LoL midweek news: 4/24/2013

Some quick news.

Brunch U of Complexity has decided to retire early from League of Legends competitive play, stating he wasn’t enjoying it anymore.  Chuuper is back with the team.  Hopefully this doesn’t mess with their playoffs too much.

Elementz has parted ways with Crs, becoming a free agent after the summer split.  They were having internal problems and Rhux from Crs Academy has once again replaced Elementz as the support for Cop.

Starswars League Season 2 has ended, and iG came out on top in a best of 5 series against WE for the Championship.

The Garena Premiere League is ready to start up again with a lineup of:

• Taipei Assassins
• Singapore Sentinels
• ahq e-Sports Club
• Saigon Jokers
• Kuala Lumpur Hunters
• Saigon Fantastic Five
• Manila Eagles
• Bangkok Titans

Now for the real meat of this week’s post.  The conclusion of the 10 week LCS and a look into the summer split tournaments.  With a whopping 20 games in each of the leagues, there was A LOT to watch

LoL midweek news: 4/18/2013

YEAAAAAA!!!!  TPA SKINS!

Since before the World Championships back in October, I was hoping for skins of the winning team.  I was simply hoping for something like each member’s favorite champ with a team jersey… this’ll do =D  Cannot WAIT for its release!

Allstar results are out:

North America:

• Top – Dyrus (TSM)
• Jungle – Saintvicious (Curse)
• Mid – Scarra (Dignitas)
• AD Carry – Doublelift (CLG)
• Support – Xpecial (TSM)

A pretty evenly spread team, and not many big surprises if you ask me.  Popular picks all around.

European Allstar team:

• Top – SoaZ (Fnatic)
• Jungle – DiamondProx (Gambit)
• Mid – Alex Ich (Gambit)
• AD Carry – YellowPete (EG)
• Support – Edward (Gambit)

Unlike the NA scene, the votes were stacked for Gambit in EU.  In fact, Genja was also voted as the adc, but due to the ruling where you can’t have more than 3 people from the same team, and Genja had the lowest percentage among his team’s votes, he was replaced with YellowPete.  The battle for toplane was literally a battle.  The voting was so close and SoaZ and Wickd decided to b05 1v1 duel it out top lane.  it ended 3-2 in SoaZ’s favor, so the final votes went to him.

Not final, but current Korean votings:

• Top – MakNoon (NaJinSword)
• Jungle – Insec (KT Rolster B)
• Mid – Ambition (CJ Entus Blaze)
• AD Carry – Pray (NaJin Sword)
• Support – Madlife (CJ Entus Frost)

Check out the Korean Promotional video (translation in the reddit post) http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1bymxu/korean_all_stars_promotion_video_translation/

This is probably the team I’m most excited about.  I’ve been watching so much NA and EU LCS, and I don’t wake early enough for the OGN games.  Cannot wait to see the Korean teams in action again.

Current Southeast Asia Allstar team

• Top – Stanley (TaiPei Assassins)
• Jungle – HarLeLuYar (Singapore Sentinels)
• Mid – Toyz (TaiPei Assassins)
• AD Carry – Chawy (Singapore Sentinels)
• Support – Mistake (Taipei Snipers)

Okay, so I lied about 2 things.  One is when I said that the votes were stacked for EU.  Actually, the votes all went to TPA and TPS members, with the Jungle being Ohreal and adc being Bebe.  They ARE brother and sister team, so they count as one.  Once again the 3 member rule applies, and thus the two Singapore Sentinel members make their way into the roster.

China’s unknown Allstar team:

I have not a clue as I can’t seem to find any stats on this right now.  I expect it will be a mix of iG and World Elite members, as they’re the strongest teams in the region as far as I know.  If I had to take a wild guess…

• Top – It’s a tossup between CaoMei and PDD, but I’d say PDD
• Jungle – illusion from iG
• Mid – Misaya from WE
• AD Carry – WeiXiao (WE)
• Support – XiaoXiao (iG)

I tell a lie.  It’s all WE haha.  http://lol.qq.com/act/a20130409starvoting/#999

All-Star weekend is May 24th to May 26th and will take place in China.  It’s going to be great fun for all the LoL fans, but for the players, it definitely is going to mean something big.  The winning region gets an extra slot at the World Championships when they roll around in the fall.  That prize is nothing to laugh at, so expect teams to be fighting hard, rather than playing like an exhibition match.

LoL midweek news: 4/11/2013

This past week, patch 3.05 Balance patch was released, meaning some small changes to champs.  The only one thing I ended caring about though was the Lux CD changes… no more 24s ultis *sad*

Lissandra was also revealed last week and her kit looks… well… strong.  Riot has said that they emphasized CC over damage for this champ… and they’re definitely right.

• I haven’t seen any of the videos that people posted with her skills, so I won’t talk too much about them but… 
• Her Q is a slow
• Her W is an aeo root
• Her ulti is either a target stun + aoe slow (like iceborn gauntlet) OR
• A Zhonyas and a slow.

All I can say is with me favoring cc heavy champs… I can’t wait to play her ^^

LoL midweek news: 4/4/2013

Chaox heads to China!  I don’t think that he’s going to play on any teams.  He’s just heading around to different gaming houses in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to learn more about esports.

Complexity gets picked up by Quantic and Pr0lly replaces Chuuper as the midlane for the new Quantic Gaming team.

Vulcan in turn picks up Bloodwater from GGU (how the heck does this work?  No contracts?) which means that Muffinqt steps down.  I think he’s off the team =(

This means that GGU have no support player currently, although their original support I am Anjo is still in the shadows on the bench.  They’ll probably use him this week.

All-star voting has started for LCS All Stars.  You can vote for your favorite players on either na.lolesports.com or euw.lolesports.com

With only a month left until the relegation competition and the end of season 1 in the LCS, teams are fighting harder than ever in order to maintain/gain those top spots that guarantee safety, or at least to avoid the bottom 2 spots, which guarantee a relegation scrap with upcoming teams.  Here’s how week 7 went (yes, I know week 8′s about to start… I’m behind again).

Springtime of youth??

I can finally acknowledge that spring is here, now that the weather is finally respectable spring weather where I am.  Because my online courses are taking a week off (I’m not sure why) I’ve decided to use this chance to try to start up some new habits.  I’ve already made some lifestyle changes when the New Year rolled around (okay i started a bit late, it was like February) like trying new exercise things, eating healthier, setting up work schedules and daily goals for myself to complete, etc.

1. Drink less soda.  I’m limiting myself to 2 cans a week.  In time, 1 can a week.  And further down the line, hopefully less other drinks as well and eventually mostly water and fruit juices.  
2. Weekly goals.  This is something that I’ve actually been doing for a couple of weeks.  I noticed that I was getting more stuff done with daily goals set for myself… but still I ended up not accomplishing some and then I would never get them done.  Thus, I set weekly goals in case I run out of time on one day.
3. Cut back on bacon.  I love bacon… but lets face it, its not the healthiest of foods.  Definitely need to cut back on this some.
4. More exercise, less excuses.  I’ve begun exercising more, but sometimes I find myself thinking… “Oh man, still too tired from 2 days ago” or something along those lines and the excuses drag on so sometimes I only end up exercising twice a week, when my goal is 4-5 times a week.  Ideally I think, 2 days exercise, 1 day rest, etc.  However, I think I’m going to throw in running.  My plan for the moment is alternating running and workout days.
5. Less thinking, more doing.  I always think that I want to do this or that, and end up looking up how to do it or something online.  And then never actually do it.  This is an even bigger problem when it comes to working.  I think a lot about ideas that I have for some games that I want to design and develop, but so far they’re still in the design stage and its just becoming a pile of ideas.  It’s time to begin actually working on them.  No matter if I get stuck or confused or if I blow something up while attempting to program and work on them, it is time to begin.
6. Stop… Procrastinating…  My fight against procrastination has been going on for… oh… 10 years or so now (believe it or not I was pretty hard working up until my high school days) and it hasn’t been an even fight.  Recently (last week) I had to finish up my portfolio to hand in for an application for a University in Hong Kong, and though I had around 2 and a half weeks to do it, I didn’t really start grinding down on it till the last 4 days…  derp.  That wasn’t fun.  I’m waiting to see if I get a call for an interview now, but I didn’t have a good time with that.  Therefore, in order to not dig myself into a hole like that again… I must fight back against procrastination!  Beginning tomorrow.

Cheers!

LoL Weekend news: 3/30/2013

I missed my midweek news post this week because I had to do some work…  Oops =(

Anyhow, there wasn’t a ton of news this week, but the news was pretty big.  Getting champion news out of the way first…

Zac and the reworked Karma have been released.  From what I’ve seen both are pretty strong champions, but since I’ve only seen them on dominion so far, its really hard to tell.  If nothing else though, Zac is definitely a fun/funny champ from what I’ve seen though.  Unfortunately, with the latest patch that’s brought them in, there were a few bugs… and also some sales.  The bugs seem to have been resolved now, so I’m more upset about the sales.  Yes.  Upset.  What do I buy!?  Rune pages?!  Zac?!  Reddit also says that Battle Bunny Riven is supposed to be on sale for Easter…. do I get Riven instead?!  Argh!!!!  Decisions =(

 

God I hope this Leona skin comes to life…  I love playing Leona and this looks so good (and they said they would touch it up a bit more if it does indeed become a real skin).

 

Now… Probably the biggest news in League this week…  Last week TSM benched Chaox and had WildTurtle join them for the LCS games.  Now it turns out that Chaox has been fully removed from the team due to attitude issues towards the game and training.  It’s also been said that there has been personality clashes between Chaox and Regi.  Seeing people removed from the team because of these personality clashes is nothing new.  It’s happened so many times before, but from a group that’s played so long together, I personally did not see that one coming.  I’m not really a fan of TSM, Regi, or Chaox, but I don’t think that Chaox should have been kicked from the team.  Benched, yes from what I’ve read about his lack of motivation towards training and such, but kicked?  A week after getting benched?  I… don’t really like that decision.  Wild Turtle has shown potential during the LCS though.

 

Here are this (last weeks) LCS results.

A musical journey

I’m sure everyone has gone onto youtube, listen to a song or watch a video, and then just let the recommended videos on the side decide their next choice of video.  That’s pretty much what happened to me.  It was a really gloomy day here in Jersey on Monday… I kind of had my energy sapped by the gray weather, so I was listening to my playlist, hoping I would get some energy from it.  And boy did I.  Soon I was singing at the top of my lungs, but I wasn’t even listening to my playlist anymore.  Youtube sure does lead you to strange places.

It started out with “Like This” by Wonder Girls.  At that moment, I was thinking “Awww Sun Ye is going to be leaving Wonder Girls”, which lead me to think of “Maybe” from the Dream High OST, which is sung by her.  I decided to add that to my Asian Playlist.  After adding it though, I immediately thought of Mandy Moore’s “Only Hope”, sung by Suzy in that same drama.  After listening to Suzy’s version of it, I decided I wanted to listen to the Mandy Moore version, and thus my journey officially began, because I just clicked recommended links on the side afterwards (my requirement was one of those lyrics videos so I could sing along.)  Here’s how it went:

• Like This – Wonder Girls
• Maybe – Sun Ye
• Only Hope – Suzy cover from Dream High
• Only Hope – Mandy Moore
• Whiskey Lullaby - Brad Paisley with Alison Krauss
• Picture – Kid Rock ft. Sheryl Crow
• Soak up the Sun – Sheryl Crow
• Drift Away – Uncle Kracker
• Stop and Stare – One Republic
• Wake me up when September Ends – Green Day
• Fireflies – Owl City
• Kryptonite – 3 Doors Down
• I Hate Everything about you – Three Days Grace
• Scars – Papa Roach
• In the End – Linkin Park
• Here Without You – 3 Doors Down
• She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5
• Hey There Delilah – Plain White T’s
• Viva La Vida – Cold Play
• Someone Like You – Adele
• Because of You – Kelly Clarkson

I heard a bunch of songs I haven’t heard in AGES.  I had a blast singing my lungs out.  Definitely should do this again when I have nothing to do and feel like singing.  Oh Youtube <3