Your Community. Your Report.

We are looking to fill a few roles to better provide news and entertainment to our users and the LoL community at large! If you love League of Legends, like to write, and want to get more involved in the community, we have a place for you! Here is what we are looking for:

- E-Sports Reporter

- Riot Official News Reporter

In addition to these specific roles, feel free to contact us if you have some ideas of your own you want to share with your fellow gamers! Give is a shout, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Email us at: [email protected]

I’m not sure I would ever thought these two could get along so well until I saw this piece. I always thoughts of Riven as sort of a hardass and Talon as… well, not tough enough to tangle with a chick so beastly. I’ve now changed my mind however, as they seem to make quite the team in this shot! Melee carry powaaa!

Great work here Echoes1, thanks!

Ran across this badboy on the League official forums and had to share it with the report. Simply fantastic work and great use of colors. I always liked when an artist could capitalize so much on an idea with few colors. Cheers to the creator, VegaColors!

I ran across this great piece of artwork and thought I would share! The attention to detail here is great and the robo/human combination is executed in a unique way that really grabs your eye.
The author stayed true to the skimpy dress code of the women in the League, but still added interesting armor elements at the same time, such as the implimentaton of a steam-punkish skirt.
I’m pretty sure her ball has a guarder and a chastity belt, so… don’t get any wild ideas about it.

We all know that the LoL community has it’s fair share of smack talk going on. It happens to teammates and to the other team. One cannot simply cut off communication with their own team, but with the other team? I guess it’s not “required” that you be able to speak to your opponent. Okay, realistically, there is next to zero reasons you would ever say anything to them other than “gl hf” and “gg”.

I realize that the Riot staff must receive a heavy load of complaints that make it through the Tribunal, and that takes a lot of their time. I see that cutting off cross team chat by default may help to curb smack talk on some level. But… am I the only one that this new movement sits wrong with? I mean, it just doesn’t feel right, does it? Limiting communication by default rather than by option (which was already allowed before) implies that users are too stupid to know what they want/need, or the game’s interface and options are too counter intuitive to ever find or use.

It feels like a smack in the face of the community. You can no longer manage yourselves, so we are intervening to save the day. What do you think?

Recently in a thread regarding incoming buffs for Annie, Riot’s Morello made a statement that has caused a little commotion. It was a simple one liner in response to a player’s confusion over Annie’s need for a buff.

“Well, at your ELO, Annie’s really good.” – Morello

I think the fact that this statement ruffled some feathers sheds some light on the disposition of the community. Why must all ELO’s be equal, so to say? All players are certainly not of the same skill level or experience – and the reasons why are largely irrelevant. Annie does not zone or counter jungle as well as much of her competition in the current meta. She does not escape, or sustain as well either. Does she blow stuff up quick? Hell yeah. Is that enough at all levels of play? No. Obiously this is a gross simplification, but the actual balance of the champions is a side note of this article. What I want to look at is the attitude towards ELO.

I agree with Morello here 100%. Less effective ganking means less escape-able champions can thrive more effectively. One that same note, one could say that less map awareness leads to easier ganking – so Annie is worse in lower ELO. The important thing to note here is that in high level play, all concepts of the game being taken into account correctly is assumed – but at lower ELO it is not. Annie in the hands of a player with decent map awareness and a few wards may be able to easily avoid the obvious gank routes of players who are used to getting kills walking straight past dragon to your lane. They aren’t used to wards there – or even if there are wards people don’t often see them walk by them, or do and still die anyway by misjudging their champion or yours. It’s a different playing field in many respects and that changes the effectiveness of champions used.

So, why so offended? Must we all play like the pros or be insulted? I think one of the biggest setbacks a player can make when attempting to climb the ELO ladder is mocking the pros in too much. Personal experience and learning your own style of play will trump mimicking someone else’s choices every time. The game is dynamic and your decisions must be too – they come at moment’s notice and M5/CLG won’t be there during your lane phase to hold your hand. US servers stick hard to their meta until someone shatters it – and when that happens all the innovators that were put down get no apologies. Try what works at your ELO and try what works for YOU!

"...whichever team can fight with WoTA first has way too much advantage due to AP being almost a ubiquitously good stat and spell vamp being ubiquitously good overall" - Xypherous

Being a League of Legends player since early beta, I can remember the days that predate the ever popular spell vamp statistic. I clearly recall AP carries being the most important role in those days, and in many ways having the most powerful effect on the game. They did not need spell vamp then – as they still do not now – however it adds a new element to the game. New elements usually can be considered features and gameplay enhancing, but does spell vamp do this? In many ways it serves to further mesh the already ubiquitous roles of AP/AD/Tank that plagues the league. Many champions can be played in many roles which further blurs the lines. Traditional MOBAs would tell us that AP(int) characters have the highest burst, the lowest heath, scale the best with levels, and scale the worst with items. Spell vamp is just another way to say lifesteal for mages. Simply put, this was reserved for AD and even more so, melee AD in past MOBAs. I am all for change and innovation, but is shareing existing mechanics with more classes really adding anything? We could add mana restoration mechanics to more people, or mana stealing ones. Cooldown restoration/slowing. These type mechanics already exist in a form, and simply allowing more champions to have them does nothing but smudge the individualism of champions and roles.

Spell vamp as a stat is not the only probem either. The items it exists on were not implimented well. Did we not just have a Stark’s Fervor rework because it was an aura item made for AD? Riot decided aura items were made for supports primarily, and reworked the item accordingly. *Eyes dash over to Will of the Ancients* Looks like we have another problem boys. How was this item overlooked? Even with it’s supportive item stat distribution it is extremely powerful for a solo lane. Is it too strong? Does it not cause the epic snowballing Riot is trying to avoid in early lane phase?

Riot’s Xypherous made a statment on this:

“My thoughts are that WoTA’s actual problem is that we made an combat aura item that is rushed by a lane whose gold income is typically one of the highest (Mid) and so whoever gets that item first can snowball the game for his team easily.
Basically, whichever team can fight with WoTA first has way too much advantage due to AP being almost a ubiquitously good stat and spell vamp being ubiquitously good overall. “

I think he may have said it best. One way or another, we will see a change to this item and likely the statistic in general. But what change and how? Time will tell, and the community should help shape this change.

Spectator mode... will it change everything?

Spectator Mode. A myth… a legend far greater than the champions of the League. We thought the game would launch with it. We later came to think it would never really come in a usable form at all. Here it is.

My question is, what impact will it have on the community? A place to watch players play without the pro-gaming centered streams that have always been flocked to… without the commentary and opinions of the few steering the many left or right. Will people watch and draw their own conclusions when no one tells them what to think? Perhaps more innovative play could result. Perhaps the elitism around the picks/bans/items of the top tier streamers may tone down… or even vanish in time?

There are plenty of amazing players who do not stream, but will be featured on this new in game system to be watched. Could we be seeing a new age of e-fame based on skill rather than professional gamer status? Not everyone has the time or desire to stream for 10 hours a day, and yet their gameplay and talent for League of Legends is unrivaled. They may be uncovered, and usher in a new era of ways to play the game we know and love.

Maybe people will watch more players near their own skill level and what works best in their elo range? Not all elo’s are equal, you know. A lower elo may typically result in lower map awareness and team communication for example, making gank centered champions more powerful in lower elo’s. Learning more from non-pro players could benefit some more than the best players around could.

My conclusion? Too soon to say, but my hopes are high. I would like to see a less pro-centered community rise out of the ashes of the old spectator-less system. I would like to see more respect for innovative and experimental play. I would like to see the players gain a new perspective by watching new people. Don’t let me down, Spectator Mode.