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.
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 2nd of May.
~Sam~
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