All-star Thoughts

This past weekend we were treated to the first ever League of Legends all-star game where five players from five regions of the world competed in Shanghai, China. Each player was voted on by the fans to represent the regions of North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Korea, and host country China. I just want to open up the article by saying the event was great from start to finish and I will be touching on everything from the appearance of the venue to the actual games with everything in between.

The Venue
All I can say about this is that it was fantastic and for anyone who didn’t watch you missed out. The crowd was great and anyone watching could hear the excitement throughout the weekend. Some people were saying they were cheering louder for the Chinese team but that’s to be expected and they weren’t silent for the other teams. Every player on every team received a warm reception and looked like they felt very welcome at the event. The venue itself looked fantastic the lighting off the ceiling looked really great and the computer stations were also extremely cool but to me neither of those things were the highlights. My favorite part was the monoliths behind the players showing the champion portraits, not only does this look cool but it helps to show what person is playing what character if you are not familiar with the scene.

The Personalities
Seeing all the players as individuals during the interviews and the 1v1 tournament was very interesting and helped to show how video gaming is something that has broken down personality walls. Gamers are no long the quiet introverted people that they were once thought of. The players that made up each all-star team had varying and distinct personalities but they all shared one trait that was great to see. Everyone there was proud to be chosen to represent their region in this momentous occasion, not only because of what was on the line but more importantly what it meant to their fans back home. Coming from various rival teams knowing they were there to represent all their fans and win they really embraced it. During the games these players are seen as bitter rivals, I don’t think everyone sees how behind the scenes these guys are all friends. Many of the players expressed in interviews how it was not only an honor to represent their regions but to be able to play on teams with these other great players. The varying ages of all the different players really shows how bright the future League of Legends will be. Eventually the first wave of superstar personalities move on from playing and either move onto other things or continue to work as coaches, analysts, or organizers to continue helping grow the scene.

The Play
This was the all-star event for a reason, we saw twenty five of the best come together for a few weeks of training followed by intense competition over the course of the weekend. Although all the series finished two-zero tha doesn’t do justice how close these games really were. Going in many people thought the NA and EU teams were really going to struggle against their Asian Counterparts. This really wasn’t the case as both teams showed that in lane phase they were able to duel and hold their own as well as being able to hold it together well in team fights with many of them finishing very close. The area where they struggled was picks and bans, as many people have said the champions used around the world vary and this cause them to struggle. There is something to remember about this event regarding picks and bans though, it’s the all-stars and everyone is there for a reason. Bans at an event like this are pick your poison, with only three bans there is no way to ban out all five positions. When playing against some of these other international players who have large champion pools there could be as many as ten champions who could be considered ban worthy.

In closing the event really was a great start to the future of e-sports and Riot continues to push the bar higher and higher. With a team that cares this much about their game, players that are showing they can be great entertainers while still holding a high standard of competition, and fans that genuinely care about the game enough to continue supporting it both live and through stream viewership it’s a bright future. I can’t wait to see what happens at all the world championships, future all-star games, and whatever else Riot decides to create.

Summer promotion tournaments, Afterthoughts

The summer promotion tournament provided a lot of excitement for the fans who were treated to great games from all the teams competing. Although this idea is really awesome there is one thing that does worry me. It was hinted at by some of the teams that if they were knocked out of the LCS they might disband. I couldn’t think of a world without teams like CLG, Dignitas, Evil Geniuses, or really any of the teams the LoL Community has become to accustomed too. Although this is a result of a system like this I hope that any team who gets knocked out of the LCS sticks with it and continues to play together. The amateur scene is slowly gaining more and more traction and hopefully falling out of the LCS will not end the careers of these teams. 

Although nothing official has been announced in a blog written by team owner Martin Pham Team MRN is over. The players will be splitting up the members will either find new teams, become full time streamers, or even go back to school. The team had very solid players but never seemed to be able to close games out consistently, although they had some epic comebacks as well as some games where they just dominated. MRNs problem was consistency, they started rough but by the end of the season they seemed to slowly be putting it together. Hopefully team MRN will continue if not all of these players have bright futures and most likely will be picked up by a team. They might not be picked up as a full time player but at least as a sub is pretty likely.

Yamotocannon and Malunoo announced in a post they will be leaving Dragonborns saying the team just isn’t working out. There are issues that make them feel like hinder the team’s longterm viability and they just aren’t willing to take that chance. The post also said they will be starting their own team with the two other members being Extinkt and Freeze with the support role currently undecided. For those unfamiliar with the other two names they both played on Samurai in Jeans during the Promotion tournament. Extinkt is the mid for the team as well as a sub for Dragonborns. Freeze is the AD player and will most likely be the one choosing the support.

This also leaves a question of what is the future of Dragonborns? They can’t just switch to their subs one of them is Extinkt, who will be going to the team mentioned above, and the other is dexter1 who just was signed by Mousesports. The future for Dragonborns looks very hazy and the community will have the wait for an official announcement. 

It’s really hard to see this happen to teams and is one of the issues with Esports right now. The amateur scene is still growing and the money just isn’t there for these teams who are without big time sponsors. Teams like Complexity, Against All Authority, and Giants will most likely survive, although might have roster changes, to compete again in a future LCS season.  But what about these smaller teams, Dragonborns is now three fifths of a team and the future of MRN at this time doesn’t exist, not to mention these other teams who didn’t make it in. Many of these teams went all in to become professional gamers and now what are they going to do?

LCS 2013 Summer Promotion Tournament Recap

With the end of the end of the first LCS split we also saw the beginning of the first LCS promotion tournament. For anyone that’s not familiar with the structure it’s commonly used in European sports with multiple levels of divisions where depending on a team’s performance they can move up or down a division. This structure provides a really great way to all the teams to experience some sort of postseason excitement. Since all the teams are taking part in either the championship playoffs or the promotion relegation tournaments all the fans have something exciting to watch. This creates the feeling of ultimate joy for those teams who manage to make it into the top division and ultimate disappointment for those who don’t. 

We saw four of the LCS Spring teams enter the European tournament with only the Copenhagen Wolves holding their spot to continue into LCS Summer. Although we say goodbye to Ozone Giants, Against All Authority, and Dragonborns we are privileged to see what newcomers Team Alternate, Against All Authority, and Meet Your Makers will bring to the LCS. The games were all very interesting but showed truly how close the European LCS scene really is. 

On the North American Side of things we saw as Complexity, Team MRN, Counter Logic Gaming, and Dignitas all entered the tournament. Two of these teams weren’t expected to be here at all and two were expected by the fans to lose their spot. Those expectations came true as CLG and Dignitas both made it out successfully with decisive series victories over the challenger teams. Complexity was swept out by Quantic, who was actually a heavy favorite coming in, and Velocity eSports taking out Team MRN in a close series that went all five games.

Every team put up a good fight and in the post-game interviews the new teams were both excited and confident that they will be able to perform at the highest level week by week. The chance to see their dreams fulfilled was truly awesome and exciting to watch, on the flipside it was heart wrenching to see dreams also being shattered. To all the teams that are no longer in the LCS I hope you all continue competing and see you back in the LCS someday, and to all the new teams welcome and enjoy the ride!

Series Stats – NA                                                                             Series Stats –EU

Complexity: 0                                                                                     Copenhagen Wolves: 3
Quantic Gaming: 3                                                                            Samurai in Jeans: 1

Team MRN: 2                                                                                    Dragonborns: 2
Velocity eSports: 3                                                                           Meet Your Makers: 3

Dignitas: 3                                                                                         Against All Authority: 0
Team Summon: 1                                                                              Sinners Never Sleep: 3

Counter Logic Gaming: 3                                                                 Ozone GIANTS: 2
Azure Cats: 0                                                                                     Team Alternate: 3

Could the msytery of runeterra be forshadowing something more?

Yesterday we were treated, or terrified depending how you want to look at it, to learn about an ancient being that appears during times of war across many different eras in many different locations. Does this mean we will be seeing a new champion soon? Probably, although it may not be the recently leaked Gun Templar but someone else. This new champion from what has been released has a winged humanoid figure, wields a jagged blade, and always appears to help the underdogs. Relics noting his presence have been seen in Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, and the Freljord with books noting him in the libraries of Piltover. The most interesting fact about him so far is that he always comes to help the underdog fight to victory and vanishing right after.

Although I don’t know who he is I can say he sounds really cool. After reading his story it got me thinking about this new figure and why he would be so exciting. Either we have an immortal being or a time traveler on our hands who shows up to help those in need. By the look of the pictures seen in the teaser this being might love chaos and that’s his motivation. Until we find out more about him in the future we can’t be sure who he is or even where he’s from. 

The announcement of this new champion was really cool not just because “OMGNEWTHINGS” but because it shows a cool view into how all the new champions might be released. This was a pretty cool teaser to watch unfold from start to where we are now. Riot is creating a great buzz on all forms of social media as well as the forums with this announcement. I hope we are in for more lore behind the champions and the areas of Runeterra. Looking at the map the southeast area of the map is largely unexplored and not extremely fleshed out so it could be in for some love. Although continuing with Riot creating these stories behind all the champions it may make champion releases slow down a bit at this point in the game with over one-hundred champions that’s not a big deal. The ability to create these complex stories behind the upcoming champions and features just shows how deep the stories can become so much deeper. 

All I know is I’m pretty excited for whatever secrets Riot has in store!