League of Legends: Master the Brush

This is a post I wrote for a League of Legends fansite back in 2010. Some of it may have been changed to keep it more up-to-date.
 
The Brush

Basics:

•     Brush are the grass patches you can stand in
•     If you’re standing outside of the brush, you cannot see what is inside or behind it
•     If you are in the brush, you can see what is in the same brush patch, and the surrounding areas
•     Wards behave as other units do. It needs to be in the brush to see in the brush
•     If you are fighting someone, and they run into the brush, you lose vision of them
•     Attacking from inside the brush (except for some skills) reveals you, and a small bit of area around you
•     If minions are chasing you, you can run into a nearby brush patch to lose aggro
•     If neutrals are attacking you, running into a brush patch does nothing. They still see you
•     NPCs are also hidden in brush patches

League of Legends: Harassing is Fun!

This is a post I wrote for a League of Legends fansite back in 2010. Some of it may have been changed to keep it more up-to-date.

Now let's get down to business. Assuming you've read my previous post on laning, you should all know the basics and the general idea of this phase. Now we can start diving into one of the more interesting aspects of laning.

Harassing

The point of harassing someone is to weaken them both physically and mentally. When you’re harassing in lane, the best way is to usually target your opponent’s mom. People are usually more offended when their mothers are insulted, which can deliver some amazing results when trying to affect your opponents mentality. Unfortunately, this kind of harassment is against the Terms of Service (Article IX. C.), and can net you a lovely spot in the Tribunal, so let’s instead discuss attacking the enemy champion without intending to go for the killing blow.

League of Legends: Laning Basics

This is a post I wrote for a League of Legends fansite back in 2010. Some of it may have been changed to keep it more up-to-date.

Introduction

Laning typically makes up the first ten to fifteen minutes of the game. The laning phase is an intricate dance between two parties, often one-on-one, one-on-two, or two-on-two. This phase of the match can be argued as the most important phase, due to the snowball effect it brings. Capitalizing on an early advantage serves to increase that advantage, such as more gold, experience, or map control. The pace of a game is often determined during the laning phase, and much of that comes from the lane match-ups.

League of Legends: Teamwork

This is a post I wrote for a League of Legends fansite back in 2010. Some of it may have been changed to keep it more up-to-date.

Teamwork

For the sake of simplicity, everything in this post will be under the assumption of a full 5v5, Summoner's Rift game.

League of Legends is a team game. Even in solo-queue, you are only one piece of the whole. You cannot win a game by yourself (well you can, but let's assume your opponents aren't brain-dead). Sure, it does help if an individual player is good, but what matters most is teamwork. A team of less skilled players with great teamwork will win against a more skilled team with poor teamwork.

Step One: Get Over Yourself

It’s human nature to blind yourself from your own faults. No one wants to be flawed. Worse of all, no one wants to be told they’re flawed. 

But don’t worry, you have no flaws. Everyone else is flawed in comparison to you. You didn’t make any mistakes, your teammates did. Your teammates dragged you down and lost you the game. If your teammates were anywhere near as good as you, you would’ve dominated the game.

League of Legends: Improving Your Game

This is a post I wrote for a League of Legends fansite back in 2010. Some of it may have been changed to keep it more up-to-date.

Improving Your Game

A common desire for people who play any competitive game is to improve. Even if someone doesn't play to win, people generally wish to become better at the game they enjoy so much. In a competitive game, it is usually more fun when you do well against your opponents, which requires one to improve and learn.

Learning From Observation

A great way to learn something new is often from observing others. Nifty tricks like dancing in and out of brush to harass in the laning phase to avoid creep aggro are easiest learned by example. Even for tricks that don’t directly apply to you, such as Shaco juking tactics, are good to observe in case you ever end up chasing a Shaco, and he switches directions on you with a Deceive. Other “less observable” tactics, such as being ambushed in a random brush or jungle due to a ward, are always a good thing to take note of to learn how powerful map awareness can be, and common enemy ward placements. Even simple things are good to keep in mind as well, such as common paths you or your team takes through the jungle, so you can predict similar movements in your enemies and ambush them or predict ganks and baits. Always keep a watchful eye. You can learn a lot just by watching and paying attention.

Progression: Achievements

Achievements are a rising trend in games and gaming platforms. Every Xbox360 or PS3 games have achievements, as do a large multitude of games released on Steam. Games outside of these platforms have achievements as well, such as World of Warcraft and Diablo III. You can even find them in mobile games.

Why are achievements so popular now, and why must I achieve all of them?

Most games utilize straightforward, game-oriented progression that directly affects the playing experience of the game, such as levels and equipment. Achievements, however, provide an alternative form of progression in a game, very often not even contributing to the game itself.

Since the achievements rarely ever affect the game, but are accomplished through specific events in the game, it allows for an often fun and humorous form of accomplishment that isn’t limited to the mood or content of the game. After all, who would ever normally run up to a Witch in Left 4 Dead and trying to kill her in one blow? Or who would run into the battlefields of Warhammer Online with no armor specifically to get a silly title about being some sort of exhibitionist?