League of Legends LII: Sin of the Blind Monk

[Volatar]

The pool party skin concept arts have Lux in the background, but no actual skin for her. I am disappointed.

[NineThePuma]

Graves pool party skin has Ziggs, Renekton, Aatrox, 3 dudes in a pool (one of whom is probably garen).

Lee Sin pool party skin has Orianna and Nidalee

Leona has Taric, Lux, Ezreal, and Nami.

Renekton has Ziggs, Kha'Zix, Ryze, Teemo, what looks like a Turret, Gragas, Lulu, Urf, Ahri, and Zac.

Ziggs has Ahri, Diana, Leona, Katarina, Riven, Xin Zhao, Garen, Darius, Renekton, Yorick.

The loading screen includes Ahri, Lux, Morgana, New Champ and a champion with long black hair tied up in a braid that I can't place off the top of my head.

[Ivellius]

The loading screen includes Ahri, Lux, Morgana, New Champ and a champion with long black hair tied up in a braid that I can't place off the top of my head.

Given the goggles and skin tone, I'm guessing Vayne is the braided champion on the left.

[Godskook]

Given the goggles and skin tone, I'm guessing Vayne is the braided champion on the left.

Im about 99% sure that it is Vayne

[Volatar]

I haven't played LoL in a month and yet I still found myself logging in and computing how much RP I need to buy for Pool Party Leona.

I have a problem.

[Godskook]

I haven't played LoL in a month and yet I still found myself logging in and computing how much RP I need to buy for Pool Party Leona.

I have a problem.

Are you trying to say you're broke?

[tyckspoon]

Are you trying to say you're broke?

I have a similar problem. I require Pool Party Graves and Leona.

[brutii]

Renekton is pretty much the best Pool Party skin.

[TechnOkami]

Renekton is pretty much the best Pool Party skin.

I was going to contest your words, but....

...goddamit, I want a new laptop and I want money so I can buy this damn skin already.

[Forrestfire]

Yep, Renekton is the best right now.

[Olinser]

Im about 99% sure that it is Vayne

It is Vayne, she has the same braided hair style in her vanilla portrait.

What I CAN'T figure out is who the tattooed arm belongs to.

[Ashen Lilies]

If you're not using Leona to initiate fights, be it teamfights, duo lane fights, or less traditional solo lane fights, you're not using her to her full potential and you will fall behind. There's no real way around it; she's designed to always be looking for opportunities to engage.

Q is the strongest pick at level 1. It gives you unanswerable damage, and in a duo lane, you either kill the first ward or they facecheck your bush to take the Q from you, usually netting about half their health in damage. Then E lets you use that unanswerable damage even if they're avoiding a fight. After you've got the incredibly important utility from those two, only then can you max the W, which is the skill that you really want for tankiness and burst.

This skill order lets you be incredibly strong at levels 1, 2, and 3, instead of just 3. Leona does not do well late game if she doesn't do well early game, you need as many advantages as you can get. Only rarely should you deviate from the QEW->R>W>Q=E skill order.

He meant that he's not looking on advice on how to level Leona's skills, but on what order to actually use them in. In which case WEQR (or RWEQ) is pretty standard, but I agree with Nadevoc on using E before W (as well as pretty much everything else he said in that post) unless they're grossly out of position and landing your E after popping W is basically a certainty.

[McDouggal]

Guys, my interwebs have been intermittent for the past few days. According to Charter, it should be back online Soon(tm). Apparently, the whole area (As in, about 50 households) has been having trouble, and they haven't found what's making it happen. What I can post for the forseeable future will be from my phone, and League is a no-go area until it's fixed.

[NineThePuma]

I just had a dream where riot made a large dominion esque map where most of the map was scattered brush patches (with the understanding that the brush would slow you down moving through it?) and the objective was basically a combination of Slayer and Oddball. (For non-halo players, oddball is "grab an item, hold it to get points")

Also my cat worked at Riot and was Gold. I was incredibly frustrated by said cat.

[Lix Lorn]

What I CAN'T figure out is who the tattooed arm belongs to.

That's cause she hasn't been released yet.

[Nadevoc]

The tattooed arm is Vi, actually. You just don't see the tattoos in her splash arts or models due to the power fists.

[NineThePuma]

That's cause she hasn't been released yet.

This is true.

It being Vi has been shot down.

[Nadevoc]

It being Vi has been shot down.

I refuse to believe that, and Meddler's on my side.

Happy clouds and soothing pastel colors just fit Vi's personality too well for it NOT to be Vi.

EDIT: OGN is running a "LOL World Championship Season 3 Korean Team Special" with Ozone vs SKT T1, and it appears to be live from what I can tell? Anyone know what this is? Just a show match before the group matches start or something?

EDIT EDIT: Never mind, title's a liar, it's some older game with Blaze. No clue what's going on.

[ex cathedra]

The current game is the Champions Spring finals.

[Winthur]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Nadevoc]

Man. I had not realized there were so many Worlds games today.

Not really familiar with TSM's opponents (GamingGear.EU and OMG). From my extremely limited knowledge, I feel like they're relatively weak* which gives TSM a chance to finally get some success on the world stage.

I think the matches I'm really looking forward to are SKT v LemonDogs, Vulcan v Fnatic, and Gambit v. Ozone.

*For teams that made it to worlds. Meaning they're still pretty darn strong.


EDIT: Clearly my opinion on OMG was too low; the analysts are suggesting they're very strong.

[mrcarter11]

They teamfight really well, they know what they are doing and are generally able to execute things correctly to make the fight occur, nearly exactly how they want it to. A lot of people deem them as being top 3-5-ish in terms of teamfight strength. It helps that their laners are pretty good as well.

[Eldariel]

OMG was the winner of China; four months ago people though China would produce the world championship team. They stagnated but they're still really good.

This'll be the test of how they do internationally though I really look forward to Lemondogs vs SKTT1 (to see how Lemondogs stacks up internationally) and OMG vs SKTT1/Lemondogs today. I'm fairly certain those 3 are the teams that'll decide who advances (and honestly, SKTT1 advancing is kind of a foregone conclusion).

[Nadevoc]

Ah. Recently I've kept hearing about China being stagnant, and I guess that translated into my mind as not that great - so I figured the teams from China weren't that amazing compared to some of the other regions.

Riot's stage is really nice looking. They only show it during champ select, but I like the setup with face cameras of the players on the front of the desk and the champ portraits behind them cycling through greyed out champs, then locking into colored portraits as they get locked in. Doesn't affect anything, but it's always nice to see good production values.

TSM v GamingGear.EU just ended

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SoloMid took their first game pretty convincingly. The start was pretty even, then TSM just pulled way ahead. I think that's huge for TSM, since they can be a kind of hot/cold team. It also should give fans a bit of confidence in them, which is great because they really feed on the crowd.

SKT T1 v LemonDogs up next. This is one of the matches that I think is really going to help compare the regions and should be a great match.

[MCerberus]

So worlds

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edit- American team wins game in group stage. That's an improvement

[Eldariel]

TSM v GamingGear.EU just ended

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SoloMid took their first game pretty convincingly. The start was pretty even, then TSM just pulled way ahead. I think that's huge for TSM, since they can be a kind of hot/cold team. It also should give fans a bit of confidence in them, which is great because they really feed on the crowd.

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Honestly, if GamingGear wins a single game, it'll be a travesty. They didn't even qualify for the EU LCS. The only reason they're here is 'cause they were able to enter the International Wildcard Qualifier through Russian/CIS server or something and beat up Oceanian/Brazilian teams there.

If anyone from this group loses to a team that's not even relegation-level in EU, they shouldn't be here. Harsh but that's how it is. This should kinda be extended to Mineski too; they're just way less developed as a LoL scene. Honestly, Mineski and GamingGear are like the byes of each group, and them winning even a single game would be a huge upset.

[Olinser]

Ah. Recently I've kept hearing about China being stagnant, and I guess that translated into my mind as not that great - so I figured the teams from China weren't that amazing compared to some of the other regions.

Riot's stage is really nice looking. They only show it during champ select, but I like the setup with face cameras of the players on the front of the desk and the champ portraits behind them cycling through greyed out champs, then locking into colored portraits as they get locked in. Doesn't affect anything, but it's always nice to see good production values.

TSM v GamingGear.EU just ended

Spoiler

Show

SoloMid took their first game pretty convincingly. The start was pretty even, then TSM just pulled way ahead. I think that's huge for TSM, since they can be a kind of hot/cold team. It also should give fans a bit of confidence in them, which is great because they really feed on the crowd.

SKT T1 v LemonDogs up next. This is one of the matches that I think is really going to help compare the regions and should be a great match.

Spoiler

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The game really took a sharp dive in TSM's favor at that dragon fight. TSM picked up a kill, and GamingGear just threw good money after bad and gave up 2 more kills trying to stop them from getting dragon. After that point, the game just slowly tilted more and more in TSM's favor.

[Nadevoc]

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Honestly, if GamingGear wins a single game, it'll be a travesty. They didn't even qualify for the EU LCS. The only reason they're here is 'cause they were able to enter the International Wildcard Qualifier through Russian/CIS server or something and beat up Oceanian/Brazilian teams there.

If anyone from this group loses to a team that's not even relegation-level in EU, they shouldn't be here. Harsh but that's how it is. This should kinda be extended to Mineski too; they're just way less developed as a LoL scene. Honestly, Mineski and GamingGear are like the byes of each group, and them winning even a single game would be a huge upset.

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I definitely agree that GG.EU is one of the weaker teams, but I didn't want to write them off. There have been teams that come out of nowhere and dominate; Gambit did it back when they were M5. And C9 was nowhere in the spring split, then absolutely DOMINATED the summer split in NA. Yeah, it's a case of a team that failed to qualify then came back one split later and was very competitive.

Given that TSM got a very solid win on them, I expect GG.EU to just completely flounder. The rest of Group A is huge: SKT T1, LemonDogs, and OMG. And I suspect that by the time they play TSM again, they'll be too demoralized to seize their best opportunity at a win.

Not familiar with Mineski, but I could see them picking up at least one win against Vulcun if they can get a few picks on Zuna.

SKT and LemonDogs are about to start with Nukeduck on Swain!

Also, to those who have followed the OGN for awhile: I remember the commentators saying at one point that one of the Korean ADCs first made his name on how fast his reaction times were on Cleanse. During the game they were talking about it, I could see why; he was getting out of stuns so fast it didn't even register to me. I want to say it was either Piglet or Score. I'm wondering because we've got Piglet on Vayne with Cleanse against a team that seems focused on CCing him to death.

[Eldariel]

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I definitely agree that GG.EU is one of the weaker teams, but I didn't want to write them off. There have been teams that come out of nowhere and dominate; Gambit did it back when they were M5. And C9 was nowhere in the spring split, then absolutely DOMINATED the summer split in NA. Yeah, it's a case of a team that failed to qualify then came back one split later and was very competitive.

Given that TSM got a very solid win on them, I expect GG.EU to just completely flounder. The rest of Group A is huge: SKT T1, LemonDogs, and OMG. And I suspect that by the time they play TSM again, they'll be too demoralized to seize their best opportunity at a win.

Not familiar with Mineski, but I could see them picking up at least one win against Vulcun if they can get a few picks on Zuna.

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GG.eu doesn't come out of nowhere tho. They played the qualifiers for EU LCS and didn't make it in. That should speak volumes of their power. And Mineski? They're kinda like Saigon Jokers; from a scene with basically no competition. If Vulcun manages to lose to them, that'll be wrong.

[Olinser]

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I definitely agree that GG.EU is one of the weaker teams, but I didn't want to write them off. There have been teams that come out of nowhere and dominate; Gambit did it back when they were M5. And C9 was nowhere in the spring split, then absolutely DOMINATED the summer split in NA. Yeah, it's a case of a team that failed to qualify then came back one split later and was very competitive.

Given that TSM got a very solid win on them, I expect GG.EU to just completely flounder. The rest of Group A is huge: SKT T1, LemonDogs, and OMG. And I suspect that by the time they play TSM again, they'll be too demoralized to seize their best opportunity at a win.

Not familiar with Mineski, but I could see them picking up at least one win against Vulcun if they can get a few picks on Zuna.

SKT and LemonDogs are about to start with Nukeduck on Swain!

Also, to those who have followed the OGN for awhile: I remember the commentators saying at one point that one of the Korean ADCs first made his name on how fast his reaction times were on Cleanse. During the game they were talking about it, I could see why; he was getting out of stuns so fast it didn't even register to me. I want to say it was either Piglet or Score. I'm wondering because we've got Piglet on Vayne with Cleanse against a team that seems focused on CCing him to death.

The Swain pick ended exactly as I predicted:

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Lemondogs simply did not have the damage to teamfight against SKT. They essentially had 3 tanks - Malphite, Vi, Swain, but Corki was their only real damage dealer. Lemondogs were essentially banking on being able to draw the game out until their tanks could get huge, but SKT had the damage to take them all down.