Making Friends on League

To be completely honest, I'm a pretty anti-social introvert.  I don't care much for actually talking to people, and am completely content just sitting in the same room as my boyfriend.  Pretty much, I crave human interaction, but usually not a very direct fashion.

In result, I think the friends that I have made through League are the best kind of friends, considering I'm very selective on who I deem a 'friend'.  No excessive cursing, no excessive raging, and they can't be a complete bore when talking about anything that isn't League related.  Pretty much the friendlier, considerate part of League are the people I care to interact with beyond one game.

As mentioned back in my original League of Legends post, I actually have made one of my best friends through the game.

But Tal, there's so many toxic players in the community!

Trust me, I won't disagree with you there.  It seems like every other game you get one of the many types of toxic players, whether it's the quitter, rager, spammer, rude commenter, all chatter, etc.  That's why, when you do manage to pull a friend out of this group, it's like finding a gem among coal chunks.  You may have had to jump into a few volcanoes and swim across a few oceans it seems, but in the end, it's all worth it when you find them.

Sometimes, those gems end up being diamonds, like my best friend Calvin.  Met him a year and a half ago through some games we played with a group, and we ended up chatting and playing many more games together.  Now, that year and a half later, we play together on almost a daily basis, and more recently have felt prone to gifting apparently, no matter how much the other thinks they shouldn't.

None the less, check out the awesome mouse pad that was made and sent to me, by my best friend who I found through League!

I currently have a custom made set of prayer beads I've had made for him for a year, but between misplacing them, then finding them only to be dead broke and unable to send the beads, my return gift is gonna be coming hopefully sooner than later!

League of Legends Skin Ideas

So, it's another night of being ridiculously tired and being pretty unable to think up anything that would actually be worth reading, so I'm just gonna do something similar to my art drop from before.  Instead though, it's going to be a handful of skin concepts I have run across and think would be pretty bad ass to see come into reality.

Oni Akali

Stealth Bomber Lissandra

Void-Born Fizz

Special Forces Quinn & Valor

Green Lantern Thresh & Dark Knight Vayne

Monster Yi

Frostblade Fiora

Zilean of the Eternum

Vampire Slayer Lux

Candy Cannon Tristana

Alien Kha'Zix

Sand Goddess Lissandra

Spectre Caitlyn

Molten Ash Thresh

Shepherdess Lulu

Arcade Miss Fortune

Iron Solari Diana

Head Hunter Sona

Locomotive Singed

Baker Pantheon

Vandal Rengar

Cho'Zilla

Bronze Age Rumble

Gentleman Zac

Genie Soraka

Battlecast Prime Lulu

Archangel Sona

Bamboo Cannon Tristana

Riot, Please.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design has been something I've been in love with since my mother brought home my very first graphics program way back in my freshman year of highschool.  Funny as it may be, I still use that first graphics program now 10 years later, but I can at least say I know the program like the back of my hand.

None the less, Graphic Design was the second major I had switched to in college, coming off my doused hopes of being a music major with my complete and utter inability to sing in tune.  There was a vocal class all music majors had to pass with at least a C, even the instrumental majors like myself, and after getting a D in the lower level of that class, I knew I was doomed.

I actually quite enjoyed my time as a Graphic Design major, loving the art history classes I went into and the multitude of Graphic Design specific classes I enrolled in.  I remember one of my favorite assignments was making a flash animation to go with any 15 second piece of music you chose.  There were plenty of snippets available for the class, but I ended up choosing the Synyster Gates guitar solo from Seize the Day.  I'll admit it was awfully rushed, since I was pretty sick at the time, but I still had fun with it.

Sadly, since it was a while ago, I no longer have it in my photobucket, or maybe I deleted it since it was a bit lacking, but who knows I guess.

Oh heavens, I found it, and I'm almost hesitant to post it, but shall just because I spent the time going through 50 pages of my photobucket.

Thankfully, that was probably the worst of all the animations I created, but yeah, I was incredibly new to flash at that time.

Another project I quite enjoyed was one where we had to make soda can covers encompassing a certain theme.  It was a branding project, where our labels would be put onto 3D cans in a special application.  One had to be for a subtle, gentle drink, while the other had to promote energy and hyped excitement.  My subtle energy layout didn't go over too well, being it was too full of light colors and the such and it was hard to differentiate one thing from the next.  My energy layout though was highly praised by my teacher, actually taking me aside to tell me how well I had done with the crazy neon colors against black.  It was a big deal for me then, considering my teacher was a hard ass to say the least, and never seemed to really get excited over anyone's projects.

Finally, my latest bout of graphics has come from my time on Gaia Online.  I make lots of graphics for users there, and usually will accompany it with a load of BBCode for the site.  Here are a few recent examples I've come up with:

Whether it's making something completely from scratch like the first 3, or simply editing an image like the last two ( and yes, I picked League examples cause I just freakin' love League ), I'm addicted to making graphics.  Sadly, the only reason I never stuck with the major was because of my Design teacher's repeated reminders of how hard it was to break into the world of graphic design, over and over, which eventually just led me to believe I was better off pursuing other things.

Still, the idea of freelancing my abilities, making logos for companies or pawning my abilities for cash on deviantart is always an option, although I doubt online soliciting of my skills would be much easier than the difficulties my teacher preached of in the real world.

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.