League of legends LXI: Demaglia!

[Ionbound]

It's...Certainly something, I must say. Not sure whether I like it or not, though. The Vayne one is great, though.

[Eldariel]

I can never seem to make Vayne work on TT. I tend to farm well and get to a point where I can 1v1 someone, but it's always impossible to hold that. Either your guy leaves and the other lane can't hold while you farm, or you go to follow and end up fighting 2+ people in the jungle and dying.

Should be grouping up, doing 3-man pushes and such or trying to force 1v1s. Remember, Vayne has a massive powerspike at BoRK so you just want to capitalize on that.

[TechnOkami]

It's...Certainly something, I must say. Not sure whether I like it or not, though. The Vayne one is great, though.

My only gripe with it is that it looks cooler than her in game model.

[Ionbound]

My only gripe with it is that it looks cooler than her in game model.

Yeah. I think that's what got me. The old model had better mental synchronicity between the splash and the model. It'll just take some getting use to, I think. Which reminds me, I need to play more Shyvvy.

[Olinser]

New Shyvanna and Vayne splashes!

Spoiler: Shyvanna

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Spoiler: Vayne

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Also the splash for FB Veigar and Yas skins.

That Shyv splash tho...

Vayne looks pretty good.

Shyvana .... I'm finding it hard to describe. It just looks.... OFF. Something is really off but I'm finding it hard to describe.

[NineThePuma]

It's the combination of the wings in the background and her skin looking patterned. It might also be the fact that her hands are on fire, but that I'm less sure on.

[endoperez]

Re: Shyvana splash


The image has many cool parts, but they don't seem to be in focus, something in the composition seems to draw my attention away from the cool parts.

weird. The hands and flames are cool. The arms guide the eye towards the head. The face and the metal armor are both eye-catching and would be nice, but the helmet and the shoulderpiece then guide the eye down to the chest armor, which has arrows pointing down to her stomatch, which has tattoo-arrows pointing down to where her crotch is hidden in the shadows.

[Nadevoc]

I'm pretty sure the arrows on her stomach are supposed to be 'scales'/'plating', not tattoos.

The hands are cool, but the rest doesn't work for me at all - which means the whole image doesn't. I think they tried to make her seem somewhat 'inhuman' to emphasize the dragon half of half-dragon, but it just doesn't work. The headdress is WAY too big, the chest armor just looks awkward, the random pig tails don't fit with the rest of it... I mean, there are a couple of really cool individual elements, but they just don't go well together

[Ashen Lilies]

I like it. ^.^

I'll have to fit Base Shyvana into my skin rotation (of ALL of the skins >.>) more.

The Vayne one is ridiculously cool also.

[PersonMan]

I like it, and think that the 'wow awesome' is a problem because it means more Shyvana players.

*sadface*

[Artanis]

Did I miss something? Did any pro-player suddenly started playing Volibear support? Seriously there has been a vol support in my last 5 games.... it is getting extremely frustrating.

Volibear's on free rotation right now, which inevitably leads to seeing more of him. Seeing Volibear support five times in a row though - especially when Karma and Soraka are also on free rotation -well, all I can think of is that you broke a LOT of mirrors while walking under ladders with black cats going in front of you

[Don Julio Anejo]

Spoiler: Shyvanna

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First thought that popped into my head:

I'm Commander Shyvanna, and this is my favourite Rift on the Citadel.

Also, Volibear support is pretty legit. Soraka is boring, especially now after nerfs, so no-one wants to play her. Karma, I don't know. I honestly don't see her much.. I guess she doesn't have the OP factor Morgana has, or the "OMG KILLS" supports like Leona, Thresh and Blitz have, so she's usually only played support as a counterpick. I honestly see her mid more than support. But still, I'd have bought a lottery ticket if I got 5 support Volibears in a row.

[SanguisAevum]

Support gnar is the way forward. :)

[Winthur]

Karma and Soraka are also on free rotation

Soraka is 450 IP, so pretty much anyone has her anyway, and she is not a popular support anymore because she's basic and boring, plus her playmaking ability is pretty small, you can only do reactionary play by heal-baiting and well-timed silences. Karma used to be more popular as support but now isn't for some reason; I think her lack of hard CC and the rise of Nami contributed to that. Now people don't see reason to play her.

Volibear's on free rotation

Meanwhile, Voli support has been advertised by this one D1 entertainer Youtuber since forever and he's genuinely quite fun with an in-your-face playstyle. And since bot lane has become that one place where everything is decided by an all-in sooner or later, Voli kinda fits, it's hard to kill him, plus people who don't know how to deal with him are easily owned.

[Artanis]

Soraka is 450 IP, so pretty much anyone has her anyway, and she is not a popular support anymore because she's basic and boring, plus her playmaking ability is pretty small, you can only do reactionary play by heal-baiting and well-timed silences. Karma used to be more popular as support but now isn't for some reason; I think her lack of hard CC and the rise of Nami contributed to that. Now people don't see reason to play her.

Meanwhile, Voli support has been advertised by this one D1 entertainer Youtuber since forever and he's genuinely quite fun with an in-your-face playstyle. And since bot lane has become that one place where everything is decided by an all-in sooner or later, Voli kinda fits, it's hard to kill him, plus people who don't know how to deal with him are easily owned.

I think we are assuming very different levels of competence:

-At high levels, everybody owns all the champs (or close enough to all that they might as well), and once somebody shows that something can work, people will follow suit, even if only briefly so that they can see if they can do it too. Voli being on Free Week and somebody seeing 5 straight Support Volis is total coincidence.
-At mid levels, players will have most or all of the champions of their role anyways, so yeah, anybody who mains Support will already own Soraka (definitely) and Karma (probably), even if they never use them anymore for one reason or another. Volibear is a non-traditional Support (at least compared to somebody like Soraka) that a Support-main player thus might not have gotten around to buying yet, so when he comes up on free week, they figure, "I heard this can be useful, might as well check it out."
-At my level, there's two types of Support players: those who have a couple non-free champions marked "Support" and know what a ward is, and those who instalock the coolest-looking free week champion while calling "bot lolz" and then proceed to steal all my their ADC's CS. And armored white DoomBears are cool.

I have no idea which of those Dusk Eclipse falls into.

[Ionbound]

Oh my god. This week, man. I want to play Ahri to get a feel for her, and guess what? Almost every match was an Ahri vs. Ahri...

[Dusk Eclipse]

Volibear's on free rotation right now, which inevitably leads to seeing more of him. Seeing Volibear support five times in a row though - especially when Karma and Soraka are also on free rotation -well, all I can think of is that you broke a LOT of mirrors while walking under ladders with black cats going in front of you

Don't think free week has anything to do with it, because at least two of those 5 games I mentioned were ranked games, not back to back thankfully. But yeah he was quite popular in team builder.

Spoiler: Shyvanna

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First thought that popped into my head:

I'm Commander Shyvanna, and this is my favourite Rift on the Citadel.

Also, Volibear support is pretty legit. Soraka is boring, especially now after nerfs, so no-one wants to play her. Karma, I don't know. I honestly don't see her much.. I guess she doesn't have the OP factor Morgana has, or the "OMG KILLS" supports like Leona, Thresh and Blitz have, so she's usually only played support as a counterpick. I honestly see her mid more than support. But still, I'd have bought a lottery ticket if I got 5 support Volibears in a row.

How is volibear a counterpick? He is "perfect" for all ins with his grab, but I don't see how he counters other all in supports or poke supports (he can survive just fine the poking if his passive is on, but the ADC's usually can't sustain the poking early on).

Soraka is 450 IP, so pretty much anyone has her anyway, and she is not a popular support anymore because she's basic and boring, plus her playmaking ability is pretty small, you can only do reactionary play by heal-baiting and well-timed silences. Karma used to be more popular as support but now isn't for some reason; I think her lack of hard CC and the rise of Nami contributed to that. Now people don't see reason to play her.

Meanwhile, Voli support has been advertised by this one D1 entertainer Youtuber since forever and he's genuinely quite fun with an in-your-face playstyle. And since bot lane has become that one place where everything is decided by an all-in sooner or later, Voli kinda fits, it's hard to kill him, plus people who don't know how to deal with him are easily owned.

So I'm not crazy and someone famous advocates for voli support, glad to know that. I don't play bot lane much, but IME Voli is relatively easy to kite, sure his passive makes him an annoyance to kill but frankly that and the flip are the only things I see going for him.

I think we are assuming very different levels of competence:

-At high levels, everybody owns all the champs (or close enough to all that they might as well), and once somebody shows that something can work, people will follow suit, even if only briefly so that they can see if they can do it too. Voli being on Free Week and somebody seeing 5 straight Support Volis is total coincidence.
-At mid levels, players will have most or all of the champions of their role anyways, so yeah, anybody who mains Support will already own Soraka (definitely) and Karma (probably), even if they never use them anymore for one reason or another. Volibear is a non-traditional Support (at least compared to somebody like Soraka) that a Support-main player thus might not have gotten around to buying yet, so when he comes up on free week, they figure, "I heard this can be useful, might as well check it out."
-At my level, there's two types of Support players: those who have a couple non-free champions marked "Support" and know what a ward is, and those who instalock the coolest-looking free week champion while calling "bot lolz" and then proceed to steal all my their ADC's CS. And armored white DoomBears are cool.

I have no idea which of those Dusk Eclipse falls into.

I'm a Bronze I player with mid silver MMRC (I regularly get queued with Silver IV and III in ranked) so take that as you will. My problem with Volibear is that most people who play him support either don't know how to play Volibear or don't know how to play support. And it gets frustrating no matter what role you are playing, you are an ADC? Here have a full HP Lee sin to the face. You are jungler asking bot lane to let the enemy push a little so you can gank? Let's push the lane to tower and Tower dive the Braum+graves lane.... Dunno sometimes I think that watching the LCS and D1 youtubers/streamers are giving me the wrong impression on how the game is played. I think I expect too much of me and my team-mates.

[Math_Mage]

Oh my god. This week, man. I want to play Ahri to get a feel for her, and guess what? Almost every match was an Ahri vs. Ahri...

and thus began his journey to become
BEST AHRI NA
*fanfare*

[Ashen Lilies]

They'll have to go through me first. And I'm at the very least the best Ahri living in my house.

[Don Julio Anejo]

-At my level, there's two types of Support players: those who have a couple non-free champions marked "Support" and know what a ward is, and those who instalock the coolest-looking free week champion while calling "bot lolz" and then proceed to steal all my their ADC's CS. And armored white DoomBears are cool.

And then there is aggressive T-cell lymphoma also known as "support" Teemo.

I don't need wards. I *am* a ward!

How is volibear a counterpick? He is "perfect" for all ins with his grab, but I don't see how he counters other all in supports or poke supports (he can survive just fine the poking if his passive is on, but the ADC's usually can't sustain the poking early on).

Wat. I said Karma is a counterpick, not Voli. She was played a lot when Morgana became popular but before Morgana got permabanned. She's probably the strongest poke support out there, which makes her great against Morgana (you can poke much harder and still have cc/utility) and some all-in lanes (most notably Leona). Now that Morgana is permabanned and Leona is nerfed and played less, Karma is less popular since she doesn't stack up against Thresh/Braum too well and falls off in utility late game because she can't make picks and has a weak teamfight.

Dunno sometimes I think that watching the LCS and D1 youtubers/streamers are giving me the wrong impression on how the game is played. I think I expect too much of me and my team-mates.

Rule number one of soloque: assume everyone on your team is an idiot. What I mean by this, your support is hard pushing into enemy tower? It's honestly better to follow him up and maintain pressure (provided you're decently warded against ganks or the jungler was just top). This way you're both doing the same thing at least. Sure, it might not be the *best* thing to do at the time, but it's better than not doing a thing at all and just farming.

[ex cathedra]

Rule number one of soloque: assume everyone on your team is an idiot. What I mean by this, your support is hard pushing into enemy tower? It's honestly better to follow him up and maintain pressure (provided you're decently warded against ganks or the jungler was just top). This way you're both doing the same thing at least. Sure, it might not be the *best* thing to do at the time, but it's better than not doing a thing at all and just farming.

in most situations that support is making the right strategic play by shoving bot lane in the first place

[Dusk Eclipse]

I miss-read your post then, sorry my bad.

Teemo Support? nope.... just no, I'll dodge any game where that happens.

[Anarion]

I miss-read your post then, sorry my bad.

Teemo Support? nope.... just no, I'll dodge any game where that happens.

Don't dodge that one! It's a unique experience, unlike any you'll ever have.

[Math_Mage]

hey, at least it isn't jungle teemo

[McDouggal]

So, TFT, how long until we see you in the LCS?

Speaking of LCS, here's my bracket for NA:

Spoiler

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TSM 3, Dignitas 1, TSM 3. Despite TSM's habit this split of being noncompetitive with the other top teams, they've had the best luck against Dignitas. Add that to the current slump Dignitas is dealing with, and you end up with TSM going to face C9.

Curse 2, CLG 3. CLG's had trouble against Curse, but I think their greater overall skill and time with Monte will have them winning and going on to face LMQ.

SEMIFINALS:

C9 3, TSM 0. TSM will fall to C9, it's just a matter of time in my opinion.

LMQ 1, CLG 3. #CLGinSeason4Ibelieve! More seriously, when CLG hasn't or doesn't rush Baron against LMQ, they are winning/win. Hopefully, Monte will help them realize that.

Third place: LMQ 2, TSM 3. I really don't want to see LMQ take an NA spot at worlds; so even though I think that TSM is weaker, I need to back them here.

First place: C9 2, CLG 3. Once again, #CLGinSeason4Ibelieve. I actually do think that when they're on top of their game, they are the best team in NA.

Dignitas gets relegated.

Spoiler: NA LCS

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lmq out of worlds and clg #1? you cray brah

if nothing else, c9 knows how to hammer on seraph until he breaks and sneaky won't just lose to dlift without a lot of help from dexter.

FYI, you need to re-do your bracket, CLG would play C9 in the semi-finals, not LMQ.

Edit: My guesses (I'm particularly unsure of this). I'm not sure how strong LMQ, CLG, and TSM are going to be and I was wrong about SK Gaming.

TSM over Dignitas: I have more faith in the collective skill of TSM than I do in Dignitas. TSM tends to excel well in high pressure situations and I like the Lustboy pick up and Locodoco coaching them than I do with Scarra and Dignitas.

CLG over Curse: SK Gaming's rise again informs this pick. I think CLG has better understanding of the game's strategy than Curse does. Also, I hope to see Quas using top Swain at least once.

LMQ over TSM: I have no idea how well LMQ is going to play with the ownership dispute and their coach leaving. I'm guessing they're good enough to overcome TSM.

C9 over CLG: C9 is the best team in NA.

Which brings us to the kicker: TSM vs. CLG for 3rd place and one slot for Worlds. There will be so much hype for this one series. CLG comes out to an early 1-0 lead, have a big gold lead in game 2, then throws it at Baron, leading to a spiral of destruction and choking and CLG is out once again.

C9 over LMQ: C9 is the best team in NA.

Relegations: Curse over Dignitas: Dignitas needs to make some major changes because something isn't working right.

I agree with everything but LMQ.

LMQ has had MAJOR upheaval in the past couple weeks. Their coach quit, they have performed poorly in recent scrims, and the issues outside the game have affected their performance.

Mid-season LMQ would have had a high chance at taking 1st place, but honestly at this point I really think it's going to be C9 vs TSM in the finals (C9 winning), and CLG vs LMQ for 3rd, with CLG taking 3rd place.

Even during the upheaval, LMQ beat TSM rather convincingly XD

The 3-1 record LMQ has against CLG is definitely misleading because CLG threw two of those games at Baron when they had early advantages. Let's see if the Korean bootcamp fixed those issues.

As a LMQ fan, I'd be worried if they fall into the 3rd place match; they haven't played well against CLG or C9.

FINE. I'LL FIX MY BRACKET.

Spoiler: NA LCS bracket

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TSM>Dignitas in 4. Dig will put up a fight, but their second half collapse will continue.

CLG>Curse in 3. Historically, CLG has manhandled Curse in the playoffs.

TSM>LMQ in 5. I think that while TSM isn't the best, they're certainly in the top four, and their greater experience will carry over into a hard fought match.

CLG>C9 in 5. I do think that CLG will pull it off. But Cloud 9 is not a team to be underestimated, and they will make it hard for CLG.

THIRD PLACE: C9>LMQ in 4. I really don't want LMQ going to worlds, but aside from that, I do think C9 is the straight up better team.

CHAMPIONSHIP: Hopefully bringing a revival of the CLG-TSM grudgematch, CLG>TSM in 4. As long as CLG avoids stupid Baron calls, I think they can handle TSM.

FIFTH PLACE: Curse>Dignitas in 3. Dignitas needs to figure out something, because they aren't going to get anywhere even with ZionSpartan and Shiphtur leading the pack. I fully expect to see them returning, though.

[ex cathedra]

CLG>Curse in 3. Historically, CLG has manhandled Curse in the playoffs.

historically, CLG haven't taken first in anything since preseason 2. something makes me think that you aren't being perfectly objective about that team

[Siosilvar]

Support Teemo, played correctly, is even better at pissing off all members of both teams than top Teemo. Blinds and shrooms and way too much burst damage and ugh.

[Olinser]

Support Teemo, played correctly, is even better at pissing off all members of both teams than top Teemo. Blinds and shrooms and way too much burst damage and ugh.

Last time somebody tried support Teemo against me in solo que I was playing Alistar.

Spoiler alert - it did not go well for Teemo. I laughed through that whole game.

[Godskook]

Support Teemo, played correctly, is even better at pissing off all members of both teams than top Teemo. Blinds and shrooms and way too much burst damage and ugh.

I've never seen Support Teemo -not- work well, and as such, I welcome the pick as long as he actually does support basics(use actual wards, buy a support item, buy sightstone, etc, etc).

[lord_khaine]

Wat. I said Karma is a counterpick, not Voli. She was played a lot when Morgana became popular but before Morgana got permabanned. She's probably the strongest poke support out there, which makes her great against Morgana (you can poke much harder and still have cc/utility) and some all-in lanes (most notably Leona). Now that Morgana is permabanned and Leona is nerfed and played less, Karma is less popular since she doesn't stack up against Thresh/Braum too well and falls off in utility late game because she can't make picks and has a weak teamfight.

Wait, Leona were nerfed.. how.? when?

I've never seen Support Teemo -not- work well, and as such, I welcome the pick as long as he actually does support basics(use actual wards, buy a support item, buy sightstone, etc, etc).

Yeah, it kinda sounds like a horribly thing to lane against, where you will constantly get poked, and any attempt at agression runs face first into a wall of shrooms.