League of Legends: NA's chances at being Champions

What an amazing weekend this was, the battles on the rift were so crazy I'm still utterly speechless.

 

Writing once again from the land of apple pie and freedom, I'm bringing you an end of the week wrap up and some thoughts about both NA's chances at Worlds.

Group A (Samsung White, Edward Gaming, AHQ, Dark Passage).
Group B (TSM, Star Horn Royal Club, Taipei Assassins, SK Gaming).
Group C (Samsung Blue, OMG, Fnatic, LMQ).
Group D (Alliance, Cloud9, Najin White Shield, Kabum Gaming).

The eternal question of which region is better NA or EU I think has been solved during the most recent World's Group Stages. Both NA hopefuls have made it out of group stages while EU's respective No.1 and No.2 seeds have both been knocked out.

Quick Roundup

 Rounding out this week, In Group C Samsung Blue showed exactly how dominant Koreans are only dropping one game to Fnatic. Similarly OMG starting off the week 0-2 showed exactly how much determination and some quick fixes can go a long way in securing the second spot in Group C.

In Group D Najin White Shield limped through to secure first, dropping a PERFECT game to EU's Alliance and one to NA's Cloud 9. Cloud 9's week has been tough overall but they secured the second spot by beating Najin White Shield once and losing in the tiebreaker for first.

What are TSM and C9's chances at worlds?

Both, rather slim unfortunately. I'd hate to say it but Cloud 9 looked really bad in the group stages. Yeah they came out ahead and even beat Najin White Shield, but, to be honest Hai dropped a lot of stupid kills in every game and Meteos's jungle pathing has been lackluster if not predictable. I understand that Hai is C9's only shot caller but if the midlaner can't perform then Dade will surely overtake him. Balls should be able to trade evenly with Acorn, but, post lane phase Acorn seems to currently have more of an impact in teamfights. When Balls falls behind though he can't seem to recover so that may be another thing C9 has to watch out for. If they don't fix these issues I envision a tough time against Korean powerhouse Samsung Blue.

What Cloud 9 need to do if they desire to survive:

• Sneaky needs to focus on playing more aggressively we've seen him get bullied out lane and lose plenty of trades in the laning phase, resulting in lower CS. This really shouldn't happen as LemonNation has really been stepping up and delivering some key aggression on to the enemy carry. There may also need to be some champion pool expansion as the most promising games he's played has been on Corki and Lucian. Both of which tend to fall off toward the end game compared to champions like Tristana; his one Tristana game was also really lackluster.
• Meteos needs to diversify his jungle pathing and become more efficient. I've seen him waste a lot of time deciding which lane to put pressure on or get caught in predictable jungle pathing. He'll also need to step up his lane presence as the meta continues to shift away from him being able to farm.
• Hai needs to clean up his post laning phase. He's usually able to keep even during lane phase. Throughout the games played in group stages, he has been making some really uncharacteristic roams and dives post laning phase. Some of which you'd ask why even try? This has put his team farther behind when they're already losing. In tow with Sneaky, Hai may need to expand his champion pool as he's been target banned a few times. Majority of his best performances has been on Zed, but, against Koreans, they may not let him have it.
• LemonNation had some issues with positioning in laning otherwise he's doing well. If he can fix his laning issues and trade more efficiently they have a better shot. Improving
• Balls has been doing consistently throughout he'll need to get some more Korean Solo-Q time though as he has been prone to early ganks and once he loses lane Balls becomes rather irrelevant going forward. 

If you haven't read the article on TSM I've included the link here. Pretty much all of what has been said holds true. Comparing the two teams, C9 has played stronger opponents but performed poorer. While on the flip side TSM has played no Korean teams, but, has performed better. It's tough to say if the Korean team really made a difference as NJWS has looked about as strong as SHRC if only marginally stronger. Bjergsen has also made less potential game losing errors than Hai. While TSM's problems may seem more serious, I feel like they have a better shot, as Hai has really been under-performing on everything but Zed. As their main shot caller and midlaner this is definitely going to impact their upcoming games.

IF C9 fix all their issues and play perfectly. If Dade and Deft don't show up like they did against Fnatic then C9 has a 40-60 shot at making it out of quarterfinals.

Included below are videos of all of C9's games.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Tiebreaker

League of Legends Group A/B Recap; TSM's Chances at Worlds

This week's group stage at worlds has been intense. Group A (Samsung White, Edward Gaming, AHQ, Dark Passage) and Group B (TSM, Star Horn Royal Club, Taipei Assassins, SK Gaming). Teams have laughed, cried, and struggled to grab a position in the quarterfinals.

Writing from the country of Apple Pie and Freedom I'm here to bring you an end of the week wrap up and some thoughts about TSM's chances at the Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and Finals.

At the end of the week, in Group A, Samsung White and Edward Gaming have secured their spots for the Quarterfinals. In Group B, Star Horn Royal and Team Solo Mid have secured their respective spots as well. Arguably each team, with the exception of SSW has fought hard to qualify for their quarterfinals spots with fairly decisive performances all around in Group A; SSW and EDG  are definintely leading the charge as we move forward into quarterfinals. Showing that they have a command of the game and revealing little of their secrets to other competitors. However, SHR and TSM have put on equally powerful performances showing the home crowd of Taiwan why they deserve to go over TPA.

TSM's Chances at Worlds: After watching some of the games below you begin to understand exactly what kind of shot NA has at becoming the champions, that is, a very slim one. Granted the additions of Locodoco and Lustboy have been beneficial to TSM, the entirety of NA has what I feel been in a slump. Wildturtle has been hit or miss on all picks except Tristana. Bjergerson while having definitely stepped up still has yet to fully master the primary shot-caller role, apparent in their last game against SK Gaming. Amazing has roughly two and a half champions he can really perform on. While Dyrus has also stepped up, he can be prone to tilting; apparent in his first game against SHR.

So while their showing in group stages was a strong one. They have a long way to go before beating SSW who they're matched against first in the quarterfinals.
What TSM needs to do if they intend to survive:

• Get Wildturtle to master one other champion so he isn't completely shut down. Laning phase needs to be buffed or else Mata and Imp will most likely destroy them. 
• Bjergerson needs to be able to focus; more embracing of the shot callers role so that he isn't as distracted when out of lane. Granted he's probably equal or better then PawN in Solo-Q, PawN operates much better since he doesn't have to shot call since DanDy and Mata have picked that up.
• Dyrus needs to play more games in Korean Solo-Q to prevent him from going on tilt against high jungle pressure and mechanical outplays.
• Amazing needs to expand champion pool greatly. His two best performances are on Lee Sin and Lee Sin. Seriously I can't quite recall other champions he has had good success on, other than a mildly impressive Nunu in LCS.
• They have to run some strategy's against SSW. Locodoco should be watching OGN footage to figure out where Samsung White excel currently and tailor plans for Dyrus and Bjergerson especially. Since more likely than not Wildturtle will be the chink in the TSM armor SSW will try to exploit.

Even after doing all of the above the chances of TSM winning are still only 40-60 in my opinion, mechanically SSW is far more sound than TSM still. But, we've all seen dark-horses win before at worlds. I'm looking at you TPA.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Feel free to comment below on your thoughts and feelings of where TSM stands and how much you'll be screaming your head off if they beat the Korean team SSW.

Svenskeren's Suspension

Broken dreams are kicking off the World Championships this year. Earlier in the day Svenskeren was suspended by Riot, here's the official statement from Riot: Svenskeren Ruling

Below are some images of the offending name change.

I wasn't born in Taiwan, but, I am Chinese and have been to Taiwan with my family many times. I can tell you now that I am a little cheesed that Svenskeren was so racially insensitive. But, that isn't my main gripe. It's that he did it both as a professional and on purpose. If you're a professional at anything whether it be a batter, a shout caster, or even a CEO you should always be aware of what you say and do. If you're going to be a public figure you should act accordingly. I get it players need to blow off steam and have fun, hell even I'm racially biased sometimes. Here's the clincher don't do it in public, you can have an opinion, even vocalize it. Just don't get caught.

The biggest problem with this is the community partially defending Svenskeren. I say partially because they believe the ruling was fair, but should have been postponed. Wake up call people, Svenskeren is a part of SK Gaming, he is responsible for his actions as a pro player. Defenders of SK Gaming believe Riot was in the wrong for punishing the entire team so close to the start up of the Championships by removing their star jungler. If a team can't control a single player's actions, then they should be punished respectively as entire team. Just because they're a starting player doesn't mean they should receive special treatment so that they can have a shot at being Champions.

Just think of the news headlines if they won, Racially Insensitive Player leads team to Victory. Not only would that hurt Riots reputation for allowing it to pass. But, it hurts SK Gaming's reputation for allowing such a player to represent them.

Please post your opinions on this topic below. I'll answer any questions and even hold a reasonable debate if you'd like.

Destiny- GOTY, Possibly?

I might be giving praise too early and where it's unwarranted but over the course of the last 36+ hours I have systematically played through almost all of the story, as well as almost reaching the lvl 20 soft cap (currently lvl 19). I have fallen in love with the game literally. We've even had our first lover's quarrel where I threw my controller down in protest.Sit down, grab some popcorn and enjoy you're in for one hell of a review. (A long one at that)

Story: Eh? Well it's not bad, but I'm not a fan. Why am I not a complete fan you ask? Because, it feels and sounds like medieval space war. I mean for Christ's sake we have the main guidance and speaker refer to impending evil as the "Darkness" couldn't you have come up with something better than that Bungie? Then we also have this weird sense of hey let's include lines like "That Wizard came from the moon," "an evil more evil than all other evils." It feels poorly written in that sense. Hell even some levels reflect some weird medieval space theme (Hive bridges look like old metal rope bridges). Here's what I love about the lore. The integrated Grimoire cards. Seriously in a game that would otherwise be devoid of good lore these bit-sized pieces of story are easy to digest and add tons of depth to a rather ambiguous story and cliche trope. It's far from a perfect 10, I was actually expecting more from the Destiny story team since they gave us Halo. The lore there is vast wide and encompassing with a solid future feel. Here I feel like I'm taking a trip to a distant past before "humanity" as we know it ever existed.  7/10

Gameplay: Some of the best and worst of this game are here. My opinions have also changed within the last 36+ hours. The best part of this game is the leveling mechanic. It's simplistic yet enjoyable giving you a 2 tiered tree to grow you character. Eventually you'll max everything but the growth period is a fun one. It ties both the story and multiplayer customizations to one tree which I find quite attractive since it prevents me from having to replay the multiplayer to unlock "perks". Similarly, I find this system enjoyable for weapons; finding legendary and exotic weapons in the story is already a pain in the butt, I wouldn't really want to have to unlock them again in multiplayer.

Questing feels intuitive but unfortunately repetitive I often find myself on patrol missions redoing missions and hearing the same audio log twice. That's alright since there's a limited amount of data but, It wouldn't hurt to have different audio logs. On the note of repetition is where this game fails the hardest. There's this sort of rinse and repeat method of facing bosses and doing strike raids. That all result in the same tired mechanic of being trapped with a boss in this tiny room running in circle while doing tiny damage. I get it bosses are supposed to be tough but the problem I have here is the boss fights all feel the same. They need to vary this up with future dlc patches. Like instead of just running around dealing damage. Give bosses some actual mmo type skills force players to dodge one hit KO skillshots. (Even though I hate this mechanic in other MMOs I feel like destiny needs to spice things up)

The weapons system isn't perfect either, it's simplistic and intuitive, but, It feels dumb at the same time. You upgrade weapons and add stats by giving resources. But, that's all there is to upgrading weapons. I don't feel good about it since ultimately I'm not customizing my weapon I'm just enhancing it with powerups making it feel like any old MMO. I wish Destiny had taken the Ghost Recon method of guncrafting and employed it in their game. Would have fit the theme and deepened the weapons systems.

Overall the gameplay is still very solid. Character classes all feel unique, with uniquely fun subclasses. Shooter mechanics are rock solid and incredibly balanced although some weapons feel wholly overpowered in multiplayer coughshotguncough. For producing a solid experience with only real faults regarding repetitive gameplay, the game still garners a score of 8/10.

Graphics: Mmmm. The graphics for a console exclusive game right now these are quite fantastic. Defininently living up to the next gen hype. Water effects respond correctly and crisply. Textures are well done and models while limited are impressive. Here's where I have the most problem with the graphics, the models are SOOOOOO limited. I played the beta and was like, oh ok these are just choices for beta hopefully they'll have more for live. Eh, not really, what we saw in character models from the beta was basically what we got with a few improvements to overall character design. Hairstyles are extremely, limited to short styles with very little emphasis on future. Seriously cornrows? I'm pretty sure we all evolved out of that hairstyle ages ago. The facial animations and everything are fine but customization being limited and what not really made me sad. I was expecting to get something just a little less than Mass Effect level customization. Hell we couldn't even customize the height of our character and how hard is that? Sorry Jason, I lied at GDC, promising good reviews :(. That being said the models that are in the game are all incredibly well done. The animation doesn't break any of the characters and 90% of the time you don't even see your hair or face so it's ok. 

Environments feel varied and lush with nothing feeling overly repetitive (Thank the stars). Unfortunately "dungeons" tend to be repetitive, but it actually ties in with the lore so I'm not so critical of this. Enemy types and models are extremely well done with lots of differentiation and easily extinguishable characteristics.

Giving us extremely well polished characters and environments while skimping out on some really good possible additions I give Graphics a solid 8/10. (Jason I will give you a better score if you guys give us more cosmetic options in future DLC, Longer hair, more markings,etc...)

Sound: I quite love the soundtrack. It brings me into each fight and makes me feel like I'm a certified alien killing badass. Gun firing sound FX reel could use some more variation. (I'm hoping that will improve with more weapons via DLC). Environmental Sound FX are amazing and I'm pretty sure I shit myself whenever I face the Hive. Those ear piercing shrieks are terrifying in the dark. Explosions sounds powerful and commanding and all minute details for reloading and masterfully done.

Seriously also having a commercial with Led Zeppelin totally awesome, amiright?

The sound department gets a 9/10 for almost perfect audio and including a led zeppelin song in the commercials.

Overall the game as an entire package only scores a 8/10 right now, still pretty solid if you ask me. With future DLC this awaits to be seen as it could fix some of my complaints. This game is a definite must have for all next gen console owners. Waiting to see how it pans out over the course of the next "10 years" will be a pleasure all its own.


Social System: For a game that wanted people to do co-op and interact and as an MMO aficionado I find this area rather lacking, but it doesn't factor into my score. I wanted to state it's incredibly difficult to communicate with other players and find friends and instead of being a social game played with others, I've found myself burning through the story alone. That in itself is troubling. There needs to be a system of communication available for players to easily interact with one another, if not in the actual maps then at least at the Guardian's Tower (The only main "town" in an MMO). Especially as the game gets harder and harder.

Destiny Ghost Edition Unboxing

Yup I was lucky enough to get one of these CE editioned Destiny games. Man is it sweet. You can check out the video and be a little bit jealous here on youtube.

 As always I'll try to get a review up soon.

MonteCristo steps down from coaching

I'm sure this isn't really new news, I'm about to bet it's been floating on reddit for a few days now. But, we've been informed of Monte's retirement from the CLG coaching scene. 

MonteCristo is stepping down as the coach of CLG. It became quite apparent during the LCS/playoffs that CLG needed an in-house coach among other things. While Monte has done plenty in pushing CLG forward not being available during key periods makes helping as a coach nearly impossible. The result? Relegation for CLG.

LCS isn’t the same scene it was two years ago, today the players need to work almost around the clock to stay at the top of their game.  Two years ago at the very birth of the League competitive scene  it seemed ridiculous to hire a coach or analyst. But in today’s scene a coach/analyst are so vital; they provide support and guidance that players sometimes can't recognize. Reginald has been outspoken about Monte’s coaching and has made this video in response.

Reginald's video points out the key problems with not having an on-site coach. Having raised TSM to the organization that it is, Reginald, I'm sure knows the pains of managing too many things at once. His Season 3 performance at world was lackluster at best. Reginald points to the fact that it isn't Monte's ability but the distance he has with his players (Quite literally continents).

Monte is a highly profiled analyst in E-sports and is highly qualified. The problem isn’t his ability, the problem is that he is a full time analyst/shoutcaster for OGN.

Monte had this to say :
“For the past year I’ve served as the coach for CLG, and it’s been an honor to work with the team in the thick of the LCS. However, as time went on it became increasingly clear that the organization requires an in-house coach and that I could not fulfill the needs of the players as long as I pursued my work in casting. Since I am choosing my career as an analyst over a full-time position with CLG in 2015, I feel that it is necessary to step back from my role as coach immediately. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Counter Logic Gaming and wish the team, the staff, and George the best of luck in the future.”

Good luck to CLG in all their future games and here's my opinion on Monte's situation.
Most of what has been said is true and I agree with it. Monte's way too far away, no one, even in regular sports coaches from continents away. It's just not doable. That being said people criticizing Monte's talent as a coach/analyst/shoutcaster need to back off he has the credentials for it. If anyone has ever watched any sports analyst I'd say Monte stacks up quite nicely in his particular field.