The new League system heavily favours luck.

After playing a good 500 ranked matches with the new system, I can only draw one conclusion. The new divisions and tiers are impossible to climb without a fair degree of luck. No, it's not Riot's fault. With the established meta and guides and videos everywhere telling you how to play; it's hard to be outright bad at LoL these days. Sure, there's still plenty of awful players; but compared to a year or two ago everyone has stepped up their game immensely. With the playerbase being marginally better than it used to be, it's much harder to carry a game successfully.

So with everyone playing their roles in at least a half decent capacity, it's much harder to stomp your way up the solo queue ranks. You have to rely on your team being at least half competent, at any rate. For example, yesterday I went 12-3 on Jax at top in 25 minutes. Game over, right? However, we had a Corki and a Thresh who both kept getting caught outside of our base. We never once had a 5v5, because before the fight started these two would get themselves killed. I tried to ward for them, I asked them to play safe- but all I got was insults in return. You can't win them all.

The new divisions place a large reliance on luck to move up for all but the best of players. This isn't Riot's fault. A year ago someone on your team could feed the enemy team 10 kills in the lane and you could kill your opponent in a different lane just as much. However, since everyone is better at the game chances are while you are stuck playing against someone with equal skill, the rest of your teammates are dying repeatedly.

Quite simply, even if you play your best and perform well early game in every single match- it still boils down to your team in the end. That's where the luck comes in. You can't win a teamfight unless your allies do their jobs properly. You can only help influence your team in the right direction. Ultimately, if you want to raise your rating- just keep playing as many games as you can and luck will get you there eventually. So, good luck folks!

It's taken awhile but I've hit gold.

When I first got placed in ranked I was in Silver 3. After a little work I managed to work my way up to Silver 2. Sadly after that I was knocked back down to 5 by a long losing streak. Sometimes it is impossible to get out of a losing streak and you just have to persevere through it. There's a reason I haven't been posting much, and that's because I wanted to at least get gold for a little credibility.

I'm a little proud of myself.

Being in Silver 5 for an extended period of time has definitely made me a better player. You have to carry pretty much every single game to get out of there. I found that if I didn't take a leading role such as top or mid, we lost almost every time. For those of you wanting to get out of division 5, my best advice is to be patient and work your way out of there slowly. Make sure you play your best champions, and tell your team what to do if you have to. If you have a choice between an inhibitor and baron, take the inhibitor because then you can take baron easily. Don't get frustrated, you will lose more if you do.

Once I got back up to Silver 4, I climbed my way up to 1st division in a few days. A large factor in that was luck, but I managed to win a lot of the games for my team by playing hyper carries such as Jax and Diana. Finally, yesterday I undertook 3 series in the space of 10 hours. I was determined to get gold, and after a large amount of matches I made it. Now I need Platinum, yay. Good luck to everyone else trying to climb up the ranks!

Ahri is a fantastic mid, have some tips and tricks!

If you don't know who you're up against, or you just plain can't decide who to play in mid- play Ahri. She's my favorite champion for mid as of late. With a slow start to level 6, she scales very well into mid and late game. She can trade reasonably well in the lane, and with a little ability power she can farm with ease using the orb. Ahri's charm also gives her a potent hard CC which is useful for every situation. Her ultimate gives her excellent chasing and escaping abilities, giving her a burst of mobility over almost every champion.

I wish I waited to buy the Foxfire skin.

Ahri is a useful addition to any team. She puts out extreme damage in team fights, while retaining the ability to 1v1 and 2v1 in many situations. She can perform as an assassin and a mage. Landing a taunt at the right time will win your team a fight, and with such high mobility you can always access the highest threats.

My favorite part is not many people know how to successfully counter our foxy lady. People have a common misconception that Ryze beats Ahri in the lane. He doesn't. Kassadin and Diana are the hardest counters, but they can't shut you down if you play smart. So when in doubt, play Ahri!

I thought I'd provide a few tips and tricks for people trying to learn Ahri, since I've played her a lot and learnt a few simple things on the way.

I usually do very well in ranked on Ahri.

Ahri tips and tricks:
 
- Do not try to outright kill someone before level 6. You won't beat a competent player without help or your ultimate. You can trade fairly well against most champions however, so don't be afraid to fight back.

- Landing your charm is the key part to succeeding on Ahri. One charm means you can fire off the rest of your spells without missing. Most opponents will stay out of range, so if you're sure it's going to be 1v1 you can use your ultimate to quickly get in range and hit a surprise charm.

- Each Foxfire has an individual targeting mechanism. Therefore it's ideal to be away from minions before casting it to gain maximum burst. I usually use it as I roll forwards with my ultimate.

- Never go rambo with your ultimate. Just because you can move faster than any opponent doesn't mean they can't hit you with crowd control. Only charge straight in if you're sure you can get a quick kill. Remember to keep one charge or a flash to roll away afterwards.

- In a teamfight don't use your ultimate straight away. Continue to land your orb and standard spells until you actually need to ulti away or you have an opportunity to take down an important target. I always try to retain one charge because it saves me every game. Don't think of your ultimate as a damage ability. Think of it as a repositioning tool.

- Ahri with a Rylai's is amazing at kiting. If you can retain a high distance from people chasing you, you can keep firing your abilities at them until they die. Chasing a good Ahri can be as stupid as chasing Singed.

- Your orb deals true damage on the return path. Despite this, you will still have trouble taking down enemies with a lot of health. Focus on killing the ADC and squishies. 

Silver division feels like the new elo hell.

Silver division for the new elo hell!

So I've been dipping in and out of elo hell ever since I started playing ranked last year. Instead of arguing whether elo hell exists or not, let's just say it does for the moment. Anyway, I initially stopped playing ranked because most of the time, I was being placed with players worse than the ones I'd get in normal games.

The common response for people complaining about elo hell is to 'carry harder'. Not all games are winnable, but if you are skilled enough- you can carry your team to victory in enough games to get out. Which is true, to some degree. But what about the players who deserve to be in high gold, or low platinum? They are better than the average chumps, but they aren't quite good enough to carry themselves out of a low elo slump. They are just unlucky.

Yeah, I'm bad huh.

Now I'm not complaining at all. I get angry at some games, I never rage at my team though. I keep it to myself. I like playing down here, it forces me to try hard and perfect new champions to counter people. If I don't win the game alone, then we lose. This image proves it. The only games I've won today are the ones that I snowballed my lane hard- and then stomped other lanes too.

I just wonder how many other people out there are stuck at low silver like me. Well, I'm not exactly stuck- I can choose to play my best champions repeatedly and I'll climb back up. But it really does feel like the new elo hell. At least one in five games somebody disconnects or leaves. And every game has a troll, it seems I get them on my team more often than not. I would make a pun about Riot hating me, but everyone hates me.

Silver promotion!

After a series of victories I managed to up my Silver rank from 4 to 3. It's not much, but it's a start. Getting to 100 points for your qualifying matches can be troublesome at first, but I can't imagine it being as frustrating as losing your qualifiers and being reset to 0 again (which hasn't happened to me yet).

Jax's Vigilantes for the win!

There is a huge amount of disappointment on the forums with the new ranked system. People don't want to fight their way up divisions, they want elo to be visible again. However, the majority of the issues seem to be the same as they were before the new League Points were brought out. Trolls and feeders ruin somebodies game, and apparently it's the new systems fault.

I like the new system, I'm just a little upset you can drop down a division if you lose several times at 0 points. Sure, it's not happened to me yet but I bet it could happen if I get a bad enough teams repeatedly. What does everyone else think about it? You might as well leave a comment here, because Riot are ignoring the complaints on the forums.

New ranked system activated and ready to play!

For those of you who play ranked, the overhaul to the elo system is up and it looks awesome. Each bracket is divided into divisions, I myself got placed into Silver 4. Yes, I'm awful. But I'm actually going to play ranked now, so that should change soon.

ooooh doesn't it look new and shiny.

The new layout looks very nice, and since you can't drop down a bracket people aren't just going to stop at gold. It encourages you to push for higher, so get playing ranked people! I like the idea of collecting 100 points and then if you win the best of 3 you get to go up a division. It's a good idea on paper, but a little frustrating in reality.

I expect you all to try a few ranked games with the new system, and then post a comment with what you think! Have fun ladies and gentlemen!

Season 3 ranked changes

My current ranked stats.

As you may know ladies and gentlemen, the ranked matchmaking system is about to undergo a huge overhaul. And yes, it's actually mostly for the better. I've been trying to find a reference to quote with the specific changes, but I can't seem to find one sadly. Essentially, elo is going out the window. Instead, a ladder system is being put into place. Each division will be divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Platinum. The key change here is that when you move up a bracket; then you cannot move back down.

I've played a lot of normals.

Lots of people I know are excited about this new change, as am I. However, since you can only move up or down within your bracket- instead of dropping down from Gold to Silver, for example; I think that might make it a little too easy for some bad players to climb to the higher ranks with a lot of luck. I mean, what if a horrible player gets carried by his teammates all the way up to platinum, and then becomes a liability for every team thereafter? Besides that little concern however, I think this is a welcome change to ranked that's been much needed for some time now.

Take a look at this handy image if you're still curious about the changes, it's very enlightening:

Middle mouse button or shift click if you can't read it.

I also like to think this new system will bring Riot one step closer to becoming a real E-sport. It will certainly make solo queue less frustrating. Hopefully people will stop raving on about elo hell too. What do you all think? Post a comment and let us know!

Interview #2

Hello everyone, it's been two days since my last post, because I've been playing the heroes of the week.  I prefer to test them out when they are released, so I can cut down on my feeding. The thing I hate most about the new heroes, is the abundance of people picking them in normal games and either:

1 - Saying they've never played the character before; and they have no idea how to play it.
2 - Or skipping the whole part where they mention they are a virgin to the champion they have picked entirely, only to feed relentlessly.

Still, it's a good oppurtunity for players to try out all the characters without spending Riot points or IP.

Anyway, today I have another interview for everyone. A forum troll on the official League forums came up with the initial idea to change my perspective from the famous top five ranked players, to the less popular top 15 underdogs. His reasoning was: "Everyone already knows the top five, teach us about the others". I think he was right to some extent, we all know Elementz and Reginald, who here can honestly say they know Samsterlicious?

Samster is currently in the top 20 players for solo ranked, which is quite an achievement. Especially when solo queue is more based on who has the most failers on their side. I managed to get a brief interview with Samster, take a look and see what you think:



1: So, how long have you been playing League of Legends?
Been playing since beta. So basically too long. I was playing Singed before the war
on terrorism.

2: What do you think of the game in general? Is Riot taking it in the
right direction?
The game is really great for a free game. It's fun and addictive. Riot
releasing champs every 2 weeks is a great step in the right direction. If
that direction was money over balance.

3: Do you play with a clan? Or friends? You are currently in the top 15
for solo queue, what's it like playing at such a high rating? Enjoyable?
I'm lonewolf all up in this game. I play with friends. Sadly Riot hasn't
implemented a clan system. Being high rating is cool, it allows people
to think I am better than I actually am. The respect is nice but the
long queue times are not.

4: There are a lot of complaints about the idiots and trolls in this
game, does this affect your gameplay too? What is your approach to the
common in-game flamer?
The idiots and trolls are all up in solo queue. I think solo queue has
turned into who has the least amount of trolls. It's the opposite of lord
of the rings. If someone is flaming a lot in game I usually flame back.

5: Who would you consider to be the best LoL players? Other than yourself
of course!
Bigfatlp and Chauster are the best players by far. Honorable mention goes
to Saintvicious when he isn't randoming in ranked.

6: Recently, Riot have been bought by one of the most influential
internet companies in the world, Tencent. For an astounding $400
million! Would you say this is a good thing?
More money more problems. The only good that can come from this is if they
use that money to hire more people for the alleged "replay team".

7: There are rumors that Riot will use their new money to create a new
game, probably an MMORPG. What do you think about this?
If it's a free MMO that would be a great idea, but I don't think Riot
could put out a good MMO. They can't even put out a good urgot skin.

8: If you had to share a house with ANY champion in game, who would you
choose and why?
I really have no clue. It would be cool to live with a robot so Blitzcrank
would be up there on my list.

9: And finally, is there anything you want to add?
Xpecial is not good at this game.

So there you have it. Beware of Xpecial, he is not good at this game. Anyway, I know the interview today was a short affair, I personally would prefer more information but it depends on how much the player wants to talk, and not on how much content I need.

I have another interview currently in progress with Heat n Serve from the Leaguecraft forums, which should be up very soon, and I know there's a few of you eager to see it. So check back in the next couple of days if you want to read it.