Fundamentals of League of Legends e-Sports - Sam

Fundamentals of League of Legends

Hey guys. In case you did not watch the LCS relegation matches, they were played recently in North America and Europe. Each of the lowest six LCS pro teams faced off against six of the best amateur league teams for a spot on the LCS as well as a guaranteed salary throughout the season.

Assuming you haven’t read Sean’s Dota 2 starter or have never played Dota before, here is a simple basic idea of how the game is played.

Three lanes, two bases, neutral jungle minions between the lanes and bases, and ten champions split into two teams. The only objective is to destroy the enemy team’s base.
                                 

                                   


Seem’s simple, right? It couldn’t be further from the truth. There are over one hundred champions in LoL, and each of them is unique. One may be able to sustain damage and disrupt enemy teams, but also may have little to no damage whatsoever for the first 50% of the game, while another may be able to eliminate an enemy player in 3 seconds, if only they can avoid getting also deleted within a few seconds from being caught out of position.

This leads into the metagame; which champion is best in what lane at what time? How can we defeat the enemy in the most efficient and simple way without being defeated as well? How can we catch them off guard before they catch us off guard?

Well, that in itself is the cornerstone of the League of Legends metagame, and in itself, the core of the LoL eSports scene. The ever shifting meta always guarantees that we have something new to watch, and that the ‘best teams’ in the world are also rotating.

Here is an example; one to two months ago South Korean team SK Telecom T1 K were without a doubt the greatest League of Legends team, with some still saying they still are the best team today. They came into this current season of OnGameNet Champions as not only the 2013 LoL World Champions, but also as winners of the last two OGN Championship tournaments. They had set a record in the last OGN, as they had not only become the first two time titleholder, but also as the first repeat winner, and the first team to have a perfect season, with a match score of 12-0.

Everything looked set to cement SKT as the first three time OGN winners as well. Their closest rival Samsung Ozone had a disastrous crash out of the previous World Championship as well as a mid lane player swap. Also, other rival KT Bullets were beset with changes, with top laner insec moving back to jungle position, Kakao, their current jungle, moved to their sister team, and a new a top laner being brought from their sister team to their current team. While insec had been praised for his famous jungling ability one year ago, the move to top, and the subseuquent move back to jungle had fans speculating how well they’d perform as well. Needless to say, SKTelecom were held as heroes in the Korean LoL scene, with even the Spring Season hyping them up in their intro videos, featuring them prominently.
                                     

                                   

This intro became both funnier and sadder after SKT got knocked out

Nothing could have been further from the truth. With small changes in the patch preceding the OGN season, jungle players suddenly became more empowered to make big plays ingame, while some midlane champions’ abilities and stats were scaled back slightly. While this may seem like a small change, it had big effects. SKT’s star was their mid laner Faker. His ability to play his normal champion pool was minimized, and his jungler could not adapt to the current metagame. Meanwhile, Samsung Ozone’s star player, jungle player DanDy suddenly resurged this season, working with his top laner Looper and mid laner Pawn to bring his team to the semifinals, where they currently await their match against their sister team, Samsung Blue.

So what can we learn from SK Telecom’s meteoric crash and burn scenario?

It’s simple. While League of Legends does award teams/players who perform well against current teams for a few tournaments, the highest rewards will always go to teams which have been able to adapt and change their play style.
                         

Next week I will discuss the semifinals of OnGameNet Champions Spring 2014 between sister teams Samsung Ozone and Samsung Blue, both playing at their peaks, set to play on the 2^nd of May.

~Sam~

Isys E-Sports - Dota 2 competition update and documentary !

First off, happy long weekend, Easter, uni break, 2 weeks off, holiday and Anzac Day… I think that covers all of them? Hope you were more productive than I was!

Secondly, this might not be directly related to Esports but it is a sport, bad luck to Liverpool last night against Chelsea, hopefully karma will come round for the double-decker wasting time parked bus that was Jose’s side last night.

 

Now, to E Sports!

There wasn’t much on in relation to Dota over the last 2 weeks as the majority of the main leagues going at the moment were on break / having catch up games for any that had been missed out. For those who are interested here are the official links to the 2 main leagues (that I follow) which are underway at the moment:

Star Ladder - http://dota2.starladder.tv/league (Na’vi 2nd)

DreamHack - http://www.dreamhack.se/dhs14/esport/dota2/ (Na’vi 6^th)

There are games that will be happening from the 4^th onwards which will be a good watch as we close down to the final couple of games in the season. I’ll be doing a blog either next week or the following (once the round has finished) regarding these results.

If you’re interested in the level of excitement that is in Dota 2 as an Esport have a look at the new documentary that was released called ‘Free2Play’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjZYMI1zB9s – 1 hour long documentary on the game.

Dota 2 is such a huge game it’s almost impossible to write down a tutorial or guideline for someone who isn’t familiar to follow. There’s so many factors and elements in the game that can effect a players experience that I felt it’d be better to show the basics from finding an appropriate video on YouTube that explains the game. You can find this video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXayKdseygg – 10 minute video on the ‘basics’

Another way for new players to get involved in the game and learn how to play is to actually log on and play for themselves. Dota 2 offers an in-game tutorial for players to get used to the game and help them come to terms with the vast amount of knowledge and skill required to play.

So until next week, GL and HF!

~~Sean

E-Sports & FIFA 14 - 25/4/14 - Chris

E-Sports & FIFA 14 – Chris

FIFA 14. One of the best selling games in console history and the most profitable EA Sports title, but how is it related to E-Sports? Let’s take a look.

Traditionally, the FIFA Football franchise has been analysed as a multiplayer game both online and offline. It is a game anyone and everyone can play. Whether you enjoy football in real life or if you’ve never kicked a ball, FIFA has always been a game for the mass market. But how can it get from there to a professional gaming environment?

FIFA has been an official game of the World Cyber Games since 2001. It is also represented in large regional competitions such as CPL Europe, the Electronic Sports League and World League eSport Bundesliga.

The FIFA 14 final of the 2013 World Cyber Games was contested by gamers, Hulk and Dexter. The gameplay can be seen in the link below.

Now that we can see that FIFA is considered as an E-Sports, let’s move onto the main focus of this blog post. FORMATIONS. You may have observed that both finalists used the 4-2-3-1 wide formation, the most common in online gameplay. Let’s try and figure out why.

In game, the 4-2-3-1 formation provides a great deal of balance, in both defense and in attack and has a strong focus on keeping the centre of the pitch compact while having wingers as an attacking outlet during counter-attacks.

The primary advantages of this formation are:

(1) The two CDM’s provide plenty of cover for the back four.

(2) One ball-winning and one creative passer can be paired together in the two CDM roles to allow for defensive solidarity and the start for quick counter-attacking play.

(3) Suits a possession-based short passing game.

Despite these positives, there are also some negatives, including:

(1) Striker can remain isolated if careful attention is not given to the work-rates of wide midfielders.

(2) LM and RM may be pegged back if opposition fullbacks continue to attack.

The diagrams below gives a thorough guide as to the optimum work-rates for all players in the 4-2-3-1 wide system as well as a possible team to use.

I have enjoyed talking you through my first blog post on FIFA E-Sports and the 4-2-3-1 wide formation. In next week’s blog post, I hope to cover some of the team tactics that can be used to improve your playing style. Thanks for tuning in and I hope to see you then!

~~Chris

Starcraft the start of Esports? David Lee-24/04/2014

Starcraft the start of E-sport?

What is star craft?

Star craft is a military science ficiton real time stratergy video game which was developed and publisehd by Blizzard Entertainment and was relased for Microsoft windows on March 31 1998. This real time stratergy game was a huge hit all around the world. It can be thought of as game that started a new era of gaming, this was the game that was responsible for creating the E sports industry. Starcraft can be thought of as mini war inside the compture.

 

 

 

 

 

Basically in the game there are 3 races



TERRAN

ZERG

PROTOS







Each race is very unique in nature, the fighting units created by each races and the buidling built by each races are really unique comparatively.
Another point to look really close to is that these unique characteritic of the game also leads unique tatics, and along with tactics, the control of the
mouse and keyboard creates determines professional to amature and this causes differnce of play style between the players.

Starcraft the start of Esports

There are different perspectives opinion is choosing the game which started E-sports but i think the start is Starcraft.

1. It is chosen as the best realt time stratergy game of all time by IGN(Imagine games network)
2. Ranked as 37 as Edges best 100 games of all time
3. Popularity resulted in starcraft in guiness world record 4 times, largest income in professional gaming, Largest audience for professional gaming 120,000 audience in south korea busan Finally best selling stratergy game
4. Best selling stratergy games

NOT JUST THIS STARCRAFT HAS OVERALL ONE OF THE WORLDS LARGEST COMPUTER AND VIDOE GAME COMPETITION IN TERSM OF PRIZE MOENY OVER
$4,000,000 PRIZE MOENY AWARDED IN TOTAL


Game play of NADA top terran professional

In Next blog post i will talk more deeply about the competition and top players involved

Isys E-Sports: CS:GO and the history of Counter-Strike's involvement in E-Sports by Hamid

A little bit about the History of Counter-Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO):

Counter-Strike:Global Offensive (CS:GO) is the fifth game from the Counter-Strike (CS) series which is developed by Valve Corporations. The game is a First Person Shooter (FPS) and has seen great light in the competitive E-Sports scene. CS:GO was released in 2012 and is the latest CS game to date. 
However, before the release of CS:GO, the Counter-Strike franchise had already sold over 25 million units (estimated in 2011), and the first release of the game had already taken over the competitive FPS scene of E-Sports by 2004.
As you can now imagine, it didn't take a long time before CS:GO came around to be considered as one of the most successful FPS in the E-Sports competitive global community. The game was very well anticipated since the Beta release, and has grown into what looks like a very promising future for FPS gaming in E-Sports. 
The success of CS:GO was almost a given; it was just a continuation of the fairy-tail success story of the Counter-Strike franchise. 

From Counter-Strike, to Counter-Strike:Source, to CS:GO; a series of screenshots portraying the backbones of what CS looks like today and how it compares to earlier versions:

How it all came about:

It all started back in 1999, when Counter-Strike was released as a modified version of Half-Life. The game received highly positive reviews ranging from The New York Times reporting that E-Sports Entertainment ESEA League started with the first professional fantasy E-Sports league in 2004 with the game Counter-Strike. 
Some reporters credit the move to professional competitive team play with prizes as a major factor in Counter-Strike's longevity and success. 
The success continued onto Valve's sequels to the game, CS:Condition zero and CS:Source which were both released in 2004 respectively. The competitive CS scene in the global community has been running strong from 2004 'til today, and is one of, if not the most successful FPS games series for E-Sports and competitive play specially.

In the next blog, I will be talking a little bit about the game-play in CS:GO, along with some information about the leagues, tournaments, teams and players which the anticipating CS player should know about. With this idea, I am aiming to give you a grasp of the skill level and competitiveness of CS:GO and how it has helped build E-Sports over the years.

League of Legends and eSports - 22/4/14 - Sam

League of Legends, in my biased opinion, would have to be the definitive eSport heading into this current decades rounds of competition.

(For information on how the game is played, League of Legends follows close-to the exact formula as Dota, so one can look to Sean's previous blog post for information.)

Simply put, they are carrying on from two successful competitive seasons of 2012 and 2013 on their shoulders, both with their own narratives and internal conflicts, all meshed together in one deeply strategic, yet simple on the surface, video game.
Who could forget the deep rivalry between the KT Bullets and SK Telecom T1 as the new blood in Korea, or how hard Team SoloMid tried to defend their hold on the North American scene against the rising Cloud 9 in the LCS?

Coming into the 2014 Season, shakeups have already been seen. The so called best team in the world was almost universally known to be SK Telecom, who had won both the summer season of OnGameNet champions, and the Season 3 World Championship. However, after going on an unprecedented 18 game win streak during the winter season, they proceeded to crash and burn in the spring season, being almost knocked out in the group stages, before being properly knocked out in the first rounds of the bracket. In America, top performing team Vulcun fell from a regular 3rd place to the last place. New teams such as Edward Gaming in China, Roccat in Europe and Najin Shield in Korea are going to make this season all the more interesting to watch for both first time viewers, and those who have been watching since the inception of League of Legends professional competitive circuit.

The global competitive circuit has five regions, each with their own competitive regional tournaments:
Korea: OnGameNet Champions, NiceGameTV LoL Battle
Europe: Riot EU League of Legends Championship Series, Riot EU Challenger Series
North America: Riot NA League of Legends Championship Series, Riot NA Challenger Series
China: Tencent League of Legends Proleague
South East Asia: Garena Premier League 

Each region eventually fields 2 to 3 teams based on regional success to feed into the World Championship at the end of the year, where the winner is crowned world champions and granted $1,000,000 in winnings.

Next week I will discuss the fundamentals of League of Legends and how they are applied, but for now I'll leave you with a game from the American Circuit of League of Legends, the NA LCS.

                                          

~~Sam

Isys Esports - Dota 2 - Sean Will - 21/04

Hello World! I'm Sean and my blogs will be focused on Dota 2 and it's relation to Esports!

What is Esports? The official definition is

“Electronic sports is a term for organized video game competitions, especially between professionals.”

Personally I think it’s a combination of things, passion, entertainment, competitiveness, online-gaming, sport, awards, winning, losing, fame, shame and so on.

Think of it like this, imagine this scene, the Olympics, thousands of people watching one event:

And this, the Dota international event:

 

My passion in Esports lies in the franchise of ‘DOTA’ thus my posts will be in relation to how current competitions are going, things I like and interests.

For those who are unaware of  Dota here’s a basic outline of the objectives in a game.

-          Two teams of 5 players

-          Each player can choose 1 ‘hero’ out of the possible 100+

-          The victor is declared when the other teams main base or ‘ancient’ is destroyed.

      -      In 'professional' games the winner is determined by best of '5' games in one session.

Seems simple enough right?

Wrong…. So very, very wrong…

Dota is reputedly (in the gaming-world) one of if not the hardest game to understand and get a hold of for a new player, this is because that these initial basic outlines are JUST the beginning. Think of it like someone's just told you that a game of Football has 11 players on each team and whoever has more goals wins, there's just so much more too it tactically.

I’m not going to be posting how to play dota and the mechanics etc, as there’s just so many and that’s not what my first post is going to focus on.

To get an idea, I’ve spent approximately 1000+ hours on Dota, somewhere around the 1200 mark, and I’d still say that I’m an ‘average’ player.

To finish off my first post, here’s a video clip from one of the most historic moments in Dota history in Esports.

It’s quite hard to understand whats happening to someone that isn’t familiar with the game, but to get a grasp on how competitive it is this is the highlights from the final game in the 2013 Internationals. The winner takes home $1.4million dollars.

This event had approximately 600,000 people attend, about 100,000 – 500,000 online via the Dota 2 broadcast and 1million + viewers on Twitch (An online-streaming website, essentially how gamers 'televise' their events at the moment... Unless you live in Korea and then it is ACTUALLY televised!) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA6PDHnye9k – Skip to 15:10 for the final moments of the final game

 ~~Sean