LoL Hiatus, Diablo 3, and Other Random Nonsense! Huzzah!

Ahhhh yeaaahhh son!

It’s been a few months, but I just can’t stay away for long. This blog serves a pretty decent timeline in my life and as long as I feel the need to write down my random bullshit, it will continue for another five years. 

Five years…dang. Hard to imagine that I would still be posting blog entries in 2014 when I started in 2009. Time seriously flies! Not too much has changed though, I am still playing video games and spewing gibberish…so let’s get this going shall we?!?

It has been 4 months since my last post and that was my 6^th entry in my League of Legends (LoL) "journal". I hit 100 normal PvP games and my record was as average as you can get – 50 wins and 50 losses. Certainly I am level 30 now…probably fighting off pro team offers left and right while streaming to 1000's of nerds nightly…you know, the typical, completely normal route that all LoL players do…

…yeah, I think I won 2 or 3 out of my next 10 games. I found myself getting frustrated at my team mates to the point that I was actually actively arguing with them. That’s right; I was yelling and arguing with kids that were probably half my age.  Once I realized this sad fact about myself, I decided it was time to take a break. I didn’t uninstall the game per se…but I did make a conscience decision to STOP playing. It also helped that the same week that I decided to stop playing LoL, Titanfall released.

Dat Titanfall HYPE!!

BIG. FAT. FAIL…

…for me anyway. I still like the game. I really like the concept, the gameplay, the verticalness of the maps, and the overall feel of the game. I was actually shocked that after a week or so, I was pretty much done with it. It wasn't that fun to me and I still can’t figure out why exactly. My best guess is that I am pretty much done with the standard FPS game modes. I probably put 20-30 hours into it before I was bored…like really, really, bored.

Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls approaches…

I’ll just log into Diablo 3 (D3) and screw around. I highly doubt I’ll buy the expansion. I mean, how fun can the changes be? D3 is just a game about loot and killing the same shit over and over again…I am just so bored, I have nothing to play!!!

That was my thought process going into it. I lasted about 4 days before I bought the expansion and before I knew it, I was playing A LOT. Like, MMORPG a lot. Atleast 3 hours a day, sometimes less, but more often than not, I was staying up way too late to grind gear. I have to give it to Blizzard; all of the changes they made rocked my face. I was a fan of the original D3 and dumped 100s of hours into it. However, after I beat inferno, I just lost interest and stopped playing.

This time around I easily doubled or even tripled my playing time. It took about 2-3 months, but I finally hit the wall with the game. Clearing T6 rifts with ease and farming Act I bounties for that fucking Ring of Royal Grandeur got really boring. Patch 2.1 is coming out soon though and it would seem to be a game changer. Once it goes live, it is going to be hard not to get sucked back in.

I am kinda scared though...I have moved on; I don’t really want to go back.

Hiatus no more!

That’s right, I have moved on…more like back to League of Legends. I have gotten myself caught up on all of the patches that I have missed as well the NA and EU pro scene. Yesterday I completed my return to LoL by playing some AI bot games!

Here is a pro tip – Don’t play D3 and LoL. If you want to play both, I highly suggest you update the movement keys in D3 to match LoL. Both of the games are very reliant on mouse clicking. D3 uses left click for moving and LoL uses right click for moving. My brain doesn’t compute jumping back and forth, so for now I am just going to stick it out with LoL.

I was kinda sad that my main champion got a lot of work done to dethrone him from OP status. The good old fat man that drinks beer is still usable, just nowhere need as powerful as he once was. Coming back from a long break I figure it’s a good time to mess around with a variety of champs. So far I played a few games with Ziggs and Lulu. One thing is certain; I am very bad at this game. It isn't as easy as it looks and it will take some time to get back to the skill level I was at before I stopped playing. The nice thing is that I can go back on my previous blog entries to read up and watch videos that helped me.

I read this quote on the LoL reddit page a few months back and saved it because how awesome I think it is.

"Lanes are important because they teach different things. Top will teach you how to lane, mid will teach you mechanics, jungle will teach you timing, support will teach you awareness, and adc will teach you positioning."

That is some high elo Buddha shit right there people. In my experience, that quote is right on. I wanted to post it here because I am REALLY going to remember that when I start doing PvP matches again. My main goal by far is to not allow my team mates to get a reaction out of me. No matter how illogical they might act, I am really going to try just to focus on getting better and winning games.

Not sure the next time I will blog, but I feel I rambled on quite a bit for one entry. I’ll leave you with a good read on how to become a better player along with a pretty legit quote from a pro player.

Reddit Post --> Top 10 Ways to Stop Throwing
Related quote --> "Solo queue isn't about outplaying your enemy, it's about waiting for them to outplay themselves." - TheOddOne

Until next time freaks! Twitter Machine --> https://twitter.com/WTFspaghetti

League of Legends - Journey from Noob to Below Average - Entry 4

Hola peeps! Entry 4?!? I know, very exciting. If you have been following along this series then you are aware that this must mean that I finally got around to doing my first PvP match in League of Legends. It only took me roughly 2 years and 126 AI "bot" games to give PvP a go...but who is counting right?

I took a break from playing the game since my last entry, but started playing again with the new season (4) starting. I am not sure what exactly happened, but something just clicked for me. I started playing a few of the free rotation players and experimenting with the new masteries / items. Something clicked with the game. I feel much more comfortable with knowing exactly what needs to be done in each phase of the game and normally when to and when not to do it. I think most of it had to do with me finally playing every major role (APC, ADC, Tank, Support, ect) and having a good amount of experience in each lane in the early / mid game. Of course watching other experienced players play and reading up on the game also helps immensely. I just feel like now I know WTF is going on with the game as a whole.

So how did my first PvP game go?

7/1/20

I am very happy with that end score and even more happy I got a win out of it. When I joined up my intention was to play middle lane as Veigar. I called mid in the in game chat and waited about 20 seconds before I locked in my toon. Then all of a sudden someone stated the following...

"WTFspaghetti, I called mid"

Now, I guess it is possible that he called mid before I joined the chat...but IMO that is highly doubtful. No fear though, I have been practicing with 4 different Champions and had no problem doing another lane / role. I asked if they wanted a support and to my surprise...the chat blew up. Everyone was confused and calling for different lanes and what was needed. It was the definition of a cluster fuck. With 15 seconds left to pick, I decided to go top lane with the King of all Trolls, Mr. Trundle.

What occurred next can only be explained as a complete and utter ownage. It was very clear within the first 5 minutes that the two champions I was going up against in the top lane didn't have much experience against Trundle. I was able to poke and harass them enough so they didn't feel comfortable being aggressive. It was glorious. I managed to get to the mid game with a hefty "cs" lead, 4 kills, and no deaths.

The rest of the game I built him up as a tank and just abused the enemy team with all my slows and crowd control abilities. We pretty much won every single team fight and while I don't think I was the only reason why my team won, I know for a fact I was a huge part of our success. It was very fun and while I don't think I am going to completely give up on "AI bot" games...I am definitely going to play PvP way more then I have been.

   

So What Now?

I feel that I have completed my mission. I started about 3-4 months ago with the goal of learning how to play this game due to its crazy popularity. I was not a complete noob per se...but I was pretty bad. Now with the completion of my 1st PvP match I think everyone can agree that I am "below average"

HOORAH! Until next time people!


Twitter - https://twitter.com/WTFspaghetti
TwitchTV - www.twitch.tv/wtfspaghetti

League of Legends - Preseason Changes / Rundown

The new season has not yet started, but the LoL pre-season is alive and well. I haven't been keeping up with all of the changes, so I figured I would share this awesome "run-down" video about most of the changes.



Seems to be pretty legit from a super casual fan of the game like myself. I especially like the free trinket / wards and changes to the Support role. If you are at all interested in LoL, I highly suggest that you atleast keep up with all of these changes.

Full list can be found on LoL's official website - here

Twitter - https://twitter.com/WTFspaghetti
TwitchTV - www.twitch.tv/wtfspaghetti

League of Legends - My Journey from Noob to Below Average - Entry 3

The journey continues people. Previous entries here...

ROAD BLOCK

Like a mofo...

That's right. I was getting that feeling with LoL. My A.D.D. was starting to kick in and with Blizzard deciding to invite me to a closed beta of their newest game, Hearthstone...I thought that my LoL days were going to fizzle off into the horizon.

FEAR NOT! One of my buddies caught word that I started playing the game and wanted to team up and play a few games together. Perfect right? Well, not quite. He is in the exact position that I was before I started blogging about the game. He knows the concept of a MOBA game, has a few purchased toons, but never looked up how to play or how the current meta is. I am still very happy to have someone to play with, but I'm not sure a noob like myself will be much of a teacher.

We finally got some time to link up and play and since he hasn't played in about 6 months, we decided to play against some intermittent bots. It was my first game in about a week in a half and I was okay...not bad, but not great either. I was playing Karthus and I don't know, it wasn't that fun. First game lasted about 25 minutes and we got the victory. We decided to give another game a go against bots and well...

...it was TERRIBLE.

I think the game lasted an hour and only three of us on the team were level 18 by the end. I think I had the most kills and I went 8/12...it was one of the games were you just wanted it to end. We stopped playing after that and it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. I mean I got ROLLED by bots. It was all sorts of bad and it totally ruined my view of Karthus. I came to the realization that I am not skilled enough  to really excel with him. He requires someone that pays close attention to the mini map and other enemies health pools. Not to mention I feel very vulnerable in most 1 on 1 situation...especially early / mid game.

Again, I thought that my LoL days were going to fizzle off into the horizon...but those last two games were so bad, I just couldn't leave it all without giving it another go. I mean, WTF would I write about if I didn't play?

The RESURGENCE! 

I went back to my Mage Assassin, Malzahar, and went in to another bot battle. I choose beginner and set a goal for myself. If I don't fucking own and its just meh...then I am giving up on the casters / mid lane and moving on to another role.

The results? I completely dominated and had my best performance in a LoL match ever. I know it was against silly bots, but after the 2 week stretch of meh-feeling games with Karthus, it was a welcomed emotion.

Redonkeyous right? I don't think that I ever got higher then 10 kills with any toon that I have played in my LoL career, so I took it as a strong sign that I should really just focus on playing Malzahar while putting Karthus on the back burner for when I become a super gosu legit pro.

Team Work Hurray!

I got a few more games in with my buddy and we are doing much better. We are ready to take the plunge into PvP battleground. I know that I have been saying this for 3 posts now, but I am now ready and there is no reason to postpone that shit any longer!

Entry 4 of this series will be all about PvP or it will never happen and I will never speak of this game AGAIN!!! This is even more likely to happen because I found out this week a few co-workers also play and play quite often. However, they are not newbies like yours truly, they actually are level 30s that play against other players. I already informed that I am going to need lots of work and they have no choice in the matter, they ARE going to team up with me and teach me how to not be a noob!

League of Legends - My Journey from Noob to Below Average - Entry 2

Ah yes, the journey continues people! Its been about 2 weeks since my last LoL entry and not much as changed to be honest. I am still very much a noob and just grinding away trying to improve. I do feel that I have enough to write another entry in this series as it also serves as a tool to help me review and focus in what I need to be working on in game.

Review and Re-focus?!? LoL is serious business...

Goals from last entry
1. Play against actual people
2. Get better at last hitting
3. Pay attention to the map more / work on communicating with team

Two out of three ain't bad right? I haven't felt comfortable enough yet to jump in a normal game against actual people. I know that I should just start doing it, but I don't know. I really don't want to get yelled at or completely rolled for not playing at a high standard. I mean just from playing against bots I feel I'm surrounded by trolls that consistently want to tell me what to do and what I am doing wrong. Even though they are normally the ones with 10 kills, 6 deaths, and a 35 CS by the 30 minute mark. I can only imagine playing a REAL LoL game and all the bullshit banter that goes down.

When I get the time to play, I normally just want to hop in, practice the basics, and make good decisions. That is what I have deemed more important for the moment and I think that it has paid off so far. A perfect example is that I just finished a game where I wasn't my normal mid lane, but I still thought I did pretty good overall. However, when I looked at the final score I couldn't figure out why my "Gold Earned" was so much less then others. So I took a screenshot and headed over to the Mobafire forums and ended up making a new thread.

Last Hitting is Important Mmmm'kay?

You can check out the thread post and the screenshot from the above link. It got several responses and to my surprise the community basically stated that I was terrible at last hitting. What I thought was decent, was actually terrible for a 33 minute game. Now I don't think that they took into consideration that this was against intermittent bots and that one of the players (Kassadin) was a snowballed super beast. When I would try to farm some creeps, he would come in and kill them immediately with an aura type of spell. The game was never in danger of losing, so I mostly focused on team battles...hints my 13 assists.

HOWEVER! They still brought up a very good point. First off, the reason why the AI team had 3-4k more "Gold Earned" then me was because that is how the AI / Bot team is designed by the developer. Plain and simple answer. Secondly, the point a few of them were making is that I really should focus alot more on my CS.

So the last 5-10 games that I had played I have really been focusing on last hitting and getting my CS up. I am happy to report that I have significantly increased my CS average to about 180-200 by the 30 minute mark if I am rocking the mid lane and ~100 or so if sharing a lane. While I still have work to do, I am pretty happy with my progress.

Middle Lane and the Jungler...

Coordination, communication, and map awareness are all very important when solo in the middle lane. You just can't zone out and not pay attention to the mini map...especially the position of your team's jungler. I know this...but actually doing it and performing the task is harder then it seems. I had a game the other day against bots where our jungler actually seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing. Now, I noticed him pinging and coming into my lane for a potential gank a few times, but I didn't think it was a good time to risk my life for the gank.

Well...I guess after the first 2 passes I just didn't pay attention or coordinate with him and he made sure to call me out on it. I think his exact words were "You are really fucking terrible"

So confused and assuming it was me lol, I asked in chat and it was confirmed that he was indeed talking directly to me. It was at this point where I had to explain that I am playing against bots because I am still learning the game and not a pro like him. When I asked why he didn't type anything out once he realized that I wasn't getting it and he replied "l2play". Very helpful right? I know he doesn't have too, but it would of been nice if he could given me some tips on how not to be fucking terrible. I even asked him after the game was over to help a summoner out, but he never responded. Too pro I guess lol. No worries here though, I have no shame in asking for help for my noobish ways!

I find paying attention to mini map way harder then I realize it was going to be. Now that I am starting to get decent at last hitting, I am going to start focusing alot more on this. Hopefully in entry 3 I will have improved and actually get some games against other players under my belt.

Champions Arise!!

Maybe you noticed that the main picture for this post is Karthus. Well that is because I saw a streamer on Twitch playing him and a few hours later I saw a professional match where one of the teams was rocking him. Even though I am much more comfortable with Malzahar, I went ahead and decided to pay up and buy him. I have only played a few games with him but man...what a powerful and fun toon! All I got to say is that his ultimate is GLOBAL.

Yes, a global ultimate that hits all players...hints the nickname of King Kill Steal. I have yet to get a pentakill, but I am sure after I start playing him more and more that they will come. In fact, I think I am going to play a quick game now with him. Until next time people.

League Of Legends - My Journey from Noob to Below Average - Entry 1

Thats right! I stated that I was going to document my journey on learning this game and I am actually doing it...quite shocking really. If you haven't checked out my first post about the game, go read that first and come back. Then my friends...my journey will begin!

HUURRRAH!

WTF IS A MOBA?!?

LoL is considered a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and  is a sub-genre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, in which often two teams of players compete with each other in discrete games, with each player controlling a single character through an RTS-style interface.

Full wiki breakdown on the game here.

There was some pretty basic things that I was confused about...

Now, I know the basic concepts of the game and at its core, it is very simple. However, it can get complicated and complex fast. I started playing it a few years ago, but I only played against AI controlled opponents. Even then, it was clear that I wasn't even the best player on my team and after a few weeks I lost interest. This time around I told myself that I was going to make a much bigger effort and really dive into this game.

MY WTF I'M CONFUSED LIST

1. WTF do I do once mid and late game begin? Do I still focus on my lane and minions or do I try and work with my team and focus more on getting champion kills?

2. You are on a 5 man team and in order to succeed you need to communicate. I didn't know how to alert my team members and ping the map in at the same time. I knew how to chat with my team and ping the map separately, but in the heat of the battle sometimes you just don't have the time to type it out.

Example - "player 1 has targeted the inner turret"
Example - "player 3 alerts his team to retreat"
Example - "player 4 alerts his team to be careful"

3. What is up with the item tree and how does it work? If I buy an item that apart of a bigger recipe, does the main item get discounted?

4. I knew I had to last hit minions and that it was a big part of your individual income. However, when I would look on how many minion kills I had compared to my team, I was normally 4th or 5th by ALOT. WTF am I doing wrong?

5. The jungle and neutral monsters. I knew that they gave you buffs and gold and that the current "meta-game" is to have one champion on jungle duty the whole game. Sounds pretty easy I thought. I gave it a try and lets just say I was pretty lost and didn't realize what I was doing.

6. Terminology - Like the awesome noob that I am, I have no clue what terms people were using like "cs", "leash", and a "carry".

Dem Resources...

Over the course of a few days I have played 4-5 games all with very specific goals of answering these above questions and getting better. Normally I would read a few online articles and then I would search for a video of someone showing / explaining it. I think the combination of reading about it and then seeing someone do it is a winning formula. I tried to focus on 1 or 2 things at a time and then move on once I got a good understanding of what I should do.

One of the best resource sites that I have found for noobs and pros alike is MOBAFIRE. They have a huge LoL community and tons of guides. One of the guides that I like the most is a basic general guide to the game. It is not too often that I spend time reading through a whole guide, but it was so well put together and helpful for a noob like me, I just had to read it from start to finish.

Here is it in all its glory - The General Guide to League of Legends

I am happy to report that all of my questions on the above list I have been able to answer. I have started the process of practicing and can already tell a big difference in my game play. Don't get me wrong, I am still very much a noob, but now I at least have a good idea of how the game should go.

I played a game last night against the intermittent AI difficulty and two of my teammates seemed like me before I started reading up on how to play the game. They were doing a pretty terrible job of killing minions and they kept on dying. I think one of them ended up with 21 deaths or something like that. It was the first game that I thought we were going to lose and if the AI controlled champions wanted to end it, they could have easily. However, a few of us just kept on grinding away and to be honest, I have no idea how we ended up winning. It took over 100 minutes and it was the first game that I really learned the importance of the jungle and mini bosses buffs.

Notes / Take Aways / Tips

1. Pick one champion and stick with them.

That doesn't mean you cant play around with a bunch of champions, but I think the best way to learn the game and get good at it, is to stick with one champion that you like and master them. I am still messing around with a few, but I think I am going to roll with Malzahar exclusively. What can I say, I like dark magic characters and I like dots.../evil

2. Learn how to last hit and execute it EVERYTIME.

I didn't realize how important this concept was but after reading up and watching others play online...I couldn't of been more wrong. It is one of the easiest ways to improve your game.

3. Communicate with your team and recognize the transition from "laning" to team battles.

This was one of the most confusing things to me. I had no idea what to do in the mid game and didn't understand what my other teammates were doing. What really helped me recognize this is just watching other people play. I think one of the videos I watched actually stated that mid / late game was all about team battles first and farming minions second.

I am still trying to get used to pinging the map and emoting correctly. However, now that I know how, its only a matter of practicing.

Upcoming goals for entry 2...

1. Play against actual people. Even if I only do it a few times and get rolled. I need to start playing people to get a better understanding of the game and its fun factor.
2. Get better at last hitting.
3. Pay attention to the map more and work on my communicate emotes

Copy and Paste like a Pro

Here are some of the more helpful videos I watched. They cover quite alot and helped a noob like myself A TON.

Beginner Guides - I really enjoyed both of these and highly recommend the terminology video. 





Replay Analysts



Ranked Match in the Middle Lane - I loved watching this guy play and found his thought process very interesting



Until next time people, I'm WTFout!

League Of Legends Leading the Way

League of Legends has been out for a little over 4 years now and if you have paid ANY attention to the video game scene, you know how immensely popular the game is. I am a pretty frequent visitor to Twitch TV and I would say that LoL has the most viewers 95% of the time. Not to mention, its normally not even close in regards to viewership. As of right now, LoL has 82,000 viewers and the second most viewed game has 11,000 viewers.

I played the game for a few weeks awhile back and while it was fun, it never really held my attention for more then a few weeks at a time. In order to keep my A.D.D. at bay, a game has to be REALLY good and most importantly, fun. Now I know that alot of the fun with this game is playing with other people and working as a team. I only know a few people that play LoL and even if I knew more, my gaming schedule is anything but normal. So my playing experience has been almost exclusively solo.

So what made me take another look at LoL? As previously stated, I go to Twitch TV quite often and I am very used to LoL being the number 1 viewed game. However, this weekend when I took a look I couldn't help but to notice the overwhelming number of viewers...it was over a half of million people!!! Even with those numbers, I didn't think too much of it. I just assumed some major tourney was going on. It is pretty common for big eSport games to get similar viewer numbers during major tourneys. Though I would be lying if I said that I have ever seen over a half of million viewers tuned into one game on twitch.

I went on with the rest of my day and I couldn't help to notice one of my favorite YouTuber's, Husky StartCraft, live tweeting about this LoL tournament he was at. He wasn't apart of the broadcast team, just there as a fan. Oh yeah, it was also at the same arena where the LA Lakers play their home games...the Staples Center! The SOLD OUT Staples Center at that!

Okay, okay, now I you have my interest. I mean the fucking Staples Center?!? I went back to twitch and started watching the stream. It was grand finals and I have to say I was quite shocked on all the hype and excitement from the crowd. I watched the final few matches and I figured that I have to give this game another go around. See if I can't get what all this fuss is about. I mean who knows, maybe this is my chance to go pro and win millions of dollars...

...dreams can happen right? I wasn't joking about the millions though. The winning 5 man team took home a 2 million dollar prize. Quite balla for a group of teenagers if I don't say so myself.



Check out this great article GameSpot put out on the finals and the eSport scene. LoL is eSports right now people. I can't help but to get excited when I read these types of things. I love video games and if ESPN can broadcast bowling on a Saturday afternoon, then why the fuck not popular and competitive video games? Here is my favorite quote from the article...

"Riot Games Vice President of eSports Dustin Beck tweeted during Game 1 of the broadcast that there was an estimated 1 million concurrent users watching through Twitch, YouTube, and AzubuTV, with another 1 million concurrent users watching through streams in China and South Korea. Beck added in conservative estimates of an additional 4 million watching on TV in an unspecified number of countries."

The article does also mention that they are getting some major sponsors now as well adding that Coke Zero has signed on for the upcoming season. Step in the right direction I say right? Fuck yeah it is. Like the game or not, anyone that is for the expansion of eSports has to recognize that LoL is leading the way and that by itself is pretty flipping awesome.

I Canz Play Too?!?

That's right! Even a normal fat american like myself can play the game. It is the main game that has seen huge success from the FTP (free to play) game model. Unlike other games that use the model, you really do not get an advantage by paying for in game items. I am pretty noobish at the game and have yet to play against other players...only co-op vs AI bots. The game is extremely simple and like most really good eSports competitive games, it gets very complex and complicated fast. 

So far I've been struggling heavily, but also learning quite a bit. I plan to document my journey in this blog from noob to below average...

...I know I am setting the bar high right? We shall see how it goes and hopefully it will turn out a fun and enjoyable experience to play and also write about. I have a few helpful links listed on my page under the Gaming section that pertain to LoL. It is also a given that I will copy and paste all the best information I find helpful like the awesome blogger I am.  

Follow me on twitter and leave a comment if you like. If not, its okay...I know this blog is your dirty secret.