Hello all! Ethan here and I am back with Volume two of my journey into League of Legends. As always my goal is to learn it not just for myself, but for other noobs like me who also were/are nervous about giving it a go. Hear me out other noobs, give it a go. Try it out, if it’s not for you it’s not for you. Nothing wrong with that at all. Though if you stick with it, even for over a week you may be surprised how much you enjoy it. I won’t sugarcoat it though, it is not easy.
In League of Legends the learning curve is high, but what I have found is that the difficulty is high because the reward is high. The feeling of satisfaction after your first win is exhilarating. It rewards hard work and dedication. I am only a week into my journey and I have already felt this. Yet in all honesty, it has not always been great. As much as it can be rewarding and fun when you start getting rolled you truly feel like there is no way to turn it around. At least as a noob.
Getting Back At It
In week one I knew I wasn’t going to be good. In any game when you play for the first time you will suck right out the gate. It is very rare that when you sign into the game for the first time you will be out there clapping cheeks. Excuse my language. Yet I still felt decent. Even in losses. Since it was one of my first times playing League of Legends I didn’t feel a great deal of pressure to perform. It was all about the learning.
I was fortunate in that I was able to corral a couple more friends to play with me, giving me a complete five stack going into my second week playing. I have yet to venture into the scary world of solo queue, and I am told it is quite a different experience. One that I don’t know I am prepared for yet. So in these early days, I am happy to have something of a team of friends to play with. Albeit one brought down initially by my failures on AD Carry. Though when I made the switch to the support role, playing primarily Sona things felt way better.
Playing Sona I felt that the goals of this champion individually were much easier to understand. We compared her to Lucio from Overwatch. My objective was to enable the other players on the team to succeed. By way of providing healing, damage boosting, speed and general assistance. When playing support I also had to learn not to land the final blow on enemy minions. As it was more my job to “feed” the other player who accompanied the bottom lane with me. In addition, I had to learn as I now know it is called, the simple art of “leashing” aka assisting the jungler to get a creep to around half health at the beginning of a game. So that a “buff” can be acquired. A lot of lessons to learn.
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back
Though after a couple “lessons” the competitive drive starts to set in and gives way to immense frustrations. This is ultimately where I ended up at the end of week two. It all started out rather well to be honest. The five stack of friends proved to be great not just for overall gameplay but more so even for morale. Laughing and playing with friends really did enhance the gameplay experience in these early days of learning the game. It even led to us getting some actual quality wins against actual living human beings. Not just wiping the floor with robots anymore. I even used my ultimate correctly once or twice which was a great thrill.
Yet in our final game, the frustrations built up to a point where I ended the night feeling rather discouraged I am sad to admit. Not enough to quit playing or anything but my mood was down. The other team played great together, very well coordinated. The champions they chose all possessed a seemingly limitless amount of stuns or ccs. The steamroll near the end was brutal. It felt like you couldn’t move or even play the game. For someone like me, a self-described noob it was annoying as heck. So much so that it felt that defeat was inevitable and there wasn’t a point in trying anymore. I kinda get the surrender option after that I won’t lie. Though I still possess a never give up mentality, I do have a greater understanding of the appeal now.
It really sucked to end the night with a game like that. That being said, it wasn’t enough to discourage me from learning the game. I am a persistent little bugger. I will move forward in my quest. Though with some fresh wounds to heal first.
Choosing a Pro Team Part 2
A little update on choosing a pro team to cheer for in the upcoming LCS, I have had little progress on this front. Some people I hold in high regard have endorsed FlyQuest. Yet other people I also greatly respect have floated teams like Cloud 9 and TSM. Though all this drama with TSM is a bit off-putting. I already support a few teams in OWL that have gone through some drama and wouldn’t mind steering clear from that in League as best I can. So please if you are reading this, HELP ME! Sway me to your team!
One could ask: Why choose a team at all? Why not just enjoy some high-quality gameplay? For me, it increases the amount of enjoyment when one has a team you can call your own. I am a ride or die type of fan, through the highs and lows I am one who will not abandon their team. The losses hit hard but the victories mean so much more when I have an emotional investment in the outcome. I want to find a team in the pro scene I can have this type of investment in.
I want to hop board a fandom train before the split starts so as not to appear a bandwagoner. No offense meant to those who do this. In all honestly, I have done it in the past with more traditional sports. Here however I want to enter the upcoming summer split proudly wearing the jersey of my new fandom family.
Quick Shoutout
Ok, I had to end volume two with a little bit of praise to show just how hype the League of Legends content is. I have been consuming quite a bit of it since starting this series and holy moly it is awesome. Seriously the 2020 season hype video was insane. The animated music videos are just so damn good, with the “Rise” one being a favorite of mine currently. I have so much respect and love for the people who are skilled and talented enough to produce such beautiful content.
Moving Forward
In the end, this week had some wonderful highs, but discouraging lows. My advice to other noobs trying out League of Legends is to do your best to not let it get you down too much. Losing sucks there is no denying that, but it’s not the end of the world if you get rolled. It just gives you a place to move forward from.
Follow Ethan on Twitter @EthanButler for all your Vancouver Titans, Overwatch League, Valorant and Esports needs.
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