Page 111 of 318

      Champ of the Week: Akali

      June 21, 2011 /

      Alternate Akali Splash.

      I thought I might get a little inspiration for the Champ of the Week from last night’s Fearless Gamer League of Legends Monday and it turns out I was right. I had a lot of fun in a game with Akali, a champion I hadn’t spent much time with until burning through something like 18000 IP a couple weeks ago to buy a rune page specifically for her. Since that time I’ve started to really appreciate her playstyle a bit more and to see how much she can contribute to a team. I’m really excited to name Akali my Champ of the Week.

      I’ve been screwing around with a few different builds as I’ve played her recently, but I’d really like to spend the week focusing on when a build works and doesn’t work, and how to stay viable if you get wedged into a duo lane. I think the obvious solution to that problem is to not play Akali if you’ll be in a duo lane, but Akali requires a lot of rune specialization. If players want to get serious about her, chances are she’ll be one of very few champions that player can afford for some time. I may spend a game or two playing with a basic mage rune setup, but frankly, I don’t think she fares very well in levels 1-5 without her own build.

      Check back later in the week for epic tales of my leaps across Summoner’s Rift. Chances are good that I’ll get caught under a turret more often than anyone reasonably should.

      Champ of the Week, league of legends

      Fnatic wins the all-Euro Season One Championship Final/Patch Notes

      June 20, 2011 /

      Season One officially drew to a close this evening as Fnatic beat Against All Authority to take the Season One Championship. The game was an all-Euro match, thanks to some excellent play by aAa during the loser’s bracket semifinal round. aAa was able to win the match with a bit of an odd comp, thanks to some creative warding and incredible teleporting. It would be enough against Fnatic, though, who scored the final win in the second of the two game series against aAa.

      I was a little disappointed to see the North American teams drop early. I’m not a TSM fan, but I though Epik had played really well for most of the tourney. The wheels fell off today, though. I honestly thought they might have been throwing the game with that double-AD, no tank comp. They are certainly a much better team than was shown today.

      I haven’t yet had a chance to watch the Fnatic vs. aAa matches as I was in the car when they first aired. I’ve heard they were fantastic, so I’m hoping for some VoD action soon. In the meantime, Phreak and RiotEski put up a patch preview, which I’ve linked above. Lots of changes are on the way – check back tomorrow for a full roundup.

      Current Affairs, league of legends, News, Patches

      FG LoL Mondays – 9:30PM EST

      June 20, 2011 /

      FG LoL Mondays

      By 9:30 this evening the Season One Finals should be complete, so why not get together and play some games. If you’d like to join in with the other readers here, log in to the “Fearless Gamer” (case-sensitive) chatroom in League of Legends or add me at “The Wiggin Boy.” We’ll get a game set up around 9:25PM for those that are interested and get started by 9:30.

      Anyone and everyone is welcome to play. If we get a full game or more we can run some in house games, but hitting up the normal queues is always a good time. Hope to see you tonight!

      FG LoL Mondays, league of legends

      Champ of the Week: Mordekaiser Wrapup

      June 19, 2011 /

      Mordekaiser Wrapup.

      As I write this post, I’m in the process of wrapping up my final Mordekaiser game for the week. It’s a doozy. I was 2-0 at level two, and godlike shortly thereafter. The Twisted Fate that went mid for my team had a Deathcap and a nearly completed Lichbane at 20 minutes. Somehow, though, it is a joyless experience.

      It may be that I’ve reached critical League of Legends exposure for the weekend. I watched most of the Dreamhack streams, often while playing a game of LoL myself. I spent more time on Twitter this weekend than I probably have since opening my account. But I think it was more than that. I think the real issue was that there wasn’t ever a competitive moment in the game, and that’s when Mordekaiser really seems to shine. I know he can be strong in certain comps, but for individual play, I think he’s the first champion I would seriously advise against.

      Riot’s development staff often talks about the “feast or famine” nature of certain characters, a trait that I think perfectly describes Mordekaiser. If left to his own devices, he can get a huge farm going, to the point that he’s virtually unkillable. With the right target under his Children of the Grave control, he can effectively solo three or four enemies, generating massive shield and dealing huge damage with his minion. On the reverse side, if he doesn’t get a minion and doesn’t get a solo lane, he has a hard time staying relevant over the course of a game.

      If I could change one thing about Mordekaiser, it would be his ultimate. That spell is just too polar and the poles are too far apart. Mordekaiser’s minion solves all of the problems that face a team after a tough team fight, and I just think it’s too strong. The minion functions as a full life champion, especially if you can get a ranged AD character. It also gains huge health from Mordekaiser’s own pool and it holds turret aggro, meaning a narrowly won teamfight quickly turns into a push. No other character, with the possible exception of Annie, can provide that for a team. Giving him some sort of CC skill in place of the ultimate could be interesting.

      If I could change two things about Mordekaiser, I would make the second his shield mechanic. It just isn’t interesting. It allows him to be too aggressive and punishing against newer players and it’s underwhelming against veterans.

      On the whole, I’m glad to be done with Mordekaiser week. I tried a wide array of rune pages and mastery builds to deal with his shortcomings, but nothing really seemed to work. Onward to next week. I think I’m going to have to treat myself to someone I really enjoy.

      Champ of the Week, Editorial, league of legends

      Season One Finals down to Europe vs. North America

      June 19, 2011 /

      The Season One Finals at Dreamhack continued today with some truly extraordinary matches. Most of yesterdays matchups seemed to be fairly one-sided, match by match. One team would gain control of the map and exploit that advantage to the end of the game. Some of the matches had exciting moments and there were a few upsets, but the games were pretty short and straightforward.

      Not today. Today the games were utterly insane. There were strange picks, odd bans, and epic, sprawling teamfights that ran from one end of the map to the other. There were Baron kills and counter Barons. It was a really exciting day, and we owed most of the excitement to the European teams, Fnatic (FN) and Against All Authority (aAa). Neither of the top two European teams looked very good yesterday – apparently Fnatic was missing a player and using a sub – but today they looked incredible. Fnatic showed up with amazing lane presence and some very smart bans against CLG, locking HotShotGG and company out of the tournament. Against All Authority dropped the first game in its series against TSM, but went on to steamroll to victory.

      It was interesting that the tournament turned into a Europe vs. North America event, and it looks like it’s going to continue down that path. Tomorrow brings us to the semi-finals and the finals. As you can see from the bracket above, Team SoloMid and Epik Gaming will be fighting for the chance to face the loser of the FN vs. aAa game. That winner will then go on to face the winner of Fn vs. aAa. We could be looking at Europe vs. North America for the finals, but if TSM and Epik are off their game, North America will be out of the race altogether.

      I hope you’ve had some time to check out the Season One Finals. I was really impressed with Riot’s streaming, as were roughly a million other unique visitors to the Season One microsite. I didn’t think I would get so excited, but it was really cool to be able to see the best teams in the world really showing their strength today. Seriously, if Fnatic’s Shushei doesn’t make you want to play Alistar, nothing will.

      Current Affairs, league of legends, News

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 Fearless Gamer

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑