Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 157 of 260)

LoL: The painful losing streak is back

June 18, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

A couple months back I went on a massive losing streak. I dropped something like 23 games over the course of just a couple days. It was awful, and now it’s back.

I should say that there is a bright spot. Over the past two weeks or so I’ve been blowing through some wins, all the way from my typical 65 games or so above .500 to nearly 80. It was a great run. But today for some reason, I just can’t win. It’s not like I’m cutting it close either. We’re talking losses that are decided in the first five minutes of the game (I know some of you guys don’t believe that can happen, but when multiple turrets are down and you’re looking at a ten kill deficit, it’s over). In most cases I have teammates that are feeding rampantly, or choosing completely ridiculous comps. I’ve tried to dodge the worst of them, only to be paired with either the same players or see very similar comps.

I start to wonder if Riot doesn’t update the ELO system on a weekly basis instead of dynamically, so my ELO shifts to create these streaks. I know I’m not top ELO, but I’m close. In fact, on my higher win streaks I was getting paired with top ELO players regularly. I think because I’m a higher ELO, though, I tend to be the guy meant to “balance” my team. The other team will all be mid-high players, while my team tends to look like mostly mid players with me and maybe one mid-high ELO player. It’s a pretty raw deal, and usually ends with a loss for me. In one particularly bad TT game today I asked if my team was new to the map. My Jax had played TT precisely once.

league of legends

bad streak elo losing losing streak loss streak losses ranking tt

LoL: 5v5 Solo ranked matches may not get bans

June 16, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Zileas posted to the official forums today, stating that when Season One begins, the 5v5 Solo version of the ranked matches may not get the ban option present in the other two ranks. The reason? He doesn’t want people to argue.

I’ll spare you the nauseating rundown of the entire thread and just say this – I hope to god he changes his mind. As I posted in the thread, there are plenty of things for people to argue about. There are plenty of things people do argue about. I would still rather have the option to ban than not.

It seems so basic in my mind. Give the ban option to either the player with the highest ELO, or make it totally random, but we need an option for removing the things Riot breaks from the game. That sounds snarky, but the recent Ezreal “accident” made me realize again the importance of bans. Mystic was horribly broken, to the point I thought they should remove Ezreal from the game. Remember what Jax was like before the string of nerfs? Whoever had first pick could be virtually guaranteed a win.

I really hope they reconsider this. It would make the 5v5 Solo queue much less enjoyable and much less competitive.

Development, league of legends

5v5 ranked games ranked matches ranked play solo play

LoL: Season One details released

June 15, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve been waiting a long time to see this post in the Announcement forums. Riot has finally revealed the details for Season One, which it’s probably safe to assume is just around the corner.

From Riot’s official Season One post:

Ranked Games – Once Season One begins, summoners of Level 20 or above will be able to indulge in our ranked game system. At launch, ranked players will be able to join one of three queues: 3v3 Premade, 5v5 Premade, or 5v5 Solo. Players will receive an individual rating for each of these queues.
Ladders – Once Ranked Play begins, players who choose to participate will have their Elo ratings displayed publicly on the League of Legends Ladder. On the ladder, players will be able to see just how they stack up against the rest of their fellow summoners. The ladder will be available on the League of Legends Community Site.
Draft Mode – Champion selection during ranked play will take on the form of a live draft. In 5v5 premade and 3v3 premade, the first phase of this draft process will provide the inviter of each team with the opportunity to ban the use of two champions. Banned champions cannot be selected for use on either team, so choose wisely!
After bans have been dispensed by both sides, the teams will begin the draft process. During ranked play, draft picks will be exclusive, meaning that a drafted champion will not be available for play by the opposing team. The team who received the second ban will begin the drafting process by drafting a single champion. Following that, the game will follow a 1:2:2:2:2:1 draft format for the 5v5 brackets and a 1:2:2:1 format for the 3v3 bracket.
Through this system, we hope to encourage players to embrace a wider range of champions, allow for teams to effectively counter popular strategies, and develop a familiarity with their opponents and counter accordingly. Initially Draft Mode will be available both in Ranked Play and in practice games. Casual games still utilize blind pick during champion selection.
Improved Visual Styles – Since our launch back in October of 2009, our UI Team has been hard at work improving the visual components of the PvP.net interface. With the substantial renovations required to support Ranked Games, now seemed like the opportune time to give the game a facelift. We wanted the new look for League of Legends to be brighter, more visually appealing, and easier to use. I could elaborate further, but I think that once you get a look at the accompanying screenshots their work will stand on its own.

As you can see, things will be a little different. I like everything I’ve seen in the screenshots except that shot asking the player to rate his own level of play.

So many people will be rating themselves improperly, whether because they don’t know any better or because they want to start at a low ELO and stomp people or whatever. There is so much incentive to lie about your relative skill level that Riot should just port over your current ELO (even though that system has some pretty serious flaws) as a basis for your new ELO. That or start from scratch. I really hope that screen is just a theoretical idea and not an actual feature.

At any rate, I’m excited about this news. It’s the best thing to happen to the game since the Kennen release!

Development, league of legends

announcements draft mode game changes ranked games ranked matches ranked play season one season one announcement season one details

LoL: New Nasus, Heimerdinger, and Rammus skins now available

June 14, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

As an original post said of the Heimerdinger skin, you can now pick up three otherworldly skins in the League of Legends Store. Riot has officially released the legendary Alien Invader Heimerdinger, Galactic Nasus, and Molten Rammus skins.

I’m personally excited about the Galactic Nasus skin, and it seems like it will be priced right once it goes on sale. Nasus has been long overdue for a skin and even at 520RP I’d call him reasonable. The Heimerdinger skin is grossly overpriced, especially for the lack of imagination that went into it. His hair already looked like a brain. Actually making it a brain is not worth $20. Molten Rammus is pretty unimpressive as well – just a cracked glowing like you get on Malphite when his shield is down. That one will run you 975RP (which, if you really want a Rammus skin, get the Chrome Rammus – it’s much cooler).

Reviews

alien invader heimerdinger alien skins galactic nasus heimerdinger molten rammus nasus rammus

LoL: The Twisted Treeline dilemma

June 14, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Since the launch of Twisted Treeline I’ve gone back and forth about playing on the map. For a while, I was in love with it. While people were still learning the faster playstyle, it was easy to pick up some quick wins. After a bad losing streak, I swore off TT, though it was hard for me pinpoint exactly why.

I’ve since gotten back into TT and been mostly successful, but it hasn’t been without frustration. I think I finally have a bead on the design behind TT that makes a loss there so much more frustrating than on Summoner’s Rift. The problem behind TT, or more appropriately, the design dilemma, is that the map has to encourage more fighting to produce a quicker game. It isn’t enough that the lanes are shorter, the towers less durable, and the gold generation quicker. The map has to produce confrontation, and the way Riot chose to do that was by heavily prioritizing the two major jungle creeps, Grez and the dragon.

This is actually why TT is so frustrating in comparison to Summoner’s Rift. On SR the buffs are definitely important, but the map is much larger, so sacrificing position in order to acquire buffs can mean the difference between defeat and victory. Teams that ignore buffs can still win the game if the opponent focuses too much on the buffs without thinking about positioning.

Twisted Treeline, on the other hand, is small enough that you can get the buffs without stepping out of position, especially since many of the stronger heroes on TT have ways to get over the walls. The big problem, then, is that players play TT just like they play SR – getting buffs when its convenient but not prioritizing them. This puts the team at a huge disadvantage, so big, in fact, that I’d say you don’t have a chance of winning if you lose those buffs three times in a row. The buffs not only increase your team damage output, they provide enough experience and gold to set your team way ahead, in both level and itemization.

The problem, at least in my mind, is that the importance of the buffs is discreet. Everyone knows that buffs are good, but most players don’t know how good. One way to fix this would be through some sort of spotlight on map basics. Another potential balance change would be to offer bonus gold for killing the wearer of the buff. It wouldn’t have to be the full amount, but something to help a team that either doesn’t know how important the buffs are or hasn’t been able to properly control the map catch back up. It would significantly slow the snowballing effect that is such a problem on TT.

Have you guys seen the same trouble on TT or is something else typically the cause for your loss?