America’s New Pastime: Our Generation’s Sport
Growing up, I was a baseball fan. My father – in his childhood – was a fanatic. My father did it all: Collecting cards, scoring games, playing elaborate statistics games at home on his bedroom floor while the Yankees played on the radio; or playing stickball in the street with his friends. For our fathers’ generation and many before; baseball was life – America’s Game. As I got older and began to understand and appreciate the game, I watched my father’s love of baseball erode before my very eyes. As I grew to enjoy the sport, my dad seemed to lose interest. I asked him once why his childhood passion was no longer a source of happiness for him, and he grew wistful in his response. He recounted that even though he and his friends liked other sports – they were all big football, hockey and basketball fans too – baseball was special because it was the only sport where kids and adults alike could look down on the field and think: “I could do that”. Baseball players were not the enormous superhuman athletes who dominated other sports – they seemed like average guys; some were short or fat, some wore glasses and had names like “Mick” and “Ernie”. Baseball was on every day and night, it was a sport where 30% success is considered all-pro. Baseball was the most accessible sport, the closest thing to ownership that a fan could feel for a game.
Time passed, and in 1998 I watched my Yankees win 114 games. I held my breath with the rest of the country as two superheroes competed to break the holy grail of sports records: the single season home run record. Though it’s 15 years in the past now, more than any other summer I feel like I can remember every day of 1998, watching news reports and catching front page headlines to see if McGwire or Sosa had pulled ahead.
10 years later as I watched these heroes stand accused of cheating on the floor of Congress, I understood why my father lost his love of baseball. Baseball was no longer the pastoral, blue-collar game he grew up watching and feeling a part of. Today’s players were now like those from other sports – gigantic finely tuned super athletes. Gone were the Babe Ruths and the Joe DiMaggios who reminded starry eyed kids of themselves, replaced instead with the likes of Alex Rodriguez and Barry Bonds: guys with multi-million dollar contracts and crates of steroids. Baseball was no longer a game for average men and boys, and that fact killed the love of the game my father and his generation previously held on to.
Mark McGwire testifies before Congress about his alleged steroid use.
When Season 3 of League of Legends began this winter, I was struck by the synergy of the ranked ladder system for average players who wanted a tangible measurement of their improvement relative to top-level professional competition. Suddenly I found myself queuing for ranked matches on weekdays and tuning in to pro games on the weekends – two things which I’d never really done before. I saw guys just like me playing my favorite game at the highest level and found myself thinking: “I could do that”. Just like the kids in the street playing stickball and dreaming of being Ted Williams, professional League seemed accessible to me, I felt a greater connection to the game than I do with say, football. With League of Legends attracting record numbers of viewers, even mainstream media outlets are wondering: is this America’s new sport? MLG Dallas saw 2.6 million unique viewers, not a record high for e-sports, but what’s impressive is the “engagement time” – the average viewing time for MLG Dallas was around 150 minutes, much higher than the Super Bowl averages.
In some ways, the inter-connectivity provided by the web and the forward thinking team at Riot have created an environment in which a competitive spectator game can be enjoyed by fans all over the world in new, unprecedented ways. While traditional sports struggle to move into the 21st century weighed down by massive T.V. contracts and blackout restrictions, League and games like it enjoy a much more open experience for fans. Games are streamed all over the world for free. Replays are available on demand the moment the game begins – for free, and most importantly, Riot and other major games manufacturers encourage fans and sites (like allMIA) to cover their pro leagues. When we post match highlights, we’re able to bring you links directly to key moments in the broadcast in a way that a Hockey or Football blog simply can’t, due to NFL and NHL restrictions.
Our pros stream every day, connecting with the fanbase in a way that major sports just can’t. The game we play is the same game our pros play, and the dream that one day we’ll work our way up to the “challenger” tier, and qualify for a pro team is real and tangible, and it drives us ever closer to the game we love. As major American sports continue to alienate themselves from fans with bloated contracts, blackout restrictions, endorsements and lawsuits, companies like Riot offer a more attractive alternative. Consider this: 10 years ago, would you have ever pictured a scenario where you watched other people play video games with the enthusiasm that you watch “real sports”? I know I didn’t. Imagine where we might be in 10 years from now. We’re witnessing history, and even better – we can be a part of it. The NA and EU LCS first-half seasons wrap up in a few short weeks, will you tune in to see the future of competitive sports? Leave us a comment or tweet to us @ill_monstro_g – tell us what you think about the growth of e-sports and where we’re going as a community.
Choose Our Next Contest While We’re AFK!
See those RP cards? A photo taken by your’s truly and uploaded this very day. We’ve got a bunch of RP, and we want to give it away to our readers! Since we’re going to be away this weekend (not at PAX East, but at a wedding!) we’re looking for your input. While allMIA goes on a short hiatus from March 22-26, tweet your contest ideas, or leave them in the comments of this post. We’ll choose the best option, run the contest, and give out RP prizes! Our last contest was a huge success and we anticipate this one being even bigger!
EU LCS Heats Up on GG Bye (spoilers)
With Gambit Gaming on their bye week and in international competition at MLG Dallas for week 5, the other 7 EU teams had a week to shake things up without the dominant Russian squad around to spoil things. Without the competition of Alex Ich and his team, Fnatic took advantage in a big way, picking up wins in all 3 of their matchups, propelling them to a first place spot in the EU division. Former CLG.eu squad Evil Geniuses continued to toil with mixed results. Almost mirroring their former sister team’s struggles in the NA division this week, EG continues to play close games which seem to get away from them in the end. Froggen came out in an interview recently, expressing frustration with his team’s performance and stating that the playstyle which brought EG past success is no longer effective in the game’s current state, and that his team would have to adapt to survive. Froggen’s comments seem eerily similar to Doublelift’s frustrated remarks about the ADC role after CLG’s disappointing start to the NA season.
With some of the top teams in the world struggling to adapt to new strategies and team comps in Season 3, it would stand to reason that newer teams have an edge and should be rising; and yet like the bottom 4 NA teams, the bottom half of the EU standings continues to be populated with newer, less decorated teams. Wolves, GIANTS!, Dragonborns and Against all Authority all maintain sub .500 win percentages by continuing to trade wins with one another while consistently losing to the senior teams in the division (only bottom 4 team to beat a top 4 this week? aAa over SK). If top teams are still trying to adapt to Season 3 and new teams can’t seem to take advantage, what will it take to unseat a top pro team – and can whoever adapts best this season compete with the top Korean teams who continue to dominate on the international stage? Come back to allMIA later this week as we look ahead to week 6 EU and NA action and discuss some practical methods for western viewers to catch games in the top Asian leagues whose seasons begin soon.
Dig/MRN Meltdowns in Week 5 – NA Shakes Up
All week 5 NA LCS VODs here
North American League Championship Series action live from Dallas at the MLG Winter Championships brought havoc to the LCS standings this week. Dignitas – who looked poised to control the LCS standings from atop the division with 3 games against bottom 4 NA teams – absolutely imploded in Dallas with losses to GGU, Vulcan and CompLexity. Curse, who took 3 straight games this weekend move to number 1 in the standings. One of Curse’s big match-ups was against rival CLG who – in losing to Curse – put their 4th place slot in jeopardy. With the CLG loss, it was up to 5th place team MRN to step up and win some games to close the gap separating them from CLG. Like former-first-place Dignitas though: MRN dropped all three of its games this weekend – including a crucial head to head with CLG – devastating their position in the standings and allowing Vulcan to climb over them into 5th place. After their third loss of the weekend, MRN’s team owner/manager Marn was active on Twitter and had this to say:
MRN, like CLG had roster issues moving into week 5. Marn himself was going to fill an empty roster slot, but was notified that team managers are ineligible to compete as players (the same rule does not apply to team owners, which is why HotshotGG can play for his team). Marn’s post-game tweets are not 100% clear – will Heartbeat be moved out of the lineup? Or will he shift to another position, moving someone else off the main team?
A Korean Team An EU Team and Two NA Teams Walk Into A Tourney…
MLG Tournament VODs here
How do you figure this one worked out? Further fueling the East vs West storyline,this weekend’s MLG international best of 3 tournament pitted the top two NA LCS teams, the top EU LCS team and Korean outfit KT Rolster B against one another for MLG honors. In the semifinal round Gambit Gaming looked to shake off their disappointing IEM showing and followed up by taking Dignitas down in two straight games. With the losses to GG, Dig’s losing skid at Dallas increased to 5 straight. With GG advancing, fans began looking forward to a preview of what may still end up being the LCS championship matchup: Curse vs Gambit. Plans for a championship preview were dashed when CRS could not translate their 3-0 LCS success into a win over KT Rolster B, who took Curse down in 2 games.
The only best of 3 to see a third round this weekend in Dallas (including the invitational games) was the GG/KTB final. Gambit struggled to keep up in game 1, matching KTB in gold for the majority of the game until the Korean team’s slight advantage proved to be too much. Game 2 was Gambit’s, but game 3 gave South Korean fans yet another victory over a Western team to celebrate after a blunderous Baron call lead Gambit into a second consecutive loss in an international event.
After Korean victories in the last two major international events you may want to know more about the Asian scene since no Asian teams compete in the LCS – no worries, Riot has you covered. Check back with allMIA later this week for a closer look at the Korean meta and how to catch games in the upcoming OGN and Tencent 2013 seasons.
“Howling Abyss” New Matchmade ARAM Mode on PBE
ARAM fans! Riot has heard your cries. Ever since the debut of The Proving Grounds, players have had the ability to play fan-created “all random all mid” rules on a dedicated one lane map in custom games. Since ARAMs have been limited to custom games, the chief problems with ARAM have been players dodging when they don’t get a champion they’d like to play (defeating the purpose of ARAM) and the skill gap which can plague a mode where anyone can play with anyone else. In one fell swoop, Riot seeks to snuff out these problems by introducing a matchmade ARAM queue on a whole new map: The Howling Abyss.
If you have a PBE account you can go give the new map a spin. It is unclear at this moment when the map will hit live servers, and if it will support blind and draft pick (ABAM/ADAM) modes when it does. Excited for a new ARAM map? Tell us in the comments or by tweeting to us @ill_monstro_g and if there is enough interest we will sponsor an ARAM tournament with RP prizes to celebrate the release of Howling Abyss!
Curse in First! CRS over CLG at MLG Dallas (SPOILERS)
It all began with Dignitas: 10-2 1st place NA LCS team dropping a game in the week’s upset special against 7th place team compLexity. (VOD coming soon). coL jungler Lautemortis on his favorite champion – Cho’Gath – was unstoppable in this game, posting a 4-0-4 score by the time coL took the game’s final Baron before pushing to the nexus for the win. Meanwhile, Curse was set to play rival CLG in the rubber match of their 1-1 LCS series tie. After making critical errors in week 4 against their rivals, Curse needed to play a clean game to come away with a win.
(Curse vs CLG week 5 LCS – MLG Dallas VOD)
CLG began the game with issues, with jungler Chauster out of the lineup due to illness, CLG was forced to send in former midlaner Bigfatlp – AKA jiji. Jiji playing mid displaced new CLG solomid Link, who moved to top for the matchup, while HotshotGG shifted to the Jungle. With this setup, CLG was playing with a sub who has not been practicing with the team, and two key players out of their normal positions. Perhaps to compensate, CLG attempted an early jungle invade, which resulted in first blood after a good reaction from Curse. Aphromoo – on Lulu – got caught by Wraiths and began the tough game for CLG. CLG attempted to gain an advantage over Curse by sending their superior poke ADC lane to mid, as Doublelift‘s Caitlyn would surely fare better against NyJacky‘s Ryze than Cop‘s Miss Fortune would against Jiji’s Gragas. Curse did not allow the lane swap to throw them off their game, and sent their ADC/Support to middle lane also. Elementz‘ Sona used her sustain to help MF win the lane despite Caitlyn’s superior poke. Though CLG banned away Saint Vicious‘ favorite jungler Xin Zhao, Saint picked up Jarvan IV and dominated CLG while HotshotGG – jungling with Shen – simply could not keep up with Curse’s aggression.
The loss for CLG should have cast a darker shadow on their odds to remain in the top 4, but team MRN who was in a good position to move up the ladder dropped their first MLG Dallas game to team Vulcan (VOD) who got an absolutely brilliant performance from top laner Sycho Sid. With upsets all over the LCS, by the time Riot leaves Dallas this weekend we might see a few more shakeups in the standings. Stay tuned as the EU LCS begins and the NA games continue.
ZAC Unleashed! Gelatinous Jungler Ganking a Lane Near You Soon!
Salutations, Summoners!
Today, Riot revealed the details of upcoming champion Zac, and he’s as cool as we thought he’d be! Check out his abilities:
- Cell Division (Passive): When any of Zac’s abilities hit an enemy, a piece of him falls to the ground. Zac can pick up fallen pieces to recover health. When Zac dies he splits into four blobs. These fragments will attempt to reform over a short duration. If any survive, Zac revives with a percentage of his maximum health based on the number of remaining blobs.
- Stretching Strike: Zac throws a two-handed punch that deals damage and slows targets in a line.
- Unstable Matter: Zac’s body explodes outward, dealing flat damage to surrounding enemies. Enemies struck also take damage based on their maximum health.
- Elastic Slingshot: Zac is immobilized as he charges up a dash toward the target location. The range of Elastic Slingshot increases up to a cap as Zac charges the ability. Zac then fires himself towards the target location, damaging and stunning all nearby enemies upon landing.
- Let’s Bounce: Zac bounces into the air, immediately knocking up, slowing and damaging nearby enemies. Once airborne, he bounces three times, dealing damage with each impact.
With his revive passive, Zac can take more risks for his carries than some other tanky/CC heavy champs might be able to because he can get back up from high-threat pick off moves like Caitlyn’s ult. How will turret aggro work in conjunction with his passive? If the turret “gibs” Zac, does the aggro switch? If so, his abilities as a tower-diver will also be impressive. With a CC-heavy kit and an interesting gap closer, Zac will likely be a powerful jungler. His HP regen mechanic is interesting, and might be more easily leveraged in the jungle than in lane. When a neutral creep camp attacks Zac, he can just wiggle in the camp to pick up HP as opposed to in lane where he will have to watch where he steps to avoid taking more damage in a trade.
Want more details? Check out the skinny over on the official Riot forums.
It Ain’t GG Till It’s GG.
Shh. Don’t speak. First watch this video.
That was CLG.EU (now Evil Geniuses) playing Moscow 5 (now Gambit Gaming) at Dreamhack 2012 this past summer. The kill spread may not seem like much to us average players, but take a look at the gold lead the Russian team has on CLG.EU – over 24,000 gold. Thats 7 and 1/2 Bloodthirsters. That’s 850AD (with max stacks). GG. Except… not. CLG sticks together, makes a play and takes the nexus for the win, down 24,000 gold.
GG.
It’s funny that these two little letters have so many different meanings and applications to gamers, yet usually we can tell exactly what they mean given context. Of course “good game” is meant to be a sportsmanlike affirmation of a friendly competition – the equivalent of a Baseball team shaking hands with their opponents after a game. Despite its intended meaning, GG has come to mean so much more to the summoners of League of Legends. Over time, it has morphed into shorthand for “the game is over” as a frustrated imperative. Players say “gg” after a bad team fight, following first blood or sometimes as early as champion select when – for example – a summoner doesn’t get the role they want to play.
“gg i cant play support”
“gg mid feeding”
“gg no jungle help”
“gg support KS”
These are all uttered by summoners around the Rift every day and has become a continually growing problem in League of Legends. “GG” said to teammates before a nexus is destroyed signals that a summoner has given up and will not play as effectively – or worse – when attached to a slew of insults (“gg top is noob, uninstall kthx”) demoralizes a teammate who is already (presumably) behind and in need of help, not insults.
Sometimes, a summoner will spout “gg my team sux” in [ALL] chat which is perhaps the most destructive abuse of the term. If signaling to the team that a summoner has given up is bad, imagine what happens when the enemy team sees that their opponent has given up.
To me, abusing “gg” is one of the most destructive habits exhibited by League of Legends summoners. Some summoners argue that the game they’re playing is hopeless, but saying “gg” prematurely accomplishes absolutely nothing except upsetting others, which should never be your goal. If you find yourself wanting to hurt another player, if you want to make someone else feel bad because they aren’t good at the game, or because they make mistakes; you are the reason you lose games. A player who is making mistakes can be taught to make smarter plays. A summoner with a mean streak who is so competitive that they berate their team at the slightest misshap can’t be taught to behave like a human being and will always reduce their team’s chances of success.
If you think of yourself as super competitive – and use that as an excuse to play angry – consider that truly competitive players always want to give themselves the best chance to win the game; this means never doing anything that reduces their chances of winning. You may feel that there is nothing you can do to improve your chances to win… but you can always make it worse. Don’t. Every game you play has something to teach you. Look for the lesson – even when your team throws – and you might just learn how to play from behind.
Post-Rant
If you want to learn how to win a game that seems lost, take a look at our article covering game 3 of the IEM Hanover 2013 Grand Final (VOD). CJ Entus Blaze’s play in game 3 shows how a team should play when losing the early game if they want to make a comeback. While the rando-pubstars you’re matched up with in Silver III solo-queue may not exactly be Korean mega-stars, every game you’re losing is a chance to practice the kinds of plays and strategies which help turn around losing games. Don’t give up. Don’t blame your team. Don’t say GG until it’s really GG.
Dorkly Points Out a Problem With Gaming
Really, this article is a reflection of a prevalent issue facing all communities from really enclosed ones like the League of Legends community to much broader communities like Reddit or television viewers. At times, fans forget that just because a sentiment or idea is popular or high profile doesn’t mean that other people don’t have contrasting ideas. Moreover, for those who claim gamers are “fickle”, the reality is that we’re all unique and have different tastes and opinions. While the term “hivemind” is often leveled at gaming or online communities, in reality the popular opinion of a group isn’t always as consistent as we’d like to believe.
What do you think about the Dorkly article? Leave a comment and let us know!
Changes Coming to Champ Select? Lyte Says So
Just quick post to let you know that RiotLyte is having a discussion about “fixing” champion select right now over on the official LoL forums.
The player behavior and experience teams at Riot are tackling some of the biggest problems in not just League of Legends but indeed all of online gaming and beyond. When a company employs people who ask questions like this one:
1) Real-Life Context | This scenario really illustrates how context outside the game can influence behavior inside the game. Traditionally, game studios don’t design or solve for context. Or can they?
You know that they are pushing the boundaries of what it means to play games socially and anonymously. As a community, we’ve got to do our part to support Riot’s attempts at manipulating player behavior as it directly benefits the entire player-base Fewer games lost because of toxicity, less frustration and anger over a recreational activity – these are the net benefits which we all reap when Riot innovates in the social interactivity space. Check back with allMIA later for a closer look at RiotLyte and the plan to fix champion select.
#sorryliam Twitter Contest WINNERS! (+Best of the Rest!)
Salutations, Summoners!
Our #sorryliam Twitter contest has come to a close, and resident Englishman – our very own Liam – has selected 3 winners each to receive 1380RP for their great submissions! I’m happy to report that the contest was a rousing success! Not only did we see a ton of excellent submissions, but we’ve gotten a bunch of great feedback from the community. Because of the success of this contest, we will be running more contests for RP soon so bookmark allMIA, follow me on Twitter (@ill_monstro_g) and check back frequently so that you can enter and win our next RP Giveaway!
On to the winners, of whom Liam says the following:
“You never have to say sorry because you’re bad at the game. We’re all bad at one time or another! What you have to say sorry for is being DUMB. These guys really need to apologise.”
Our 3 winners will be contacted via Twitter Direct Message with their 1380RP codes. So if you’ve won – check your Twitter messages!
Best of the Rest
Even though we had only three prizes to award, we have to recognize the other top tweets that tickled our funny bones. Thanks to all who participated, and enjoy the submissions! See one you think should have won? Want to tell us how dumb we are for not picking your favorite? Tell us in the comments! And we’re sorry, so so sorry.
3 Must-See Matches: Week 5 NA LCS
Curse vs CLG – 3/15 7pm PST
Previous Games:
Split in their season series at 1 game apiece, #2 Ranked Curse and #4 Ranked Counter Logic Gaming are both playing for more than just respect and bragging rights this week. Curse, who began the season 8-0, coasting in first place has fallen behind 10-2 Team Dignitas. This week, Curse has matches against 3 of the top 4 NA LCS teams and must find success if they want to climb back into 1st place. Meanwhile CLG holds on to their 4th place spot with MRN on their heels meaning CLG needs every win they can get to remain in the top half of the standings.
These two rivals met in week 1 in a game where Curse looked very comfortable and confident. Showing off the aggressive playstyle that got them ousted from the CLG roster, Voyboy and Saintvicious lead Curse to a decisive victory over their former teammates. CLG owner and top laner HotshotGG never seemed to settle in, missing a key Baron steal and getting caught out of position by a diving Voyboy several times.
The second time CRS and CLG met this season was a completely different story as Curse seemed to have abandoned the quick aggressive strategy that brought them success in week 1 in favor of a slower split-push based strategy lead by a solo-queue inspired AP Tryndamere build employed by Voyboy. CLG – responsible for popularizing the split push strat in the NA scene – responded very well, isolating Voyboy and keeping his pushes from splitting their attention.
Who will break the tie and claim bragging rights over their rivals? Both teams have previously fallen to mistakes and miss-plays like HotshotGG getting caught out of position in game 1, or NyJacky putting Kayle’s invulnerability on Voyboy’s Endless Raging Tryndamere. Whoever can clean up their game and make no mistakes should walk away with a win this week.
Prediction: Curse over CLG in a close match.
Head 2 Head Highlight: Mid Lane
Last time they matched up, Link outfarmed NyJacky – who seemed uncomfortable and slow to react on Kayle – by 30cs at points. Curse will need NyJacky to be playing at his best if they hope to break the 1-1 series tie in their favor.
MRN vs CLG – 3/16 7pm PST
Previous Game:
The last time these two met, the result was one of the best games of the season; the game took 3 separate contests over Baron to decide. While MRN held a significant gold lead later on in the game, CLG made good plays to remain in the match until the final team fight near Baron proved to be too much for HotshotGG’s team. Last time, CLG banned out Tristana as an answer to the recent success found by MRN ADC Heartbeat – but Heartbeat just picked Kog’Maw and carried anyway. With Heartbeat showing flexibility and MRN top lane MegaZero at the top of his game, can CLG adapt and find another way to shut MRN down? If not we may go into week 6 with a new 4th place team.
Prediction: CLG over MRN in a drawn out split push contest.
Head 2 Head Highlight: Top Lane
With their last match being so drawn out, the split-push style of CLG might be where this game is decided. Can MegaZero beat Hotshot at his own game? If he does, MRN might pull out another win over CLG.
Any Game Dignitas Plays (3/15 6pm: vs coL – 3/16 5pm: vs GGU – 3/17 2pm: vs Vulcan – all times PST.)
Dig is a first place 10-2 in the NA LCS, and this week they face off against 3 of the “bottom 4” NA teams – none of whom they have lost to on the LCS stage. For Dig, this is an opportunity to put greater distance between them and 2nd place team, Curse (who have 3 tough matches this week). Until Dig is knocked off the first place throne, every match they play is must-see-TV, especially this week where any of their 3 games could be the week’s upset special. Worth noting: the only “bottom 4” team they aren’t facing? The best looking of the bunch – 5th place MRN.
Player 2 Watch: Iamaqtpie
Team Dignitas’ ADC Iamaqtpie is giving de-facto “#1 ADC” CLG Doublelift a run for his money recently with incredibly consistent and explosive play. If QT can keep up his dominance against his opponents this week, chances are Dignitas will still be #1 when we preview week 6.
Wrap-Up
Any match you’re looking to see that we didn’t cover? Leave us a message in the comments and check back tomorrow for our week 5 EU LCS “3 Must See Matches” preview. Need to know how to watch the games? Check out our article on watching professional League of Legends. Plus, later today check back for the results of the #sorryliam Twitter contest where 3 lucky winners will take hope 1380RP each!
Visual Tips… With A Spear Behind Them! – Xin Zhao
Xin Zhao is a tanky melee champion with high early game damage, plus both strong chase ability and disengage potential. Xin Zhao is a versatile champion who can fit comfortably on most teams as his item build allows him to become very tanky or high damage depending on his team’s needs. His strength is as a jungler as evidenced by his very high pick/ban rate in competitive play and the high number of pros who play him regularly, but his excellent dueling ability also makes him a competent top.
So you want to add the Seneschal of Demacia to your champion pool? Here’s some tips… “with a spear behind them!”
Be sure to check out Saintvicious’ Jungleology video on YouTube for a more in-depth look.
Preview Size – Click to Enlarge
A Gentlemanly Chat With… RIOTGradius!
While looking for new streams to feature in our community series, I ran across the stream of genuine Rioter RiotGradius who – according to his Twitter feed – is part of the Information Security team at Riot Games. Gradius is ranking up in Silver IV solo/duo queue, so I asked if he’d answer some questions about his experience in ranked and if we could gain some insight about what it’s like to work for Riot Games. The following is an interview conducted via-text, formatted for the blog. Please give Gradius a big THANK YOU on Twitter or here in the comments for sharing his time with us!
———————————————————-
allMIA: How did you come to work for Riot?
RiotGradius: I started working for Riot after meeting them at SCALE last year. I met a few of the recruiters and network dudes there, and I gave them my resume. I was already a pretty avid player of LoL, so this job sounded awesome. After some back and fourth with recruiting, I got myself a summer internship. That turned into a full time job after the internship period!
allMIA: Who is your favorite Rioter to work with in the office?
RiotGradius: Honestly, everyone here at the office is great to work with. It’s super apparent that we’re doing what we do because we love the game and our players. At first I thought it was the “company motto” but it really is how things are run around here. Though, I have to say that “working” (read : nerf wars) with the Network OPs team is a lot of fun.
allMIA: What’s your favorite champion and role at the moment?
RiotGradius: Favorite champion right now would have to be Sona. I’m having a blast supporting with her. Favorite role right now is support! Been doing a lot of that, after coming off a spree of jungling.
allMIA: I see you’re climbing ranked solo/duo queue. What advice do you have to fellow summoners who are also trying to improve their game?
RiotGradius: The biggest thing I’ve seen recently that will destroy a game before it starts is people being stuck in one role. Don’t always assume you’re going to play your favorite role. Yes you might have a “best role,” but be prepared to play any of the 5 roles. If you’re particularly bad at a role and your team is needing you to play it, specify that it might be better for someone else to take that role since it is your worst role. This is much better than calling “MID” at the beginning of a game and not working [with] your team.
allMIA: If you were a LoL Champion, what would your Ultimate be?
RiotGradius: “Distracted” Passive: For every minute in lane, RiotGradius recieves -5 Ability to Focus. As Ability to Focus decreases, bad calls, lack of MIAs, and map unawareness increases. When RiotGradius returns to the fountain, Ability to Focus is reset to 100.
Active: RiotGradius gains +100 focus. All abilites that are normally decreased during laning are increased greatly. This focus then continues to drop as normal. (180 Second Cool Down)
allMIA: If you could have a chat with any champion in LoL who would it be and why?
RiotGradius: I’d love to chat with Riven. Mostly because I have a LoL-crush on her, but also because I think she’d have a lot of really cool stories about the battles she’s fought in as well as how her life changed after leaving the Noxian army.
————————————————-
Cool, huh?
Like the interview? Leave a comment! We’ll be reaching out to Rioters, prominent members of the community and average leaguers alike to bring more Q&A content to the front page of allMIA soon! Your feedback is very much appreciated!
#sorryliam Twitter Contest Ends Wednesday 3/13 – ENTER NOW To Win 1380 RP!!
Follow the contest by searching #sorryliam on Twitter! Enter now and win!
#sorryliam Twitter RP Giveaway!
Salutations Summoners! Check out our Twitter feed : @ill_monstro_g and this Reddit post! We are running a contest on Twitter to get the best tales of fail from NA summoners using #sorryliam! Share yours to win RP! Contest ends 3/13/13 @ 12am est.
Ninja Edit: a kindly reddit user has pointed out the following: ““I don’t think there are 5$ RP cards mate, the least are 10$ cards which give 1380 RP.”
He might be right. In the event I can’t find a 650 point card, I’ll gladly grab 3 1380RP cards for the winners, no problem. I want this contest to result in a funny collection of posts I can share with the community, and 30 bucks isn’t too high a price to pay. Hurry and enter!!
Community Spotlight: “Rift Shop” Will Pop Your Flash [NSFW]
PlayerPOV just posted this hilarious Thrift Shop parody with special guest appearances including CLG’s own HotshotGG! (Hotshot of course being no stranger to appearing in funny LoL music videos) So if you’re a fan of the Macklemore/Ryan Lewis hit, click here to check out the new song, and drop a comment telling us what you think.
SPOILER: Best rhyme of the song is definitely “Rollin’ in hella deep, divin’ for the enemy got my full build ‘cept my last one: that’s a sheen.”
Thanks to Reddit user Vancarcious for sharing the link first.
IEM Hanover Grand Final 2: Frost vs Blaze For the Title (SPOILERS)
GAME 3 (VOD: IEM Hanover Grand Final Frost/Blaze Game 3)
Game 3 of the IEM Hanover Grand Final between CJ Entus teams Blaze and Frost was the rubber game of a 1-1 tie for the two Korean sides whose play in the first two games was ferocious. At first it seemed as though these teams were backing off of their early aggressive play-style until Frost revealed the first trick up their sleeve. MadLife – still on his Lulu – buys an early red potion and sits in the forward bush in top lane with Woong’s Ezreal and Shy’s Singed. Flame, playing the Elise that Shy played so well in game 1 wanders into lane when the trap is sprung for First Blood. Not one to let a gank go unanswered, Helios – on Vi – hooks around the bottom side of middle lane and with one well placed Vault Breaker brings the kill score even onto RapidSTAR’s Lux. Almost simultaneously though, MadLife, Woong and CloudTemplar – on Volibear – secure a second kill on Elise again bringing Frost ahead on kills. With the First Blood gold, Frost looks very good early up 500 gold on their sister-team. Given the previous two games ending predictably after fast starts by each team, game 3 looks grim for Blaze already at just 4 minutes in-game-time. Frost’s advantage increases when MadLife and Woong, pushing bottom tower, stay a little too long. Blaze manages to catch MadLife and bring themselves just a bit back into the game until in turn Helios stays just a bit too long, leading to a highlight reel worthy play in which Frost lands not one but two flips on Cpt Jack’s Tristana giving Frost yet another kill. Frost, having timed the play very well gets to take the game’s first Dragon without a contest from Blaze.
After a rough early game for Blaze, they begin playing very cautiously and puts the focus on farming minions, a strategy which will pay dividends in the late game, especially with a Tristana who is so strong in the late period of the game. Blaze’s first big play to help climb back into the game comes with the second Dragon spawn. Frost manages to take down dragon but gives up 3 kills to Blaze, who close the gold gap a little. After the clash at the objective, Blaze continues to push lanes and carefully farm. It still appears that Frost has an enormous advantage as they manage to pick off two members of Blaze, increasing their gold lead to 3000. There is no further aggression from Blaze until Frost reaches out to flip Ambition’s Kha’Zix. At first it appears that Frost will take yet another kill off of Blaze, until Ambition quickly crushes Ezreal and leaps over the jungle wall to safety, leaving Lustboy’s Sona to Crescendo Frost, giving a double kill to Cpt Jack. It’s at this point in the game that it’s clear that Blaze’s wait and CS strategy has paid off, as Ambition has an 80 cs lead over his lane opponent, RapidSTAR. Additionally, Cpt Jack is – at this point – 20cs over opponent Woong. The disparity in gold for the key damage dealers in this matchup gives Blaze the advantage they need to run Frost over. The farm disparity is so great that the once 3000 gold advantage for Frost has completely melted away, giving Blaze a nearly 1000 gold advantage which helps lead to another team fight in which Blaze cleans up Frost 2-0.
Now with a huge gold lead, Ambition begins absolutely controlling the game by himself, soloing dragon. Blaze follows up on Ambition’s success by contesting and taking Baron. Frost is wise enough to back off of the Baron fight while they have the chance, taking no deaths but giving up a turret and red buff to Ambition. With these few plays, Blaze’s gold lead suddenly swells up to over 8000. By slowing the game down, farming and picking their fights Blaze has written the book on how to play from behind. Frost, now desperate to claw their way back into a game they once controlled begins to press Blaze’s inhibitor turret in middle lane, but over-commits and ends up losing a team fight they had no real chance of winning 2-4. Blaze proceeds to press their advantage, taking the match’s second Baron and an inhibitor. The final nail in Frost’s coffin comes when Frost double-flips Ambition which only pushes Kha’Zix past Frost’s front line where he easily picks up a triple kill and ends the game, demonstrating that Blaze’s gold advantage is just too much.
For us summoners who are trying to learn important lessons from the pro scene, we’ve learned two important things from Blaze’s play in this game:
1) A great way to counter a “flip” team composition like the Singed/Volibear comp Frost was running is to play a champion with great escapes and high burst damage like Kha’Zix. Ambition consistently positioned himself in front of his team, making him the only viable target for CloudTemplar and Shy to engage on. Once he was flipped, Ambition made short work of the carries he was being tossed into and jumped away before he could be killed himself. Ambition’s play of Kha’Zix not only shows why the void-bug is such a popular choice in pro-play right now, but also easily makes him the game’s MVP.
2) When playing from behind, as Blaze was early on in game 3, it’s imperative to stay calm, disengage and try to farm as much as possible. Once Frost was ahead, Helios showed none of the massive aggression which was so key to Blaze’s game 2 victory, instead Blaze forced nothing, farmed up and became so strong that by time team fights began mid-game, Frost had no chance to defeat them.
With the victory, Blaze sets up a 2-1 match point in this best-of-5 IEM Grand Final.
GAME 4 (VOD: IEM Hanover Grand Final Frost/Blaze Game 4)
The fourth game of this best-0f-five is an elimination game for Frost who must win in order to force a game 5. The dire nature of their situation does not seem lost on Frost who begins the match by setting up a 3-man ambush in tribush on bottom lane. At first they back off of a potential fight at Blaze’s Elder Lizard camp, but then put a gank on Lustboy’s Sona in lane where Shy – on Singed – grabs First Blood. Frost appears ready to come out very aggressively, wanting to put this game away quickly as they did game 1. Blaze, realizing how aggressive Frost is playing and remembering their success in slowing down and controlling game 3 begins to play very defensively, focusing on farming and positioning. The first action we see after First Blood is when Flame takes top tower with very patient poking. Frost, wanting to speed the game back up with their aggressive strategy sends CloudTemplar to bottom lane to mirror some of the aggressive Vi play we saw from Helios earlier in the series. With a well executed, patient lane gank on Lustboy Frost picks up a 2-0 edge on kills. Almost simultaneously on top lane, Flame tries to chase and kill Shy who proves why rule number 1 is “don’t chase singed” as he escapes unharmed and nearly kills his lane opponent in the process.
Despite the 2-0 lead on kills, Blaze is farming better than Frost at 10:30 in-game-time with Flame up 25cs on Shy and Ambition up 15cs on RapidSTAR. Blaze’s patient, focused farming which was the key to their victory in game 3 and 1-0 turret advantage is once again paying off as they maintain a 1000 gold lead. Blaze – continuing with their patient strategy – drops a pink ward on Dragon and takes it uncontested, further increasing their gold lead to 2000. Frost – again needing to pull themselves back into contention from behind – starts playing even more aggressively with Shy teleporting to bottom lane for a gank, but a well timed Crescendo from Lustboy assures that Frost’s plans are foiled and Blaze can continue to farm safely with top lane now 30cs in favor of Blaze, mid and bot lane 10cs in favor of Blaze a piece. Frost, seeming frustrated by the cautious play of their sister-team responds to the failed gank on bottom lane by trapping Flame between RapidSTAR and CloudTemplar for the only the game’s third kill. It appears as though all of the roaming and waiting Frost is doing to set up these ganks is costing them in farm as despite the kill score being 3-0 Blaze is now up 2.5k gold.
A key play in this game 4 comes when Frost attempts to set up a fourth kill on Cpt Jack and Lustboy. Notice how Woong misses out on cs while he and MadLife wait for an opportune moment. Cpt Jack – who appears oblivious – is calmly farming, increasing his already large gold lead until the trap is sprung. A miss-play by Woong allows Cpt Jack to set up outside of the range of Bullet Time, where he can start pounding on Miss Fortune. Woong has to cancel his ult early and begin the retreat with low HP. With good communication, Blaze is able to bring Ambition – on Zed – down to bottom lane to pick up a double kill right on top of Frost’s bottom lane turret resulting in even more gold for Blaze and – crucially – even more missed farm for Woong. Frost is able to respond by catching Cpt Jack near red-side’s tri-bush and successfully chasing down Lustboy. Despite the retaliation from Frost, the double kill, extra farm, and a good response from Helios taking middle tower while Frost busily scrambles for kills, gives Blaze a now a 3000+ gold advantage over their sister team.
Frost – who was unable to play from behind previously in this series – suddenly jumps back into the game when the next contest for Dragon begins. Superior positioning leads RapidSTAR to pick up a triple kill with a fourth kill coming on Flame from Shy, giving Frost a 4-0 team fight victory and helping them close the gold gap down to under 1000 after grabbing the Dragon objective. Frost’s aggression does not end there as RapidSTAR leaps onto Ambition in middle lane while at the same time Shy and Cloud Templar pressure Flame on top lane. Blaze takes this opportunity to once again show off patience and superior positioning as Flame uses Repel effectively to shred Cloud Templar with his tower, turning the gank around into a 1-1 trade while in middle lane another tower dive goes wrong for Frost as Lustboy, Helios and Cpt Jack collapse on Ambition and CloudTemplar for a double kill and another turret. With the great response from Blaze, the gold lead once again opens up to 2.5k in favor of Blaze.
While Frost has – until now – been able to stay in the game, the balance of power tilts completely in Blaze’s favor when Frost – again trying to force a team fight with an ambush from the brush – doesn’t quite catch Blaze who successfully disengages, turning the team fight around the top corner of blue side’s bottom jungle. Lustboy – who to this point appears to be the game’s MVP – drops a perfectly placed Crescendo which leads to another 3-0 trade for Blaze, now up over 4000 gold on Frost. Unfortunately for Frost it’s late enough in the game that Blaze is also able to increase their gold lead to 5.5k by picking up Baron Nashor on the lopsided team fight.
The final team fight and win for Blaze comes when Frost tries to force another a fight they can’t win on Flame in middle lane. Flame outplays his sister team with a great Cocoon and Repel, melting RapidSTAR down, allowing Blaze to overwhelm Frost in their own base and to take the nexus for the game and series win, making CJ Entus Blaze IEM Hanover 2013 Grand Final champions with a series score 3-1.
FINAL THOUGHTS
With CJ Entus Blaze and Frost destroying the European competition in this IEM tournament, the story for the Season 3 World Championship becomes clearer. Can the North American and European teams find a way to stop the seemingly invincible stable of top Korean mega-teams? With top EU team Gambit Gaming losing in spectacular fashion to Frost in the semi-final while dominating the EU LCS it makes an e-sports fan wonder: how can a team like Coppenhagen Wolves or the under-performing former CLG.EU squad (who was shredded in the group stage at IEM Hanover) hope to compete on the international stage when the top team in the EU LCS gets pounded by a top Korean team who doesn’t even go on to win the Grand Final? How bad would it be if a team like Dragonborns (5th place in LCS) squared off against CJ Entus Blaze? For the answer, turn your eyes to Week 5 of the LCS where 5th place NA team Marn looks to climb into the top 4 and perhaps prove that “underdog” teams have a legitimate chance on the big stage. Check back this week for more coverage on professional League of Legends play when allMIA previews specific matches to watch in Week 5 of the League Championship Series!
Quick Tech Tips: Remotely Restart Your Router or Modem
If you’re like me, your router and modem are far away from your primary gaming station. When your internet connection drops in the middle of a match, it can be a hassle to run all the way downstairs, unplug your router or modem, wait 30 seconds, reconnect then hope that refreshing your IP was enough to get your connection working again. Luckily, with a few keystrokes you can quickly command your router to refresh your IP and your DNS, which will normally fix most dropped internet connections (obviously putting aside instances where your internet connection drops because of an ISP issue).
Whether you’re a Windows 8 user, or have some previous version of Windows, the process of remotely refreshing your IP is very similar. First, find your search bar. Windows 8 has a good quick-search option. Use the “hot corner” by putting your cursor in the top right of your screen. Click the search “magnifying glass” button and type “cmd”. Windows 7 and earlier can access the same function by clicking “start” and typing “cmd” in the search field in the bottom of the start menu. Once you’ve searched “cmd” Windows will open a “command prompt” which is a powerful tool that lets you give commands directly to your operating system for a variety of different functions.
To refresh your IP and DNS you’ll need two easy to remember commands:
- ipconfig /renew
- ipconfig /flushdns
Additionally, if you’re having serious problems, sometimes you may find it helpful to use “ipconfig /release” followed by a “renew” command, though this takes longer. Generally after renewing your IP and flushing your DNS you can expect your internet connection to come back online within 30-60 seconds. When your team is counting on you and you’ve dropped out of a game, this method can save you precious seconds and get you online in time to save the game. If you have any quick tech tips you’d like to share with your fellow summoners, leave a comment and we’ll feature your tip in a future Quick Tech Tip article.
IEM Grand Final Wrap: Blaze and Frost Represent CJ Entus for Title PART I (SPOILERS)
After Frost avenged their Katowice Grand Final loss to Gambit Gaming in the IEM Hanover semifinal round and former Azubu “B-Team” Blaze tore up Anexis, these CJ Entus teammates face off against one another in the IEM Hanover Best-of-5 Grand Final. Which team will emerge from IEM Hanover as champions? Read ahead, but beware of spoilers!
GAME 1 (VOD: IEM Grand Final Frost/Blaze Game 1)
Game 1 kicked off with former Azubu “A-Team” Frost showing why they were considered superior to their teammates Blaze as an early First Blood turns quickly into a 4-0 kill advantage for Frost. Before long, Frost holds a 1000 gold advantage for ADC Woong – on Ezreal – alone. By 7:30 in-game-time, Frost holds a total gold advantage of over 3000. The early advantage created by the tight play of Frost is not let up as an excellent play by MadLife – on Thresh – leads to another kill, bringing the total to 5-0 and the game’s first Dragon. From here, the game slows down a little as Blaze scrambles to protect what they have left. The next team fight results in 2 kills for Blaze… but 4 for Frost. As Shy – on Elise – chases Flame – on Nidalee – down to the Blaze interior turret on top lane, MadLife swings around from the top jungle creating a very loose fight full of chasing and late ignites. The tough fight for Blaze leads Frost to pick up yet another Dragon, further increasing their lead which by 15:30 in-game-time is over 7000 gold. Shy, who absolutely dominated Gambit in the Semifinal forcing Gambit to ban Singed in the last two games, was able to pick Elise (who was banned in all 3 contests with Gambit). With very accurate skillshots on Elise’s Cocoon and timely uses of Repel, Shy controlled game 1 very effectively, pushing top lane and drawing a ton of attention from Blaze. From this point in the game Frost continues to roll over Blaze, catching them out of position and forcing them into terrible situations, but it’s not until a very early uncontested 20-minute Baron Nashor that Frost puts the final nail in Blaze’s coffin who nearly immediately surrender after a completely dominant performance by Frost.
GAME 2 (VOD: IEM Grand Final Frost/Blaze Game 2)
Blaze, now on blue side for game 2 starts by curiously not banning the Elise which so plagued them in game 1. After seeing Shy dominate the previous series and starting the Grand Final so effectively, it comes as a major surprise that Blaze chooses to skip on the Elise ban. Blaze does, however, pick two of Frost’s favorites in Singed and Lulu, leaving Frost to pick up Elise – but not for Shy. Instead, with Thresh banned and Lulu picked by Blaze, Frost elects to send the Elise pick to support player MadLife, while Shy picks Rumble for top lane. Like the final game of the semifinal, CloudTemplar ends up playing Skarner as a response to the Xin Zhao ban. These interesting picks and bans would end up having a major impact on the outcome of game 2, and eventually the entire series.
The game begins on a fairly typically with none of the crazy invades and tower-diving plays we’ve seen so frequently at Hanover this year. The only noteworthy development in the first 5 minutes is a lane swap where ADC and Supports for both teams face off in top lane with top laners in a 1v1 situation on bottom lane. The bottom lane 1v1 ends up being the stage for First Blood just around the 5 minute mark. A timely Vault Breaker and Flip from Helios and Blaze on Shy is quickly followed up by another kill from Blaze, putting the former “B-Team” up 2 kills to 1 early. The aggression on bottom lane doesn’t end there, when just moments later, Helios returns for a second gank on Shy who is more ready this time. Turning on Blaze, Shy secures the first kill of the game for Frost but eventually goes down to Helios’ Assault/Battery leaving the score 3-1 in favor of Blaze.
The story of game 2 ends up being the very effective play of Helios on Vi, who secures a third consecutive successful gank on bottom lane, killing Skarner after being pulled onto Frost’s tower. This play, more than any other might just prove that while Skarner is viable, Vi continues to be picked over him for the jungle role because her kit – while somewhat similar – simply packs more “punch”.
At 12 minutes in-game-time, Frost makes a move to close the kill gap, but remains several thousand gold behind. It’s at this point, as Blaze responds with a kill bottom and a tower dive and a second kill in mid lane that the game begins to look very grim for Frost.
Two consecutive fights over the Dragon objective help bring Frost back even with Blaze in kills, but after the second fight Blaze still maintains a nearly 5000 gold advantage, which proves simply too much for Frost who lets Blaze take Baron around 25 minutes nearly completely uncontested. It’s not until the second Baron of the game in which Frost pushes back, seemingly coming out ahead, when Flame crushes the Nexus turrets by himself with a full complement of super minions to end the game, evening the series up at 1-1. At the end of this game, I’m forced to wonder about the champion select choices of giving Elise to MadLife and not Shy who played the Spider Queen so effectively in game 1. Shy’s Rumble was simply not on par with the dominance he showed in game 1 as he was continually ganked and abused by Blaze jungler Helios.
SERIES TIED 1-1
After a spectacular performance by both teams in games 1 and 2, the series stands tied at 1 a piece. How did the series wrap up? You can check out the VODs here, or wait for part II of our full IEM Grand Final analysis tomorrow morning.
Average Leaguers: PeGaZuZ (UPDATE)
Remember our Average Leaguers spotlight yesterday in which allMIA introduced you to new streamer PeGaZuZ? Well Peg heard his fans and has set up his microphone and webcam for an even more engaging and interesting stream. Go follow Peg’s Twitch stream to watch him and his team climb the ranked ladder and keep allMIA bookmarked for future Average Leaguers featuring members of the community who make League of Legends the best PC game in the world.
IEM Grand Final VODs (SPOILERS)
VODs for the Grand Final are here, beware of spoilers. Check out our Semifinals wrap-up, enjoy the games and check back for analysis of the IEM Hanover Grand Final later tonight.
allMIA 
Recent Comments