NA LCS Week 3 Day 2

I'm excited for today. I'm really excited at all the banter between Dash, Kobe and Phreak. This desk is the best desk. 8) I hope yesterday my post wasn't too horrible. I wasn't feeling very good and through most of the later games I was feverish and pretty out of it. I'm feeling mostly better today and I hope this is going to be a great day of league of legends!!!

What game were you most excited for? I'm really excited for DIG vs C9 obviously but secondly, I'm really excited for the TL and TIP game. I feel like this could really be an exciting game and I can't really decide who I'm rooting for but I'm excited for a great game!

As always would love to know your thoughts. I think that maybe writing as the games are being played might not be the best way. What are your thoughts?

I'm also trying another tweak to formatting these.

TL vs TIP

TL- Tahm Kench, Graves, Lux, Lucian, Morgana

TIP- Ryze, Elise, Varus, Kalista, Alistar

Looking at the pick/bans for this game and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. So, I ran into the problems with the stream lagging on twitch so I missed quite a bit of the early play but holy fuck that Dardoch outplay. I still think that TIP could possibly come out with a win but the Graves jungle could ruin that possibility. However, Seraph is a beast.

Lourlo is going to lose the game for TL single handedly to be honest... Seraph is the last person you want to feed, especially on Ryze.

I'm just really impressed with how cohesive TIP looks and just Seraph is a beast. I don't know what Lourlo is thinking with like... everything he does this game.

GATE WITH THAT 5 MAN KNOCK MAN AT 21 MINUTES. But still a bit too ham. So ham. But I still believe in the TIP win.

TL is basically going to be the team of they were losing until they suddenly won this season... I'm still believing in Seraph though. He can carry this.

What is with the back and forth games this week? I did anticipate this game was going to be explosive though and they certainly aren't disappointing!

Well, that game was insane and exciting! I was cheering for TIP but TL definitely won that well. They can feel good about that win. Maybe in the future people shouldn't let Dardoch have Graves again.

NRG vs TSM

NRG- Poppy, Rek'sai, Zilean, Lucian, Janna

TSM- Graves, Elise, Viktor, Caitlyn, Braum

What the fuck is that blind Zilean pick? I don't think that's a great...idea...?

So, this game was really surprisingly insane. I didn't really expect much out of the Zilean pick but man when you know how to wield it, you know. I think you managed to tilt TSM just a little bit with the pick and so maybe the curse of the curveball remains lol.

I don't have a lot to say about the game itself. I think so far it's been really impressive on most teams and also that NRG has made some really good disengages this game when they needed to. TSM seems to be faltering and I wonder if it's a shotcalling issue or what exactly is kind of making them come apart or if the team is just tilting off the face of the earth because of this Zilean. lol

That Zilean build is just like... I don't think I would've guessed this. This game is so freaking insane. Holy fuck.

Wow... NRG is just like shutting TSM out. I am so flabbergasted at this game.

Just...wow...

DIG vs C9

DIG- Poppy, Graves, Leblanc, Kalista, Thresh

C9- Lissandra, Nidalee, Gangplank, Corki, Morgana

 I'm not particularly sold on Rush on Nidalee again. I'm kind of amused at the last minute switch that Jensen and Balls did. Just a little bit of mind games to start us off! I really hope that C9 can pull off this win. Please win!!! I'm just kind of scared of that Nidalee pick again.

Man, this game is really rough to watch. I keep just staring at it all anxious and forgetting to write. There's a lot of give and take and I feel like C9 can still win and still have the edge of Hai's shot calling but it's just really difficult gam at the moment. 

I really hope this is the last of Rush's Nidalee for a while. He needs to pick something more reliable. 

Oh my god, that baron call felt so risky but they really pulled it off. I still disagree with the Nidalee pick but I feel like Hai's shotcalling really settled it. But Rush really has to diversify.

FOX vs IMT

FOX- Fiora, Lee Sin, Gangplank, Kalista, Alistar

IMT- Quinn, Elise, Syndra, Lucian, Janna

This game is literally going to be the most sad game. I am cheering for FOX because underdogs but I don't think that upset will happen. This is going to be too sad to do a lot of commentary on. T_T

Yeah. that was depressing. 

CLG vs REN

CLG- Gangplank, Rek'sai, Leblanc, Caitlyn, Morgana

REN- Kennen, Elise, Corki, Lucian, Thresh

That first blood was really unlucky... I don't think I'll have much commentary on this game either. I'm totally rooting for Renegades but I have a feeling they are going to get smacked. My back is also killing me so trying to stay up to type this while I'm watching is really not opitmal. 

It's nice to see that they might have a fighting chance and that Renegades are actually making this a GAME!!!

Huhi always trying to get Xmithie to be nice for the cameras is my favorite thing about CLG games.

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And that's a wrap! Hope you guys enjoyed. 

NA LCS Week 3 Day 1

I missed a day and a week and instead of late posts I decided to just start fresh this week! Now that I'll be on schedule I don't have any excuses! Let me know your thoughts on the games as well. I'm really excited for the C9 vs TSM match (clearly, I'm writing this as the day goes!).  I'm going to try it this way and see how it goes. I think writing after the games are done might be better. Let me know if train of thought like this works better or if something more constructed like my last post is more interesting. I'd love to know your thoughts.

TIP vs DIG

This game I don't really think I know who I want to win. I'm really excited for the direction both teams have gone and I think they have some potential. I'm not sure if it's just a momentary surge for them or if they're really going to be contenders. Only time will tell!

I think it's kind of insane how different TIP looks since their first game last week. It's clearly not only Seraph but Seraph is certainly a force to be wreckoned with.

DIG and baron calls on their teams and the other teams is just unlucky. I think TIP for all their communication issues looks extremely collected and put together and it's surprising they're able to seem more on the same page than a team like DIG who has an all English speaking roster.

About 23 minutes into this game and all I can think is that it feels like a soloq game...

What the fuck just happened.... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is right.

C9 vs TSM

I am so hype for this game!!!! Not just because C9 v TSM games are always cool and C9 is my favorite but I'm kind of exciting to see how the Hai vs Yellowstar shotcalling goes. This is going to be a great game though. I don't think their gonna disappoint.

I think I am digging C9's comp but I'm not sure Nidalee is the strongest pick at the moment but then again it's Rush so...

Hai harassing and just trying to be annoying in the early jungle start.

This game is amazing. LMAO. I can't believe there's so many close first bloods and still no first blood. I have a feeling this game will get pretty explosive soon. I like how controlled C9 are playing and finding advantages that aren't necessarily reflected in gold leads. They're just really in control and so I'm just waiting for some dope fights to happen here at 13 minutes.

The games today are insane. I still think that C9 has the advantage even though TSM is ahead in kills. I think Hai will get things back in order quickly. I think TSM blew a lot for not really getting a lot. Doublelift is also whiffing his ultimates this game?

The baron bait and TSM fell for it perfectly. I love Hai's shotcalling. T_T

OH MY FUCKING GOD. THE OVER AGGRESSION. I'm gonna cry.

BALLS WHY?!?!Oh. NVM. I LOVE YOU HAI. This game is so fucking insane.

WHAT THE HECKSGHWOIEG

I am just. THESE GAMES TODAY ARE FUCKING INSANE. I AM SO SAD.

My theory is that Hai threw the game so people stop shitting on BunnyFuFuu.
(jk, that was just an unlucky game)

TL vs NRG

I wasn't super into this game. I'm really surprised that TL won though. I think they looked a lot more consistent than recently though. Seeing NRG lose at all is just kind of shocking. Wowee.

CLG vs FOX

This game with all the subs just really isn't fun to watch. There's just a bit of too much in the way of being outgunned. FOX is playing well but it's just not going to be enough.

I'm also like really sick so on the games I'm not invested in obviously I am slacking because I just want to lay here and stare at the game mindlessly.

I'm ready for Froggen to be back. T_T

Finally it ended and CLG won, of course.

IMT vs REN

This is probably going to be pretty one sided but it would be cool if Renegades put out a good fight. It would be super dope if they won but I kind of don't see that happening?

OHQ is so cute... wtf..

I think Renegades can be really good at recognizing opportunities but honestly I don't think that it will be enough this game.

I'm literally so sick I can't actually follow the game at this point... wake me up when IMT win... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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That's all for today!

NA LCS Week 1 Day 1

This season is so exciting and I'm not really disappointed at all in the first week. There were a few surprises for me but it was amazing and fun. I'm so glad I have weekends off and can get to watch NA LCS live. I'm writing this a bit late. I'll be more timely in the future.

I think my favorite game of the weekend was probably c9 vs fox but I'm 100% bias.

But, I'll probably rewatch some of the games as I write this and I'm just really exited about everything.

So, this will get long and I should just get to it! And actually, it ended up being so long I'm splitting it between Day 1 and Day 2!

Day 1

CLG VS TSM

So, I feel like TSM is an utter mess and that makes it hard to judge either of the teams they've played so far. One thing that's for sure is that the top/middle of the pack teams are going to be extremely influx. CLG looked really strong in this game -- not perfect but strong and promising. 

Huhi, for me, was a lot more fun to watch and seemed to work to CLG's style far more cohesively than Pobelter had. I think a lot of people are underrating Stixxay. He has some decision making flaws to shore up but experience will definitely help that. Xmithie, Aphromoo and Darshan all played as expected in my opinion. 

I felt like most of TSM underperformed and I wasn't even particularly impressed with Bjergsen this game. They didn't seem cohesive at all and even with a mechanical advantage teamwork way out weighed it in the end. Even the shotcalling from Yellowstar seemed off, so I wonder if anyone is listening to and/or respecting him.

C9 vs IMT

So, this game hurt my heart a bit. It's not that anyone on C9 played horribly but they just seemed to be a bit lost Rush and Jensen both seemed to be a bit tilted and without any direction in the game. Balls was not given a chance to get off the ground and I felt Ryze was a fatal choice for the team even before the Cho'Gath counter pick that Huni pulled out.  Sneaky was doing okay and Bunnyfufuu played very strong in my opinion. 

I think the major issue that cropped up was C9 underestimated IMT and thought they wouldn't need Hai's shotcalling? This is a guess but it makes the most sense to me. It wasn't so much being outscaled in terms of talent overall but C9 just seemed lost. I think they were simply unprepared.

I'm not sure if they would have won if Hai had been in the game but I think he would have been able to help them salvage it a bit and give Rush the direction he needed and right Jensen's ship. They just needed a plan. I think there were more than a few ways back into the game.

However, I would be remiss not to talk about IMT's performance. They did really fucking well and I think that they have a lot to offer. Apparently Huni and Reignover are doing the shotcalling and so far that seems to be working out for them surprisingly well. I will admit to being surprised at how put together they look.

That being said, C9 without Hai and TIP may not be the best measuring sticks. How will they hold up against a team that is more put together? If they get behind? If a team like NRG can punish WildTurtle's recklessness? 

Speaking of WildTurtle, it was so great to see him free and back in form. Seeing that also makes me more concerned about TSM and how Regi can have a very negative effect on players.

Pobelter played well. Adrian is one of the most impresive supports in NA and I hope he finally gets the respect he deserves and has deserved for a very long time.

It was a super exciting game and even if I was sad for C9, I couldn't be happier for IMT. They've clearly worked hard for this.

DIG vs NRG 

This game was a surprise. Quite honestly, I didn't expect DIG to bring any fight. I was immensely impressed with their play overall but there are a lot of things I hope they work on (I literally wasn't expecting anything though). 

NRG was more lackluster than I anticipated. GBM was good, sure, but definitely not flawless. I think NRG is a bit overhyped but show a lot of promise. 

I don't have much to say about the game itself. But it does make it clear baron plays will make or break a lot of teams this split.

REN vs TL

This game went on for-fucking-ever. I don't remember a lot aside from great bot lane synergy it felt like between Freeze and Remi. I really enjoyed watching the Renegades squad. I feel like they were more put together than Team Liquid which is very suprising for me. 

I'm still super excited for Renegades and want to see if Remi has worked on her champ pool issues.

I think Liquid has a lot to prove. I'm not sure I agree with their decision to keep Piglet on the line up. I feel like his attitude is a huge liablity for the team.

The game was super long and not much stuck out to me aside from Freeze and Remi.

FOX vs TIP

I only vaguely remember this game. I was pretty braindead after the Renegades game. TIP is not good.. that's a huge takeaway I suppose. 

I feel like Echofox has a lot of potential but there's a bit of cohesion missing. I'm looking forward to seeing them improve and, of course, more Froggen.

I don't think the game is worth discussing in detail though.

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Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 and my power rankings after week 1!

NA LCS Spring Split excitement

So, this is just going to be a quick entry that's just some initial thoughts and such about the Spring Split for NA LCS. I might also mention some other things I'm excited for but we'll see how it goes. I'm super stoked for the games to start and I'm only just a bit disappointed we don't get to go right into the Bo3 formatting. I think that's going to make it a lot better and more games!


I'm totally up for hearing what your points of view are on the teams as well. Comment and let me know what you're excited for!


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Cloud 9
So, Cloud 9 is undeniably my favorite team and what an awesome coincidence that alphabetically I get to talk about them first! I was a little wary about this season after the ups and downs of season 5 but I have to say I just can't wait to see what this line up will do in season 6. I think that having Bunnyfufuu as a sub for Hai is going to be extremely exciting and I hope that they are going to be alternating and putting him at least some of the games to get some competitive experience on the team.


Rush, is definitely going to be a different experience than Meteos or Hai in the jungle. I'm overall just really interested and excited to see how this team will come together. I have no doubt that they'll be better than last season and I believe they can go all the way but I know that there are possibly going to be some immense obstacles to overcome.


Jensen has really seemed to come into his own on the team. Along with the strength of Sneaky as one of the region's best ADCs I know that there's a lot of powerhouse play potential with Rush's aggressive style. I believe Hai can keep everyone reigned in and working together and that's a trait he's probably also working hard to cultivate into Bunnyfufuu as well. ??


And I can't wait to see what outfits Lemon pulls out on stage. What can I say~ Also, that famous notebook is probably going to be a huge player this season.


Overall, I'm just so excited to see Cloud 9 on stage again and to support them no matter what happens. Thick and thin I'm a c9 fan forever.


Counter Logic Gaming
I don't particuarly care too much for CLG. I mean, who doesn't love Darshan and Aphromoo but I'm not excited about the team as a whole. I will admit that I'm curious to see how Huhi will perform. What I am excited about is to see how HotshotGG's idea for running the organization as player oriented as a whole and not winning or one player oriented turns out. I think it'll be an interesting model to study.

Dignitas

I don't really have much of an opinion on dignitas either way. Honestly, I feel like the roster is underwhelming and probably won't be much competition with the more top tier teams.
　
Echofox
I was a bit intrigued when first I heard the name of Echofox. I mean, that's just a really cool name! Also, the fact that someone from the traditional side of sports bought out Gravity which was a previous team I loved last season really interested me. So, of course I was very curious about their roster.


I'm not a huge fan of Keith. I find him to be a bit grating and his voice annoys me but I don't have some huge thing against him. I don't find him to be that good of an ADC though. However, looking at the rest of their line up you can pretty much see that with KFO and Froggen that any shortfalls Keith has don't really matter that much.


I knew for a few months now that Froggen was going to end up on an NA team but I had no idea that it would be like this. I was expecting a more established team -- although, knowing Froggen, I should've anticipated this kind of a move from him. It's very much in tune with his career. I think we're going to see some awesome games from this team.


Not much is known in NA about KFO but he's rather well known and respected in Korea so I think we can anticipate some awesome plays and a Top/Mid lane centric strategy from Echofox. I'm interested to see how the team functions together and getting to know more about them as a unit.
　
Immortals
So, Immortals is the new brand of one of the other teams that I really was fond of last season. I was feeling a bit grumpy over them at first but then the line up was released. I'm a bit wary. I feel like Immortals (and Adrian) is going to suffer a lot of the same flaws that TIP did last season. Impulsivity without enough restraint to truly be a top teir force to be reckoned with. You can only gungho so far.


All the players aside from Adrian are extremely volatile aggressive players. Wildturtle has a habit of flashing forward, Huni is all Holo and go ham, Reignover is known as gameover for a reason and Pobelter is consistently inconsistent in my opinion. This is of course a very summarized and one dimensional view of the players but I'm not wanting to getting into analyzing in depth in this post what I think of all of them. I have very high opinions of all these players and I love watching them play.


Adrian is one of my favorite supports and I think his cool head and effiency will help tie together the firebrands on his team. In any case, I am looking forward to see what they bring.

Liquid
I forever have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Team Liquid. I love Fenix. I love Joka. I love Big Steve. I loved Quas a lot. I'm really saddened at Quas leaving the team. I don't particularly have an opinion on their new top. I'm a fan of Smoothie from his time on TDK. I'm not a huge fan of Piglet (aside from the absolute adorableness of him and joka). I have a love/hate with Dom as well.
I'm just not sure I invest a lot of care into how they do. I don't think they'll do badly but I'm not particularly sure they'll make it out of the middle of the pack this season.

NRG
This is another team I'm just not particularly invested in. Impact is definitely a lot of fun and I do like Altec but other than that... I'm just not sold on this team at all. I am guessing, however, they will either do really well or completely burn out. I'm not particularly excited about them and don't have too formulated of an opinion over them.

Renegades
I've been really, really excited for Renegades since seeing their games against CST for the spot in LCS. I'm immensely disappointed that Freeze is the ADC they wanted and that they didn't keep Maplestreet when I think he proved his worth in that series and he's one of the best ADCs in the region.


However, I'm a huge fan of the team as a whole even though I can't stand Monte. I've had a lot of fun experiences interacting with the team and I look forward to see what they bring to the table. I feel like they're kind of a wild card in the competition. I think they could go far if they've ironed out some of the champ pool issues and such that they had in Challenger Series.


Alex Ich is going to be an interesting factor but I'm really excited to see RF playing against the rest of the LCS top laners and see how he fairs. He's definitely a fave of mine and has become really endearing since I started following the team.

Team Impulse
I really don't know much about the team at this point and quite frankly I can't honestly say that I care? I don't think they'll a large factor this season and could likely be relegated.

Team Solo Mid
I really don't have much love for TSM. I don't hugely dislike them. I think they'll probably end up in the top 5 but I'm not sure how doublelift will behave when they inevitably have a bad game. I'm excited for Yellowstar but I just wish he was on a team I could get behind more. I really dislike Sven. And Doublelift and Bjergsen both tend to have attitudes that turn me off of the team.


Then there's Hauntzer and oh, I do love him. I'm not really cheering for TSM but they'll more than likely do very well at least in NA.


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I'll do another post with kind of what I'm looking forward to in other regions since this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated!


What are your thoughts of the NA teams?

I don't know what to title this

I was planning for my blog post to be something about toxicity or what I thought about all the NA teams. However, that doesn't seem to be what's on my mind. This post is because of all that has been happening concerning Gosu but won't necessarily be about him. I'm not sure this quite qualifies as being about League of Legends either but it felt the appropriate place to write about it at this time due to everything that has gone down the past 2-3 days in the community.

In short, this blog post is going to be about mental illness, depression and suicide. This is your trigger warning. I'm not sure if I will say anything triggering but these are the topics that will be written about. This will probably be a bit train of thought and honestly I'm not sure how long or short it will be or if it will make any sense. I definitely will appreciate anyone who reads it.

I suppose one of the biggest things that stand out to me in this whole situation is that people (suicidal people included) would indicate that suicide is selfish. I feel like this is a wholly false idea. Suicide very often is after a long and/or intense battle with some form of mental or physical illness. Suicide that is the result of depression is a side effect of a horrible disease that invades every part of your life and suffocates your soul.

We don't judge people who have cancer and die from it. Why should we be judging people who have depression for dying from it? Isn't a withering of the mind and soul just as horrible if not worse than the withering of a body? Depression can be beaten, cancer can be beaten. Not all can beat it. It's not just "do this" or "take this" to make it better. That doesn't always work. People have the right to choose their own dignity. Suicide is a lot of things but selfish isn't one of them.

There's also been a lot of people who accuse other's of saying the "wrong" or "worst" things. And given there are a lot of things that aren't great to say but sometimes I think the intention means more. It probably is bad to say "get over it" but saying something like "it's not worth it" after commiserating that you have had your own dark time is to let them know they're not alone that there could be a light at the end of the tunnel. Is it the best way? Will it help? Probably not but it's not particularly harmful.

I think the worst thing that people do is degrade or devalue the things that are felt though. To tell someone why they shouldn't feel a certain way, to tell them that how they feel is wrong... that's actually the worst way to help anyone I feel like. Depression can't be dispelled by logic and reason. Depression is something you have to acknowledge. It's something you fight every day but just realizing hey i have a lot of friends isn't going to make it go away. Medicine doesn't always make it go away either.

Maybe it gets better if you can survive but maybe it doesn't. All you can do is be there for the people around you. Don't guilt them for their illness if they're depressed. Don't try and "fix" them. Just be there...

1 (800) 273-8255

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org