League of Legends (LoL) Game Review

      League of Legends (LoL) is a  multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by Riot Games.You can play League of Legends on the Mac or Windows. League is a free to play game, it was first revealed on October 7, 2008 and released on October 27, 2009. League of Legends was quite popular when first released but since then it has grown in popularity ever since. In 2012 a Forbes article stated that League of  Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of hours played. As of January 2014, over 67 million people play League of Legends.

Gameplay

In League of Legends the player is able to pick a character which is called a champion.You then are matched with either bots or other players in a team. There are 117 different champions from which to choose from. Players can gain levels to a max of 18 in game, you can gain levels by either killing the opposing teams champion that are controlled by players or "last hit" minions that spawn regularly.

Champions in LoL

In the classic game mode, the map is typically divided into "lanes" which are paths that the minions will take. Then there is the "jungle" which are areas between the lanes where neutral monsters spawn, there are also "bases" which players spawn and can purchase items. The main map in LoL is Summoners Rift which has three lanes, top lane ( where most bruisers and tanks go), mid lane( where assassins and burst carries tend to go, and bot lane( where the ranged DPS (damaged per second) carries go and the supports.) The jungle is also considered a lane (where assassins or tanks usually roam.)

Map of Summoners Rift.

      The game is ended by destroying the enemy team's last structure on the map, the "Nexus", which is the place where minions spawn.

This is the blue sides 'Nexus"

      The player in LoL is known as a "summoner", you earn experience points and "influence points (which is in game currency) for each match you participate in. The max level your summoner can get to is level 30 which you will get from experience through games. The benefit of gaining levels is unlocking "rune page slots" and "mastery points" which improves the overall strength of the summoner's chosen champion in-game.

These are runes and mastery pages.

      The summoner can also choose two summoner spells. These spells impact the game significantly, but have high cool-downs.

These are the summoner spells.

      The League of Legends store allows players out of game to purchase additional options through Riot points (RP) which you have to buy with real money, and influence points which you earn by playing the game.

This is the LoL store.

      Then there is something called the Tribunal. This system receives player-submitted reports and are reviewed by other players on a case-by-case basis. The reviewing players than submit their opinions on the severity of the behavior demonstrated. Players cannot be permanently banned through this system, since all permanent bans are given out manually.

This is one of the players that review cases.

   

The game modes

Tutorial- A one lane map that shows a new player how to play LoL.
Custom- Allows players to create their own games.
Co-op vs AI- Matches players with bots, can be played on Summoner's Rift, Twisted Treeline.
Normal matches- Player vs Player, can be played on Summoner's Rift, and Twisted Treeline.
Ranked matches- Only available to summoners that are level 30, can be played on Summoners Rift and Twisted Treeline.
Classic mode- 5v5 on Summoner's Rift.
Dominion- Is played on the Crystal Scar, which is a circular map that have five turrets arranged in a star pattern. A team wins by reducing the life total of the enemy team's Nexus, which will only happen if the opposing team controls at least three of five neutral turrets, until their Nexus is at zero.
ARAM ( All Random All Mid)- Randomly picks a champion for you, you may have 2 re-rolls if you are not satisfied with the champion you have, players may also trade with teammates if both players would like to switch. Its is played on a map called the "Howling Abyss" which is a one lane map, with each side having two turrets, an inhibitor and a Nexus.
One for All- Limited time map where a team has to play with the same champion. Played on Summoners Rift.
Showdown- Also a limited time map, each team plays until one team achieves one of three goals: taking down an enemy turret, reaching 100 team minion kills or killing the enemy player.
Hexakill- This is the most recent limited time map where instead of the usually five man team there is now six man teams.

Mechanics

In League of Legends you move by using the right click button on your mouse. To use your abilities you put your index finger on the key "E", then you put your middle finger on "W" and you put your ring finger on "Q", then there is your ultimate which you press "R" so you put your index finger on it when needed. The link to the left is a website were it tells you what all the hotkeys do in League.
 http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Hotkeys_and_commands

Summary

In LoL there are so many stories about different champion called the lore, this explains about the champions allies, enemies, home world, their sister or brother and their journey to becoming a champion in the fields of justice. In this link you can see all the champions in League and when you click on one of them you will see some of their lore on the right side of the page below their champion spotlight. http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/

Characters

http://www.lolking.net/champions/. This link is for people to see all the champions in LoL, this will include the RP cost of the champion, the IP cost, its popularity, win rate, ban rate, meta, and date the champ was released.

Best Parts

The best part of League of Legends in my opinion is the teamwork that is involved. Without teamwork you wouldn't go anywhere in LoL. Also League is very similar to sports as said by a professional basketball player Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz.

Worst Parts

The worst part of League of Legends is the amount of raging that is done. There is just so much hate that is involved when you play this game, not all summoners are bad but a lot of them are. If you "feed" which means giving your opponent gold after killing you, most of the time your team is gonna be like "REPORT THIS ******* NOOB FOR FEEDING GGWP ( good game well played) I QUIT." To me that is really unnecessary and there should be bigger penalties and consequences for that type of language.

Opinion

In my opinion League of Legends is a very good game and people should check it out, I promise that you won't regret it!

Rate

9.5/10

      

The Sochi File

The Sochi File

      As we all know the 2014 Winter Olympics have begun. This is a very important games for many people as it could be their first or last games. For the pair Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir it was to defend their title as the reining champions of the Team Short Dance event. Sadly the pair came second to their American rivals Meryl Davis and Charlie White. Davis and White scored a total of 75.98, while the Canadians finished with a total of 72.98.

       Everything seems right? Well maybe not, as of Saturday people have been speculating a potential judging scandal. A French newspaper had reported a deal that had been struck between American and Russian judges, part of which would keep Virtue and Moir from defending their gold medals from Vancouver 2010 and propel American skaters to the top of the podium instead. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) won't investigate the scandal.

      In summary, this article talks about a potential judging scandal, having to do with Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue on their chances of winning a gold medal in Sochi. This has also happened in Salt Lake 2002 and 1998 Nagano Winter Games

Some judges part of the Salt Lake City Scandal.

 The pair winning gold in Vancouver with their American rivals behind them.

Picture of the Iceberg in Russia.

The People that are in this article are:

-Scott Moir.
-Tessa Virtue.
-American and Russian judges.


Best Part
      The best part of this article was the part where Tessa and Scott both said that they won't allow a potential judging scandal to ruin their Olympics. That is one thing that some athletes cannot do, they just can't  say okay this is the Olympics we have came this far and worked this hard to come to Sochi and pout about something that may not even be true.Yes, it may be hard but you will have to deal with it but it just depends on how you deal with it.

Worst Part

      Worst part of the article is hearing about a judging scandal, in my opinion if this were true it would be pretty stupid in the sense if someone works harder puts more effort and really puts their heart in their performance you shouldn't take away that gold medal from them just because they won last time. I'm not saying that their (Scott and Tessa) performance was flawless but if they did do about as good as the Americans or better and still lost that's really not fair at all.

Opinion

      In my opinion I don't think this is true because if your a judge for the Olympics you have a big responsibility and reputation and I don't think that judges want to lose that especially on the big stage where most of the world is watching.

      The link below is Tessa and Scott's performance 

  http://olympics.cbc.ca/news/article/article=tessa-virtue-and-scott-moir-2nd-ice-dance-short-skate.html

      My overall rating is: 8/10