Ok. I'm going to ramble a lot on this post. Season 4 started and all ranks were reset. It's a fresh new start, the beginning of a new journey, having to do everything over again. It took me a year to get to Diamond 1, and I enjoyed my stay there for about 4 months. Then came the reset. I had to play placement matches that would determine my new ranking, then I would start from there. There are 10 placement matches, and the highest you could placed was Platinum 1. Your new ranking after the placement matches was influenced by your ranking before the reset. I was Diamond 1, went 6-4, and got sent down to Platinum 5. For the past two weeks I've been climbing my way back up and am currently at Diamond 3. I'm confident I'll be able to get back to Diamond 1 soon, but I'm pretty sad that I have to go through my whole journey again.
For the past month, I've been streaming pretty regularly. I'm averaging 0.5 viewers per stream session, so I'm definitely making myself known. I do commentary while I play, explaining what I'm doing and why. I play excellent music and do my best to interact with my viewer(s). pls watch pls pls
I haven't been playing much for the past couple days. Why would a God take a break from his duties? Because he's recently discovered a new interest. I watched Frozen for the first time this Tuesday. It is currently Friday and I have watched it 4 times since. I'm obsessed. I remember seeing the commercials and thinking, "eh, another childish movie that I'm too cool and mature to watch". Oh, I was so naive. I hadn't watched an animated children's movie since I was a child myself. But Frozen blew my mind. It was amazing. If I had to give up League to be able to watch Frozen again, I wouldn't. But Frozen is exceptional. The humor (Arrested Development references were a gift sent from heaven), emotion, and adventure captivated me for the whole hour and a half. During the movie, I was unknowingly accumulating tears. At the end, I realized my cheeks were a little crusty from the dried tears. I don't want to spoil any of it, but if you haven't seen it, go see it.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Monday, December 16, 2013
Blog Reflection
What I've Done
I've been keeping track of my League of Legends journey for the past three months. I've documented my progress and gave tips on how to improve. I tried new strategies every game to see what was most successful and reported my results. I shared cool tips and tricks that I learned.
My best post
My best post would probably be this one. I did everything I had done in my previous posts: gave an update on my progress then gave out general tips, but this was the post I began expanding my material. I started giving champion overviews, cool tricks, and tips on how to improve.''
What I'd like to Improve on
I'd like to post on time more often. I usually write my blog posts very inconsistently, usually a week after they are due. I also want to make my blogs more understandable for non League of legends players so I can hopefully get people into the game.
What I've learned about myself as a learner
I learned that its hard for me to start something, but when I finally do start it, it's easy for me to finish. If I can find the motivation to start things early, I would probably be better off in school, and my blog would be much better.
Where I'd like to go
I want to start streaming my matches online and posting them on my blog so my followers can have a direct interaction with me and I can explain my though process when I play. This would make my content better, and more versatile.
I've been keeping track of my League of Legends journey for the past three months. I've documented my progress and gave tips on how to improve. I tried new strategies every game to see what was most successful and reported my results. I shared cool tips and tricks that I learned.
My best post
My best post would probably be this one. I did everything I had done in my previous posts: gave an update on my progress then gave out general tips, but this was the post I began expanding my material. I started giving champion overviews, cool tricks, and tips on how to improve.''
What I'd like to Improve on
I'd like to post on time more often. I usually write my blog posts very inconsistently, usually a week after they are due. I also want to make my blogs more understandable for non League of legends players so I can hopefully get people into the game.
What I've learned about myself as a learner
I learned that its hard for me to start something, but when I finally do start it, it's easy for me to finish. If I can find the motivation to start things early, I would probably be better off in school, and my blog would be much better.
Where I'd like to go
I want to start streaming my matches online and posting them on my blog so my followers can have a direct interaction with me and I can explain my though process when I play. This would make my content better, and more versatile.
Friday, December 13, 2013
Post # (Cloud) 9
This is my 9th post on my blog. The thing says we were supposed to have 10, so I missed one somewhere. Also, this blog is super late. I don't have internet access at my house right now, so I have to write this post during the 10 minutes I have left in the computer lab. I haven't been playing as much as I'd like to, unfortunately.
I'm at 64 points right now. I've fallen a little, but nothing unrepairable. As I'm climbing and playing with the best players in the nation, I'm starting to realize that I can still improve A LOT at the game. I recently laned against Scarra, one of the most well known mid laners in North America. I played my second best champion and was confident I would at least keep up with him. I was getting absolutely destroyed. His positioning was incredible, even for a Diamond 1 player. But then I won the game and ended up with a good score because the rest of my team did well.
This should tell you how much luck is involved in climbing, at least in Diamond 1. In other elos, you'll generally find it easier to carry than to get carried, so your skill is very indicative of your skill. However, in Diamond 1, once you hit 50 points, you're playing with people with as few as 0 points, and people that are #1 on the ladder.
This is why my points are fluctuating so much. I've been as high as 80 and as low as 30 points within one week. My 10 minutes are almost over, so I'm gonna end this post here.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
I'm at 64 points right now. I've fallen a little, but nothing unrepairable. As I'm climbing and playing with the best players in the nation, I'm starting to realize that I can still improve A LOT at the game. I recently laned against Scarra, one of the most well known mid laners in North America. I played my second best champion and was confident I would at least keep up with him. I was getting absolutely destroyed. His positioning was incredible, even for a Diamond 1 player. But then I won the game and ended up with a good score because the rest of my team did well.
This should tell you how much luck is involved in climbing, at least in Diamond 1. In other elos, you'll generally find it easier to carry than to get carried, so your skill is very indicative of your skill. However, in Diamond 1, once you hit 50 points, you're playing with people with as few as 0 points, and people that are #1 on the ladder.
This is why my points are fluctuating so much. I've been as high as 80 and as low as 30 points within one week. My 10 minutes are almost over, so I'm gonna end this post here.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
I'm Going Pro
Well, not really. But I have been playing with a lot of pros recently; including WildTurtle, who holds the #1 spot in Challenger. Basically, he's the best Solo Q player in the NA region. I peaked at 80 points, but have fallen to the low 70s since. I haven't yet been able to get my name out there, but people are beginning to recognize me as "the guy with the slow computer". Yes, I've been playing on the same, old laptop since I began playing this game one year ago. Once you begin playing in the high ranks of Diamond 1/Challenger, the game becomes a lot more enjoyable. Everyone at that level understands that winning isn't everything, but improving is. They aren't so concerned with winning that they flame, but they aren't bad enough that they make many mistakes. Some of the games do get troll, which makes it a lot more fun to play.
Orianna Reveck, the Lady of Clockwork
I've been playing a lot of Orianna recently. She's an incredibly strong champ, with a unique kit that is very potent if used correctly. She is one of the higher skill cap champions, with a very high skill ceiling. The plays you can make with her are endless. If you want to improve your mechanics, I'd highly recommend learning Orianna. She's also a very good champion to carry with, so she's great for climbing as well. She proves high damage, utility, and a strong AOE ultimate.
Here's a cool trick I learned with Orianna after watching Bischu, a Challenger mid player. If you ult with the ball on top of you, you can flash while the animation is going off. This catches most people off guard, and is nearly impossible to react to. The typical ball-on self -> Flash -> ult is still hard to dodge, but at a high level of play, people will flash this almost instinctively. With this trick, the animation for her ultimate will start before you flash, so it appears that the ultimate will miss, until a split-second later, when they've gotten hit by a suicide-bomber Ori ult. I don't have any footage unfortunately, but I've done this a few times when I was ahead. Again, it's not very practical, as it basically is a suicide if you do it during a team fight, but it's very fun and the reactions are hysterical.
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| Paint skills op. |
Solo Q Tip: You know those sites that give you stats of other players? I'm talking about Lolking, LolNexus, and others. Don't use them. Sure, they might give you a preview of both teams, and you'll be better prepared. But you'll play differently because of it. Even though you might not think it affects your play, it does. If you see someone has only 5 wins, but incredibly good stats, you'll know they're a smurf. If you have to lane against them, chances are you'll play more scared, and be afraid to make bold plays. If you see someone on your team has bad stats on a champ, you might be compelled not to gank for them. You'll never improve if you don't try new things. I used to use a site like these for nearly every game I played. Sure, it was helpful, but it made me play in a game-specific manner. It might help me win those single games, but it didn't help me improve overall as a player. It's like a coach teaching repeatedly teaching a single play and nothing else. The players would be able to execute this play perfectly, and there will be times where the play will work. However, if there's no variety, the opposing team will quickly catch on and be able to defend against it. I stopped using those sites when I had just hit Platinum, and I climbed through Platinum faster than any other Tier.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift.
The Wild Roller Coaster that is Diamond 1
I'm now sitting comfortably at 40 points. Of all the times I've heard of elo hell, Diamond 1 just might be it. Even though it's one of the smallest tiers, it's got the widest variety of players. You have the I'm-not-getting-challenger-so-I-can-mess-around people. These are basically the people that try new champions, builds, and do crazy things because they know they're already at the highest rank they'll ever achieve. I'm one of these people. Then, you have the arrogant flamers, who think they're better than everyone else because they're Diamond 1. Newsflash to those people: so is everyone else on the team. The next kind are my favorite to play with. They take the game really seriously. They communicate exceptionally well, and losing isn't an option for them (except 50% of the time). These are the I'm-getting-to-challenger-and-nothing's-holding-me-back players. They're the ones that will ping ten times for one thing. They will fill the chat with multiple sequences of words to express one idea. They will time every thing they can: summoner spells, objectives, inhibs, even wraiths and wolves.
Here's some cool tricks I've recently learned with Riven.
1. You can shoot her ult during your E animation. Her E is a short dash that also provides a shield. During the animation of the dash, you can fire the second part of her ult without interrupting the dash.
2. When in her ult, Riven gains extra range on all her abilities. With her ult active, Riven can hit blue buff over its wall, without actually having to go over. It's not very practical, but I did see it happen once in a Challenger Korean ranked game.
3. You can perform Riven's Q-AA-Q-AA-Q-AA combo around twice as fast by moving slightly after each AA (auto-attack). This is very similar to attack-animation cancelling, commonly performed by marksmen.
Here's a video of an avid Riven player showing the trick
And here is my tip for climbing. Watch streams! You can learn so much by watching good streamers. There are some streamers that mess around and rarely give advice, but even with them, you can still try and notice what they do well and imitate it. Some streamers that are very informative, as well as being incredibly good players, are Cadburry, Voyboy, WildTurtle, and dayladavid. You can find their streams on twitch.tv.
I'll probably post on my blog in this format now. I'll give an update on how my personal league experience is going, followed by a cool trick or something I've learned recently, then a tip for climbing.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
Riven, The Exile
Here's some cool tricks I've recently learned with Riven.
1. You can shoot her ult during your E animation. Her E is a short dash that also provides a shield. During the animation of the dash, you can fire the second part of her ult without interrupting the dash.
2. When in her ult, Riven gains extra range on all her abilities. With her ult active, Riven can hit blue buff over its wall, without actually having to go over. It's not very practical, but I did see it happen once in a Challenger Korean ranked game.
3. You can perform Riven's Q-AA-Q-AA-Q-AA combo around twice as fast by moving slightly after each AA (auto-attack). This is very similar to attack-animation cancelling, commonly performed by marksmen.
Here's a video of an avid Riven player showing the trick
And here is my tip for climbing. Watch streams! You can learn so much by watching good streamers. There are some streamers that mess around and rarely give advice, but even with them, you can still try and notice what they do well and imitate it. Some streamers that are very informative, as well as being incredibly good players, are Cadburry, Voyboy, WildTurtle, and dayladavid. You can find their streams on twitch.tv.
I'll probably post on my blog in this format now. I'll give an update on how my personal league experience is going, followed by a cool trick or something I've learned recently, then a tip for climbing.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
Monday, October 28, 2013
Back where I belong.
After a hard fought week, I was able to make it back to Diamond 1. I'm sitting at 18 points right now. I'm gaining and losing 3-5 points per game. So far, I've already played with 2 pro players that I've recognized, so I'm in good company.
A Challenger Series awaits me once I hit 100 points. If I win 3/5 games in the series, I will be promoted to Challenger, accompanied by 49 of the best players in the nation. I've also started streaming, but I've only been messing around, playing normal games (games that don't affect your ranking). You can check out my stream here! Basically, you can watch me play video games live.
But you guys probably don't care about my journey. So here's some tips that will help yours!
LoL Replay
If you don't mind downloading another program, and it doesn't affect your computer's performance, I highly recommend downloading LoL Replay. It allows you to watch every game you've played with the program on. This makes it incredibly easy to go back and see how you and your team performed. You can find what your team did right (or wrong), and it's very easy to find individual mistakes.
Admit your mistakes!
I'm sure I've said it several times since I started this blog. In fact, I mentioned it in the paragraph before this. But it's so important. No matter how good you are, you can always improve. This is an excuse I've heard across all rankings, from Bronze to Diamond: I would be higher ranked, but I always get bad teammates.
Sure, you'll have games where your team is absolutely useless. But you're teamed up with people around your MMR (match maker rating), so they're just as good as you. Next time you have bad team mates, think about all those times where you had bad games or just an off day. In the long run, you'll end up where you belong.
I wanted to find actual in-game aspects, but that's very difficult due to how dynamic each game can be. Every game is so unique and unstable that anything can happen. When a team is extremely far ahead and ends up losing, the term to describe the occasion is "throwing". If you threw a game, you lost it despite a huge advantage. I had a game a couple days ago where I played extremely well for the first 34 minutes of the game. However, the 35-minute game was decided by one poor decision by me in which I thought I could take their whole team alone. In my defense, I had previously 1v4'd and came out with 4 kills, so I was getting cocky (look at my last post!).
There's no exact strategy or method to winning games, as every situation is different. Sometimes, you just have to play consistently and make few mistakes. Other games can be won by making one big play, regardless of how poorly you were playing the rest of the game.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
A Challenger Series awaits me once I hit 100 points. If I win 3/5 games in the series, I will be promoted to Challenger, accompanied by 49 of the best players in the nation. I've also started streaming, but I've only been messing around, playing normal games (games that don't affect your ranking). You can check out my stream here! Basically, you can watch me play video games live.
But you guys probably don't care about my journey. So here's some tips that will help yours!
LoL Replay
If you don't mind downloading another program, and it doesn't affect your computer's performance, I highly recommend downloading LoL Replay. It allows you to watch every game you've played with the program on. This makes it incredibly easy to go back and see how you and your team performed. You can find what your team did right (or wrong), and it's very easy to find individual mistakes.
Admit your mistakes!
I'm sure I've said it several times since I started this blog. In fact, I mentioned it in the paragraph before this. But it's so important. No matter how good you are, you can always improve. This is an excuse I've heard across all rankings, from Bronze to Diamond: I would be higher ranked, but I always get bad teammates.
Sure, you'll have games where your team is absolutely useless. But you're teamed up with people around your MMR (match maker rating), so they're just as good as you. Next time you have bad team mates, think about all those times where you had bad games or just an off day. In the long run, you'll end up where you belong.
I wanted to find actual in-game aspects, but that's very difficult due to how dynamic each game can be. Every game is so unique and unstable that anything can happen. When a team is extremely far ahead and ends up losing, the term to describe the occasion is "throwing". If you threw a game, you lost it despite a huge advantage. I had a game a couple days ago where I played extremely well for the first 34 minutes of the game. However, the 35-minute game was decided by one poor decision by me in which I thought I could take their whole team alone. In my defense, I had previously 1v4'd and came out with 4 kills, so I was getting cocky (look at my last post!).
There's no exact strategy or method to winning games, as every situation is different. Sometimes, you just have to play consistently and make few mistakes. Other games can be won by making one big play, regardless of how poorly you were playing the rest of the game.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift!
How to Not Stay in Diamond 1
My time in Diamond 1 was short-lived. Six losses in a row sent me back to Diamond 2, where I stayed for a bit, before I was demoted, again, to Diamond 3. Why should you be listening to my tips if I'm getting demoted? Well, you shouldn't.
BUT, I can tell you what I did to get demoted, so you can avoid making the same mistakes
Arrogance
-Remember how I was talking about myself being a top tier diamond 1 player? Well, cockiness killed the cat. No matter how well you are playing or how big of a winning streak you are on, always look to improve, and look for mistakes to improve on every single game.
Tilting
-Often times I would lose 5 games in a row and I'd just keep playing, annoyed and frustrated. This would lead me to go on tilt, and have no motivation to win, causing me to play poorly. When you're on a losing streak or having a bad day, take a break from league. Being mad won't make you play any better. Relax a little!
I'll apply these tips and continue finding new ones, and I'll be back in Diamond 1 before I know it. I've recently downloaded a program that allows me to replay all my games so I can look back and watch for certain things, which will definitely help me (and you) improve.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift.
BUT, I can tell you what I did to get demoted, so you can avoid making the same mistakes
Arrogance
-Remember how I was talking about myself being a top tier diamond 1 player? Well, cockiness killed the cat. No matter how well you are playing or how big of a winning streak you are on, always look to improve, and look for mistakes to improve on every single game.
Tilting
-Often times I would lose 5 games in a row and I'd just keep playing, annoyed and frustrated. This would lead me to go on tilt, and have no motivation to win, causing me to play poorly. When you're on a losing streak or having a bad day, take a break from league. Being mad won't make you play any better. Relax a little!
I'll apply these tips and continue finding new ones, and I'll be back in Diamond 1 before I know it. I've recently downloaded a program that allows me to replay all my games so I can look back and watch for certain things, which will definitely help me (and you) improve.
Good luck on your journey through Summoner's Rift.
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