damage  R.I.P Fiddlesticks. Your fate is sealed.
      • Updated several Champions recommended items
      Art
      • Champions
        • Guqin Sona model scale normalized to better match her other skins
      • Splash and Loading Screen Updates
        • Classic Alistar
        • Classic Fiddlesticks
        • Classic Galio
        • Classic Janna (minor artifact fixes)
        • Classic Malzahar
        • Unchained Alistar (minor artifact fixes)
        • Bird of Prey Anivia
        • Team Spirit Anivia
        • Corporate Mundo
        • Bandito Fiddlesticks
        • Piltover Customs Heimerdinger
        • PAX Jax
        • Angler Jax
        • Shadow Prince Malzahar
        • Vizier Malzahar
        • Assassin Master Yi
        • Yellow Jacket Shen
        • Silent Night Sona
        • White Mage Veigar

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