League of Legends: Official Thread

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8361

Totally agree that this year’s Worlds is super cool! I have been watching Worlds since Season 2 and this is the most entertaining one by far. I just hope that the final will not be a complete stomp by SKT – just like last year’s was by SSW. I would be delighted to get an epic clash of Fnatic vs. SKT for the finals! Huni and Febiven have both looked amazing thus far, I really think Fnatic has a chance of pulling this one off.

I was trying to get tickets for the finals here in Berlin, but they sold out within 90 seconds. Now, I am actually going to watch the finals in a movie theater, which is a first for me. Hope the atmosphere is gonna be worth it! In a way, it’s really funny: I have never, ever, watched any sports on TV. But I was a big follower of Quake 3 tournaments back in the day (Fatal1ty, ZeRo4, czm, etc…) and now follow LoL fairly devotedly. Funnily enough, I don’t even play LoL regularly anymore, because I find it way too time consuming and stressful…

I also really liked the Legends Rising documentaries, mainly because they selected players from all over the world. I do sometimes wonder what these poor kids are doing to themselves, though. To see the physical and psychological stress they are under is kind of crazy. But then, I guess that is pretty much the everyday reality of any professional athlete these days, so who am I to dismiss LoL as a less worthy endeavor than, say, bicycle racing!? And it is not like many professional sports offer stable or predictable career paths either…

8362

That’s my hope too! Origen are pretty realistic about their chances against SKT. It would be amazing to see them take 1 game though.

I only started following last year when my son got serious about his ranked play , but this year has been so full of upsets and unexpected results that is never been dull. It’s not the SSW and SSB show.

I’m really curious how Riot banning one of the most picked jungle champions a week before the semis is going to play out though. It’s going to hurt Origen more than SKT and the red side more than the blue. Not great. :/

I hope it is too! I lucked out with the tickets. They were all gone after a couple of minutes, but I kept retrying for a while. Some people must not have completed their transaction and I got them for both days.

One thing you might want to look out for. My son didn’t have any tickets for the quarter finals in London. But a day or 2 before the event, Riot released free tickets for both days, saying they were for seats with a partially obstructed view.

My son got some, went on the last day and he was sitting facing the stage with only a tiny bit at the bottom centre of the screen hidden. Even better, he wasn’t sitting far from the Fnatic team watching the match to find out who would be their next opponent. He was pretty happy to be there.

The same thing might happen in Berlin.

He. I have a summoner in LoL. A level 5 one.

I think the game is gripping to watch. But it’s also fairly intimidating. And family, work, commutes all mean I really have very little time to play games. Even less so one which requires learning champions in various roles and committing to 30+ minutes matches.

Pity. If I ever become a man of leisure, I might spend a month just diving into it for fun. In the meantime, I live watching the pros at work.

It’s the only eSport I watch.

Wendelius

8363

Alas, the semi finals were painful to watch for a EU supporter. That said, we had a whale of a time both days in Brussels. Especially as we were sitting very close ot the stage and casters. Fun to see the behind the scenes stuff.

Well, on the back of worlds, I decided to at least start playing a bit. So my summoner is now a sliver away from level 8. I’ve been having more fun than I remember having last time I tried the game. Probably because I’m finally starting to understand what it’s about after watching so many streams. It’s painfully hard to try and do everything you are supposed to though. We’ll see how long I can muster the energy to keep going. But bots fear me… Or rather my teammates. Sona support doesn’t really inspire terror. :)

Wendelius

8364

Somehow never got around to replying, sorry about that. Good to hear that you found a way of enjoying the actual game yourself. One of my main problems has always been that I have friends who do nothing but play and are online 24/7. Whenever I log in, I can be assured that they immediately invite me to one of their games. They never complain about my lack of skill, but I find it really frustrating to play with teammates and opponents all far beyond my skill ceiling. In principle, like you mention as well, I know what I have to do, but there is no chance in hell I can actually pull it off without tremendous amounts of practice. This simply won’t happen. Aside from the pressure to perform, I find it difficult to commit to 45-minute games that cannot be paused… I like Twisted Treeline for the simple reason that sessions are shorter and fit my availability much better.

You watched the semi-finals live in Brussels!? Sorry you had to endure that! I was really disappointed to see both Fnatic and Origen go down without taking a single game. Finals were also a massive letdown: while the crowd in the movie theater was fun, I only truly enjoyed the one game where KOO rolled over SKT. All the other games were too onesided for my liking. While I enjoyed this year’s Worlds, the semi-finals and the finals were some of the least memorable series, as far as I am concerned.

Are you following the off-season chaos at all!? It’s been a crazy ride so far, even though I am not massively invested in it. I hope that future years will see more stable teams: both SKT and Fnatic will disassemble (Marin and Easyhoon leave, so do Huni and Reignover), unfortunately. Also, Doublelift switched to TSM (how crazy is that!?). I liked Cloud 9 for the stability in their roster, was disappointed when they took on Incarnation (a player known for his toxic behavior), then shifted my fan devotion to Fnatic instead. Now, with Huni and Reignover leaving, I am not so sure I have what it takes to be a fan, given that players come and go faster than you can blink. It seems to me you’re left with either cheering for a given franchise (e.g. TSM irrespective who happens to be playing for them), or for individual players irrespective of their current team…

Anyway, next season is going to be interesting for sure! :-)

8365

And now I’m the one who forgot to reply. :/

Mind you, watching the Worlds semi finals has turned out to be less painful than watching Fnatic, Origen and TSM struggle this spring split.

I know that LoL and Dota2 are the red haired step children of the MOBA family on this forum (while “everybody” is cooing at how cute HotS is), but I was wondering if we have any EUW players still active here?

Riot has just released the Clubs feature. It allows you to form permanent groups and chat rooms. It also allows you to select a cool tag (say Qt3 :) ) if you have 5 or more members.

5 months after I started playing, I’m still a level 21 summoner. So I’m very casual and wouldn’t be any good for ranked games. But if we have friendly people who want to display the tag, it might be nice to join up.

Also, for those who thought the grind to level 30 was way too long (I’ve been enjoying the time it’s been giving me to learn without pressure to jump into ranked, but I can totally see that point of view), Riot has just halved the XP needed to reach level 30 this patch. Great for alt accounts more than first time players, I’d say. But no need to fear the grind anymore.

Personally, after playing 2 champions for months, I’ve just started experimenting with the free weekly champion rotation and realising I actually might enjoy other champions more than Sona and Soraka. Time to expand that champion pool. :)

Wendelius

8366

Today, 1st of April, League of Legends has become the League of Draven.

If you’ve always been jealous of draven’s handsome moustache, you can Dravenise your picture here: http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/skins/draven-day-2016#section-dravenize

Also, the NA and EU casters are about to compete in the League of Draven (starts in less than 5 minutes).

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viVAClYo0-0
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/riotgames

Should be a bit of fun.

EDIT: I take it back. That match is a scripted mess.

Wendelius

8367

I don’t know if anyone has been watching MSI (an international tournament between the top teams from each region, plus a wildcard team). It’s had a few really good matches, though Europe is not doing great.

In any case, CLG (NA team) was playing the Turkish wildcard team Supermassive today.

If anyone feels like League matches can be a bit slow and boring, this is not it.

This one is worth watching for the laughs and the thrills: https://youtu.be/8PDWoFbBQnk

Wendelius

8368

Still playing this whenever I have the time. Most of my regulars have moved on, so lots of solo queue, but I’d be up for grouping with anyone who is still active.

8369

1 minute until the start of this year’s Worlds competition. The group stages open with G2 (top EU team) playing against US team CLG (forever full of potential yet disappointing its fans).

Should be a fun time.

If you haven’t watched LoL in While, the last couple of patches have changed things quite a bit, including more lane swaps and the return of the bit lane party.

Watch on Twitch or YouTube:

8370

Looks like lol is still doing pretty well:

https://pvplive.net/c/league-of-legends-tops-pc-revenue-for-2016

As impressive as ever.

I think I’ve been playing it very much on and off for about a year now. Haven’t even really played Ranked.

I think it’s cost me about the same as a year worth of MMO subscription. But considering how engaging the game is, I certainly don’t begrudge giving them some money here and there.

8371

Anyone here still playing this? I started a new account recently after not having played since 2013 or so, and have largely been enjoying playing co-op vs. AI matches to farm IP for the champions I owned on my old account, but I’d like to be able to play with people I can communicate with outside of the game when I do go into real matches, and the only other person I know playing the game is my girlfriend, who started at the same time I made my new account. (Coincidentally, an event just started that includes a special PvE mode, and half of the missions for the event include playing that mode with a five-man premade. ;_;)

Also, huge changes to a lot of the game’s oldest systems, including runes, IP, and account levels, are coming with the next preseason update:

8372

I still play it when I can block an hour of time, which isn’t often. I watch it a lot on twitch. It’s still compelling in the same way watching a basketball game is - seeing how each champ pits their strengths against their opponent’s weaknesses. Of course, if you don’t know what they are capable of doing, it just looks like a bunch of pretty lights and then someone dies. Which isn’t compelling at all. Still, when I have that dedicated hour, it’s still a lot of fun. Oh, and the MP community seems a whole lot less toxic in general than it was a few years ago, but that’s just with my small sample size.

8373

I watch more (twitch streamers, NA LCS) than I play. I blame it on the current meta - junglers are pretty much playing tanks now, so you’re far more team dependent.

I played ranked enough to hit gold back in February, so I “done” for the season. If the meta gets un-fucked I’ll probably start playing again.

8374

I play occasional arams but really just wish Urf was around more often; when it is live I will play it a tone. Every other rotating game mode except Hexakill can die in a fire. But they don’t even do Hexakill anymore.

I think the community toxicity is either worse or the same. But there are better tools for that now. You can mute pings, which became necessary with all the idiot spam pingers that started showing up in games. The passive aggressive question mark ping is probably the most in-vogue thing right now.

8375

Any low Silver teams looking for a member in ranked or normal draft games? I play mid and ADC, around noon and midnight PDT.

People in games seem better than what I remember when playing it years ago. Maybe the honor system or extra Tribunal enforcement have helped, maybe other games pull trolls away. Even so, it would be nice to find a group to join for the coordinated infliction of pain upon Internet strangers.

8376

I don’t know how many here still play league. I haven’t really had the time to play for a year now. But I still enjoy watching games. If you do too, I’ve got a few hours of entertainment for you!

Yesterday evening, Captain Flowers and Azael (2 NA LCS Riot casters) turned their attention to 5 live solo queue bronze games and commented them.

The mix of dry humour and actual attempt to cast bronze games, the crazy itemisations, the summoner names, the drama, the come backs made for a strangely compelling and hilarious series of matches. Especially when you add twitch chat really getting into it (the stream passed 10k viewers). There are even post match threads on Reddit.

If you enjoy League and need a smile today, I highly recommend jumping into the matches in the vod below:

8377

A Starcraft caster had a series where he did the same thing for a while.

I think low-level matches in any competitive online game are more fun to watch. It’s nice to see people at the top of the skill ceiling, but I think it’s more interesting to watch people who haven’t broken the game down to numbers, metagames, and muscle memory.

8378

I’m in Silver V, though my ELO is probably more high Bronze right now.

I’m not so sure I’d agree regarding low-level matches, unless you’re talking about cherry-picking them. Because I’d estimate that about 7 out of 10 low level matches have something tremendously stupid, like an AFKer, or a guy that gets incredibly behind but just continues to try to solo the other team.

Take it from someone playing in it, that’s really not all that exciting to watch.

8379

It is if you add professional casters and Twitch chat. :) But I agree with the more dreary day to day reality of living it.

This stream kept me up and smiling until 2am.

8380

Sooo. Not sure who here is following worlds. Without spoilers, you might want to watch the rebroadcast of Group B later in the day (still 2 matches to go). Let’s just say this must have been one of the craziest days in worlds so far. It involves Cloud 9, EU’s Vitality, RnG (best Chinese team) and world champions Korean team Gen.G. All I can say is you won’t get bored…