Garen Flow Chart

I have to say that this is pretty accurate. Garen's a boss in-game. Passive OP

Week 3 NA LCS

Last week, week 3 started off with TSM vs LMQ. This was a game to be watched by all players where the most fan favorite TSM played the rising team LMQ. It was the first time (in pretty much forever) where the fans vote didnt head in TSM's favor.

This match, LMQ seemed to have been in full control the whole game. Ackerman (top lane) played Kayle  who ended the game going 6/1/7 with Zhonyas and a Deathcap. Frightening to anyone playing against such a strong Kayle. LMQ demonstrated very strong positioning skills and objective control. I believe they took every dragon that was up.

With TSM they made mistakes and continue to look rough in games. They were mis-communicating and often at a team fight, half of them would be committed and others would be running. It looked very uncoordinated. GG and GL to both teams.

Week 3: Day 1 TSM VS LMQ

Onto the next game, EG vs C9. This game was suspenseful and surprising. C9 and EG both had very close total gold even when EG had about 10 more kills then C9 on the board. C9 had better objective control and manage to keep up with EG who was controlling the game. C9 Metoes even stole baron at the 28 mark for the team however with two man left, EG pushed up middle and took the inter middle turret.

Altec playing Twitch was almost untouchable and a twitch is the last thing you want to have on the field. The peel and protection that EG had for Twitch made this into a horror for C9. Lulu's ult, Thresh support and a Trundle front line who pillars all day made it very hard to reach Twitch.

At the end team fight, C9 manage to kill Twitch at the cost of Sneaky on Lucian and Hai on Khazix going forward who died soon afterward. Afterward, it was simply EG cleaning up who pushed up and ended the game. It was a close nail biting game. GG and GL to both teams.

Week 3: Day 1 C9 VS EG

2nd last game of the day, CLG vs DIG. This was a crazy game where the gold lead for CLG was around 2,000 the whole game. CLG played a poke comp. where DIG had Kassadin and Kayle for a team fighting comp. It was really back and forth all the way up til baron.

With CLG having no vision on baron, DIG starts baron in hopes that CLG would fight them. CLG played this really well and pushed up mid to take the inhibitor which is worth more than baron for them. The composition that CLG played, they needed structures and map control to use their poke comp. effectively. Link played Nidalee very well with the spears hitting priority targets. 

The last team fight, CLG had better positioning walking down middle where DIG was near baron. CLG runs down mid and DIG tries to chase them however with CLG's poke comp. they got poked before fighting. DIG was on the wrong side of the map and was outsmarted by CLG. It was an amazing match. GG to both teams. 

Week 3: Day 1 CLG VS DIG

Patch 4.9

Visual Update

• Karthus - we finally get the chance to see the new karthus visual, slight changes to lay waste(Q) and wall of pain(W)

Champion Changes (major ones)

• Braum - As expected, nerfs are coming this way. Damages are lowered and bonus MR and Armor from W are lowered 
• Kassadin - Just a slight nerf on the damage on his Nether Blade (W). His movement speed decreased from 350 -> 340
• KhaZix - BIG CHANGES to this guy, one huge change is his ult which no longer gives 50% reduction in stealth
• Soraka - her Starcall now reduces the cooldown of Astral Blessing in the early levels more

You can click here to find the changes: List of Changes on Champions

An upcoming skin is: Woad Scout Quinn 

LCS 2014 NA Summer W2D2

DIGNITAS vs TSM

This match was a very close game where nobody got first blood til around 24 minute.

Looking at the team comps, we can see that TSM ran more of a team fight oriented comp. Shyvana and Volibear to tank while Thresh is great for protecting the ADC. Lulu's shield and wild growth to keep Kogmaw alive gives TSM a very strong team fighting potential. DIG ran more of a split push comp with Ziggs to clear waves and Jax on Zion Spartan to split push like his always does. Ezreal and Lee Sin with a Nami has great escapes/disengage making it hard for TSM to get a favorable team fight.

TSM again kept getting caught out of position and mis-communicating. The first baron where DIG started it and TSM came in and manage to steal. This was a good point to start a comeback for TSM. Baron wears out without much being done for TSM and then a fight breaks up where 3 members of TSM were caught. No casualties but if TSM kept getting caught like that, the game would be over.

2nd baron happens where TSM starts it but then commits to a fight. The AOE from Ziggs took chunks of health from TSM at the start of the fight. Then a beautiful Nami ult hits four members and a bubble lands on Kogmaw. With Kogmaw locked up and then taken out of the fight, TSM didn’t have any more damage to continue fighting. DIG after takes baron and top/mid inhibitors. Later the bot inhibitors. This led to a push to the Nexus and took the game at 40 minutes. It was a very well-coordinated game by DIG.

I think the scaling from Jax was more important than the scaling of Kog. It was a gamble by DIG to play against a Kog because late game, he gets really strong. However, Jax was able to split push, becoming tanky and have damage, doing more for the team. Kog had the damage late game but thats all he can be. Jax was always putting pressure somewhere on the map and because its a Jax, you cant send one person to deal with him, usually you need more. Jax was very well played by Zion.

GG to DIG and TSM.

If you want to watch the match, here it is: 

LCS 2014 NA Summer W2D1: CLG vs TSM

In this weeks LCS, we kicked off with the old rivalry of CLG vs TSM. TSM was the team voted to win however, CLG played extremely well and when you see Doublelift going unkilled, you know who won. CLG aphromoo played the famous cow alistar and CLG Link played orianna leading to some beautiful plays. Although TSM was even with gold at about the 15 minute mark, one team fight where orianna shockwave combined with alistar demolished 4 members of TSM leading to mid inhibitor going down. This is when the game started to favor CLG.

CLG started pushing the top inner turret where TSM responded by grabbing the mid lane outer. This was not worth it for TSM because CLG group as 5 had more pressure and was able to take the 2 towers along with another inhibitor. Without doing baron, CLG regrouped and took the mid inhibitor again and at the 28 minute mark, CLG pushed through the nexus towers and ended the game.

It was a very solid game from CLG. TSM were often out of position, underestimating CLG's movement speed. TSM needs to regroup and refocus. TSM were often known for their great team fighting potential. In this game, TSM were rarely seen as 5 and died 1 by 1 before a 5v5 team fight could happened.

GG and GL to CLG and TSM.

Here is the match if you would like to watch it: 

SuperWeek NA LCS

Sadly, I am always busy on weekdays and cant watch the EU LCS and only manage to catch the NA LCS on weekends.

The top 3 standings so far is: TONS OF TIES

1) LMQ (4-0)
2) Team Dig and TSM (3-1)
3) C9 and CLG (2-2)

Its not surprising for LMQ to be first with their mid laner Xian "XiaoWeiXiao" Yu who is stomping people in the lane and doing awesome. Not just him, the whole team has a very high KDA with Wei-Jun "Vasilii" Li at 17!

Both teams (DIG and TSM) tied for second having a big change in their line up are doing pretty well too. Zion and Shiphtur both joined DIG who are previously seen on Team Coast. DIG is seen as a really solid team now and performing extremely well, way better than what was initially expected of them. TSM got Amazing and Gleeb as their new jungler and support. TSM is seen as an almost completely new team with Bjerg in mid who only joined last split and now Amazing and Gleeb.

Cloud 9, known as the champions who won two splits in a row is currently on a rough start going 2-2 along with CLG. C9 is having some trouble getting back into how the played previously because Hai (mid laner) was out for a while due to being hospitalized for a punctured lung. He is better now and is playing but you can see him making mistakes here and there. CLG picked up on a new top laner after Nien stepped down. Shin "Seraph" Woo-Yeong is the new top laner and he hasnt been heard of before, it'll be a nice surprise as to what he can bring to the table.

This split somehow turned into like a EU LCS where anyone can beat anyone! Its a ton of ties and everyone is fighting hard because the spots for Worlds are from this split! The pressure is ON!!

Oddone's Retirement

It is sad to hear that TheOddone is retiring after being in the scene for so long. He's been on TSM for literally right from the beginning. He will be stepping down as the jungler but will be moving to a coaching position for TSM which can lead to good things.

Brian "TheOddone" Wyille has provided tons of laughable moment with his hilarious personality. It is not possible to not laugh watching him stream. There are tons of funny stuff from him such as:

THE ODDONE'S FINEST HOUR

 

He will be remembered as the General who is always there to support his troops when in need or when there's a baron to be stolen! 

This is an interview where Oddone talks about retirement: Oddone's Interview

He will be missed for sure! Lucky for us he is always streaming still! Love the General!

Summer Split LCS

First day of the Summer NA LCS kicked off today with a blast.

The schedule was packed with a C9 vs TSM right off the bat.


I wont go into specific because that would take too long. Overall, it was filled with interesting games, especially LMQ who are currently leading with 2-0.

For Stats: Game Stats Day 1 NA LCS

Tomorrow will be intense as this superweek starts at full throttle. There will be old rivalries and new faces that we see on different teams. It'll be AWESOME!

All-Star Paris

All Star Tickets are still on sale right now if you were interested in joining everyone in Paris!

There will be exciting matches with SKT T1, OMG, Cloud 9, Fnatic and Azubu Taipei Assassins.

Along with these matches, challenges will be played like URF mode with players that were voted. Team Ice vs Team Fire. Hexakill and more special modes will be played by these two team. Go and vote for who you want to be playing on these All Star Challenges.

Who do you think will have the best chance on winning All Stars? the Koreans who are always dominate or maybe OMG the Chinese team. What about the Taipei Assassins. The underdogs in international event Fnatic and Cloud 9?

Who knows. It'll be an awesome series of battles and I cant wait for it to start!!!!

*Teemo Hat on*

Just a sick wallpaper that I thought I should share

CLG DoubleLift Pentakill

Have to do this shout!

Game 2 for third place in the playoffs of the Spring Split. Ends the game with a  TEAM FOUNTAIN DIVE for the last remaining kill to grab DOUBLELIFT THE PENTAKILL!

A Beautiful and Flashy Ending to a good game. GG Curse and CLG!

NA Spring Split Finals

The finals is going to be a bloodshed between TSM and Cloud 9. It will be a best of 5! So get comfortable and grab some popcorn cause you dont want to miss any of it.

TSM played their old rivals, CLG and won in the semifinals out of a best of 3. I have to say though that CLG was looking amazingly good especially APHROMOO. Thats probably why he was chosen for All-Stars. It was a very dominate first game going to CLG and TSM didnt look like the TSM everyone knew. The second match was a closer game which eventually went to TSM catching Link out. This eventually lead to a PENTAKILL!!!! ON A KARMA BY TSM.

SPOILER ALERT 

TSM sealed out the last match by playing their comfort. Lanes were normal and not the fast push for second tower rotations. It was really in TSM's favor and they played very well. GG to CLG and TSM.

Cloud 9 played against Curse and won the first two games quite nicely. Curse was a really strong team that was leading the early games however had some problems. There was one fight where they tried to force a fight by having Mundo teleporting in from behind C9 who were all down mid lane. It wasnt the best way to start a fight when Mundo 1v5 for 2 seconds and almost died even though he was really tanky. Thats when C9 just turned and cleaned up.

Curse put up a strong fight and C9 responded with nice plays. It was a good game between the two. Now Curse and CLG will play for 3rd place and TSM vs C9 for first and second.

Ultra Rapid Fire

A great "April Fools" prank.

NOT!

This isnt a prank as most would know by now if they played it. Its like a dream come true! You play on Summoners Rift and spam skills at no cost and with 80% CDR!!

There the buff of awesomeness giving you:
- no mana or energy cost on all abilities
- 80% CDR on abilities, activates and summoners
- 60% movement speed for all champions
- 25% tenacity for all champions
- attack speed bonuses given by items increased by 100%
- critical damage increased by 25% of based damage for ranged champions
- 500% the normal gold that you get on summoners rift

You cannot build CDR items and get the CDR any higher than 80%.

Riot has taken some champions into consideration such as Kassadin and Ryze who has been completely removed for the mean time. Nobody wants the 1 sec CDR burst from any of them.

There are tons of fun champions to play and try out so do it before the mode is gone!

All-star!

The time to vote is now! Pick your fav players and who you want to see to go to All-Stars. Its happening in France, Paris this year which is so cool!

It looks like the team is pretty set right now but you never know till the end.

League of Legends : The Major League

Leona

This champion is the boss when it comes to applying cc. Now that Annie received some nerfs on her damage (has more AP ratio now though so she better later in the game) I feel Leona is a better support now. Sure, she's melee so she does take a bit of harass from ranged supports but once she's 6, ALL IN ALL DAY. She's strong against those hooks from blitz and thresh and does really well later game because of how tanky she gets.

I usually start with the recommended items which is the Relic Shield and pots with 1 ward. This gives you more HP = more tanky, some nice ward to last a while in lane and you get more gold from the Relic Shield. Depending on how your lane goes, I usually try to get a Sightstone of the first buy and switch the warding totem into a sweeper.

As for skill level ups, you should max W first for the extra boost in armor and mr, then E and Q for cc. Once your 6, you should be able to kill bot lane easy unless you mess up hard or the jungler comes in on you. I love playing Leona with an Ashe who starts the fight with an arrow. Then you Solar Flare and E,Q and BAM! That should be a dead whoever if done right.

As the game goes on, you should sell the Relic Shield for a Talisman if your team needs some engage. Later on, you can be in fights and cc all day because your skills will have very low cooldowns.

This is just a quick overview on Leona but I like how she is able to carry games as a support. Her W actually does burst damage which is really nice when you go into a team fight, tanking and doing some damage. Like said before, CC all day to make plays and win games.

Rune Changes

SIGNIFICANT RUNE CHANGES INCOMING

There are quite a few changes coming for the runes. It was suppose to come with the preseason 2014 but didnt make it in time. Now Riot is finally delivering them.

I think that its a good time to bring changes for runes since a ton of champions got nerfed or buffed. Runes will bring a whole new level of play and hopefully some creative innovation to the rune pages. Time to mix and experiment again.

Link Here

Skins and Makeover

I gotta say that the new skins and makeovers that Riot is doing are pretty awesome.

Heimerdinger is looking more refined and his animations are very nice. Compared to his previous skin which I really hated personally LOL I finally want to play him. The changes to his skills recently (well not really recent but yeah) are pretty cool and fun to use now too.

Arctic Op, the new skin for Varus looks amazing. I love FPS and shooting games so Arctic Ops just stick out to me and makes me want the skin. The icy blue animations and color make him look even better. His R with the dual icy shackle chains coming out is such a beast. Instantly sold to this skin when I saw it.

Cant forget rumble the damn yordle. A space theme for the yordle to spit out electric harpoons and plasma stuff sounds amazing. Another skin to the group with Nautilus, Malzahar and whoever has a space skin.

Riot Lag Issues

I hope that this new patch doesnt bring more problems to the servers when its already lagging out like crazy.

IEM KT Bullets

It was a really interesting IEM this year filled with long games up to 50 mins and back doors from teams. Ended off with the KT Bullets taking the championship with $60000.

The grand final was a best of 5 with KT Bullets (KR) against Fantic (EU). It was a 3/0 win for KT Bullets but I have to say it wasnt a easy win for them. Fantic showed great strength and persistence even when losing in the second game, they were winning team fights as the game dragged on. The second game ended with Kassadin doing what XPEKE once did, but with a full charge from 4 players and Renekton delaying Fanatic from backing to stop the back door.

 As Fanatic once said before, they let the loss of a previous match affect them and it carries over to their next game impacting their play. As they were losing 0/2, they began to give leads away faster and make misplays in the third game. They got picked off and caught by KT Bullets in some critical moments like right before baron and etc. With that being said, Insec was a god in the jungle. It seems impossible to shut him down or dodge his ganks whether he's on Khaz or the famous Lee Sin.

It was a great grand finale. I wish I could see TSM play or another NA team because there was only Cloud 9 there. Maybe next year.

How to win games

If your asking "How can I win more games?" then hopefully this post helps you.

1) Understand that League of Legend is a team game that is even played on a competitive level. There can be times when one player gets completely fed and stomps everyone carrying the team, however, he/she can still get shut down when the team fighting. You need to communicate with each other like using pings and asking for help for ganks and etc. There is no I in TEAM.

2) Dont Rage! It can be frustrating if your doing well but your losing the game but raging and getting mad at others only make it worst. Things happen and not everyone is "as good as you". Im sure every player makes mistakes and loses a game or two, just keep a positive attitude. Like what Riot says with those statistics on the loading screen, summoners win a lot more when positive and not blaming each other.

3) Its nice to have a large champion pool and play around, but if your out for the win, try to pick a champion that can fit the team composition well. With that being said, also try for something your confident on. Along with that, getting the lane that your more comfortable in is good in leading you to winning. If you dont get the lane you want, no worries, you can get better at playing another lane because im sure everyone in CHALLENGER can play every lane decently well.

4) Onto the gameplay, be objective focus and make sure to not let greed take over your soul. Focus on communicating with your team in taking objectives like timing dragon and getting it before the opposing team (especially with the new changes to dragon making it worth so much more).

5) If your having trouble with not knowing what to do, dont worry and just drive down mid lane. By doing this, you focus the other team to react while your already trying to take the tower. When you knock down the first tier turret, it puts a ton of pressure on the opposing team and gives you the ability to invade their jungle. By the time you get up to their inhibitor turret, you'll have more control of the map making the bot and top lane turrets a lot easier to take.

6) WARDS!!! I think that sums it up pretty much. Regardless of what role you play, you should always try to ward, not leave everything up to the support.

These are some things that I do to win my games and I hope it can help some of you as well.

Dem OP Plays

I watch these every week when they are release cause they are so fun and awesome. Those who dont know Protatomonster should check him out on youtube. He release a ton of league videos like top plays of the week and etc.

For Play 5, I have to say one thing. Galio is OP! If you lane against him, one he hits level 4, his Q hits a huge spike and deals a ton of damage. When he gets to late game and has max or close to max CDR, he can almost never die because of how tanky he is with his shield and how it heals him by an absurd amount. One of my favorite champion to play.

Hopping all the way to the number one play, it deserves to be the top play of the week for that perfect combo. A 5 MAN HIT FROM LEE SIN KICK into a burst you in 2 hit Khaz was just so beautiful. You dont see that very much or ever LOL but that was just too good. A round of applause to the Lee.

The laugh at the bonus video was making me laugh harder than the teemo itself. LOL. I never knew somebody can laugh like that and it was so contagious! But the teemo shrooms are so troll! PENTAKILL TEEMO!

If you havent seen this weeks video, its just down there for you:

Top 5 Plays Week 162

Teemo (Boys vs Girls)

LOL! I definitely see the bottom teemo when playing against him. The feels you get when you clear those shrooms and find a wild teemo and killing that damn yordle feels as good as clearing those wards.

If I played teemo, I feel like the God of Trolls LOLOLOL (insert troll face here)

TEAM BUILDER BETA

Team builder is finally LIVE for NA til the 12th! Everyone give it a try, its better than before in my opinion by a lot!

SuperWeek TSM

TSM manage to close out superweek with victories all around. Reginald, although a sub is still definitely a pro player pulling through for TSM in mid lane.

TSM grabbing Gragas for Reginald is huge because he's always been very comfortable on the fat man. Although Gragas did get a few changes, he's still very strong and when given to Regi, he'll smack you in the face. As long as he can keep up with the mid laner and get to the team fight phase, TSM is known to shine during that time. Glad he won the last few games of his career and not fully retired.

Aside from Regi, TSM overall played to carry the team as in Dyrus tried to play a carry role on Shyvana against XDG. Wildturtle and Xpecial both dominated bot lane like crazy this superweek farming up those extremely high KD. Turtle goes like 5/1 against CLG, 10/1 against EG and 4/2 against XDG which is crazy.

Nobody can forget the jungler, THEGODONE or known as TheOddone. Carried the team with his counter jungling, wrecking havoc on the enemy jungler and those Pantheon ganks promised a kill for TSM almost always. The shots and ganks by the Oddone almost always succeed in getting something out of the opposing team, whether a flash or a kill.

Overall, an amazing performance by the team even without Bjergsen back yet. With Bjergsen, the team seems unstoppable. I want to see C9 vs TSM again really soon.

TSM vs CLG AGAIN!

The super week has arrived and a ton of awesome matches are going to be played. Very excited to see the old rivalry between TSM and CLG again and this time with Reginald in mid lane on TSM.

Just for those that dont know, Reginald is still going to sub for TSM's mid laner Bjergsen because like last week, he's still dealing with his Visa issues. Very happy to see Reginald playing but I have to wonder how they'll do considering. Reginald did say that he's working really hard (solo Q like 8hrs a day) to gain back those mechanics but I dont know if it'll be enough. Anyhow we will see how it goes this week. I can just imagine a ~50min game from these two teams again :D. 

Mystery Gift!

YAY!! So glad that mystery gift is going to be here TO STAY!! FOREVER!!

Changes to the Gifting
- the level to send gifts is now 15 instead of 20
- to receive the gift you need to be level 5 instead of 10 now
- you can now send 5 gifts and receive 5 gifts instead of 3 now
- it sucks but you cant receive gifts if you're a bad summoner (aka. banned or suspended)
- the person who is getting the gift needs to be on your friend's list for at least 2 weeks or it wont work


There has been some changes to RP gifting but I wont go over that here, you can check out at the link below:

Link HERE

Woot Rank

Finally been able to finish all my rank games and got placed in Gold. It was quite surprising to get played in gold considering I played support most of the games (I dont main support). I won 7/10 games which isnt bad.






























Ended up going 6/6 games on Annie, 1/3 on Leona and 0/1 on Caitlyn. Annie by far still the best support I think, massive range to auto attack poke and cc. Leona is also very good as a support due to her being so tanky and full of cc chains. Leona works really well with champions who has a bit of burst to them like ezreal, graves and corki too.

I think I might main support now LOL since its feels so easy and its fun being carried :D.

Finally had time to catch up on NA LCS this week. Gotta say that this week of LCS was filled with surprises and some new faces that we havent seen before.

XDG vs Cloud 9 was definitely a surprise when a majority of almost 90% placed their bets on C9. XDG with the new support Sheep making the plays. The return of ZUNA back to the bot lane brings back so much of the team (not sure if everyone gets what Im say) from last season. I do miss his outburst of yelling when the fight gets crazy :p. Gotta give a hand of applause to XDG for their win and hopefully they can climb up.

Onto a really unexpected RETURN of REGI!!! for TSM, I was blown away by how close Regi's plays to kill Imqtpie were. Every kill was the last tick of ignite burning away. Do have to say that it's nice to see Regi playing mid lane again and on his assassin champions like Zed. Considering its been so long since his retirement, and he can still pull a win from DIG who are doing really well this LCS, props to him. Although TSM did get destroyed I would have to say sadly by C9, they tried to fight back and makes play. Good Effort, C9 just played lanes better and Lemonation with the Black Shield saves were really well done.

Cant wait for the return of Bjergsen and another match up between C9. Slowly leading to the end of the Spring NA LCS.

Team Builder!

Finally, Riot decides to put in a system to prevent more QQ and rage in game.

Team Builder 

This new system allows you to pick the role that you want to play before you getting put onto a team. This will hopefully prevent any arguing and fight for roles when in team select. It will improve the team plays and team work in game!

+1 for Riot this time for imputing this system.

This should be out for beta test in March depending on the region your located in.

Vel'Koz

The Eye of the Void, Vel'koz

A new champion has been revealed and like most champions of the void, its a monster. It gives me a similar feel as Kogmaw.

Going over his skills:

Passive: Organic Deconstruction - Every time his abilities hit an enemy, the enemy is "deconstructed". After being hit 3 times, the enemy will suffer bonus true damage which I have a feeling will be very broken. Enemies loses their deconstruction stacks if they are able to avoid Vel'koz's attacks for a while.

Q: Plasma Fission -  As you can see in the picture above, this skill shoots a laser out that slows enemies. Upon second activation or reaching it's max range, the laser splits into 2 shooting out at 90 degrees. 

W: Void Rift - This is another skill shot that rips open a rift to the void. It deals damage at the initial cast and then after a short moment, it will explode and deal damage as well.

E: Tectonic Disruption -  This is a AOE skill that shoots out similar to Syndra's Q. After a while, the enemy caught in it will take damage and get knocked up. Any enemies that are near Vel'koz will get pushed away.

R: Lifeform Disintegration Ray - As the name of the skill suggests, its just a ray (Looks like Lux laser to me). A different thing for this skill compared to others is that it follows the cursor so you have better control over it.

My Thoughts
Its will most likely be seen in competitive play when release because of the great amount of poke that it brings to the table. The true damage from the passive deals tons of damage and if you build enough CDR, you can cast QWQW nonstop to bring nonstop damage since the W does damage after a moment. Vel'koz also has great for disengage with his slows and E to knock enemies up.

Overall, it seems like a very simple champion. I get a feeling it will be banned away like Kassadin 24/7.

HEXAKILL

Finally, the new featured game play mode is out! Hexakill 6 vs 6 on Summoners Rift. This mode is out til March 2 I believe so enjoy it while you can. I know I will be.

There are so many possibilities with the extra players like 2 champions in each lane or dual jungles and solo top/bot lanes. A lot more action coming up. New plays incoming!

What is wrong with the servers these day? Half the games I play there are people getting extreme lags and it happens to me too. All of a sudden you just freeze and cant move, ping shoots to 300-600 and all you see when you get back is your corpse. Quite a pain to deal with especially if your playing rank games!

RIOT PLEASE!

So if your going to play games, may the servers be with you!

Patch 4.2

The usual things that comes along with patches. Reworks, bugs fixed, nerfs on champions and some changes to some items.

Xerath got a complete makeover along with Skarner. Xerath received a new theme and base mana/mana regeneration got lowered by a tiny bit. Skarner got a small rework and got a bit of a buff where his W has a lower cool down. It also provides a faster movement buff along with a big shield. Something cool is that Skarner wont celebrate when he misses his ult. Not sure if anyone notices it but if he does land it, he'll say "Now I've got you!!" 

A lot of changes to a ton of champions but I just like to talk about a few that I liked to XD. However you can go look at them at this link :

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-42-notes

1) Ashe - I know you don't see her much in competitive play or even in soloQ a ton but I love playing her. There's not much of a change done to her other than the cool down of Hawkshot being reduced at higher levels where it used to be 60 sec at all level. Also, you get 3 gold per  kill at any level instead of 1/2/3/4/5. 

2) Mundo - This guy is still as overpowering as before. The only change that was done to him was the shortening of his cleavers width so now it's a bit easier to juke and hard to land. 

3) Kayle - A champion that takes a bit to get going but gets really strong late game. Sadly, her Q (Reckoning) had a nerf from 1.0 AP ratio to 0.6. Aside from her Q, her W had a buff from 0.35 AP ratio to 0.45 and the movement speed that comes along now scales with AP. A great change is her ult; it now cost no mana to cast. 

4) Rumble - I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY BUT I HAD TO MENTION HIM BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT RIOT WROTE: "Rumble now spits real flame instead of meatballs"  LOL.

There are also changes to Yasuo and Ziggs and Thresh but I don't feel like going over them. 

The changes in this patch doesnt cause big change in the meta for now. 

TSM

TEAM SOLO MID

One of the strongest North American pro team so far. I've been watching them play near the beginning of the formation of the team and have always been impressed by the way they play. Recently, TSM finally defeated Cloud 9 after a lost streak of 8 games I believe.

TSM finally rises to the top of the LCS Spring Split 2014 and will continue to defend it. As the video says at the end, Oddone is the last member who was one of the original players since the start of the team. I like to say that HE IS THE GODONE, funny and awesome. Amazing with the smite steals and jungle plays.

THE GENERAL SHALL NEVER LEAVE HIS TROOPS!

ANNIE SUPPORT = BROKEN AND OP

Annie is one of the most broken and op champion ever. 

The stun and damages that she does is crazy even when she is played as a support. I've been getting around to playing my rank games and played 4 games with all support Annie.

This is how I ended up doing:

Three of the games with Annie, I ended up becoming like an AP carry. The one game where a thresh stomped me leaving me with 0/4 before going into late game team fights, I still ended up winning all because of TIBBBBBERS. Press R (and land it on somebody) = win the game (if you team follows lol)

Annie's late game scales really well. I didn't have a ton of AP as seen above, just a needlessly large rod and I could burst a large amount of damage. A flash tibbers is also a great way to start a fight or to stop a fight. Tibbers does +70% AP  on top of the 200/375/425 damage that she does already which is ridiculous. 

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/mastery-tree-planner#&tree1=1-0-3-0-1-0-3-0-1-0-1-3-0-0-3-0-0-3-1-1&tree2=0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&tree3=0-3-3-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-0-0-0&v=2

There are probably a ton of different mastery that you can do for Annie but I always use 21/0/9 where I do damage. For runes, I simply went armor/magic resist marks,seals and glyph while going AP quins for damage. 

I'm more of an aggressive support. In lane phase, depending on who you are up against, you can start a doran shield and poke. She has a longer range (625) than most support and even ADs to auto attack and zone with her stun for your AD. You should always try to reach level 6 before the opposing team and go all in with tibbers. This usually works in winning the lane afterwards.

If you build a tanky Annie, you will almost always win the game because Annie's cool down are about 5 seconds at level 18 and she can rotate her skills for her passive to kick in REALLLY fast. You drop tibbers, then E, Q, W and then E again and you can just stun again. I always get a ageis if nobody else got one to last longer in team fights and peel for my AD.

All I can say is I LOVE TIBBERS 

The Lunar Revel

The event for the New Year is on once again. The Lunar Revel brings us new summoner icons, new skins along with new ward skins as well.

There are three icons that are voted on. Each region will vote on the path that they wish to follow this year. The path of power, the path of truth or the path of freedom.

Along with these three icons, four more icons are available through playing matches.

How to obtain:

Year of the Horse - win a match made game during the Lunar Revel  

Lunar Goddess Diana - play two match made games on Crystal Scar or Twisted Treeline 

Lord Tryndamere - win two match made game on Summoners Rift 

Dragonblade Riven - for this icon, you need to play two match made games on Howling Abyss with allies

The new skins that are introduced are described in one word : AWESOME

We have the new Warring Kingdom Tryndamere, Lunar Goddess Diana and Dragonblade Riven. 

I do have to say that Lunar Goddess Diana is my favorite with her moonlight. She does look like a descendant of the moon. Dragonblade Riven looks so hardcore with the red fire incorporated, but her hair just kills everything for me LOL. Tryndamere with the golden dragon on his shoulder and scale like armor looks crazy. 

Now onto the most important item in the game: Wards!

Nothing beats walking through bushes and seeing a pink ward or finding a ward with a trinket. The new ward skins bring some more to the table when warding. You gotta ward in style and what else then the new Gong ward and Banner of the Horse. Ok it might not be in style but its still sweet. 

THE WARDS ARE FREE FOR THE EVENT SO DONT LOSE OUT AND USE THEM!