Why is League of Legends so addictive?

So a friend recently exclaimed the oddity that me and many of my companions still played League of Legends. Our replies were all similar. LoL is a great game for many reasons, and we'll always go back to it when we've got nothing more important to play.

This conversation made me think. There are so many reasons to play League, and many more to keep you playing. So I've decided to tally a list here of what keeps us hooked. Take a look and see if it's the same for you, and comment if you think I missed anything.

Anyone can play. It's amazing how easy it is to get started on League of Legends. You can introduce a friend to it and get them enjoying it in a matter of hours. With up to five people per team, you can always make space for an extra friend or even make a custom game if there's too many.

You can enjoy it alone, or with friends. Many a time I haven't had anyone available to play with me, so I just start up a game by myself. It's still a pleasure, albeit harder to win. Playing with friends however, is amazing fun.

Every match is different. No two games go exactly the same, there is so much diversity when it comes to building your team, even if both champion lineups are the same everything can change. Summoner spells, rune pages, play style, and more provides a guarantee that you will always see new things.

You can play casually and seriously. Once you've played plenty of games, it's very possible to play a normal game or dominion very nonchalantly, or a draft pick/ ranked when you feel like putting maximum effort in.

People you meet play. I am no longer surprised when I meet somebody new who already plays LoL. I just ask them to add me and we'll play sometime. It's amazing to meet somebody out during your daily business and discover they play the same game obsessively like you.

There is nothing pushing you to use the cash shop. So many MMO games have been ruined for me because of a game breaking cash shop. It's even worse when they rub it in your face, with a pop up every 10 minutes mentioning how you need to buy something. Riot games want you to know that you can play and access everything without spending a penny. If anything, that's more incentive to buy a skin.

You can always learn to play better. In a match with so many opportunities and a plethora of strategies to employ, you're guaranteed to notice how many chances you had to grab a kill or dodge some damage. It's rare to finish a game and think to yourself 'I played perfect that game, I couldn't have done anything better'.

Losing makes you want to try harder. We've lost plenty of matches, and afterwards we jump straight into another one with more determination to win. When you put on the tryhard boots, it can lead to some really intense games.

There is a lot of theorycrafting and lore. For those of you who love to read lore, there's enough to keep you busy. For the budding strategist, you could spend months planning team compositions, evolving your battle tactics for every possible situation. The meta is always changing, and keeping up is hard enough- never mind setting the trend.

Quitting does not have to be permanent. Once you decide to stop playing, you can leave League for months at a time. There's nothing demanding that you play for at least an hour a day, like a lot of current MMO games that require a certain amount of dedication. You can stop at one game, and not worry that you missed out because you didn't play ten.

You will never master every champion. Take this from me, I've played over 2000 games now and I'm proficient with every character and even exceptional with quite a few. I've only perfected my play on a handful. Trust me, you will never master every champion. Not even the best players in the world are arrogant enough to say that.

The meta-game is always evolving. With a new hero to play every two weeks, patch changes and player trends, the highest level of League play is always adjusting. No single champion will persistently be overpowered, since when it becomes popular- the counter for it will also become popular.

Although I'm sure this doesn't attribute to all the reasons I play LoL, I currently cannot think of what else to add. I think I've demonstrated a good multitude of reasons for my continued decision to play. Make sure to comment if you have something to add, or just if you agree!

Pulsefire Ezreal screenshots

Even the recall is different.

With my earlier post on Pulsefire Ezreal, I thought I'd follow up with some screenshots of his animations. This skin is very well animated and I think you'll like them if you haven't seen them already.

Don't fuck with Annie.

All of these images were taken in one match, it was a good game but we still lost to a fed Skarner and feeding Tryndamere. I really enjoy playing with Pulsefire, but I might stop until they fix the last hitting issue.

Upgraded Pulsefire looks more like a cyborg.

I really want to see more skins with custom animations like this, it really inspires people to buy them more. Clearly we should all spam Riot forums demanding more stuff like this, it worked for Pool Party Ziggs.

The dance is clearly the best part of the skin.

The dance as seen above is the best part by far, and I even use it to face check bushes for me, despite it pissing people off and usually getting me killed (if you have Pulsefire try it, and see how they focus you all game because of it).

If you like the skin, leave a comment and tell us why!

Pulsefire Ezreal

I've been playing a lot of Ezreal recently, one of my favorite champions. I've played him so many times I couldn't guess the total. The face time he's had at the season 2 tournament has demonstrated how truly powerful Ez can be and also managed to reestablish my motivation to play him.

A friend of mine bought me the Pulsefire skin upon release, due to it being half price. I love playing using it, although it feels a bit like boasting and puts me under pressure to do well every match. I do, for the most part.

The cannon seems a little bigger than ingame.

The morphing upon grabbing a new rank of your ultimate is really awesome, and I do hope Riot introduce a few more skins with the same amount of effort.

One issue I've noticed is once in a while a last hit appears not to go through only whilst using Pulsefire. This seems to be a minor issue but if people are truly missing a few last hits each game and precious gold, it is something that should be fixed immediately.

I feel kinda stupid having two skins for one champion.

I may or may not also own Frosted Ezreal as well. But I guess if I would have more than a single skin for a character, Ezreal would be my choice.

Anyone else share the love for our homo Ez? Or do you hate him and his stupid anime face?

Are 1v1 matches a good way to determine who is the better player?

I had this discussion with a couple of friends today, and it was a very contested debate. Some of us believe that under the right conditions, a one versus one game can dictate which player is superior. Whilst on the other hand, this evidence is not entirely definitive, it's possibly the best way to make a judgement on whom has the higher skill level.

In my opinion there is a way to have a feasibly close contest; albeit not entirely fair. First, both players choose the same champion. One that they both feel comfortable playing and confident on. Once you have selected this character, proceed to a game using your own decision on runes and summoner spells. I feel it would be a better competition if both champions are confined to one lane, just to make sure both players are consistently in contest with each other.

Since one match won't guarantee a certain result, the best of three to five games is ideally the best way to decide who is the overall winner.

My question to everyone reading this post is: what do you think is the best way to solve a dispute between two players? How would you stage a competition that would reliably prove which person is exceptional, and which is a baddie?

World Championships

So the season two World Championships are well under way with several matches already over. I watched a little of the games, some very high levels of play going on. I'm not really interested in these tournaments, but I suppose they warrant at least one post.

Here are the Group A scores so far for those interested:

Team	Wins	Losses
iG	2	1
Azubu	2	0
CLG.NA	1	1
SK	0	3

I'm surprised SK are doing so bad, I thought they were better. With the final worth $2 million, everyone is going to be putting on their tryhard caps.

Each team has a very pretty logo, you can even represent them with your summoner profile online. I wish I had more to say about the World Tournaments, but sadly I'd rather play myself instead of watch other people.

So what squad is your favorite?

I think I'll always play LoL

Despite being completely hooked on my new fetish, Guild Wars 2- I still somewhat reluctantly log onto League of Legends once every few days to play a couple of games with my friends. This draws the conclusion to me that I believe regardless of how bored I get of playing a match, LoL will always be a game I can return to.

I believe a lot of people do the same thing as me and play very casually, the only downside is your ability to win games and make successful moves deteriorates. I get beaten in my lane more often, and have to do what I can to mitigate the damage for my team come mid game.

All in all, I feel Riot have really created the god tier of Moba games. One that has no pull telling you that you have to play. A game that so many people play when you make a new friend, half the time they play League of Legends. I bond with a lot of people I barely know purely because they play the game and I say 'Hey, play a game with me sometime.'.

I think some sort of server transfer should be made easily available. So people can hop from NA to EU and you can always play with everyone you know. I currently cannot play with some of my friends because I don't want to start over again and lose all of my characters.

Anyway, make sure you all have a great time playing LoL folks, and remember there's nothing forcing to play. So take a break instead of raging.

That feel when a new champion tears your face off.

So after taking a short break from playing League of Legends, I return to Diana and Rengar. Such a nice way to welcome me back by stuffing two stupidly hard to deal with champions into the game. Riot are so wonderful, pumping out champions that are always above the bar to get you to splash out on some Riot points. At least they retain a semi-money-grubbing status instead of going full on EA games.

That feel.

Upon my first returning match of League, I pick Evelynn. As the loading screen appears, my friends decide to inform me that the opposing Diana and Rengar are going to eat me. Nothing I can do right? Blind pick, so I just have to suck it up and deal with it. I get dumped solo top against Rengar, with Diana ganking me every couple of minutes since level 2. Fun.

The worst part is not taking some time to research the new characters abilities before the match started. When you're up against somebody and you have no idea what kind of rape they will throw at you, sitting back and giving them some berth is the only logical option left. That, or play Yorick.

If you don't ward your own base, you're bad mkay.

Thank god they're giving Diana a nerf soon, her burst feels too high for someone with a fairly reliable shield ability. Getting hit by a fed Diana is more devastating than a fed Veigar or Leblanc, purely because you actually get to see Veigar and Leblanc actually land a couple of abilities on you before you die. With Diana, your screen goes grey and then the notification that she killed you appears.

As for Rengar, he's strong but looks quite balanced in the full scale of things. He has nice burst, a fair amount of utility and his clear speed looks pretty damn fast too. I haven't played against somebody who can use him properly yet though, so I shall reserve at least some judgement.

So what do you guys think about these two new champions? Balanced? Or stupid overpowered?