Saturday, July 27, 2013

Top 5 Reasons Why I Like Supporting



You always see 'Top X Reasons Why [insertrole] Hates You', but where is the love?  Why does everyone have to be hating on everyone else?  Lets see some reasons why someone loves their role, instead of why they hate another role/their team.

1. I like to protect and save

Whether it's popping that Locket at the last second to stop a death from ignite, or arriving in lane just in time to bubble the enemy lane under our tower mid dive, the feeling of saving my ADC from certain death is an awesome one.

2. I love warding

People have actually said I have a ward fetish.  I often don't even like buying the sightstone because it's just not enough wards for me.  I like making sure my team knows where everyone is at all times, and making the map look like a Christmas tree of lights is always fun!

3. Supporting is a high skill position

You have a lot of things to be thinking about all at once.  A support worries about warding, counter-warding, enemy positioning and ally positioning, map awareness, keeping the ADC alive with their positioning/spells, and in some cases like Sona or Leona, initiating big fights.  Many supports are also relied on for keeping track of timers, both for buffs and objectives like Dragon and Baron.  You honestly have to have a high level of awareness and be pretty good at multitasking in order to be a good support.

4. I love activated items

If the game lasts for a long while, a lot of GP5 items I've bought turn into active items like Locket of the Iron Solari, Mikael's Crucible, or Twin Wraiths, all which are extremely gratifying to use when used correctly.  Spotting a team doing baron or slowing a team running with the wraiths, stopping a chunk of damage on your team with the locket, or saving your ADC from a stunlock of certain death with the crucible are all incredible feelings of accomplishment.  Only issue is when people get these items and then forget to use them.  Don't do that.

5. Most of my favorite champs are support champs

Sona, Lulu, Zyra, Janna, Leona, and Nami are some of my favorite champs, and all make the role of support work in their own way, whether it's through sustain or going all in through a bursty combo with their ADC.

Friday, July 26, 2013

League of Legends and E-Sports - LCS

If it's not obvious that I love League of Legends by now, then I feel sorry for you.  Go read my posts, look at my blog if you legitimately don't know that.  None the less, one of my favorite aspects is the League of Legends LCS, or League Championship Series.  It's competitive play of professional teams in both North America and Europe, and all the information you could ever want to know about it can be found at the website.


Of course, this would be a boring post unless I delved into my favorites from both the European and North American scenes, and trust me, there's some players, and sometimes even teams, I completely just love watching.

     North America

My favorite team as a whole would definitely have to go to Cloud 9.

They are just a beast this split.  Having just barely missed getting into the Spring Split, they are now dominating the Summer Split with a crazy 17 wins to 2 losses, putting them very solidly in first place with the highest win ratio the NA LCS has ever seen.

Besides their ability to put the beat down on whichever team they so chose, their players are fun to watch individually in streams, particularly Meteos, their jungler.  I've only managed to catch it once, but I had my fair share of laughing and gasps from the things he was able to do in game.

In the end though, my favorite individual player from the NA teams would have to go to Voyboy from team Curse.

Click for VoyBoy's Profile
Voyboy's Stream
From the very start of my stream watching days, I always keep an eye out for voyboy's stream.  He's an absolutely incredible top-laner, a super chill kind of guy, and amazingly informative.  Whenever he's going into a game, he always lists off what his runes are, his masteries, why he chose the summoner spells he did, and will always comment on his build and in game decisions he makes.  I've learned a lot from his stream, and I really believe others could also.

     Europe

For the European scene, while I do enjoy a bunch of teams, I always have and always will fangirl over one team no matter how good or bad they play.

ADC Yellowpete, Support Krepo, Top Lane Wickd, Jungle Snoopeh, and Mid Lane Froggen

Evil Geniuses.  Oh heavens do I fangirl something awful over them.  Between 'skumbag Krepo' for periodically stealing kills from his ADC, the 'Snoopeh stare' and Froggen's absolutely ridiculous plays in mid lane, who couldn't love this team?  They are one of the most friendly teams to their fans in the entirety of the LCS, and it shows with their large fanbase.

Originally, back in Season 2, they were under the banner of CLG EU, but moved over to Evil Geniuses once they didn't sign on again with CLG as the season finished.

The team started off a bit weak in the Summer Split, getting smashed down by a variety of teams.  Only in this last week, when they brought in a new jungler to trade off games here and there with Snoopeh, did they really put a foot down on the gas pedal and tell all their fans they were far from being out of the game yet.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Movies I'm Stupid Excited For

To be honest, I'm a pretty mild movie watcher.  I'll catch a movie here and there, but I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a movie buff.  In result, most of the movies I get excited for are movies that come from books that I've read and loved.  Hence, why I am stupid excited for the following two movies!



The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Coming November 22nd, 2013 

I actually had avoided the craze that came with this series when it first came out.  Only when I randomly noticed the first movie had been put on Netflix did my interest spark, and I said heck, why not, I'll watch it.  And yeah, I was instantly hooked.  I love dystopian settings, war and all that jazz, and the whole idea behind the Hunger Games trilogy, while morbid, is unique and compelling.  My boyfriend had actually been given the first book for Christmas, but had never read it, so a bit after watching the movie, I had moved to read the book.  Then got my mother to get me the 2nd and 3rd book for my birthday and read those.  Then listened to the audiobook segments of the 2nd and 3rd book on youtube while minecrafting.

Now, the 2nd book, Catching Fire, is scheduled to be released in November, and I'm kind of ridiculously excited for it.  The trailers look fantastic, and meeting the 75th Hunger Games tributes from past games is an exciting thought.  That, and the arena.  I had so many images generated while reading the books, and I'm antsy to compare them to what the directors envisioned it to be, something you get a flash of at the end of the 2nd trailer.


Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters
Coming February 14th, 2014


Vampire Academy is, by far, my favorite book series I've ever read, and is by leaps and bounds my favorite vampire-centric created world.  There's a lot to take in, a lot of history and culture of the vampires, and it seems you learn something new about the hidden vampire world in the series with every book installment.

I can't remember quite how I first got into the series.  I believe it was my mother again, just attempting to buy me books she thought I would be interested in for Christmas, and she managed to hit it right on the nose!  Soon after, she realized she had gotten me hooked on a larger than average series, and had to go through the financial burden of rapidly buying me the rest of the series as I blasted through each of the books.

Currently, there are no trailers or images for the movie, all except for an animated movie poster that was very recently released.  I would recommend watching it full screen since the player is a bit small.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

My Opinion on Opinions


Opinions are fine to have.  There's a billion things to having an opinion on, from something as small as whether cats or dogs are better, to seemingly larger topics like politics and religion.  Having an opinion is fine under one condition: you don't shove your opinion down other people's throats.

It drives me insane when someone believes their opinion is obviously the correct way to think about something, and in result constantly tries to shove their ideas onto everyone else who thinks else wise.  Everyone has opinions, many are differing, and it makes a person well rounded when they can accept opinions that differ from their own for what they are and leave it at that.  Constantly trying to argue that the other person/groups opinion is incorrect and yours is correct just makes you seem self-important, stuck-up, and shallow minded.  There's really about a billion different adjectives I could to describe a person like that.

Another issue is, though, is that there are tons of different ways people can go about shoving their opinions around, both direct and indirect.  Here's two examples I know from my personal life experiences:

     Direct

About 5 or 6 years ago, my mother had been in the middle of dating someone who lived with us.  In result, more often than not, his mother came by for frequent visits.  One of these visits, as my mother, her, and I were sitting at the dining room table, she began to talk about religion, and I swear I've never had a red flag fly up in my mind more quickly.  Back then, my mother was not very religious, my biological father having thoroughly ruined the whole experience for her when they were divorcing by having their church tell her how horrible she was for leaving him.  I'd catch her praying here and there, and I knew she kept this really pretty bible in her night stand (I think it was a bible for women, it was pink and had beautiful ornate lettering on it), but that was the extent of her beliefs at the time.

So when her boyfriend's mother started to talk about religion, my mother immediately chimed in that she didn't care much for the topic, considering she wasn't very religious herself.  For all someone on the outside of the conversation, being unable to hear what was being said, would have known, my mother could have slapped the other woman with the look she adorned.  Almost immediately, the older woman tried to scold my mother for not being religious, not going to church, etc etc, and bless her heart, my mother kept her cool until the older woman shut her mouth.  When there was finally silence, my mother just put on her most calm grin and spoke soundly.

"That's your opinion, but I have my own, and if you're going to spend the time in my house trying to shove your ideals down my throat, you know where the front door is."

That's roughly what my mother said, the older woman quickly put a lid on her rampant belief speech, and it was never brought up again in my mother's house as far as I knew.

     Indirect

This method is more so just spamming about a certain topic in a place where one person will often see the spam, whether it's in a group of friends they are a part of with you, or on your facebook wall like this next example takes place.

My mother, I love her to death.  I would even go as far as to say I love her most recent boyfriend, who she's been with for a few years now and treats her very well, so much better than her last boyfriend that I mentioned above.  The only thing that really, truly, drives me bonkers is how insanely political he's made her, or awoken in her, or whatever.

Every single damn time I log into facebook, my mother has posted at least 5 links, images, stories, videos, etc. that relate to her views on something of a political nature.  She's more active on the site than my brother and I combined, and 10 times more annoying in result.  Constantly seeing this spam about her political views (which I've given up on deciphering, I'm not at all political myself and don't care to be) makes me wonder if she even realizes how much she spams these posts.  Mostly because a lot of the posts are complaining, bitching posts about the current government and its flaws, and good google, there's enough bitching and complaining on the internet to last an infinite number of lifetimes.  Having a constant, direct source from the woman that gave birth to me every time I visit my facebook feed makes me want to beat my head against the wall.

     Conclusion

Indirect or Direct, just try and keep a check on your opinions and how you share them with others.  Whether it's pointed directly at someone through conversation or indirectly through spamming posts about it anywhere online, you're likely going to piss someone off and lose respect easily.  Rarely, being overly opinionated will garner you respect, but in the average, every day society, no one really cares just how much you want them to change their opinion to match yours, or constantly be fed information on exactly what your opinion is.  You're just going to come off as unapproachable and irritating, so check yourself before you wreck yourself homeslice.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

League of Legends Art Drop

Well, I had a particularly annoying bit of crap happen tonight, so I'm completely devoid of inspiration to actually write something worth reading.  Instead, I shall just do a large League of Legends art drop of fantastic pieces I've found on deviantart!

If you'd like to get to the original image, on firefox, simply right click the image you want, click 'copy image location', and then paste into your url bar.













Monday, July 22, 2013

OCD and Perfectionism

Both are things I have lived with and have been getting increasingly more prominent in my life.  I would venture to say that my chronic depression is a key to why that's happening, but that's an entirely different topic that could likely take pages to get through.

My Pictures - Kinda Organized, Could Be Better



While I wouldn't say I have OCD to the extreme, there are a few things I have to do no matter what.  Organization is probably the biggest offender.  I have to organize things, I can't not.  Whether it's items in my wishlist on Gaia Online by price in my quest thread, or how exactly my crops are planted in Rune Factory frontier, or how the DVDs I own are ordered, things have to have an order to them.  Usually, it only applies to things that have multiples of them, and is not necessarily connected to cleanliness.  My desk can be an absolute mess, but as long as I have the important items I use often in their specific places amongst the mess, my OCD is satisfied.

I'd also classify my pet peeves into my OCD.  My two biggest pet peeves are people smacking their gum, and people chewing just about any food with their mouths open.  I actually came close to outright yelling at a girl in my college class across the table from me because she was chewing her gum in the most annoying manner possible.  I managed to take a deep breath and ask her nicely to put her gum in the garbage, and she was nice enough to comply, but I know I would've gotten mean if it had continued.  I just can't stand people smacking their gum, makes them seem stupid and ditzy.



As for people chewing with their mouths open, it's everywhere.  My boyfriend 5 feet from me on the computer does it all the time, people I'm talking with on skype while playing League of Legends do it, heck, people I pass in public do it.  More than once, when my friends on skype do it, I'll just stop whatever conversation is happening with 'Who the hell is chewing?!'  Usually they realize what they're doing and stop, apologize, and mute their microphone until their done eating, or chewing at least.  Those that haven't stopped, thought it would be funny to annoy me and keep on chewing loudly, if not purposely, have had the skype call dropped on them and been dropped from my life.  I fucking hate it, don't keep doing it like an ass.



Perfectionism, while tied into organizing and my OCD, applies to almost everything else in my life.  If I'm writing a paper, I have to do it with a pen, and if I make an error, I will crumple the paper up and re-write it until it's clean and polished looking.  I'll only resort to white-out if I'm incredibly tired or very pressed for time.

Most of the time, being a perfectionist helps whenever I have a job, being that I get the job done thoroughly and correct the first time, although it might take a smidge longer than most others.  Many employers love me for it, but I think they have a hard time believing I can do as I say until I am put into action.

In the end, I believe both traits both make my life better in some aspects, but worse in others.  I do wonderful work, can write spectacularly, but generally friends are put off to such things.  I get irritated easily if something is out of place, or someone screws something up I had 'perfect', and I may snap at them for such actions unnecessarily.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Favorite Video Games

I've played a lot of video games in my life so far.  My family has always been big into video games, stemming mostly out of my mother of all people.  My biological father never really enjoyed video games, but my mother loves them.  I remember spending hours with her after my parents divorced, sitting on the edge of her bed in the room at the back of the apartment, watching her leap and shoot from platform to platform in Super Metroid on the SNES.

I've had many consoles in my possession, whether I bought it, it was gifted, or was in my family.  Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Playstation, Playstation 2, Gamecube, Wii, Xbox 360, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced, Nintendo DS, and probably a few more that I honestly can't recall.  However, there's a handful of video games that I have really fallen in love with and always revert back to when I get bored at any point in time.

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My number one favorite game of all time.  Never have I played one game consecutively for this long.  Usually my attention for a game dies off after about a month, but I've actually been addicted to this game since I joined over a year ago.

My favorite part of the game is the variation.  You never get two similar matches in a row, there's a new strategy, a new team, a new position to be played every game.  I'm a huge fan of strategy games, love them til I hit the grave, and League of Legends is all about strategy and quick reactions!  That, and they love to dote on their fans when possible, including amazing animations of the playable champions.



League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game, most commonly consisting of 5v5 teams of champions that stem from a pool of over 100+ unique characters.  Instead of listing every detail I know about the game, how about you just visit the wiki?

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My number one favorite series of all time.  I love almost every game from the Metroid series, and if I didn't love it, I at least liked it.  Super Metroid is by far my favorite, but I am quite smitten with the Prime trilogy also.  Between my mother and I, I'm pretty darn sure we own every metroid game out there, for sure have played all of them.

Who couldn't love Samus Aran, a strong willed, independent, ass kicking female lead in a game?  That, and she has a pretty bad-ass suit that you spend every game evolving in order kick some major butt.  On top of that, each game in the series presents a new world, new things to explore, and even though there's normally an order of things you should follow to make the game easiest to play, you by no means have to.  Heck, some people are crazy enough to run the entire game 'backwards' by fighting the primary bosses in a reverse order!



Metroid has evolved primarily between a 2D screen scrolling shooter to a FPS 3D game.  More information about it can be found at the Metroid wiki.

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Pretty much any rhythm, music based game is my forte.  I love music, I was a huge band geek in highschool, and I have a great sense for tempo and generally do very well with these games.

Osu! is an online game, free for download, where you click, drag, and swirl bubbles that appear on your screen with your mouse to rack up points.

DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution is a mat dancing game, where you step on arrows according to how they are on the screen, and is played on consoles like the playstation and the wii.

Guitar Hero is technically a controller game, except the controller is in the form of a guitar that you 'strum' by pressing down colored buttons on the neck in accordance with the notes on the screen.  Is most well known on the playstation and xbox consoles.

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I love the final fantasy series as a whole, but Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XIII are my favorites.  Considering there's more freedom in IX to roam about the world and such in more of the game than XIII, it tops as my number 1 favorite, but just by a bit.

Both games mentioned have fanatstic characters, wonderful story lines/plot, and awesome graphics, mostly in terms of the cut scenes in regards to IX.  The fighting systems are different in both games, but are enjoyable both in their own ways.
 



The Final Fantasy series of games are RPG's, each with a different focus of characters and storyline unless it's a second installment of an existing game, like X-2 or XIII-2.

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 Rune Factory Frontier is a game I play, but I honestly have never fully, 100% actually completed.  There's just so much to do and complete in the game!  I honestly get bored with farming only games, and complete dungeon crawlers only to generally get bored with them fairly quickly, so the fact that RFF is a combination of the two is perfect.

Besides it being a great combination of dungeon crawling and farming, the game has a good progression, making it so you can't complete it ridiculously fast, but also don't have to spend a month of play time to get a handful of crops and materials from monsters.  Some plants take stupid long to grow, namely the rare flowers needed to make an item necessary to marry a maiden, but by that point in the game you have enough money to buy a ton of fertilizers and speed up the process.

The game is a mix between farming, like Harvest Moon, where you plant and grow crops, and a dungeon crawler, like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where you fight monsters and further a main plot quest.  You can woo one of the 1 main ladies, cook, tame monsters to help out on the farm, improve your house, stargaze, fish; there's pretty much no end to what can be done in the game!

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Well, that's just a small taste of the games I enjoy.  I'm mostly a fan of RPG's as a whole, but dabble into FPS, strategy, and other genres also.  Just mention a game that's not over-the-top obscure and I'll generally have at least heard of it, if not played it at some point.