Recent News
- 12/10 PBE Update - Snowdown Login and Summoner icons!
- eSports Update - EG moves to NA, an Alliance forms in EU, and more!
- Snow Day Singed puts snow down on your showdown
- Yasuo Champion Spotlight
More on Rengar Changes - New Thread Soon
Scarizard dropped by the Rengar rework thread today, mentioning his intention to make a a few additional changes in light of the preseason changes and that he will soon be making a new discussion thread."Just a heads up - gonna be focused on making tweaks that jive with preseason (especially on BTN) and likely making a new thread cause this one's suuuuper long already. You can expect a more updated/centralized discussion next week, along with our thoughts on where he's headed and what we can do to get things closer.If you are in need of a refresher, check out this post for a tentative list of upcoming changes for Rengar!
I'll be the first to admit that some of you are right in what you've identified feels kind of 'meh' on the kit posted - R mechanic has been testing well, but has a lot of feedback/satisfaction issues to players unfamiliar with it. Increasing clarity here and really pushing it to be the most awesome Rengar ult it can be is top priority for me.
Be on the lookout for the upcoming thread, where we'll have everything up to date. I appreciate all of the voices here - supportive or dissenting - you're all helping us accomplish a better Knifecat for everyone."
Challenger Rewards Update
Riot Socrates posted an update on the Challenger rewards situation, sharing that about 5-10 teams/players have earned Challenger rewards based on their MMR at the end of the season ( and who may have been demoted out of Challenger due to flaws in the system )"Hey all,
A few weeks ago we announced some of our early plans for Challenger tier, and one of those was to reward the top 50 MMR teams/players in every queue (in addition to the ones who legitimately hit Challenger tier).
I'm just here to let you know we've made the final comparisons of challenger tier players vs. top 50 MMR players, and we've found about 5-10 teams/players per queue to reward. We'd like to commend everyone for maintaining their competitive spirit to the final hour, and we were glad to see a few well-known competitive players on that top 50 MMR list (we'll let them talk about it).
There were definitely a lot of lessons learned from this season, and we're looking forward to making new advancements in the 2014 Season. Stay tuned, and thanks for staying competitive!"
MsPudding's Ranked Tips
In a forum thread lamenting the woes of ranked play, MsPudding - Riot's "sentient pudding" - shared some of the things she considers before and during ranked games."A huge part of climbing in ranked is changing your mindset and focus. Instead of getting caught up in win/loss streaks and what your teammates are doing which cost you some games, try instead to make your games a test of your individual skill.
Here are just a few of the things I'm thinking about and checking myself on when I play a ranked game. I main adc and support, so these are specific to my experiences, but maybe you can find some value in them. (Note, that none of these involve focusing on what my teammates have done, or whether I won the game). More importantly, there are so many things on my mind that something trivial like my top laner going 0-3 doesn't even matter to me because I can't teach him to win his lane during the course of the game, BUT I can improve on my own play.
In champion selectThe pudding continued:
- Did I pick my champion with my allies and opponents in mind?
In lane:
- Have I played vs this champion before? What are the strengths and weaknesses I should expect in this lane?
- Am I dodging cc and harass spells effectively? How often do I get hooked/stunned or hit by a skillshot?
- Am I harassing and zoning my opponent away from the minion wave? Can I be even more aggressive?
- Who is the enemy jungler? Where can I expect him to gank from?
- Is dragon up? When's a good opportunity to go for it? Have my enemies retreated from a fight or returned to base?
- Am I keeping track of buff/dragon timers? How consistent am I about it?
- Am I communicating with my team around clearing objectives like dragon or pushing down early turrets?
- How early into the game have I completed my first core item? Can I beat my previous time when I played this lane matchup?
- Where did my enemy ward? When did they ward? Did I note the timestamp and tell my jungler when the ward would expire to gank?
- Am I letting my jungler know where lane/river wards are? How consistent am I about it?
- Do I use "on my way" and "missing" pings consistently with fair warning to my teammates?
- How well do I handle losing my lane? If I'm behind, can I still farm carefully? How consistent am I about playing safe when my enemies are a threat?
Mid/late game
- Dragon timers! Baron timers! Do I know them? Am I keeping track and proactive about communicating with my team to secure them?
- Are there open lanes with minions that nobody is taking? (this is a huge one!)
- Who on the enemy team is my biggest threat? How can I position myself in teamfights to avoid dying early to him/her? Should I save my ultimate or escape spells for that person?
- Who is my primary target in a fight? Who will be easiest for me to kill quickly?
- Are my team's lanes shoved out?
- Do we have offensive/defensive wards around X objective?
- Are we ahead? Should we force a fight or split up and pressure the map?
- Win or lose, did I play my best? Was I mindful of all the things above? Which ones did I forget about so I can remember next time?
After a kill
- Did I kill this person as fast as possible? Did I waste spells or cast them in the wrong order?
- Now that this person is dead, what objectives or extra farm can I take?
After dying
- What could I have done better in this fight? Did I get caught out?
- Was I watching my minimap? Did I expect this enemy to kill me and did I retreat when I should have?
- Did I miss crucial spells which could've turned the fight?
- How was my positioning? Could I have kept moving when I was doing (x)?
I cannot stress enough how much of a learning experience it is to play strategically and play your best even when behind, or losing a game. It takes a decent player to continue pressuring an advantage they got early, but it takes a great player to turn a game around and play strategically after a bad start.
I know how it is to have a bad streak of luck--it happens to all of us. It sucks, but when you focus on improving your own play, you can at least get something out of it. The things you can't control shouldn't matter to you."
"I'm seeing too many responses about "but this one time I couldn't carry a game even though I played well!"
Yeah, it happens. I've lost 16 ranked games in a row with some bad luck. But in the process, I learned to be a better player and I climbed back up. If all you get from a loss is "he did this, and this other person d/c'd", you're too focused on the things that won't help you."
Graves Price Reduction with Yasuo Release
Meddler replied to a curious summoner asking if old champions will received price reductions with new champion releases, reminding everyone that Graves is the next champion to be reduced from 6300 to 4800 IP."New champ = older champ reduced in cost, every third new champ an additional older champ gets reduced as well. Graves is up next with Yasuo's release. Few more details at http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/new...rice-reduction ."
Riot Games API Beta
Here's Rahares with more info:
"Hey guys,
We hit the launch button on the Riot Games API beta, and we’re ready for you to play with it, make some cool stuff with it, then tell us what works and what doesn’t. We’ll have real news to share once we see the kind of awesome that developers create with all of these stats and data.
You can check the full announcement here: http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20...-beta-launches"
Here's what the intro page on the API site had to say:
"With this site we hope to provide the League of Legends developer community with access to game data in a secure and reliable way. This is just part of our ongoing effort to respond to players' and developers' requests for data and to arm the community with more ways to contribute to the player experience.
We want this API to meet the same high standards as our in-game experiences, so we'll be iterating and evolving as we hear your feedback and suggestions (so share 'em all)."Click here for more information, including guidelines and tutorials, on Riot's new API!
Transfers from Garena to Oceanic now available
Servers transfers from Garena to the Oceanic servers are now available!"Greetings Summoners!
We are happy to announce that registration for a free transfer from Garena to the Oceanic platform is now available!
If you are a player based in the Oceania region, but have chosen to play on the Garena server previously, you now have the opportunity to make the switch for free.
You will need an account on the Oceanic server (you can create one here if you don’t have one) to merge with your Garena account.
Once you transfer to Oceania, you will not be able to return to Garena so be sure about the decision! For more information on the transfer process check out this FAQ!"
Free EUW, EUNE, and NA transfers to RU now available
If you are an EUW, EUNE, or NA player and have been looking to transfer to the RU servers, free transfers are now available between now and Jan 13th."Summoners,
We’re excited to announce a free transfer period to the Russian/CIS platform!
From December 10th to January 13th 2014 you’ll be able to transfer to Russia from EUW, EUNE or NA for free. This will give you time to set yourself up all ready for the start of the 2014 Season! With full Russian localization, tournaments and events it’s looking to be a great new year for Russian summoners.
To transfer go to the "Other" tab in the Store and select the Transfer to Russia item. Remember that the transfer is one way and that the usual transfer cost (2600 RP) applies if you want to return to your original platform!
GL HF!"
Leona Sketch
Last but not least, IronStylus shared another Leona sketch over on the forums."Still feeling inspired by Frozen and remembering why I love the Disney animation stylings. Here's an analog nightcap ;) "
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