Purple Wards: How to Deal with Evelynn

This is a post about a HYPOTHETICAL solution to Evelynn.  It is NOT implemented, nor do I have any reason to think it will be; it's just my opinion on how to fix the problem that stealth champions are creating right now with pink wards in their current state.

First, let's talk about the vision situation.  How can you currently attain true sight of an enemy stealthed champion?
---Pink ward (only one per champion is available on the map at a time)
---Oracle's Lens (not available before level 9)

That's it.  There's no other way.  And pink wards, in addition to having the limitation of only one per champion at a time, also have the limitation of being visible.  So whereas before, if Red Team had an Eve, and Blue Team put a pink ward, then either Eve could buy an Oracle to clear out the blue pink wards, or everyone on the red team could buy pinks of their own to clear out the blue pinks.  The upshot of this was that, if Red Team wanted Eve to be able to gank, then they would have to invest in true sight as well.  As it stands in preseason 4, Red Team can just clear out Blue Team's pinks without buying any true sight of their own.

This makes junglers like Shaco and Evelynn MUCH stronger than they used to be, because you can no longer cover a lane with pink to make it safe from ganks.

Now, it's true that Eve sits around a 50% winrate in soloq, but if we look at ranked 5s, she sits solidly above 50%, spiking up to above 60% sometimes.  Her average winrate in ranked 5s over the past three weeks is about 54.4% (to arrive at that number I averaged the winrates available from lolking NOT taking into account the number of times that she was played per day, so this average is only an estimate).  For contrast, only Sivir, Amumu, Ziggs, and Rammus sit at overall winrates higher than 54.4%.  (source for all these numbers is lolking.)

Evelynn popularity and winrate: Ranked 5v5, all levels of play.  Source: lolking

Evelynn popularity and winrate: Ranked 5v5, diamond only.  Source: lolking

Evelynn popularity and winrate: Ranked soloqueue, all levels of play.  Source: lolking

In addition to the numbers, let's consider the qualitative argument that Evelynn isn't fun to play against.  She forces passive play on laners unless you know where she is, and it's significantly more difficult to do that with vision in its current state.  Your jungler can no longer place a couple pink wards in forward locations, and if you do place such wards, Eve herself can just clear them without any investment of her own.  Basically, it now costs Eve's team nothing to counter the vision that the other team tried so hard to establish.

So now that we've established that there is something problematic about Eve, how do we fix it?  Season 3 pink wards were obviously overpowered, and the rework to them in Season 4 feels great --- no more endless wars between the two supports in botlane for who will have pink-ward control over the tribush, the vision snowball that was possible in Season 3 now has significant counterplay that forces the winning team to act as soon as they've established vision instead of just waiting for a mistake and then winning the game, because their vision control won't last as soon as they clear out of an area.

However, what if there was a ward that revealed stealthed enemy champions but not stealthed enemy traps?  I call it a "purple ward," and the way it works is that it upgrades your sight to truesight of enemy champions.  So if Eve is standing stealthed in my vision radius, and the radius of my purple ward, then I can see her.  But if she's standing only in radius of my purple ward, then I can't see her.

Here's a couple examples.  Click on the image to enlarge it.

A couple of interactions to note:
---A purple ward + a green ward = a season 3 pink ward except that it only sees stealthed champions
---Placing a purple ward in the middle of midlane allows you to see a stealthed Akali while she's in her shroud
---Because a purple ward is stealthed, it can be disabled (and then killed) by someone with a sweeping lens
---If a support places a purple ward in the side lane bush and stands in it, then he can see if an Evelynn or Shaco or other stealthed champ enters the bush.  However, the instant he leaves the bush, he loses that vision unless there's a green ward also in the bush.

A purple ward would cost 50 gold and last for 3 minutes, stealthing itself after a brief period (the same as a green ward).  Any champion can have up to 2 purple wards in their inventory at a time, and one placed on the map at a time.  This way, buying a green ward and a purple ward costs the same as a season 3 pink ward did.  A purple ward starts with 3hp but loses all but 1hp when it stealths.  This way, it is still doable to kill both a green ward and a purple ward with a single sweep of a sweeping lens, but you cannot one-shot or even two-shot a purple ward before it stealths itself.

Why should purple wards be implemented?
---Allows truesight prior to level 9 without losing a "permanent" ward---at the moment, getting true sight of an enemy champion in a brawl forces you to lose a forward ward that you may have wanted to keep.
---Allows for counterplay to Evelynn with a much more reasonable counter-counter play: Evelynn's team either needs to invest in their own pink ward or a sweeping lens cooldown to kill a purple ward.  This means that the presence of an Evelynn will require an investment by both teams, not just the team playing against the Eve.

What are some downsides of purple wards?
---Somewhat complicated to understand, because they require an interaction with another allied unit to function in a way not previously seen in League.
---Nerf some champions that are already relatively weak: Talon and Akali come to mind.

Overall, however, I believe that purple wards will add a lot more to the game than they will detract, and I think they're a very well-balanced solution to the current problem of stealth champions being overpowered.

Why Ezreal/Janna is a bad lane

Janna's Strengths:
--Shield (sustain IF AND ONLY IF the ADC is trading or getting poked)
--Damage (through AD bonus to ADC, multiplied by ADC having good AD-scaling skills or trading multiple autoattacks)
--Peel (useful if ADC needs peel)
--Chasing (useful if ADC can just chase down enemy botlane)

Janna's Weaknesses:
--Can't trade herself (so needs a long-range ADC to poke; otherwise ADC will soak too much damage if goes to trade)
--Not great in an allin at early levels (AD bonus doesn't last for that long on shield, shield not that big yet, doesn't have good damage nuke of her own)
--Very squishy herself (can't act as a damage soak for ADC)
--No waveclear

Ezreal's strengths:
--Good poke in lane (gets to stay back and not trade)
--Mobility (doesn't need much peel and also can dodge poke)
--Good level 2 allin

Ezreal's weaknesses:
--Not great in longterm trades (passive isn't that good compared to other steroids)
--Subpar waveclear pre-6
--Weak AA poke (due to standard range)

Basically, Janna's AD shield is a HUGE part of her kit since she has no damage nuke of her own.  But Ezreal can't really make use of that shield at all!  Janna also provides fantastic peel to someone like Caitlyn or Vayne, which is something that Ezreal doesn't need.  Ezreal prefers to stand back and poke, and he appreciates true sustain (like what he would get from Nami or Sona).  Janna's passive-ish give-AD-to-the-ADC style of play doesn't synergize with Ezreal at ALL, making the lane extremely weak.

Introducing SSSSSSSSSS! And a general update

So...I've been pretty awful about updating here recently.  Basically, I've been casting a LOT and covering LCS for LoLKing.  Those articles get published on zam.com, and I announce them on my Twitter when they go up.  I've been playing a lot of Plat v Silver games---follow my Twitter or my stream to find out when I'm streaming those.  I'm not saving VoDs of them unless someone specifically requests, but I've been streaming for about 8-10 hours a week for the past few weeks, so there's a decent amount of VoDs you can watch at any given time if you're interested.

I've also been casting a lot---mostly for NESL, but I'm also starting to cast the Dominate Dominion tournament that's hosted weekly on Saturdays here.  (Again, follow my Twitter for updates on whenever I'm casting stuff.)  At some point I'll finish my Nami guide and release it; I have made the temporary link public, but you can't vote/comment on it yet because it's not done.

Sona got buffed!  That was pretty awesome.  Still run HP quints on her probably.  Haven't gotten much of a chance to play since the 3.8 patch, so maaaaybe you can get away with a bit less HP, but it's still probably your strongest choice.



And now...introducing the SSSSSSSSSSS!  SSSSSSSSS roughly stands for 'Saturday Sundown Super Silly Scrim Series,' but it's not on Saturdays and not at sundown.  But they are super silly scrims!  Sign-ups for this week are open.  Each week, there's a different theme, and this week the theme is "Carry me Bro," where you may only play ranged champions and ONLY build AD Carry items.  Allowed items must provide either Attack Damage or Attack Speed and NOT contain any Ability Power (Triforce is allowed).  (Yes, you may purchase components prior to completing an item.)

SSSSSSSSSSS will be hosted and casted by myself and Blanket Ninja roughly every week and streamed on my stream.  This week, it's at 7:30pm Pacific time on Sunday June 23, but that time will be variable from week to week.  Eventually I'll get around to making a page here for that.


You can still take double golems if you have like Draven/Janna or something super high-damage, probably not with Nami/Caitlyn though.  Haven't tried it with too many lane combos yet.

I'm gonna try to make a post talking about NA LCS sometime in the next week or so.  But maybe I'll work on my Nami guide instead.  We'll see.


Finally, I'm wanting to start offering shoutcasting lessons, but I really want to charge for them.  If that's something you'd be interested in, message me on reddit or email me at [my IGN]LOL at gmail.com.  Rates would probably be about $10-20/hour, depending on how many lessons you wanted to commit to.

How to nerf Sona (QQ)

Writing this sort of makes me sad, because I love Sona, and it will make me sad for her to be weaker.  However, I do think she's OP right now, and nerfing her is 100% reasonable.  This is in response to this Riot forum post.

For anyone reading this post linked from there, I have 700+ games with Sona and I wrote this approved Sona guide on solomid.net, so I actually know what I'm talking about.

• Nerf her ultimate.  This is what I would like to see targeted most of all.  Ways to do this:
• Increase the cooldown (not recommended---I hate nerfing champions by just increasing cooldowns.  It just makes it feel worse to play the champion.)
• Make it do 0 damage (this is reasonable but sort of silly and doesn't really address the issues---her utility is crazy-good)
• Return it to the DOT that it used to do (fine, but not sufficient, see above)
• Decrease the stun duration:
• Everywhere.  That would be okay, but I would rather see
• The farther you are from her, the less you're stunned for, or
• The closer you are to her, the less you're stunned for.
This is my favorite option for nerfing Sona.  Make her stun variable duration depending on how far you are from her.  Either way promotes more creative play from Sona.  If close-range stuns last the longest, you want to make sure you're right on top of your ADC so you can stun the diver immediately.  If long-range stuns last the longest, you actually want to be staying decently far from your ADC so you'll get the longest stun possible.  Obviously this also opens additional counterplay options against Sona, which is always nice.
• Decrease the area.  This would be okay to be honest.  I would hate this change because it's ridiculous how much intuition you get about the area of a skill, but it makes sense: her AoE is really big, and if you want to keep the same duration stun why wouldn't you just nerf the area.  But I'd rather see the stun duration changed.
• Nerf her auras.  There are a LOT of ways to do this.
• Just nerf the numbers overall.  This already happened once.  I don't suggest doing it again.
• Make her auras decay over time.  THIS IS THE SINGLE BEST WAY TO NERF SONA.  We already have a decay of her W from double bonus to single bonus after 3 seconds.  What I'd rather see is a decay per second from double bonus to half-bonus over a slightly longer period, and I'd like to see this on all three of her skills.  So if she's completely oom and can't refresh her auras, she's basically screwed.
• This doesn't punish active Sona play that much in the short run
• If Sona can't be effective in the short run, it massively punishes her in the long run
• It massively punishes passive Sona
• Increases Sona's skill ceiling (not that she's not already really complicated, but this would make her more challenging in a good way and reward coordination between her and her ADC.  And no one can say that Sona is intended to be straightforward to play with her passive)
•  Make Sona's auras do less to herself than to her allies.  This is a BAD change to Sona, as it would encourage passive play.
• Make her residual aura after she switches stances last for less time.  Please no.  Being able to go E --> Q --> W without losing the defense aura for any time but giving yourself the Q-chord against an objective/in an allin is actually pretty important, in my opinion.  And more importantly, if you're running away with E persistent and you have enough mana, you want to Q --> W --> E and then get the E-chord off on whoever's chasing you without losing your MS for any time at all.  And to be honest, nerfing that is just going to make people who main Sona sad without actually adjusting her balance sufficiently.
• Nerf her Q/W numbers.
• Cut down on her early damage.  I would hate to see this because (1) it encourages passive play, and (2) it takes away a lot from what makes Sona herself
• Cut down on her W heal increase per level and increase its AP scaling.  I like this because it rewards healing from a Q aura as opposed to a W aura.  (I like this idea a LOT.)
• Increase her mana costs.  I actually don't think this is a good idea unless it's in conjunction with 1-2 other things also, because her mana costs are already so high that increasing them further to make her be balanced on that alone will make her lose at all but the very top levels of play in terms of coordination between ADC and support.
• Nerf her base stats.  Please no.  This is another really delicate line to cross.  I already feel that flat HP quints are 100% necessary on her; nerfing her base stats more will just lock item builds/runes without addressing the real problems.
• Remove the auto-attack reset upon getting a power chord.  I don't actually recommend this, but it would be better than some changes.

So, yeah.  I may update this post as I come up with more things.  The last thing I want to say is that I don't actually think nerfing Sona is as appropriate as buffing other supports, and I'd rather see very slight nerfs to Sona and more substantial buffs to other supports.

Clone Recommended Item Builds Update

I updated this for Howling Abyss and figured I'd repost.  Enjoy!

Link to OP. 

# A Python script to allow you to 'clone' a customized set of recommended items.
# Written by RheingoldRiver.  Feel free to modify and share it but please don't
# claim you wrote it yourself if you do so.

# This code is intended to work with Enigma's Recommended Items Changer.  I am
# in no way affiliated with Enigma and any errors here are entirely my own.
# If you have League installed in a different directory, edit the variables
# dirOrig and dirNew accordingly.

# The inputs are (1) a string of the champion whose build you want to clone;
# (2) a vector of strings of the champions to which you want to clone the build;
# (3) a string denoting which mode you want to take the build from; and (4)
# a string denoting which mode you want to copy the build to.  Mode strings are
# "sr" for Summoner's Rift"; "dom" for Dominion; "ha" for Howling Abyss;
# and "tt" for Twisted Treeline.

# Example inputs:
#    cloneBuild("Sona",["Janna","Nami","Lulu"],"sr","sr")
# will copy your Summoner's Rift Sona build to Janna, Nami, and Lulu on
# Summoner's Rift.
#    cloneBuild("Irelia",["Irelia"],"sr","dom")
# will copy your Summoner's Rift Irelia build to Irelia on Dominion.

# If one of your builds contains items not available on a particular map then
# the program will still work; those items will just not appear in your
# recommended items on that map.

ADC = ["Ashe", "Caitlyn", "Corki", "Draven", "Ezreal", "Graves", "Kayle",
       "Kogmaw", "MissFortune", "Quinn", "Sivir", "Tristana", "Twitch", "Urgot",
       "Varus", "Vayne"]
SUPPORT = ["Alistar", "Blitzcrank", "Fiddlesticks", "Janna", "Leona", "Lulu",
            "Lux", "Nami", "Nidalee", "Nunu", "Sona", "Soraka", "Taric",
            "Thresh", "Zilean", "Zyra"]
APMANA = ["Ahri", "Anivia", "Annie", "Brand", "Cassiopeia", "ChoGath", "Diana",
          "Elise", "Evelynn", "Fizz", "Galio", "Gragas", "Heimerdinger",
          "Karma", "Karthus", "Kassadin", "LeBlanc", "Lissandra", "Malzahar",
          "Morgana", "Orianna", "Ryze", "Sion", "Swain", "Syndra", "Teemo",
          "TwistedFate", "Veigar", "Viktor", "Xerath", "Ziggs"]
APMANALESS = ["Akali", "Katarina", "Kennen", "Mordekaiser", "Rumble",
              "Vladimir"]
ADBRUISER = ["Darius", "DrMundo", "Fiora", "Gangplank", "Garen", "Hecarim",
             "Irelia", "JarvanIV", "Jax", "Jayce", "Khazix", "LeeSin",
             "MasterYi", "Nasus", "Nocturne", "Olaf", "Pantheon", "Poppy",
             "Rammus", "Renekton", "Rengar", "Riven", "Shaco", "Shen",
             "Shyvana", "Skarner", "Talon", "Trundle", "Tryndamere", "Udyr",
             "Vi", "MonkeyKing", "XinZhao", "Yorick", "Zac", "Zed"]
APBRUISER = ["Amumu", "Malphite", "Maokai", "Nautilus", "Sejuani", "Singed",
             "Volibear", "Warwick"]
ALL = ADC + SUPPORT + APMANA + APMANALESS + ADBRUISER + APBRUISER


import os
def cloneBuild(orig,new,mode1,mode2):
    d1 = {"dom":"8", "sr":"1", "tt":"10", "pg": "3", "ha":"12"}
    d2 = {"sr":"CLASSIC", "dom":"ODIN", "tt":"CLASSIC", "pg":"any", "ha":"any"}
    fileOrig = "EnigmaItem_" + d1[mode1] + "_" + d2[mode1] + "-0.json"
    dirOrig = 'C:/Riot Games/League of Legends/Config/Champions/' + orig + '/Recommended/'
    fOrig = dirOrig + fileOrig
    f1 = open(fOrig,'r')
    s = f1.readline()
    f1.close()
    for champ in new:
        fileNew = "EnigmaItem_" + d1[mode2] + "_" + d2[mode2] + "-0.json"
        dirNew = 'C:/Riot Games/League of Legends/Config/Champions/' + champ + '/Recommended/'
        if not os.path.exists(dirNew):
            os.makedirs(dirNew)
        fNew = dirNew + fileNew  
        f2 = open(fNew,'w')
        s = s.replace(orig,champ)
        s = s.replace(d2[mode1],d2[mode2])
        s = s.replace("\"map\":\""+d1[mode1]+"\"","\"map\":\""+d1[mode2]+"\"")
        f2.write(s)
        f2.close()

LCS Coverage and Patch 3.6 Thoughts

I got the chance to attend LCS this past weekend, giving coverage for LoLKing/ZAM.  You can find the three articles (match summaries and interviews) here, here, and here.

And changes to botlane in the 3.6 patch...

Corki:  This is actually pretty huge.  I think he should be at least decently viable if not strong.  He might even be strong enough to make Corki-Leona a good lane again.

Draven:  We knew this was coming, it's definitely a change for the better.

Ezreal: I hate Pulsefire Ezreal anyway.

Karma:  I think her cooldowns are still too long for botlane given what they do.  Her skills seem like they would make her a sustain/trading support, but they're basically the same as Lulu's cooldowns, don't do that much extra base damage, and she doesn't have the bonus on her autoattacks that Lulu does.  And her level 6 isn't going to let her save her ADC from the enemy support's ult (like Alistar's or Lulu's) or get a kill on the enemy ADC (like Sona's or Nami's)...definitely she's more of an AP mid.  That said, if you're a god at hitting your Qs, she does have the potential to output a good amount of damage.  I'd put her in the same class of support as Nidalee, where if you're able to outplay with skillshots it can be strong, but overall even if it wins early, it's probably going to lose late.

Lulu:  Aaaahh now I need to rewrite the Lulu article I wrote the other day.  Grr.  Help, Pix! is now more damage/mana efficient at all levels if you only hit one target with Glitterlance (more on that when I update the Lulu article).  Her E mana efficiency goes from 1.3 to 2.8; Q goes from 1.1 to 2.  [edit: done!]

Nunu:  It was actually kind of annoying when Consume expended Visionary but didn't cast.  Not really going to affect his viability that much, this is almost so minor as to be a QOL change.

Quinn:  Haven't seen enough of her to say whether this is going to affect her in a major way.  The Vault change is honestly probably the most important part of all of this.  She no longer has the highest-cooldown ult at all three levels though (Urgot's was already longer at level 3, but Urgot typically builds some CDR).

Sivir:  Don't think this is gonna help enough.

Sona:  To be honest, I thought her W-chord already didn't reduce Baron/Dragon damage.  Oops.

Thresh:  Thank god he finally got nerfed, but this isn't enough.  Like Sona, you can nerf him so that he's only barely viable if that at all levels of play below plat/diamond, but he's still gonna be insanely OP in the right hands.  His scaling with team communication is higher than that of any other champion I think.  Maybe Twisted Fate.

Vayne:  What.  I thought they realized that this would make her too strong so they weren't gonna do it.  She's gonna be REALLY strong now.  Not strong enough to win lane without massive outplay, but still a lot stronger.  Auto-Q-auto-condemn for 3 procs of silver bolts is way easier now.

Things I need to update:  My Lulu article, like I said [done].  And also some cooldown information in my Sona guide [jk don't need to do this].  I also intend to, at some point, add much more detailed information to the matchups sections (important cooldown timers, relative mana sustain, etc.) but that's gonna be about 5-10 hours worth of work, and I'm not sure when I'll have the time [yeah, soon^tm].


SNSS is on SATURDAY this week!

Lulu: Level Help, Pix! or Glitterlance?

This article has now been updated after patch 1.6.

First, we'll take a look at raw numbers.

Glitterlance:

CD -- 7
Mana Cost -- 60 (+5)
Damage -- 80 (+45)
Slow Duration -- 1 (+.25)

Help, Pix!:

CD -- 10
Mana Cost -- 60 (+10)
Shield Strength -- 60 (+45)
Damage -- 80 (+50)

Leveling E over Q gives you an additional 5 damage to one target OR a shield of 45 instead of 45 damage, with +5 relative mana cost change.

Leveling Q over E gives you .25 seconds superior slow and an additional 40 total damage if you hit two targets.

So, which one should we level, and in what circumstances?

If you're just going for superior trading between your ADC and their ADC early in lane, E will help you more if the fight is close, while Q will help you more if you're dominating (and they're running away from you):

• Shield of 45 is actually more efficient than damage of 45 because a shield is true health, whereas the damage is magic damage---you'll actually do only 35 damage to them assuming no pen on you and no bonus MR on them (reasonable assumption because they'll probably have some MR and you'll probably have some MPen).
• Single-target damage of E is greater than single-target damage of Q, damaging second target doesn't matter that much unless you have lots of AoE damage (which you don't pre-6).
• Fight probably won't last 7 seconds, so you're unlikely to get a second Q despite its shorter cooldown.
• If you baited out a lot of damage on yourself early, you can still apply shield to your ADC without being close to their ADC; however you can't also Q unless you have enough mana for both spells.
• However, if your ADC can win without the help of your shield, superior CC will mean more.

Late game, Q will probably help more; Q also better when setting up jungle ganks:

• In teamfights, extra damage across 3+ members of their team is likely (early on, this damage can be very relevant).
• Extra CC duration will likely help (chasing them down, letting ADC kite, keeping them in AoE, etc.).
• Akali is probably the quintessential example of someone you'd rather have a shield on your ADC than help him kite against, and you likely will need to E her to reveal instead, but vs other high-mobility assassins, shield might be better.

Other advantages of Q-max:

• You get to have Q maxed earlier (as discussed above, E much less relevant after laning is over).
• Late game, levels in W could easily be more valuable than levels of E.  How much damage can they output in .25 seconds?  Their ADC can probably output more than 45 true damage in that time.  So getting E early sacrifices levels of W later.
• Moving Pix to the correct location costs less mana.
• Will help you push lane if desired.

Finally, let's look at mana-cost efficiencies:

These damages are assuming you hit one target with Q; if you hit both, the Q ratios would be doubled.  As you can see, Q is more mana efficient per level than E at later levels, assuming you're able to hit it "most" of the time.  The second column in the third chart tells you the average number of targets you need to hit with your Q for it to be mana-efficient to level and cast Q over E.  So for example, if you hit your Q 90% of the time then it's not worth it to level Q to 3, but if you do decide to do that then at 4 it becomes efficient to be using Q instead of E.  (Note that this assumes you're using E for damage and not for shield.)

These charts show Damage:Mana efficiencies of your E-Q combo depending on how many targets you hit.  The color represents different possible ability splits between champion level 2 and 9 (it's assumed you only take one point in W, at either 3 or 4, and you take ult at 6).  As you can see, if you are hitting at least one target per Q, you'll do better by leveling Q; the other columns show you how much better.

Finally, this chart shows you the mana efficiency of Eing a creep and then hitting the enemy champions with Q from the E'd creep.  Your ability to do this is often an argument in favor of a Q-level because it massively increases your poke range.  But how mana-efficient is it actually?  The answer is that it scales up massively as you level your Q.

So, which skill should you level?  I usually like to get E at 2, 4, and 5, and then switch to Q after that.  But if there's not much trading between the ADCs I'll go for a straight Q-max, and if I'm really scared of my ADC dying to burst that he can't kite I'll max E all the way.  But the answer is that it really depends, and you should just be aware of reasons to level each one before deciding.

NA SNSS VoDs: 21 April

ARAM
Novice Game
Intermediate Game
Various Game
Advanced Game
ABAM

If you played or watched, please fill out the feedback form here!  I'm especially looking for feedback on whether the various game is a good idea, especially if you played in it.

And of course thanks Tippani for compiling the list of start times.

Botlane Tournament VoDs: Week 12

My stream:

R1G2: Vayne-Taric vs Ezreal-Lulu
R1G4: Varus-Nami vs Graves-Taric
R1G6: Miss Fortune-Sona vs Caitlyn-Taric
R1G8: Miss Fortune-Sona vs Ashe-Lulu
R2G1: Draven-Leona vs Caitlyn-Nunu
R2G4: Draven-Taric vs Tristana-Janna
R3G1: Draven-Tresh vs Graves-Blitzcrank
R3G2: Tristana-Taric vs Quinn-Sona
Finals: Graves-Thresh vs Quinn-Sona

Zarikai's stream, Its PJ casting:

R1G1: Caitlyn-Lulu vs Ezreal-Sona
R1G3: Varus-Thresh vs Ezreal-Sona
R1G5: Varus-Thresh vs Quinn-Sona Part 2
R1G7: Twitch-Janna vs Miss Fortune-Lulu

Thanks Tippani for compiling <3


SNSS today!  And I'm in the middle of writing a thing about leveling Lulu's skills early on, hopefully should finish that tomorrow.

LCS Game Summaries: Week 10 Day 3

Game summaries from the last day of the spring split of LCS.  Definitely still looking for feedback!  I might do the same thing for OGN, and I'm more likely to do so if people tell me they like these, and I'm more likely to do them the way you want me to if you tell me what I can improve.  :)

Game 1: Marn vs CLG

Bans (Marn first): Cho'gath -- Renekton -- Nidalee -- Riven -- Shen -- Malphite

Picks: Twisted Fate -- Vayne Sona -- Jarvan IV Thresh -- Jax Amumu -- Tristana Irelia -- Ahri

MegaZero: Irelia, Ignite/Flash
ClakeyD: Jarvan IV, Smite/Flash
ecco: Twisted Fate, Barrier/Flash
Nientonsoh: Tristana, Flash/Cleanse
Heartbeat: Thresh, Flash/Exhaust

HotshotGG: Jax, Flash/Teleport
Chauster: Amumu, Smite/Flash
Link: Flash/Ignite
Doublelift: Flash/Cleanse
Aphromoo: Exhaust/Flash

Very good level-1 play from Marn, securing both blue buffs and setting Chauster behind in the jungle.  However, first blood did go to CLG at about 8 minutes, after top and bot outer turret had been pushed by CLG and Marn respectively.  A 4v5 engage from Marn at dragon at about 10:30 looked like it would snowball CLG, and they pushed several more turrets, picking up another free dragon and even top inhib turret by 20 minutes, getting the inhibitor at about 22 minutes and shortly after also pushing down mid inhibitor.

However, Marn began to come back, with ecco and Nientonsoh picking up a kill on Doublelift near botlane at about 26 minutes.  Instead of defending their base from the two waves of super minions, Marn decided to go for Baron.  Their attempt was successful, but they sacrificed their bot inhibitor and a nexus turret in the process, Tristana barely getting out in time to save the second nexus turret thanks to a shield from Thresh blocking Sona's autoattack damage from interrupting her recall.

After the baron, Marn began to win fight after fight, successfully defending their respawned top inhibitor and giving Nientonsoh a delayed pentakill (he did get the quadra).  Marn took the gold lead and were able to wait out all of their inhibitor respawns, picking up another baron and ultimately picking up an ace for just Jarvan in midlane at about 41 minutes.  Without any minions to push with, Nientonsoh traded tanking turrets with MegaZero, and despite Chauster's respawn, Marn was able to pick up the nexus.

Game 2: Curse vs Complexity

Bans (Curse first): Zed -- Volibear -- Jayce -- Thresh -- Shen -- Jarvan IV

Voyboy: Gragas (Teleport/Flash)
Saintvicious: Udyr (Flash/Smite)
Nyjacky: Twisted Fate (Ignite/Flash)
Cop: Caitlyn (Barrier/Flash)
Elementz: Lulu (Exhaust/Flash)

Nickwu: Darius (Ignite/Ghost)
Lautemortis: Amumu (Smite/Flash)
pr0lly: Kha'zix (Flash/Ignite)
brunch U: Miss Fortune (Barrier/Flash)
M eye A: Kayle (Ignite/Flash)

The beginning of the game was a bit rough for Complexity, with Miss Fortune and Kayle arriving botlane over 30 seconds late, since they wanted to guarantee a 2v2 lane vs Caitlyn/Lulu.  First blood came in toplane around 6 minutes with an incredible dive by Kha'zix in toplane on Gragas.  Kha'zix fell immediately after, as Udyr was there also, and Darius almost fell, barely saved by Amumu's counter-counter-gank.  Almost 3 minutes later, Complexity was able to pick up a free dragon after Curse's botlane had based, and they climbed into a comfortable gold lead.  This lead was solidified when Twisted Fate and Gragas both ganked botlane but got no kills, spending two whole minutes in a 4v3 in botlane.  They eventually got the turret, but Darius had gotten top turret, and almost immediately after, Complexity was able to pick up Curse's outer bot turret and then another dragon at 21 minutes.

After Complexity's excellent control of early objectives, they won several fights in a row: one near their own blue buff (4 for 3) and then another one in midlane (3 for 0).  They were able to pick  up the first baron of the game at 24:40, also picking up kills on Caitlyn and Udyr for the delayed 5-for-0.  Complexity continued to apply pressure, and with a bit of patience, well-timed tower dives, and a second baron at 33:42, they were able to gradually push down all of Curse's base, picking up the nexus at 48 minutes.

Game 3: TSM vs GGU

Bans (TSM first): Riven -- [penalty so no ban] -- Elise -- Renekton -- Thresh -- Draven

Picks: Shen -- Caitlyn Nasus -- Sona Karthus -- Lux Caitlyn -- Nocturne Varus -- Janna

Dyrus: Shen (Ignite/Flash)
TheOddOne: Nocturne (Smite/Flash)
Reginald: Karthus (Flash/Exhaust)
WildTurtle: Varus (Flash/Cleanse)
Xpecial: Sona (Ignite/Flash)

ZionSpartan: Jayce (Ignite/Flash)
NintendudeX: Nasus (Smite/Flash)
Jintae: Lux (Flash/Ignite)
DontMashMe: Caitlyn (Cleanse/Flash)
Daydreamin: Janna (Exhaust/Flash)

An uneventful level 1 with GGU's duo lane going top suddenly exploded in GGU's favor at about 4:30 with NintendudeX on Nasus ganking TSM's duo botlane and picking up first blood and two kills, one for himself and one for ZionSpartan's Jayce.  At 6 minutes, GGU was about 1k gold ahead of TSM, and they picked up the first turret of the game at 7:50.  However, GGU's poke comp was unable to deal with the dive from Nocturne, and TSM picked up a kill in midlane just before 10 minutes and also grabbed dragon.  A few minutes later, TSM continued to show just how strong their global comp was, with Karthus helping WildTurtle and Xpecial pick up kills on DontMashMe and Daydreamin while they were fighting 2v2 in top.

GGU were able to pick up the remaining two outer towers as the early game was transitioning into midgame, as they had been able to apply a lot of pressure and get a lot of damage down earlier.  But whenever TSM had global cooldowns available, they made plays happen on the map, picking up dragon when available and continually pushing turrets.  Their first baron was just before 29 minutes, and after a few more pickoffs TSM were able to push all three inhibitors by 36 minutes.  Despite Baron's respawn, TSM decided to heal before securing that objective, taking out Janna, Nasus, and Lux as they tried to steal baron while Reginald's Requiem picked up a kill on Jayce set up by Shen, letting TSM easily pick up the nexus.

Game 4: Dignitas vs Vulcun

Bans (Dig first): Jarvan IV -- Diana -- Karthus -- Caitlyn -- Thresh --Shen

Picks: Renekton -- Sona Nasus -- Volibear Draven -- Malphite Tristana -- Gragas Alistar -- Cassiopeia

KiWiKiD: Renekton (Flash/Ignite)
Crumbz: Volibear (Smite/Ghost)
scarra: Gragas (Flash/Ignite)
imaqtpie: Draven (Flash/Cleanse)
Patoy: Alistar (Exhaust/Flash)

Sycho Sid: Malphite (Flash/Teleport)
Xmithie: Nasus (Smite/Ghost)
mancloud: Cassiopeia (Flash/Ignite)
Zuna: Tristana (Flash/Barrier)
BloodWater: Sona (Flash/Exhaust)

Dignitas took an early lead with a ghost lane gank at 4 minutes by Crumbz on Volibear, taking out Bloodwater's Sona for first blood despite Bloodwater's flash.  Two minues later, Crumbz came bot, diving Sycho Sid.  An incredible Alistar play by Patoy fed Draven two kills as Xmithie came in for a counter gank.  The tower went to Dignitas, but Vulcun was able to pick up top tower a minute later, Dignitas answering that tower kill with the first dragon of the game.  Draven continued getting kills, as Volibear sacrificed himself to dive Cassiopeia at about 12 minutes in midlane and then again to dive Nasus in toplane.

Vulcun started gaining momentum with a teleport play by Sycho Sid's Malphite, pinching off Volibear and Draven as they split-push bot inner turret at about 17 minutes during a dragon dance.  Their momentum continued growing as mancloud was able to pick up a solo kill in botlane on Crumbz, flashing under turret.  A slight hiccup by Zuna in midlane just before 26 minutes led to him getting caught out and dying, but Dignitas got overambitious trying to take down baron, and Vulcun was able to pick up a 4 for 3 exchange, not even needing to burn Malphite's teleport.

Dignitas's baron calls ended up sealing their fate, as a second baron attempt just after 30 minutes led to a free botlane tower for Vulcun in addition to a 3 for 0 exchange in Vulcun's favor.  The engage by Vulcun was delayed as long as possible, and Dignitas was just too low from tanking baron to be able to survive Malphite's teleport on top of the other AoE from Vulcun's comp.  Vulcun ended  up picking up the baron themselves and then went on to grab dragon and inner mid turret.  They were able to successfully take out the top inhibitor turret as well, but Dignitas pushed them off, despite losing an exchange, with only Cassiopeia falling for both Alistar and Renekton.  When Baron respawned, imaqtpie decided to push midlane instead of engaging in the baron dance, and Zuna decided to push the open top inhibitor.  Both teams fully committed to be base race, and Vulcun's damage was barely enough to win the game at 39:24, at most 2 seconds before Dignitas would have pushed down their nexus.

Game 5: GGU vs CLG

Bans (GGU first ban): Malphite -- Twitch -- Cho'gath -- Karthus -- Shen -- Thresh

Picks: Jayce -- Jarvan IV Lulu -- Elise Tristana -- Udyr Ezreal -- Ryze Yorick -- Orianna

ZionSpartan: Jayce (Ignite/Flash)
NintendudeX: Elise (Smite/Flash)
Jintae: Ryze (Flash/Ignite)
DontMashMe: Tristana (Heal/Flash)
Daydreamin: Yorick (Flash/Ignite)

HotshotGG: Udyr (Flash/Teleport)
Chauster: Jarvan IV (Smite/Flash)
Link: Orianna (Flash/Ignite)
Doublelift: Ezreal (Flash/Barrier)
Aphromoo: Lulu (Exhaust/Flash)

CLG's blue buff was an early point of contention between Chauster and NintendudeX, as Chauster went from his red to NintendudeX's, smiting away the buff from Elise.  It wasn't until 4:37 that Chauster actually cleared his blue, and both junglers got behind in level as a result.  Due to the decreased jungle pressure, first blood wasn't secured until 10:50, when Udyr ran out of mana running from Jayce and fell to Ryze attempting to pass between midlane turrets.

The first dragon went to GGU at 15:50 after a teleport bot by HotshotGG and a 2 for 1 exchange in favor of CLG but Doublelift running toplane to waveclear, the game still fairly even.  HotshotGG continued running away from Jayce, leading him all the way from GGU's bot jungle to CLG's top inner turret, freeing up some pressure on the map for his team so Doublelift could push botlane but ultimately falling to ZionSpartan.  Huge damage onto Elise led to CLG picking up the second dragon of the game.

The next two fights remained even in terms of kills, but CLG was able to pick up two more botlane turrets as a result.  Aphromoo tried to aggressively steal GGU's blue buff after a 3 for 3 pushing GGU off baron and ended up falling to Jayce because he didn't have the damage to pick up the buff before the respawn.  The deciding play was at 31 minutes, when GGU started on baron while Udyr was in botlane around the river.  His teleport was available, and CLG had a ward in baron pit, but Udyr chose not to use his summoner spell, despite the fact that GGU was taken very low from tanking the buff.  GGU took the baron buff, and when the fight was engaged there was still no move from Hotshot to teleport up.  CLG were able to disengage and return to base, but GGU picked up the middle inhib turret for free.  Hotshot finally used his teleport to try to defend the turret but ultimately canceled it instead, and GGU was able to pick up a 3 for 1 fight and then push the nexus down at 24:15.

Game 5: Dignitas vs TSM

Bans (Dignitas first): Thresh -- Gragas -- Malphite -- Diana -- Karthus -- Shen

Picks: Nasus -- Sona Twisted Fate -- Zed Draven -- Renekton Miss Fortune -- Katarina Alistar -- Cho'gath

KiWiKiD: Zed (Flash/Ignite)
Crumbz: Nasus (Smite/Ghost)
scarra: Katarina (Flash/Teleport)
imqtpie: Draven (Flash/Cleanse)
Patoy: Alistar (Exhaust/Flash)

Dyrus: Renekton (Ignite/Flash)
TheOddOne: Cho'gath (Smite/Flash)
Reginald: Twisted Fate (Flash/Ignite)
WildTurtle: Miss Fortune (Flash/Barrier)
Xpecial: Sona (Exhaust/Flash)

Both teams invaded at level 1, although it was only to ward.  Reginald sacrificed some health to force Dignitas to be unable to help Crumbz take his blue without smiting it.  In botlane, qtpie and Patoy's Draven-Alistar lane took a huge early lead but they were unable to convert any kills despite Draven's all-consumables opening compared to Miss Fortune's Dorans Blade start.  KiWiKiD took first blood on Dyrus's Renekton with the help of a jungle gank at 5:20, and Dignitas continued taking the kill lead with a botlane gank taking out Xpecial at about 6:30.  However, TSM was able to foil a number of kill attempts by Dignitas, with multiple skirmishes leading to no kills for either side.

TSM took the gold lead after a few kills in their favor, and despite the first dragon going to Dignitas, they held onto their gold lead by taking three turrets by 15 minutes to Dignitas's 0.  A couple of misplays from Reginald, however, swung the momentum in Dignitas's direction, as he gave up a kill in toplane to Katarina and then ulted to split-push bottom, resulting in all three turrets falling to Dignitas in addition to the middle inhibitor.  Dignitas used their super-minion advantage to take out multiple side-lane turrets, but at 24 minutes, Dignitas over-committed to a dive and gave up a triple kill to WildTurtle's Miss Fortune.  TSM used this temporary numbers advantage to force Scarra's teleport by pulling Baron at 24:40, but were unable to make anything else of it.

The deciding moment of the game was Dignitas's baron attempt about 30 seconds after TSM's.  Despite Bullet Time and Crescendo being down, TSM were able to force Dignitas off of the buff when it was within kill range from TheOddOne, who flashed over the wall and stole it with Smite and Feast.  The ensuing fight went in Dignitas's favor, but they were only able to pick up a single kill on WildTurtle, and TSM's mid inhibitor respawned during the fight.  TSM were then able to pick off Crumbz when he tried to solo Dragon without his ultimate available.  TSM tried to push down onto the bot inhibitor, but the game-winning fight was actually in midlane, with an initiate from Reginald, gating in and gold-carding Nasus.  The fight was going slightly in TSM's favor, but then a perfectly-timed Bullet Time and Flash-Crescendo onto three members of Dignitas resulted in a 5-0 ace from TSM, and they were able to push down the nexus uncontested at 32:00.

Game 7: Complexity vs Marn

Bans (coL first): Renekton -- Kha'Zix -- Malphite -- Zed -- Jarvan IV -- Amumu

Picks: Thresh -- Twisted Fate Shen -- Caitlyn Jayce -- Sona Twitch -- Nasus Gragas -- Riven

Nickwu: Jayce (Ignite/Flash)
Lautemortis: Nasus (Smite/Ghost)
pr0lly: Gragas (Flash/Teleport)
Brunch U: Caitlyn (Cleanse/Flash)
M eye A: Thresh (Ignite/Flash)

MegaZero: Riven (Ignite/Flash)
ClakeyD: Shen (Smite/Flash)
ecco: Twisted Fate (Barrier/Flash)
Nientonsoh: Twitch (Flash/Barrier)
Heartbeat: Sona (Flash/Ignite)

Marn took a massive advantage over Complexity at level 1, with Twitch picking up a double kill for nothing when they correctly predicted Complexity's invade path.  Riven was also able to turn around an early gank into a kill for herself, picking up double-buff.  Complexity tried changing their lane setup but were unable to come back from their deficit, and Marn was able to use their double-global-ult composition very effectively.  Some very nice flash-hooks from M eye A's Thresh seemed to keep Complexity in the game, and they were able to pick up mid outer turret, but Marn was just too far ahead, and they took kill after kill across the map, picking up Baron around 27 minutes and then closing out the game with a delayed quadrakill fountain dive by Nientonsoh.

Game 8:  Vulcun vs Curse

Bans (Vul first): Miss Fortune -- Shen -- Volibear -- Thresh -- Kassadin -- Renekton

Picks: Zed -- Tristna Elise -- Sona Draven -- Fizz Nunu -- Udyr Xerath -- Ezreal

Sycho Sid: Zed (Flash/Smite)
Xmithie: Xerath (Ignite/Flash)
mancloud: Draven (Flash/Barrier)
Zuna: Udyr (Flash/Ignite)
BloodWater: Sona (Flash/Exhaust)

Voyboy: Nunu (Flash/Ignite)
Saintvicious: Fizz (Exhaust/Smite)
Nyjacky: Tristana (Ignite/Flash)
Cop: Ezreal (Barrier/Flash)
Elementz: Elise (Ignite/Flash)

With Vulcun switching roles, Curse took the first three kills of the game, first blood on Nyjacky's Tristana in midlane and then two kills on Zuna's Udyr thanks to Saintvicious's Fizz ganks.  Vulcun was able to answer with their first kill just before 9 minutes, with a Zed countergank in toplane, and a minute later they took their first tower of the game in botlane after forcing Elise low.  After a few more kills were exchanged, Vulcun picked up the first dragon of the game at 12 minutes and with it took the gold lead despite being down in the kill count.

Vulcun then began pushing into the lead, with an incredible split across the map, Draven and Udyr taking out Baron together as Zed split-pushed two towers in botlane and only Xerath and Sona defended mid against most of Curse.  Draven and Udyr ended up getting caught out, but overall it was a massive power swing in Vulcun's favor.  Vulcun experienced a minor hiccup in midlane getting overconfident diving the inner turret and allowing Tristana to chase them down, netting a 4-1 exchange in favor of Curse at about 27 minutes.  Despite this setback, Zuna was about to bait out almost all of Curse's abilities near their red buff while Nyjacky was split-pushing botlane on the opposite side of the map, and Vulcun picked up all four present members of Curse trading away only Zuna.  This exchange effectively decided the match in Vulcun's favor, and it was only a matter of time before they picked up their second baron and then pushed for the win just before 35 minutes.

LCS Game Summaries: Week 10 Day 2

Watching LCS live today (usually I watch VoDs), and I'm writing short summaries of the games.  I'll update the post throughout the day.  You can find complete VoD indices here (my game start links are taken from there).

I would love feedback on these summaries, especially from people who watched the games, since this is the first time I've done something like this.  Comment on this post or message me on reddit.  I'll even give you a shoutout in the next post I make if you do (and want me to).

Spoilers obviously.


Game 1: Vulcun vs Marn

Vulcun: Renekton/Jarvan IV/Ryze/Tristana/Sona
Marn: Shen/Evelynn/Lux/Twitch/Thresh

Vulcun started out giving Ryze their blue buff, with Jarvan starting at his own red and then trying to steal Eve's.  However, despite the fact that Tristana and Sona were laning mid, Thresh was able to come down from toplane to back up his jungler, and Evelynn smite-stole her own red buff.  Early laning went well for Marn, as Lux farmed very well in her 1v2 lane, and Shen was able to shut out Ryze for a bit.  However, Thresh tried to roam mid, which stopped Nientonsoh on Thresh from being able to push down the top turret, and Zuna and Bloodwater were actually able to take out mid turret a few seconds before Nientonsoh and Heartbeat pushed down top turret.

At about 10 minutes, a botlane gank was turned in Vulcun's favor by a clutch Buster Shot into Crescendo and teleport in from mandatorycloud.  Afterwards, Marn was able to pick up the first dragon, and the next skirmishes either went even or with one kill in favor of Marn.  However, Vulcun was able to pick up two unanswered turrets, and while the gold was never significantly in Vulcun's favor, they started to achieve a clear lead in map control.  The game exploded in Vulcun's favor at about 30 minutes in with a clutch Ryze teleport to catch Thresh out in his own jungle.  Shen's ult was not up after he had recently ulted Twitch in botlane, and Vulcun was able to pick up a 3 for 0.

Soon after, Twitch tried to 1v1 Ryze in toplane.  While Shen ulted in to save Twitch, Jarvan came upriver to help Ryze, and ultimately Vulcun was able to collapse on the toplane and win the fight, leading to a free baron, and Vulcun was able to close out the game at about 40 minutes with a quadrakill going to Tristana.

Game Start

Game 2: Complexity vs TSM

Complexity: Jayce/Jarvan IV/Diana/Caitlyn/Elise
TSM: Kha'zix/Nasus/Karthus/Draven/Sona

With no lane swaps, all of the focus started out in toplane, as both Jarvan and Nasus came up twice by six minutes.  First blood and double buff went to Kha'zix in the first gank, but Jayce was able to pick up a counter kill, evening out the buffs and kills in the toplane.  At about 6:30, the game suddenly snowballed in TSM's favor, as they were able to pick up a 3-0 across the map with Karthus using his Requiem to help out Draven and Sona in botlane pick up a 2-0 and then picking up a solo kill on Diana himself in midlane.

Complexity continued putting all their focus on catching out Dyrus, but he was able to leap away nearly every team.  In mid, pr0lly picked up a kill on Reginald due to a Jarvan gank, but the rest of the fights went in TSM's favor---even when Diana came bot, WildTurtle was able to pick up a double kill with Draven, and the fight resulted in a 2v2.

At about 23 minutes, TSM picked up their second dragon of the game and were then able to run all the way to their inner top turret to collapse on Complexity as Diana dove Karthus.  They won the fight 2 for 0 but were unable to pick up baron.  A few minutes later, while TSM were sieging the inner middle turret of Complexity, they were able to bring Elise extremely low and suddenly picked up a 5-0 ace and were able to push all the way for the win.

Game Start

Game 3: Marn vs Curse

Marn: Malphite/Shen/Ahri/Draven/Sona
Curse: Riven/Volibear/Orianna/Ashe/Thresh

This game started out with the typical lane swap of carry/support going top for the topside team, Curse.  Both junglers chose to go top for the 3:30 tower push/dive, and the exchange actually went slightly in Marn's favor, with Saintvicious on Volibear taken very low by the turret after a Death Sentence landed onto Malphite.  Two minutes later, the junglers swapped sides of the map, and the two outer sidelane turrets were taken.  Marn was able to pick up dragon since Curse had had three top, but Shen was unexpectedly caught out by Orianna, and Nyjacky was able to pick up a solo-kill with his Shockwave and Ignite.

The game continued in Marn's favor, as they were able to turn an incredible fight in botlane with Shen ulting in and a double-kill going to Nientonsoh's Draven.  At about 16 minutes, they were able to pick up another turret, this time in midlane, and soon after collapsed on botlane after turning another fight, this time with Draven picking up a kill on Riven due to a Crescendo.  The next fight also went in Marn's favor, as Ashe landed an arrow on Malphite and MegaZero was able to turn around and ult.  However, Marn overstayed their welcome and ended up giving up a 3 for 4 and Dragon to Curse at about 24 minutes.

After that dragon, Curse started to snowball their game, picking up another mid turret and then catching Sona out with an arrow from Cop.  The Sona catch led to two more free kills and a baron, and Curse were able to force down the mid inhib turret at 31 minutes.  Malphite and Sona had a very well-placed initiate, but it was after the turret had already fallen, and Volibear was able to dive and tank for much longer than Malphite.  Curse didn't end the game immediately, instead waiting to pick up a second baron and then ended up pushing down the entire base and winning at 37 minutes.

Game Start

Game 4: Vulcun vs GGU

 Vulcun: Renekton/Jarvan IV/Diana/Twitch/Sona
GGU: Kha'zix/Elise/Karthus/Tristana/Lulu

Zuna and Bloodwater started out the game very nicely in Vulcun's favor with a clean pickoff on Daydreamin's Lulu in the topside tri bush, first blood going to Zuna's Twitch.  After the first blood, Vulcun took over standard lanes, while GGU sent their carry/support midlane.  The first turret kill went uncontested to Vulcun just before six minutes, and Sycho Sid had been able to pick up a kill on ZionSpartan's Kha'zix in toplane with Xmithie's help about a minute earlier.  A clean blue buff play forced NintendudeX to smite-steal his own buff, and off that Vulcun picked up an uncontested dragon.

Both outer midlane turrets fell before the next dragon spawn, and Vulcun sat at a 3k gold lead going into the next dragon fight, having picked up another kill as well.  Vulcun pulled dragon, but this time GGU did contest, and NintendudeX was able to smite-steal the objective.  However the fight went in Vulcun's favor, with a 4-2 kill swing.  And...then I fell asleep for about an hour and didn't watch the rest of the game.  Oops.  Maybe I'll watch the VoD.

Game Start

Game 5: Dignitas vs Curse

Dignitas: Singed/Volibear/Evelynn/Caitlyn/Zyra
Curse: Renekton/Nasus/Karthus/Ashe/Sona

Woke up while they were dancing around baron, Dignitas already up 14-5 I think.  Very good comeback attempt by Curse to be honest, but Singed was just too tanky in the last fight.  It was unfortunate for Curse that, after Dignitas engaged on Curse's tank, Ashe arrowed one of Dignitas's tanks instead of holding for someone squisher, and also Renekton took a while to teleport in.

I didn't take notes on this game so not much of a summary.  Will do next game though!

Game Start

Game 6: CLG vs Vulcun

CLG: Shen/Amumu/Lux/Tristana/Sona
Vulcun: Renekton/Jarvan IV/Ryze/Twitch/Lulu

Vulcun started the game out looking extremely strong, able to pick up both blue buffs and denying Amumu's first blue.  They sent their ADC/support duo top, and with Xmithie's help, they were able to pick up the first tower at about 5 minutes, with Doublelift and Aphromoo picking up CLG's first tower a few seconds later in botlane.  First blood was a very clean gank by Jarvan on Lux in midlane, but a slight tactical misplay caused Vulcun to give up the first dragon of the game at about 8 minutes: They successfully stole a second blue buff, but it cost Xmithie's smite, and so Chauster was able to smite CLG's dragon attempt; Vulcun was in position to contest but chose not to.

CLG began to come back a bit after picking up a kill onto Xmithie's Jarvan IV and mid turret, and then bluffing Vulcun away from their dragon attempt despite having neither of their AoE CC ults available.  A nice bait by Sycho Sid on Renekton near their innter top turret caused Vulcun to come back a bit, saving their turret and picking up Aphromoo, but the next fight went massively in CLG's favor: at dragon, Xmithie missed his smite and Sona picked up the dragon kill, CLG picking up two unanswered kills on top of the objective.  Ryze was able to pick up bot outer turret at 20 minutes, evening out the gold.  Vulcun looked to be in a very strong position, but CLG caught Lulu out while Bloodwater was trying to ward baron.  Despite the fact that they burned both Crescendo and Cure of the Sad Mummy, and Vulcun should have had the upper hand in the immediate 4v5 fight, Jarvan engaged and Ryze teleported in early, before Twitch was near enough to fight, and CLG picked up a 2-for-1 fight in addition to mid inhib turret and the inhibitor itself, plus top inner turret.

Vulcun was able to hold on decently well after that fight at first, even picking up dragon and retaining their gold lead.  But CLG, with great positioning, baited Vulcun to toplane and then took a very quick baron just after the 34-minute mark.  They continued to push on the top inhibitor turret, and successful crowd control from Sona and Amumu, in addition to a huge amount of damage from Tristana, were able to get them a 3-0 fight.  The rest of the game was just cleanup for CLG, picking up top inhib turret and inhibitor and then the middle inhibitor after its respawn.  Vulcun looked like they might have been able to hold on, but CLG showed that they were just being patient as they picked up a 4-0 at the very end, pushing the nexus just before the 40-minute mark.

Game Start

NA SNSS VoDs: April 14

NA SNSS April 14: ARAM
NA SNSS April 14: Novice Match
NA SNSS April 14: Intermediate Game
NA SNSS April 14: Various Game
NA SNSS April 14: Team Game
NA SNSS April 14: ABAM


Thanks Tippani for compiling the list!


Finally finished the schoolwork I was working on, so I'll probably get back to writing my Nami guide...but mostly I'm just casting a lot.

Shields and %HP Damage

If you do %HP damage to a shield champion, the shield blocks the damage but doesn't count towards your current HP when calculating how much damage the ability does.

Example:

Morgana has 500 HP total and is currently at 200 HP.  Elise's Q is dealing 40 magic damage + 8% of current health.  So it will deal 56 damage to Morgana (obviously reduced by MR).  If Morgana barriers while at 200 HP, bringing her effective HP to 315, Elise's Q will still deal 56 damage to Morgana's shield.

The same effect happens when Morgana uses her own black shield (which is obvious when considering the result from barrier, but we tested it anyway).

As a side note, if you take damage from a skill that only deals damage to your Barrier, that damage isn't listed in your death recap.  Also, Morgana's black shield results in strange rounding errors.



Keywords to help out people who are trying to google this question like I was last night:  League of Legends, shields block percent HP damage, shields block percent health damage, shields block damage based on current health, damage based on current health and shields, current health damage and shields

Botlane Tournament VoDs: Week 11

R1G2: Ezreal-Sona vs Caitlyn-Leona
R1G4: Graves-Alistar vs Vayne-Thresh
R1G6: Ezreal-Lulu vs Caitlyn-Leona
R1G8: Caitlyn-Nunu vs Ashe-Janna
R2G2: Graves-Taric vs Tristana-Leona
R2G4: Caitlyn-Soraka vs Miss Fortune-Sona
R3G1: Corki-Leona vs Miss Fortune-Taric
R3G2: Miss Fortune-Zyra vs Caitlyn-Soraka
Finals: Ashe-Soraka vs Miss Fortune-Taric

Macduffer's stream:
R1G1: Sivir-Thresh vs Varus-Janna
R1G3: Miss Fortune-Leona vs Tristana-Lulu
R1G5: Miss Fortune-Leona vs Twitch-Leona
R1G7: Miss Fortune-Leona vs Corki-Thresh

Thanks to Tippani for compiling the links <3  He's gonna do SNSS too so I'll start posting SNSS VoD lists also.

Unfortunately I forgot to save the week 10 VoD within a week of the broadcast, so twitch deleted it...sad.  Sorry about that.  I didn't realize it deleted videos so soon after.

SNSS today!

Botlane Tournament VoDs: Week 9

R1G1: Sona-Ezreal vs Twitch-Thresh
R1G2: Alistar-Varus vs Leona-Draven
R1G3: Nunu-Vayne vs Lulu-Cait
R1G4: Leona-Caitlyn vs Blitzcrank-Graves
R2G1: Leona-Caitlyn vs Lulu-Miss Fortune
R2G2: Nunu-Caitlyn vs Taric-Tristana
Finals: Leona-Tristana vs Lulu-Miss Fortune

VoD is split into two parts for this week because I bluescreened in the middle.  Thanks to dajjbomb for compiling the entire list for me!!

My excuses for not doing this myself last week (and also the general lack of posts recently) are that I've been (gasp) playing League.  And also I was casting another tournament Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights (VoDs here, here, and here).  And also SNSS.

I'm casting for LRSS now, so you might be able to find me streaming on their streams (here and here) sometimes.  If you don't know what LRSS is, I definitely encourage you to look it up---it's a great opportunity for bronze/silver/maybe gold players to play competitive games, and they're casted, which is always awesome.

And finally, I'll leave my thoughts about the Nami buff (her ult base CD being reduced from 140 seconds to 120 seconds at level 1)...WOW!!  She's going to be pretty good against Sona now.  And less bad against Lulu...a LOT less bad against Lulu.  It also makes MF/Nami a strong combo, because their ults now have the same CD.  The range buff is also going to help; I've definitely missed ults by like 100 range more times than I care to remember.

A spreadsheet of champion skills and their cooldowns

I compiled a spreadsheet of all champion abilities and their cooldowns. Karma and Udyr are technically incorrect, since Karma can level her skills to 6 and Udyr can level his R to 5, but the patterns of CDR as you level continue for the last levels.

If you find a mistake, PLEASE tell me in a comment to this post!!!  Even if it's just a typo.

 Things you might want to do with this spreadsheet:

• Just study it.  Get a good idea of what champions' cooldowns are.
• Learn the names!  (This is half of why I made it, since I'm trying to learn ability names more for shoutcasting.)
• Present the information visually using a Python script or something.  Still not exactly sure the best way to do this, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure something out.  (This is the other half of why I made it.)

Here is a link to the form, which you can copy and paste if you want.

And here are examples of what you might want to do to present the information visually:

Obviously more text is required for these, but you can at least automate the cooldowns section with some creative copy-pasting and Adobe InDesign.  (I actually made these images in Photoshop, but it's silly to do that without a better automated process, especially considering cooldowns are subject to change every single patch).

Botlane Tournament VoDs: Week 8

R1G1: Taric-Sivir vs Sona-Ezreal (twitch bugged, part of the match is missing)
R1G2: Alistar-Sivir vs Taric-Graves
R1G3: Sona-Ezreal vs Blitzcrank-Draven
R1G4: Zyra-Graves vs Leona-Tristana
R2G1: Sona-Caitlyn vs Alistar-Graves
R2G2: Alistar-Twitch vs Janna-Miss Fortune
Finals: Lulu-Draven vs Thresh-Caitlyn

Thanks to RalFayt for helping out with the timestamps!

What is freezing and how do I do it?

I made a post a while ago called "Tips for Learning to CS" (here), and it ended up getting a lot of views after being linked from reddit, so I was reading over it, and I realized that while I tell you to freeze, I don't explain exactly what that is.

So: What is freezing, and how do I do it?

Freezing is the act of keeping the minion "line of scrimmage" in exactly the same place for as long as possible.  You can do this to deny your enemies CS or to keep yourself in a safe position so you can get all of your lasthits without fear of ganks.  This sounds easy enough, but actually doing it can be pretty tricky.  Your goal is to make sure that their wave is pushing in on yours constantly but you don't let it actually advance forward ever.  The rest of this article will explain how to do that.

The first thing you need to do is make sure that you never have more creeps currently fighting than the enemy does.  There are a few sub-criteria here:

• Make sure your creeps aren't arriving before the enemy creeps, unless there are so many surplus enemy creeps that it doesn't matter.
• Make sure that you don't have more ranged creeps than they do.
• Make sure that you don't have a cannon creep when they don't.

The first point needs some clarification.  Some places are easier to freeze than others.  The easiest places to freeze are where their wave will arrive about 1-2 seconds before yours, so just in front of their tower.  Anywhere in between the midway point of the lane and the point at which your creeps are just out of range of their tower is fine, though.  If you have enough lifesteal that you can tank a lot of creeps in between waves, then you can let a really big stack accumulate basically wherever you want and let it run through your waves.

Because ranged creeps do more DPS than melee creeps, and cannon creeps are very difficult to kill, you need to make sure that your stack doesn't exceed the enemy stack in either of these categories.

The second thing is to be careful about the amount that you yourself are pushing the lane.  Again, there are two things you need to do:

• Don't do too much damage
• Don't tank too much damage

Both dealing damage to their creeps and tanking damage that should be dealt to your creeps push the lane.  Dealing too much damage is like adding creeps to your stack, and tanking damage is like subtracting creeps from their stack.  (Obviously it's fine to tank damage from their side once all of your creeps are dead.)

How can you do this?  First, time your last-hits carefully.  Ideally, your last-hit projectile will hit the creep the split-second before a projectile from one of your creeps would have killed it anyway.  The important part is that the killing projectile was already in the air, because in that case you're not actually decreasing the number of attacks that your wave threw against them by taking the lasthit.  Sometimes this isn't possible, but if it is then you should.  It takes a lot of practice to be able to do this reliably without missing too much CS.

Second, pay attention to when your creeps are dying, and when one is about to be killed, make sure you're NOT the closest target to any of the enemy creeps that were targeting it (unless you're in a bush).  You can do this by always being positioned behind your creeps, it's just that sometimes you won't want to be positioned that passively, for example if you and your support are able to zone together but your support is vulnerable to getting jumped on if you're out of engage range.

Next, pull the wave to a better position when possible.  This can only be done when their creeps kill an entire wave of your creeps before your next wave arrives.  It's easier to pull melee creeps than to pull ranged creeps.  What you do is you aggro the enemy creeps to you and then walk in the direction that you want to pull the wave (towards the enemy half of the map).  As your creeps approach, walk to a position so that you'll be able to deaggro the enemy creeps immediately; having a nearby bush is good for this.

Finally, give up important lasthits when your freeze is extremely delicate.  If you can just barely maintain the freeze, and you won't be able to sync up a perfect lasthit against one of their creeps (particularly the cannon creep), don't lasthit that creep.  Usually, maintaining a freeze is more important than that 40 gold.

Whimsy: On my ally or my enemy?

Active – On ally cast: Target allied champion gains 35% movement speed and bonus ability power for 5 seconds. 

Active – On enemy cast: Polymorphs an enemy champion for a short duration, disabling their ability to attack or cast abilities and reducing their base movement speed by 60. 

This is Lulu's W.  It's possibly the hardest-to-use targeted ability in the game.  Should I CC my enemy?  Or is it worth it to speed-boost an ally?  This article will give some specific situations in which you should do one, criteria for deciding which one to use, and then conclude with some mini-case studies that illustrate different decisions you might make in complicated situations.

Rule of thumb: Polymorph when you need to stop unkitable damage or prevent a spellcast.  Otherwise whimsy an ally.

Times you DEFINITELY want to polymorph:

• There's a really important channel to break.  This could be Kat ult, Fiddle drain, Warwick ult---if the channel is teamfight-altering, break it.
• You need to stop the enemy's damage RIGHT NOW.
• The enemy is about to dash over a wall that you can't get over.

Times you DEFINITELY want to ally-cast:

• You're attacking a tower and there's no chance of an enemy coming by any time soon.  Cast it on the AP champion with the highest AS.
• You're too low to safely get within polymorph distance of an enemy.
• You're chasing an enemy that doesn't have any mobility skills and aren't scared of any incoming damage.
• You're leaving well to go back to lane and there's no chance of a fight in your jungle on the way. 
• You're warding/ward-clearing and the entire enemy team is on the other half of the map.

Things that would encourage you to enemy-cast:

• The enemy has a mobility spell available.
• The enemy has a CC spell available that you want to prevent.
• Any other situation that would call for a silence.
• The enemy has a noticeable amount of damage relative to you/your teammates.

Things that would encourage you to ally-cast:

• You're chasing or running away.
• Someone on your team is kiting.
• You're not all that scared of their damage, and you have an AP mage with cooldowns available.
• You're taking an objective.  (At the very least, Whimsy yourself before you E and Q, if you have enough mana.)

Now let's look at some case studies.  They're combinations of real-game situations with some of the details made up if I forgot them.

Case Study 1.  Lulu is running from well to help her team take dragon.  Xin Zhao and a couple teammates aren't taking too much damage from the dragon, and everyone's roughly level 7-9.  However, the enemy had dragon warded and engage on Lulu's team after they finish the dragon.  At this point, Lulu is passing double golems.  One of her teammates died, and Xin is having a hard time fighting.  Lulu knows if she can get there in time to ult Xin and polymorph Udyr, then Xin will win the fight.  She decides to hold her Whimsy thinking she could get there without it.  Unfortunately, she gets to dragon about two seconds after Xin falls.  The correct decision would have been to Whimsy herself to guarantee that she could get to the fight on time; the ult on Xin might have been enough to turn it around and kill Udyr.  This is a situation where you need to be very aware of how much damage other champions are able to do to each other in order to make an informed choice.

Case Study 2.  Lulu and Draven are fighting Sona and Tristana in botlane.  They won a fight at level 1, so they're somewhat ahead of their opponents.  Lulu is standing on the far side of the enemy creeps to zone Tristana and Sona when Tristana jumps on her to engage.  Everything is warded, so Lulu feels safe from jungle/mid ganks.  Instead of polymorphing Tristana, she decides to speed up Draven so that he can close the gap between them more quickly.  By shielding herself, she's able to barely survive Tristana, flashing out at the last instant before Draven picks up the kill.  Here, Lulu realized that the amount of damage she could prevent from Tristana wasn't worth the amount of damage that Draven would effectively be losing by not quite being in autoattack range yet.  She also permitted Draven to chase further.

Case Study 3.  Lulu and Annie are laning botlane, both level 6.  The enemy Draven is pushed almost to their tower, when their jungler Skarner starts to come down for a gank.  Annie flashes for a stun onto Draven, who has his flash available.  Lulu has two choices: Whimsy her Skarner so he can get in range to ult chained with Annie's stun, or polymorph Draven so that he is unable to flash out, hoping that they won't have to burn the Skarner ult.  Lulu decides to whimsy Skarner because if it turns out that the ult is also necessary, this way he'll be able to pull Draven significantly further during the duration of the suppress than he would without her MS buff on him.  Lulu is relying on the assumption that they'll be able to kite forward as Draven is being pulled back, so if he flashes he'll still be in damage range of her and Annie.

Case Study 4.  Miss Fortune, Lulu's ADC, is fighting Tristana, the enemy ADC.  Miss Fortune is significantly ahead of Tristana at this point, and Lulu and MF have chased Trist almost to her turret.  Tristana's jump isn't available to her, so MF is going to try to dive turret.  Lulu is in range to polymorph Tristana or to whimsy Miss Fortune.  Lulu is not level 6 yet, so she won't be able to ult MF, but she has been leveling Help, Pix! first, so she'll be able to provide a decent shield.  She also doesn't have flash or exhaust available, so she won't be able to flash under tower and make sure that she's the one who takes aggro nor will she be able to reduce Trist's damage.  Because MF has two Doran's blades, Lulu decides to use the ally cast, thinking her carry will have enough HP to survive the dive even with Tristana able to output some damage.  The extra movespeed here is not important so much because it lets MF catch up to Tristana, but rather because it lets her get to the other side of the turret to lose aggro sooner.  Now Lulu is able to take a tower shot as MF dives again, picking up the kill on Tristana.


I'll probably come back and add a few more case studies at some point, we'll see.

And an update on what I've been doing---I finally got my Sona guide approved on the solomid site!  I had to make a few major revisions to it (mostly reorganizing the sections and getting rid of the silly icons that I hated anyway) so that took a while.  I'm also starting a Nami guide, which I'll hopefully be able to publish within two weeks.  It won't be as detailed as the Sona guide, but it should still be pretty good.  And I've been running the NA SNSS, VoDs of which are available on my stream.  My 2v2 tournament will be back next week, as will the SNSS!

Botlane Tournament: Week 7 VoDs

R1G1: Leona-Tristana vs Taric-Miss Fortune
R1G2: Leona-Ezreal vs Blitzcrank-Caitlyn
R1G3: Sona-Miss Fortune vs Varus-Lulu
R1G4: Janna-Draven vs Nami-Miss Fortune
R2G1: Alistar-Caitlyn vs Sona-Ezreal
R2G2: Soraka-Miss Fortune vs Sona-Corki
Finals: Leona-Ezreal vs Janna-Tristana

Half-bracket this week, since I was casting another event ahead of time and so didn't have time to do a 16-team bracket.  I'll announce this Wednesday whether there will be a tournament this coming Saturday; I might have to take off one week to write a couple final papers, and I'd rather cancel this for a week than cancel the SNSS right after bringing it back.

I've also been updating my Sona guide, so check it out!  (Change log at the bottom, below the charts section)

How to play Sona! A revision of my Sona guide

This is the reason I posted almost nothing here last month; I was spending all the time that I would have dedicated to this blog instead working on my Sona guide.  And now it's done!  You can find it on the TSM site here.  Be sure to leave feedback if you have any!

I would put a copy of it here but they have weird formatting stuff there, so I can't really do that, and also I think that's against their rules.

Hope you enjoy! :)

2v2 Tournament VoDs: Week 6

From my stream:
R1G2: Taric-Caitlyn vs Thresh-Draven
R1G4: Blitzcrank-Caitlyn vs Thresh-Ezreal Part 2
R1G6: Blitzcrank-Draven vs Leona-Graves
R1G8: Thresh-Urgot vs Taric-Caitlyn
R2G2: Taric-Sivir vs Zyra-Ezreal
R2G4: Nunu-Graves vs Sona-Ezreal
R3G1: Thresh-Draven vs Taric-Varus
R3G2: Leona-Graves vs Taric-Ezreal
Finals: Nunu-Caitlyn vs Taric-Ezreal

Macduffer's stream:

R1G1: Leona-Kog'Maw vs Alistar-Vayne
R1G3: Sona-Ashe vs Nami-Tristana
R1G5: Lulu-Graves vs Thresh-Varus (There were issues with DCs during this match.)
R1G7: Nami-Miss Fortune vs Taric-Ezreal
R2G1: Thresh-Kog'Maw vs Taric-Draven
R2G3: Nunu-Caityln vs Blitzcrank-Ezreal

An Ashe rework proposal

(I started writing this post a few months ago but wanted to fix some details before I posted it, so the attack speed buff that she received in this patch had not yet been implemented when I wrote most of this.)

Innate:  For each spell that's on cooldown, Ashe gains an additional 1 gold per lasthit.

Q:  For the next four seconds, each of Ashe's basic attacks will slow her target for 2 seconds.  Mana cost: 15.  Cooldown:  6 / 5.5 / 5 / 4.5 / 4.  Slow: 15% / 20% / 25% / 30% / 35%.

W:  [No change]

E:  Ashe animates a hawk to scout for her, revealing terrain for 2 seconds as it flies towards a target location. Hawkshot reveals a wide area for 5 seconds when it reaches its destination. The hawk will reveal units in the brushes, but will not reveal stealthed units or objects.  In addition, Ashe's next 1/1/2/2/3 basic attacks will gain 100% crit chance.  Range: 2500 / 3250 / 4000 / 4750 / 5500.  Cooldown:  60.

R:  [No change]


What have we done here?  Basically, we've switched her innate and her E, and we've altered her Q so that it fits in with her new passive better.  We've also increased the number of critical attacks that Ashe will have guaranteed for her in late-game teamfights as she levels her E.

What motivated these changes?  Currently, Ashe has decent damage immediately upon entering lane but falls off after that, and so if you play slightly passively before she is forced to consume her first critical strike by last-hitting a creep, you can start to zone her very effectively due to the long initial cooldown of her W.  Additionally, most of the massive threats to ADCs currently like Vi and Xin Zhao aren't countered by Ashe's slows enough to make her an appealing choice just for her slow late game.

These changes give her a slight increase in dps in her late-game damage by guaranteeing her 3 critical attacks at the beginning of each fight, but, more importantly, they allow her to decide when to use rare guaranteed crits in the early game.  On the other hand, maxing E first will cost her 12 seconds of her W cooldown, and when she has about 75-100 AD, the 2-3 guaranteed crits only increases her overall burst damage by 75-100 or by 150-200, which is not enough to be an overpowered amount of burst early on.  Overall, leveling E first will simply cost  her too much DPS due to not having a decreased W cooldown.

Her new innate will give her slightly more gold than the passive on her E used to give, and she will be rewarded for using her cooldowns in lane.  The gold increase will basically let her build a red elixir in lane.

Level 1-3 (Slightly less than 6 waves, or 6*6+2-3=35 CS): About 1 spell on cooldown.  This is 35 more gold than you would currently get in levels 1-3
Level 4-5 (Slightly more than 6 waves, or 6*6+2+3=41 CS): About 2 spells on cooldown.  This is 41 more gold than you would currently get in levels 4-5
Level 6+: About 2.5 spells on cooldown, or 1.5 extra gold per lasthit over what you currently get.  To afford a red elixir, you need 250 gold, or an additional 116 CS worth of bonus gold over what Ashe currently earns.

So by the time laning is over, she should have made about a red elixir's worth of gold over what she would currently make during laning, maybe being able to buy an extra 1-2 potions also depending on how good her CS is.  This red elixir will enable her to compete much more strongly with other ADCs who have better damages in early laning, or she can choose to simply be weaker for early laning and be slightly further ahead in her build.

Her Q now costs less mana if she is able to get 3 or 4 autoattacks off but more if she only gets 1.  This makes it slightly more difficult for her to get a slow off on a single autoattack but allows her to spend less mana chasing someone down.  This change was partially motivated just to fit in with her new passive, but it also makes her choose when to use her slow instead of just using it every single time she's able to attack an enemy champion, so she can be more effective as long as she plans accordingly but is now forced to decide how to use her skills more than she currently is.

Overall, this is a noticeable buff to Ashe, but as she's almost never seen in competitive play, I think it's appropriate.