League of Legends XXXII: Cupcakes and Kittens and Squirrels. Oh my!

[Math_Mage]

Dyrus pillow new meme

I notice most teams are giving red buff to their AD ranged carry. Is this considered the norm? I thought it was normally given to top or jungle because it's more effective on melee.

When I'm the ranged AD, I take the redbuff because it's much easier for me to apply.

When I'm the bruiser, I take the redbuff because I'm just greedy like that.

[Mirrinus]

It depends. A lot of solo top bruisers build Frozen Mallet, and so red buff loses a bit of its unique utility. But I usually just give it to whoever is more convenient.

[Mtg_player_zach]

Regi-bro and Odd-bro commanded that game. Such dominance over map control and getting Dyrus fed on top. Shyvana doing Shyvana things. Though, I will have to say I was very impressed with Nocturne's play, and I think not banning Noct was a bad decision.

[ex cathedra]

Mundo and Nocturne just dominating jungle picks this series, and it's not surprising. There's no reason to pick Shyvana when you can pick Mundo, and there's no reason to pick a counterjungler when you the enemy has Mundo. Nocturne is hard to counterjungle, doesn't rely on counterjungling, has powerful ganks, and is anti-kog'maw. Why pick anyone but those two, considering the strength of Lee Sin's laning?

Also, I'd like someone to double check for me but I'm fairly certain that every time Kog'Maw lost a game he wasn't paired with Janna. Just sayin'.

How hard does Lee Sin fall off? Is that "he doesn't scale as much as most tops" or "he just doesn't scale well" deal? I finally own LS and know he's a really common jungle, so I'm wondering if he doesn't scale well there, either.

Taric keeps his stun + auras so I don't feel like he scales *that* poorly. It's true that Corki isn't a super strong late game AD carry, though.

Lee Sin needs to get really ahead or he needs to get a ton of farm to retain his presence lategame. Generally, though, he's relegated to providing minor disruption and his lategame teamfighting is just decidedly underwhelming compared to the strength of his midgame skirmishing.

As far as Taric goes, lategame Support scaling is absolutely and entirely based upon the amount of utility they bring. Taric gives his team decent numbers, but his stun doesn't compare well to lategame supports like Janna who provide things that are much, much more valuable than just additional numbers.

[toasty]

As a taric main: Taric is the worst late game Support. Even Soraka is better. Even Sona is better. Sona, is, btw, probably the worst overall support right now.

Taric's burst isn't useful and his auras don't do... enough (which is good, if they did more he'd be OP for the amount of free stats he could gain and everyone would build him bruiser/tankydps). His stun is good, but its not alistair.

I love Taric. I think Taric is very viable. I think that he's terrible late game.

Sadly I wasn't able to watch most of the last game cuz I was talking to parents on skype. I'm glad that TSM won. I'm excited that the finals are TSM v CLG.

[ex cathedra]

I guess that I'll cave to community demand and share the following with you all:

IPL4 KPOP TIERLIST INITIATE:
Bubble Pop Tier:
Bubble Pop - Hyuna
Tier 1:
Roly Poly - T-ara (is actually probably ABBA)
A - Rainbow
Good Day - IU
Tier 2:
You & I - IU (this also is probably just ABBA)
Love is MOVE - Secret
Tier 3:
Whoz that Girl - Exid
MaBoy - Sistar19

[fred dref]

Interesting that overwhelmingly, I'm seeing Janna and Taric as the two supports. Janna seems to be almost always the first pick.

[Nadevoc]

<Snipped to: Nocturne having a really strong jungle showing this tourney>

Nooooooooooo! As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, Noct's my go-to jungler and has been for awhile. And it seemed like very few other people have been running him. Which sorta worried me, but I'd never been yelled at for picking him. And now I worry that I'll either have competition for the pick, or he'll get nerfed. At least now I've learned Naut as a second jungler...

Even Sona is better. Sona, is, btw, probably the worst overall support right now.

No, I hate you and Sona is still awesome >.>

[ex cathedra]

Interesting that overwhelmingly, I'm seeing Janna and Taric as the two supports. Janna seems to be almost always the first pick.

Probably because they both have strong interactions with Kog'Maw, Urgot, and Corki, rather than just their respective strengths.

[TFT]

So, aspiring supports, 2 bits of advice:

1. If the enemy support or ad has really strong poke, for the love of [Insert Deity Here] don't give them bush control for the first 5 levels. It zones out the ad carry so hard.

2. Ward early, ward often. Seriously. If you don't have a ward down at nearly all times and aren't trying to get it down early game, don't have 2-3 wards down at nearly all times and aren't trying to figure out how to get those wards down mid-game, and 5ish wards by late-game at all times(With oracles sometime in the mid-game), you are doing it wrong. GP10s and GP10 seals are your friends, and wards are infinitely better then the support have anything but gp10 and maybe some auras at any point in the game. (Ending 20 minutes with 2 gp10 and boots and 30 minutes with maybe 1-2 auras or support items isn't uncommon.)

Not following those pieces of advice have lost me and other supports more games then I can count. Early ganks, dragon and buff control, and bush control are huge. Those 2 steps can help with or against all of those.

Edit: And if you ever see me not doing either of those things as support, call me out on it. I fail to do them sometimes too .

[Dogmantra]

double bunny lane OP

nerf now

(Teemo is so much fun if you get someone on the enemy team who is a Teemo enthusiast and you banter back and forward :D )

[Eldariel]

double bunny lane OP

nerf now

(Teemo is so much fun if you get someone on the enemy team who is a Teemo enthusiast and you banter back and forward :D )

Riven & Nidalee?

[Qaera]

Riven & Nidalee?

I would guess Teemo since she mentioned Teemo.

~ ♅

[Fearan]

I would guess Teemo since she mentioned Teemo.

~ ♅

Yeah. Probably, Easter bunny skin

edit: Err, but what's so OP in Riven&Teemo?

[Eldariel]

I would guess Teemo since she mentioned Teemo.

~ ♅

I am aware but I wanted to point out Snow Bunny Nid and Bunny Girl Riven.

[Dogmantra]

It was Bunny Riven + Bunny Teemo.

We got kinda hilariously stomped but only because Kassadin kept ganking us. He was a real hoopy frood though. We were chatting the whole game. Good times.

[HalfDragonCube]

I just had an... interesting game of 5v5 PvP. Three people in my team all decided they wanted to jungle. Result: An hour's worth of flame war and three (all virtually useless) junglers. Yeah... Standard matches in ELO hell is not much fun.

In other news, it would appear that Riot are going to fix that poison glitch on Teemo and buff him.

*dusts off Teemo*

Let's give this lil' fluffly avatar of death another try.

[toasty]

Probably because they both have strong interactions with Kog'Maw, Urgot, and Corki, rather than just their respective strengths.

It might simply be the fact that with Soraka banned and Nunu kinda ... not the greatest support (good, fun, but situational) Taric is just in general a better support.

Alistair is a better jungler most of the time and his laning presence is situational with most heroes.

[Eldariel]

It might simply be the fact that with Soraka banned and Nunu kinda ... not the greatest support (good, fun, but situational) Taric is just in general a better support.

Alistair is a better jungler most of the time and his laning presence is situational with most heroes.

Nunu is an amazing support for ASpd champs tho (Kog, Vayne, Kennen); the ASpd difference he generates on lane is just obscene and that's very hard to offset. Seems NA teams run him less though (at least here in IPL4), which kinda surprises me. His ultimate is also massively powerful midgame.

Also, Lulu & Soraka bans = hilarity

[Arbitrarity]

THOSE SPEARS
white noncaps edited in

[Math_Mage]

CLG picks five kiting champs, Dignitas picks three champs that get kited all day and another champ that does nothing when teammates are kited. So outpicked, so outplayed.

[ex cathedra]

HotshotNidaleeGG.
But in all seriousness Jiji/Chauster did some major work.
Man, this point in League's competitive career is so weird. So many teams are just pulling out gimmick (not that there's anything wrong with it, just a good descriptor) comps and stomping people who don't have answers prepared.

It might simply be the fact that with Soraka banned and Nunu kinda ... not the greatest support (good, fun, but situational) Taric is just in general a better support.

Yeah, uhm, probably not, no.

Nunu is an amazing support for ASpd champs tho (Kog, Vayne, Kennen); the ASpd difference he generates on lane is just obscene and that's very hard to offset. Seems NA teams run him less though (at least here in IPL4), which kinda surprises me. His ultimate is also massively powerful midgame.

Nunu's really great but his main issue, I think, is that he can't stop Nocturne et al from just killing Kog'Maw. An increasingly large amount of top laners have been learning/practicing Poppy and if you pick her into Kog'Maw + pretty much anyone who isn't Janna I think Kog'Maw is going to have some super serious issues.

[fred dref]

ARAB Riot vs. Pros?



EDIT: Both the gimmick comps upstaging established strategies and relatively unknown teams stomping higher level ones is mimicking the early development of Starcraft Brood War.

[Duos]

Dyrus and Nhat Nguyen on the same champ.

One on keyboard, one on mouse.

I knew there was a reason I liked these guys.

[Eldariel]

Nunu's really great but his main issue, I think, is that he can't stop Nocturne et al from just killing Kog'Maw. An increasingly large amount of top laners have been learning/practicing Poppy and if you pick her into Kog'Maw + pretty much anyone who isn't Janna I think Kog'Maw is going to have some super serious issues.

Soraka's even tougher than Janna for Poppy. That said, it's not Nunu's job alone. Noc is kind of a counter to Kog but even then, if e.g. Kog breaks the spellshield, the ASpd reduction kinda ****s on Noc as does the AOE slow and targeted slow. And in general, Nunu just disrupts the enemy team to a ridiculous degree.

[Mutant Bunny]

I hate Volibear.

Who counters him?

[ex cathedra]

I hate Volibear.

Who counters him?

In lane or in general?

In top lane, Garen, Teemo, Ryze, and Fizz are all rather specific counters that have few troubles, if any, against Volibear, or have some specific advantage against him. Many of the generic strong laners (Riven, Lee Sin, Kennen, Olaf) shouldn't have much more trouble.

In general, champions that can shut him down in one way or another are all good. He struggles to accomplish anything against champions like Anivia, Tristana, and Ryze.

[tyckspoon]

I hate Volibear.

Who counters him?

A well-timed Ignite? *shrug*

He's a *entirely* melee champ that doesn't have a real gap-closer (dash/blink style) or hard CC; you always see him coming when he decides to pop his fling and charge at you. Anybody who can kite half-decently should do pretty well, having a grievous wounds effect in your skill kit is helpful for reducing the impact of his passive, and percentile-based damage is good for countering Voli's incentives to health-stack. He can't respond to ranged harass without coming right to you, so anybody who either brawls well and can beat him once he's used his cooldowns or who can efficiently throw stuff at him while he's trying to engage/CS (either with ranged autoattacks or decent skills) should have an advantage in lane.

[toasty]

EDIT: Both the gimmick comps upstaging established strategies and relatively unknown teams stomping higher level ones is mimicking the early development of Starcraft Brood War.

This makes sense in general, honestly.

Dyrus and Saint have both said that the skill cap for LoL isn't actually that high, and as more people start to play they will reach the level that current pros have played.

Another thing about LoL is that, if a player does something unexpected then it can have a huge advantage. I mean, this is true for any game, but its especially true of LoL (And I suppose SCBW if a player finds an effective Cheese strat). I remember when Dig came onto the scene: no one knew how to deal with Jatt Udyr and dig's aggressive play for dragon. But then people adapted. Other players began to deal with this playstyle and Dig didn't do much of anything until they just improved in their teamplay and picking. Even still, Dig gets outpicked a lot by teams like CLG (see: Today).

Also: not sure if I like Karthus pick on Regi in G1 of the finals. A morgana pick, would have been better with Kog'maw. Ahh well.

[ex cathedra]

This is pretty interesting, considering that both teams are playing the "champions we like" comp.

The Vlad/Karthus comp was super obvious, too, and they're both so good against Vayne. Which is likely a problem, since Anivia isn't a DPS mage lategame and Vayne can't safely fight against Kog'Maw, Karthus, or Vladimir. Like, unless some massive tumbling goes down I don't know how CLG is going to handle the absurd teamfighting strength coming from TSM's comp.

Edit:
TSM just lost in laning, had no real chance to teamfight fairly. Bummer. Too much early pushing from CLG, too much free global gold.