Due to the time and constraints necessary to write a comment this long, it is subject to change in the next few days to improve its clarity. Any kind of critics is welcomed!!!
As many other topics in the RPC, this one is dedicated to a game in particular.
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Some nice videos with CGI Graphics :3 :
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Just for Shroobie' because he is awesome (and he loves Veigar) :
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Here, you can post everything that is directly related to League of Legends, from your own experience to what you have discovered about it on the Internet, your art and stories about its universe, or simply say what you think about its community.
The second main goal of this topic is to gather information about the RPC's League of Legends players. Therefore, if you already have an account, here is what you need to do to enter the list :
Indicate the following information :
- Your Summoner's name (CAUTION! This is the second name you are choosing while you are creating your account. The first one is your personal account on all related League of Legends websites, such as The official Website, or LoLeSports).
- The server you are playing on (right now, Western Europe, Nordic/Eastern Europe, North America, Brazil, Turkey, Oceania, Southern Latin America, Northern Latin America, Russia). This is important since you can only play with or against players from your own server.
- Optional : Your current Summoner level, your experience (have you played 10 games or 2000?), the frequency you are playing, what you like, and the list goes on...
RPC Members playing League Of Legends :
- Saerleiya
SR : Saerleiya. Server : EUW (other accounts on EUNE and NA). Frequency : Several games per week. Game knowledge : Advanced.
- Shrooblord
SR : Shrooblord. Server : EUW.
The third main goal is to gather information about the game itself to help RPC members to know more about it and not only what you have heard so far. Although I'm not a complete expert about the game, I've been playing regularly since november 2010, and I hope I will have gathered enough information to be helpful to any kind of person wanting to discover a bit more about League of Legends, from 'I don't know the professional scene' to 'is it an acronym again?'
So without further explanation, let's begin with the basics :
League of Legends is a game belonging to the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) category and was released as free downloadable game in 2009 by RIOT Games. For those who know the game mod Defense of the Ancients (DotA) from Warcraft III, League of Legends (or Lol) is heavily inspired from this mod as many other MOBA games available right now, such as SMITE and DotA II.
The main principle is simple : as a part of a team of players, you must destroy the main building of your opponent to win the game.
Let's start with stuff which you can't manipulate directly :
The map is looking like this :
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As you can see, there are three main paths. Your building, called Nexus, send regularly little creatures called minions on these paths, and when they meet each other, they fight until the die. The paths also have turrets to protect their base against their opponents, and inhibitors to reduce the strength of the opponent's minions. Between the paths and outside of the bases, a place called 'the jungle' shelters many creatures that you can kill, and which will reappear after a certain duration.
____________________Minions____________________________________________________Turret
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____________________Inhibitor_________________________________Monsters in the Jungle___________________________________Nexus
Now, the fun begins! What you can use!
As a player and a member of your team, you can pick a particular character called a champion right before the game starts. Each champion has 4 different abilities you can upgrade as the game goes on, making them more and more powerful. These abilities are made to be as unique as possible, making your champion unique and giving him and giving him an unique playstyle (and they are numerous : with the new one, they are now 120!). To these four abilities, you can add two more that you can choose before the game starts. Those ones are more common but very helpful in various situations.
Right here you can see the newest champion, Gnar, and his various abilities:
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Your champion can evolve like in a RPG : specific actions, such as killing minions, killing opponent's champions, or taking down turrets give you a certain amount of experience and gold. With experience, you gain levels up to 18, and with each level you can upgrade one of your four unique abilities. One of them is usually only available at your level 6, and it is your most powerful one. With gold, yes, you guessed it well, you can buy equipment. The shop is situated right behind the Nexus in your base.
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__________In the order : Champion's passive ability, Champion's main four abilities, Summoner's two abilities, Base Recall ability.
Now, the most important part : League of Legends is mainly a team-based game. Even if you can destroy your opponents alone, a well-coordinated team is stronger than anything else. Remember, the only way to win is to take down only one building.
Of course, it doesn't stop here, but the complete description of the game is long as hell so now I will try to focus on what is around the game to help you enjoy it as much as you can.
Official part and basics guides :
The official websites are the following :
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____________________________________You can find here a great amount of data about the game and its community.
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______________________This website gathers all the information about the profesional circuit, which is starting to reach a very impressive size.
Basics guides :
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As for many popular games based on Multiplayer Online PvP, communication is paramount, and players have developed many abrevations and acronyms to make it more enjoyable and competitive. Here is a quick recap of what you could find in the chat in-game, so you won't be lost if you happen to play with veterans creating new accounts in your first few games.
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Although it is a part of the official website, it is very important if you want to start playing a new champion. It contains information such as his/her abilities, preferable items and runes, and playstyle. (CAUTION! Only a few of the videos are available on the website. You can find the other ones on Youtube).
Community guides : Websites such as SoloMid or Mobafire gather guides created by players. I don't recommend them for beginners, but for intermediate players they are incredible, as they are as efficient if not better than the official guides if you want to play a champion in a very specifi way.
Now, a new section about enjoying the game in a certain way: information about Youtubers and Livestreamers!
As the global network continues to develop itself, new ways of communication and broadcast appear. However, a specific one has been exploding recently, and it is livestream. As a game very popular, released in the ladt five years, and where every game you play is different from the previous one, LoL embraced the LiveStream madness and is one of the main games featured by the biggest liveStream provider, Twitch. Others providers like Azubu are good to be mentioned.
Many people, like profesional players, are regularly broadcasting their games live and daily on Twitch, providing tips and tricks, facing new challenges, climbing the ranking system or simply having fun with their friends. There are so many you could find yourself lost in the ocean of streamers. Here are several non-profesional players that I advise you to watch simply to have fun. Note that they can make a living of LiveStreaming and releasing Youtube Videos with the advertisement :
- Sp4zie
This Swedish guy has been around since 2011. He's usually playing LoL with his friends from Compact Gaming, having fun for any kind of reason and making some weird sounds and voice-actings all over the place. The quality of his videos are among the best in his category (500 000+ subscribers, 90M+ views).
- SivHD
In the same category as Sp4zie, this Dutch player has also been around for a while. Although he has made less videos so far, his fanbase is incredible and his videos are always fun to watch for any type of player. He recently created his own company, where he is employing two other LiveStreamers (1M+ subscribers, 100M+ views).
- Keyori
With only a bit more than one year since his first video, the young British reached 200 videos and is making fun of everything in his games, especially when his silly friends are all around. Although his voice and his style of comments can annoy (and even exasperate) others, I still find him pretty entertaining (almost 500k subscribers, 85M+ views).
Other mentions :
Blakinola for his tasty TL;DR Patch Notes ; Jumpinthepack for ultrafrequent videos around LoL plays; Protatomonster for the same matter, but with an incredible level of production, especially the Top Plays Teamwork Edition.
We can also mention all the official brands like Machinima or OnGamers.
Now, the least funny (and maybe interesting) part for the RPC members : The League Of Legends professional scene.
Although even eSports had its own competitions around the world, it was hard to consider it a sport mainly because you couldn't really live with all the money you could earn even if you were the best player of X game worldwide. But everything changed some years ago, as The Invitational DotA2 was the first tournament to show a $1.6 Million Prize-Pool, with $1 Million for the winning team. Think about it : you could then win 200 000 dollars just for you if you would have won.
Since then, the entire eSports community entered a new era : Although only a few players can earn enough money while playing 10 hours per day to live well, the ability of the pro circuit to do so has only been increasing. League of Legends is no exception, as it is right now the most popular game around the world, with 27 million people playing daily, and 67 million playing monthly.
The professional circuit can be showed this way : each season (or now each year), the five main LoL regions (China, Korea, South-East Asia, North America and Europe) send their best teams to the World Championship, where the winner is awarded the title and $1M (and a bunch of special skins in the game
). Some slots are reserved to WildCard from the regions which don't have their own league, like South America or Turkey.Almost all the information about this profesional circuit can be found on the website of LoleSports, which has been improved since the real beginning of the profesional leagues in 2013.
Last mentions :
Here are the last things I wasn't able to put somewhere because it wasn't xompletely relevant or would have made the section too big :O.
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This website created last year contains a great amount of articles written by very experimented and/or dedicated LoL players. It features advices, commentaries, and good infographics on all what is around the game, from psychology to what happened in the last week of LCS.
- Interesting videos : This subsection is about some very good (but long) videos I have found along my path close to the game.
Interview with Leigh 'Deman' Smith, professional League of Legends shoutcaster, by OnGamers
Free to play : History of players heading towards The Invitational DotA2.
- Foster Pepper's articles : Very complete articles and thoughts about the rise of League of Legends as an eSport, what it implies for the players in terms of security for their contract. These two articles are very relevant and can show how eSports is facing the same challenges as any other sport, although they are happening much faster. Article 1 and Article 2.
I will probably add more content outside of the RPC members playing the game, but for now, I guess it's already becoming too long.
My Summoner's name is Saerleiya, I'm playing on EUW, and I'll see you on the Rift!
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