League Of Legends

I really like the starcraft ranked system. Can't decay out of a certain division but you'll be placed with same skilled players even if they're in the same ranking.

So is the only way to play in KR servers by having a KSSN? If so, this sucks because I really want to try out KR server!

So does anyone have any predictions for Worlds or any favourites?

Cloud 9 is playing tomorrow, really hoping they will win against Samsung Blue, but I doubt they will... still though, fingers crossed! Realistically speaking, I think Royal Club or Samsung White/Blue will win the World championship this year.

this. Although I really want an NA team to be in the finals, I don't think they have what it takes to compete for the title.

Yep, looks like White wins Worlds. I found those games more entertaining to watch than the Season 3 finals anyway, thats for sure.

I don't play this game, but this is pretty intriguing: Patterns of 10,000 LoL games.

If you didn't get the announcement. the season officially ends on the 11th. So grind it out and make gold or higher for new skin

The season has ended finally~
placed diamond, plat and gold on 3 of my accounts.
Goal for next season is to make a new account and get it to bronze V

In case you haven't read the 4.20 () patch notes for preseason~
Can get it here

Some highlights:

• Kalista, the Spear of Vengeance, will be released with Patch 4.20!

• Champion rebalancing/Ability tweaks

• Fiora
  Changing the way Blade Waltz does damage. It'll do the same to a single target, but less AoE with Tiamat / Ravenous Hydra.

• Mass Texture Rebalances

• Changing of Death Timers and Fountain Regeneration

• Buffs to Inhibitor and Nexus Towers

• Better Baron Buff and changes to Dragon rewards

• Mega Changes to Jungle and Jungle Items

• New Items/Updates

• New Skins

We all remember Blitzcrank + Tresh lanter/pull combo ~ right?

Now Lets add Kalista.

Man, I come back to League and my god... they were not joking that the jungle changed a ton. I'm really not used to it anymore... I'll have to figure out again the most efficient way to counterjungle and jungle creeping vs ganking...

Had a few junglers who straight died to every single camp.

One of them was like "oh ***, they do damage now". Was funny. Tried Nunu, nothing much changed for him, eat jungle, snowball people.

who is pumped for season 5 ? new teams i heard up to 15 for the roster with the new placement tournement going on and of course the epic contest to see if cloud 9 can keep there top spot. yeah can tell i am a fan,lol

I got bored of what is happening in most teams. The whole Koreans being hired everywhere just makes things stale, I'm not really excited by them or their "plays".

Other than Alliance (and still, they need a proper top), I didn't see any team that made me think much of them. NA is either staling like crazy or hiring washed up Koreans, there isn't a third category to put them in. EU isn't much better, but still less of a staling situation.

China is where it's at for 2015, everything else is pretty much child play in comparison.

The only thing I wish for in 2015 is for a proper band to be invited at Worlds this time. Imagine Dragons was the worst thing I've seen LoL related, ever.

I wish riot would bar foreign players from joining different regions teams it sets balance off. Two things i was mad about was the fact they allowed a full roster of Chinese players come over from mainland china to the NA scene who did not know any English, that new team could of been any north american challenger team that was part of north america region. the 2nd was 2014 worlds, CHINA had 3 teams there and only other regions got to bring 2 and the lower populated ones got 1, what the heck,lol

it was amazing to see Kaboom from Brazil server wreck EU's dreams to reach semi finals, Cloud 9 still holds the best international record for NA team wins, proud of those guys.

Can't say I've had it that bad now... never died to a single camp. The new item builds are whats making it awkward I think. New jungle items, new jungle priorities meaning different perspective on what to take first and what to take later, when to gank etc... it's all a bit much to take in at first.

Having said that though, I think once I experimented enough, I'll just make my own item builds for the champions I like using in the jungle. Then I'll have a bit more of a grasp of what to do when I'm asked to jungle.

P.S. Can't wait for Rek'sai holy sh*t lol

Rito are just retards when it comes to global rules.

They could just copy other games to avoid the Starcraft II fiasco, but they know that the game is so popular that they can get away with their custom ***that they update every year. The game is still in the same situation as Starcraft II, though less so as LoL players, even Koreans, are laughable when it comes to actual player value, but still, it's a shame.

The whole LMQ was good in the end, I'd say. It pushed NA to actually git gud, they went out and hired washed up Koreans, one of which proved to be a good fit for NA and it allowed teams to globally be on the same page, and I was honestly pretty pumped when I watched Curse's adventure in play offs.

It's fine if they hire a few foreign players, especially if we're talking NA as outside of Cloud 9 (not taking that lemon shitter into account), there isn't a single team that can fill all 5 roles with solid players that are only from NA. The challenger scene has some very good players, but they're still lagging behind proper players that are world tier, very few can hope to be on par within 2 years... but good luck lasting 2 years anyway.

Also, they're trying to fight the situation I talk about above regarding Starcraft by bringing the talents everywhere. Koreans are arriving in EU, but they'll be outclassed as this isn't Korea and they have nothing of what bring them the success they have in international play.

Oh well, the bottom line would be that the game is ***, hype-wise, if you don't allow Koreans/Chinese to join other leagues. If you were not to allow that, then you better prohibit every single Asian team from entering any tournament, period, or else there will never be an EU, NA, Brazilian or even Turkish team to reach the top 5 ever again.

C9 and Alliance are the closest things to a western win. Everything else is lagging behind, far enough to not even hope for a chance.
If EU and NA want to win anything relevant, they'll have to wait until people stop thinking that having people like Doublelift on your team is a good idea. Until then, both regions will be irrelevant due to having 99% of players that should be attending school instead of wasting people's time and money.

TL;DR: Esport is ***when Asians are involved unless it's a FPS/RTS/FGC and Riot are even worse at managing it.

I haven't played enough to really make up my mind about it. I just ate the whole jungle/river as Nunu and ganked 24/7. I found myself full of money and the river crabs are pretty based for free sight.

I find it laughable that you would even suggest that Alliance is one of the contenders for a Western win and honestly it's even funnier that you'd call Lemon the shitter of C9 when that notebook is the reason they win their games. C9 is full of players who aren't as good as players on the other "good" NA LCS teams. They play based off of a formula, and no matter who you switch out (as long as they're challenger level or something like that) the formula will still allow for C9 to win if they follow it.

Obviously when you take Korean teams into account it is a little different because the playstyle of C9 is heavily based off of Korean strategy, and I think that because of how aggressive the current Korean meta is it makes their reactive playstyle difficult to win with.

In the end I would just say that I don't think any EU team has a chance at worlds unless as a region they get their ***together. They are the worst region, and people need to actually realize that. If you just have Alliance stomping everyone they won't get better, and the other teams won't learn if they keep doing the dumbass ***they do in all their other games. The EU games are blood baths. Sure they're more entertaining, but that doesn't at all mean they're better than any other region when it comes to actually having a chance at winning.

And to comment on "E-sports are ***when asians are involved" Korean pro's have commented on the fact that NA is actually as good as Korea is mechanically. What we're lagging behind in is the strategy. Not one NA team played a lot of Rengar when he was seen as absurdly strong in Korea, and considering that EU is lagging behind NA in both strategy and mechanics I see it even harder for EU to catch up. If the Western teams want a chance against the Asian teams(we're talking Koreans only because most Chinese teams and most of that fake asian region are trash compared to Korea and are sort of on an even skill level as NA) they just need to try to come up with better strategies than the Koreans and beat them that way.

have you folks been watching the expansion tournemtn for the 2 teams that will be added ? Final 5 is looking good, also whoa on the saintviouc and COP moving to curse academy never thought i would see the day, never liked curse due to elementz being kicked but meh saintvoucs road or the highway.

I'm sure his notebook makes up for his poor performances sometimes, but that doesn't mean you can overlook them and call them false. You also cannot defend a player doing poorly by saying "he has his notebook!". Okay, move it to coach/analyst then and get someone who can actually play the game at high level, maybe?

Being on par mechanically isn't difficult. Have you ever paid attention to Faker and Hotshot? Whether it was a joke or not, if we see it as every challenger/master being on point mechanically, well ***, that's even more irrelevant. There is a reason why I mentioned Doublelift specifically.
So, you are on par mechanically and all you need is to up your strategy. It's literally nothing, I mean, it's been how many years since players outside of Korea have reached their mechanical level yet failed to bring them down? Did anyone bring Koreans down since Gambit did it? Legit question. Because then that would mean that between Gambit and today, not a single team managed to reach their strategical and game understanding levels. But wait, we can actually answer this right now: not a single player has reached Koreans' game understanding ever since EU/NA people stopped pulling pocket picks. Strategically is still something I can't answer.
Western teams are to Korean teams what African football is to EU teams. You may lose if you really *** up, but otherwise it's a push over.
If you are a pro player, and I insist on the pro part, and you are mechanically as good as Koreans, yet, you cannot see what are the good champs and why and even worse, you do not practice it properly when it's shown to you, then you are nothing but ***that needs to be replaced by another challenger player that actually pays attention to the state of the game, or the game at all. Especially when this happens non stop for several years.
NA having a chance? Not until what I mentioned in my previous post. I'm not even sure I can find a professional NA player outside of C9. There was this Crumbz, but he did a mistake that goes with my first paragraph.

EU and NA is the same ***, EU simply has more capable players than NA, but in the end, they're only capable up to EU and NA standards, which are pretty low. Crumbz said once, before a tournament (forgot which but it's 2014 material), that EU was behind NA in every possible way, that it was the weakest region, and so on. Fine, he's a pro and he's a "good" jungler, why not give him credit.
Well, what happened right after is that NA got trashed by EU, pretty badly. Doesn't mean EU > NA, it just means that both regions are on the same level when they do face each others, you can't know who will win.

The West is irrelevant as it is, it doesn't matter by how much, it doesn't matter that one is weaker than the other, they're both completely irrelevant.
And while strategy is clearly the key as Koreans very often get outplayed in straight match ups, I really don't think that the West has a competition or team that calls for players actually building proper strategies (I say players bot coaches and analysts are also in there) and going the step further.

And what makes this statement true? The fact that they rather hire Korean players rather than actually raising their level to theirs.
How often do you see EU in LoL hiring players from other regions? Millenium is the only exception, yet NA is hiring EU junglers and mid laners. Who would hire people from a region that is worse than theirs? The reality literally goes against your point. Why isn't EU recruiting NA players, since they're better? Why is NA scouting EU's talents while EU doesn't scout NA's talents?

Regarding Koreans, as I said above, you can hire those 3 magic Koreans, they will be above everyone in your LCS, but hey won't fare well in international play, because they lack their environment. Koreans aren't just strategy and mechanics, there is a reason why they can actually keep those up and bring them to what they are. Games aren't just decided based on what happens on our stream, there is a lot of work in the background before a game even happen, and this work doesn't happen in the West.

See what happened with Millenium, which is another example.

NA and EU do not have the discipline and mindset to reach Korea. I mentioned Alliance for the simple reason that they are the only Western team to have the "random" factor. They're capable of the worst and the best, they literally took over Gambit in that regard. I don't think any Western team can make it through Asia at all, but if there are 2 teams that can make upsets, it would be C9 and Alliance, no others unless there are more roster changes or players suddenly unlock their final forms.

RIP Millenium, they're not the same anymore.

Wall of text aside, here's this!

The preseason is brutal.
Feels like the meta champ pool dwindled from 30ish to 16

I still find that amazing about league given its community is awful it is a extremely skill based game. And with the ever increasing champ pool you realize you can't ban every composition. There is so many ways to create different routes to victory and all 5 players need to be on the same page. I know this may sound crazy but I am liking league of legends next to the NFL and NBA ect. It is growing so fast and evolving each year and any player has a legit shot at becoming pro. It is crazy I also bought a c9 jersey lol.

really enjoying preseason so far, not sure if trundle got buffed because of the health % change or what, but the wins are real lol (toplane)

who wants to go clubbin? =p

Awesome club reference and as 50 cent says it's a party in the club !.

It's not exactly that the Korean's are better strategically as a nation, its the infrastructure behind the top pro teams. Take the samsungs, every player has a personal coach, personal trainer and a mentor. Above that they have a head coach, managers and analysts to break down every little thing. I can't remember the exact phrasing but lastshadow9 says occasionally in his videos 'if you want to know what runes to use, check the Korean pros. It's not opinion with them everything has been mathed out and is completely optimal.' The other side to my point is when you watch EU/NA players in KR soloqueue - rekkles for example crucified them to the point that he and deft became quite close.

The comment about pro teams preferring to hire korean players rather than skill up themselves is mostly overstated. Reason being that yes, some - notably lower ranked - teams higher koreans to try and boost their level, but usually they hire someone they like the look of, KR, NA, EU, doesn't matter. The higher ranked teams tend to work on synergy rather than individual talent, unless you count TSM who thrives on chopping and changing.

As for Cloud 9.. The comment about them not being as good as other pro NA players I find to be misguided. No, they don't tend to make flashy plays or force things, they play much safer. As a team the have one of the lowest death counts in NA LCS, and sneaky has the lowest ADC death count iirc in S4. He also has one of the top 3 kills of ADCs. I've heard people criticise Lemonation and his mechanics quite a lot, especially after the morgana flash > hourglass without ulti'ing, but hes a consistent player at the core of it. Yes he makes mistakes, but how often does he make game losing mistakes? Their style is that of a team rather than one lane is superior to the others and carries the other 3/4 - the norm in most teams.

I was really hoping Hai could carry the team through at least one more round at worlds, because of his performance at korean solo q before worlds started.

i think next season of pro play is going to be a lot more interesting than last. those dragon fights are going to be so much moar intense :O

For alliance vs korea.. Actually I'd say that ALL is one of the first western teams to properly try to use the Korean game style. Currently they are inferior if nothing else through lack of experience. Will they get good enough for S5 worlds? We'll see.

For a western team that has a chance to beat out the Koreans, currently I'd peg FNC as the only ones with a true chance. The comment about pocket picks is part of the reason - FNC like pick comps, but they tend to play with a kind of controlled madness that most teams - KR included - struggle to keep up with. Check the all starts FNC vs SKT T1K match. Yes, FNC lost, but they had SKT up against the wall for most of the game. If Bengi hadn't gotten the baron steal and initiated the following collapse it would probably have been a FNC win.

Hai doesn't carry too well. Solo queue and pro play are very different, a lot of his solo q tricks are easily stopped in 5s and his most comfortable style is getting sneaky and balls rolling, so he defaults to that in most games. Sneaky did damn well IMO though, held up his end vs anyone who came.