[Community Spotlight] - Vapora Dark :: League of Legends (LoL) Forum on MOBAFire

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Salutations! And welcome to another new and exciting MOBAFire's monthly Community Spotlight. In this month's episode, we'll be taking a closer look at MOBAfire's Vapora Dark, a master of League of Legends and the model player. Vapora, a seasoned veteran of both LoL and MOBAFire alike, has been around the halls of justice and this site since 2011.

So with all this knowledge and mastery of the game, we've elected to take a closer look towards the thought process and mind of MOBAFire'smaster player. I stood outside his door late into the night with only my bath robe on and brew of tea in hand, and surprisingly he took me into his house hold, arms wide open in an embrace that'd make Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's embrace on the Titanic look like something straight out of the Little Rascals. So without any more delays, I sat him down on his couch, stared deeply into his eyes, then our interview commenced.

To begin, I believe we should start off by asking you a little bit about yourself and what your origins were to this game. Vapora, what caused you to pick up league of legends and what geared you towards taking the game to the competitive level that you are currently at today?

I started playing League of Legends because one of my friends that I knew from a different game was constantly going afk every time he went into a League game, and after a month or so I decided to give League a go seeing as I was getting bored of the other thing. I liked it and I've pretty much been playing non-stop ever since.

I just wanted to be really good at the game. I'm a really competitive person and being the best player that I knew was a really cool prospect to work towards to, even though I didn't think it could happen. Right now I don't personally know any players who are higher ranked than me, so for now it seems like my 4 year long quest is finally coming to fruition.

Most people have been playing League ever since the game first hit the public market and yet, they still cannot attain a high ranking in the competitive sense. I know the saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' is the common mantra for getting better at anything, but in my time, I know that that's not always the case.

What exactly do you feel like you did to seperate yourself from the rest of the crowd, training wise? Was there a specific thing you researched and would do to practice to perfect your craft? What is the thought process and work ethic behind your training to cause you to rise to the rankings you did?

I don't think there's anything I did differently from most players. I probably just played more ranked than them. I get bored of normals pretty often because the atmosphere doesn't feel try-hard enough, like people aren't really trying to win. The best way to get better at League of Legends is to spam ranked. I had about 600 ranked games in season 3 and around the same in season 4, and I think that was by far the biggest factor that led to me getting Master tier this season. Over season 3 and season 4 I just put a lot of effort into climbing, and now it's ended up paying off.

I think a lot of players are just too short-sighted and get frustrated at the fact that they're not climbing "now", when playing ranked is meant to slowly increase your rank over time, and increase your skills over that time too. I got frustrated too sometimes, but I never really gave up or "ragequit" ranked or anything, because for me it was still the most fun game mode to play whenever I wasn't playing with 3-4 friends. And the practice I got from ranked was worth a lot more than the practice I'd get from normals when I'd play with friends.

One of the main problems that I've seen personally come up from the general League of Legends crowd is attitude and being stuck in "ELO hell". Many of those players do boast quite a few normal games that go hand in hand with the amount of ranked games that they play, sometimes having the amount of normal games they play eclipse the amount of ranked they play. Do you feel as though normal queue games dull the blade of one's skill set in terms of bettering themselves at league? And do you truly believe ELO hell to be a concept that actually exists in this day and age, or is it nothing more than a mindset that works as a placebo to help those accept that they're only in the rank category they're in due to bad teammates?

I wouldn't say normal games make you worse, exactly. They should generally help you get better at the game. But as I said before, the atmosphere in normals just feels a lot different to me than in ranked. When I play for example, in ranked, I lane, then roam while still in laning phase, then generally each team groups up and it becomes a much more team-fighting, objective focused game.

Whereas when I play in normals, it feels like I lane, kill my lane opponent over and over. Roam, murder people, then keep roaming, roaming, roaming. Everyone's split, separated, doing their own thing, having fun, and I can get 20 kills in 25 minutes in the average game because no one wants to just group and do whatever they have to do to win, like buy pinks and CC Talon to shut him down in teamfights.

Normals can help you improve your mechanics, and they should definitely be just as good as ranked in that aspect, but when it comes to the more strategical side of League, if you play 80% normals and 20% ranked, you probably won't be as good at the theory of how to win ranked games becuase you're just used to the normals atmosphere where everyone's focusing on having fun (by winning, but winning while having fun).

As for Elo hell, I don't think it's a thing. Every rank feels impossible to climb at times. When I play at plat 1 I constantly get games where I lose and think "holy ****, could my team have been any more in competent there". This happens at every tier, it even happens to me at Master, but it generally happens more often the closer you are to your true Elo. When you're much better than the average person fo your Elo, then you'll just hard carry games and won't notice your teams being a problem for the most part.

That's a rather enlightening perspective on ELO hell as a whole. The same goes for each game mode's atmosphere being a factor on how it influences one's play style.

Now, I want to shift gears a bit to focus on your pride and joy (as it is known to the members of MOBAFire) to your trophy champion: .

In ranked, at least in the games I play, is very rarely picked, and yet, in your hands, he is single-handedly one of the deadliest champions in this game (My mind recalls a humorous screen shot you had in your signature asking someone you obliterated for how quickly they died). You've probably been interviewed about your the most, though it never seems like we can stop asking questions about it, given just how flawlessly you use the champion. What inspired you to pick up and what is it about this champion that makes you enjoy playing as him the most?

When I first started playing League of Legends, the only champion I was good at was , and so I spammed him a lot. was the first 6300 IP champion I bought because he looked really cool, but believe it or not, when I tried him I didn't like him. Among all the spamming, every now and again I'd try playing a few times because I wanted to be good at something other than just , and I didn't want my 6300 IP purchase to be wasted. Then one day it was like something clicked and I started doing really well as , better than I had been doing with , and I started maining him over since then.

I like the sense of control I get from playing him. With his insanely strong burst that takes such a short time to cast, whoever I choose to die, dies. Even after removing his silence, that part of hasn't changed. It's really hard to counterplay a who gets in range of you as an ADC, and boy do I love no counterplay (when I'm not the ADC). It feels like if I'm ahead, then I'm just in complete control of the game. The enemy mid laner can't survive against me if he doesn't keep a very big distance, and if I roam I'm likely to pick up a kill or two wherever I go.

And considering that I've probably played him at least 2,000 times since I started playing in 2011, it just feels good that I'm almost always the best player in each game when I'm playing .

That has to feel good going into a match like that, and it has to feel even better to you knowing that is one of those champions that most people don't ban. Knowing your mastery of the champion, you've already learned how to deal with your worst nightmares (counter picks to ). In your opinion, what are the hardest counters to , and do you still have a hard time dealing with those champions?

is absolutely the worst possible matchup I could think of. Even if I'm 2 whole ranked tiers ahead of whoever's playing her, the matchup is still a nightmare. Her Q's slow counters his attempt at getting near someone to burst them down, her W instantly makes him useless right when he jumps onto someone to burst them down, her E either shields the person he's trying to burst down, or reveals him during his ultimate's stealth while he's trying to get away, and her ult knocks him back while trying to burst someone down, and even makes them too tanky for him to burst down anyway. This makes her counter him both in and out of lane.

For the most part though, as far as counters go, right now is a pretty good time to play . The only FotM counter on mid lane is , and she's usually banned. I always ban her, anyway. As for having a hard time dealing with her, as far as hard counters go, she's probably the softest hard counter. In the hands of a bad player it's still very winnable for .

As far as other, not so popular counters, is pretty nightmare'ish considering the hardest thing about playing her is self casting R. (Which isn't hard at all)

is also stupid to lane against because you can't poke him down, you can't burst him down, and you can't out-duel him. It's easy if your jungler camps him, as he has no escapes, but in a 1v1 perspective, is really useless against him.

I usually have trouble against all of 's counters in lane, but I cope by either somehow cheesing a kill out of them, or surviving and getting a good gank off on another lane. They're workable, but I'd still much rather ban out whichever counters are popular if I'm first pick than risk having to lane against them.

In ranked games, you must not always be able to get the role you need to pick up Talon. It also goes without saying that you've been playing quite a lot of ADC as of late. Was it simply spawned out of the fact that you needed a second role to hang your hat on in case playing mid wasn't an option?

Well, I started maining mid lane when I first started playing because bot and top lane were both duo lanes at my MMR/level, and I hated going on either of them because winning lane depended on how good your partner was, and whether your duo lane was stronger than theirs or not. On mid lane I felt like winning was a true test of my skill (aside from when I got camped), as I only had to rely on myself and my opponent could only rely on himself too. I started off playing mid (I've always liked Lanewick as opposed to jungle), then , and whenever I tried a new champion I'd play them mid too. When I got better, got a better grasp of the meta, and expanded my champion pool, it was just natural for me to pick up other mid laners and keep playing mid lane, as it's all I was used to.

At the start, I probably did genuinely prefer mid laners to AD carries, but as I got mechanically better at the game and started applying orb-walking/stutterstepping to my play, it got more fun to play ranged champions with high attack speed. Which led me to constantly try out things like AD mid, , top lane , etc., then finally mid (before it was popular). Shortly after my mid craze, I was upset for a while because of stuff that had happened, and I decided to properly learn ADC in the proper role to keep my mind off things. I got my friend who doesn't play anymore to lend me his silver 5 account, and I just spammed ADC from silver 5 to plat 5 in about a week. After that I left his account and moved onto my own plat 5 smurf "can i go mid plz" (which I later renamed to Uzi Junior), and kept maining ADC on that account, and got to plat 1, although it was around diamond 4 MMR.

At some point during all this I just realized that ADC's were so much more fun for me to play, because I just love ADC mechanics, as opposed to stuff like who's mechanics mainly involve clicking the right spells in the right order. And so I've just mained ADC ever since, although I consider myself a main over an ADC main.

And being a master rank has had to have gotten you some sort of recognition in your games. In queue and in game, have you been recognized as a player and has this had some influence in how your team works with you?

Actually, being Master doesn't get me much recognition at all. I got Master tier on the account I pretty much just spam in every role on, and I don't play on that account outside of ranked because it doesn't have many champions. The only way I get recognized in-game is if someone recognizes me from having read my Talon guide. But that's only ever been 1 player per team, so it hasn't had much of an influence over the game as a whole. In fact, more often than not, it's someone on the enemy team who recognizes me rather than someone from my team.

I'll have to give Talon a try once this interview is concluded. Your guide is rather in depth and well explained in many, if not all, respects. (Click here to View Vapora's Guide to Talon)

So this question was asked by several of our members in the Veteran's water cooler, located in the back alley near the building that houses the MOBAfire servers (oddly enough by the place where GrandmasterD and I do our very suspicious transactions with very shady people regarding male modeling): What have been your impressions of the veterans you see actively on MOBAfire?

Bryun: Back when I was a new'ish player his Akali guide inspired me to play Akali a few times. He seems like a pretty cool person, though I don't really interact with him much. He gave me an arctic Varus skin code once though, for which I shall love him forever.

FalseoGod: Stahp hitting on me, I like girls. D:

Janitsu: Most of his posts on MOBAFire have been hella annoying and spammy. Recently he's gotten better, but the poor guy will never live down the reputation he's built for himself.

Joxuu: He seems funny.

Luther3000: Pretty cool guy, I talk to him every now and again and enjoy our conversations. He needs to learn to accept that I'm the best ADC on MOBAFire though. :^)

Meiyjhe: I used to not like him much, he used to use ":D" every 5 seconds in every one of his posts which made them very annoying to read. He's gotten better since then, and I'd say I'm closer to liking him than I am to disliking him now, though we don't interact much.

MissMaw: I've "known" MissMaw for over 3 years, in the sense that we joined MOBAFire at more or less the same time and we've both been very active since then, but we never really interacted much for the most part. In fact, from the few interactions I do remember, I got the impression she didn't like me much. But because of reasons, we added each other on Skype in January last year but we never ended up talking on it until she randomly messaged me in May, and we've been pretty much best friends ever since, and still talked almost every day.

Nighthawk: I don't even remember how we became friends considering he's NA and I'm EUW, but somehow we are. He's a cool guy to talk to.

OTGBionicArm: I feel like OTG spent most of his time on MOBAFire suffering an identity crisis. First he was a Viktor main, then he was a Jayce main, and whatever else he mained, I don't remember. It was like he wanted to be a 1 trick pony but couldn't find any champion he wanted to be a 1 trick pony with. I think he's settled for playing several champs now. Aside from that, from what I see on MOBAFire he seems like a nice person.

Toshabi: People can say whatever they want about him, but I think his posts are pretty amusing most of the time. Come at me.

Vapora Dark: Epik guy, really good ADC player, best on MOBAFire.

Wayne3100: What the hell is up with those numbers, am I right hahaha... Ahem. I don't know too much about Wayne, but he seems to be a really nice guy both on MOBAFire and in person. It's been enjoyable having him around in Skype calls whenever I was playing with him, he can be pretty funny.

Psiguard: I don't get to interact with him much as he's on NA, but during his recent visits to the EUW server, it's been nice talking to him and it's a shame that he'll probably get bored of coming to EUW, as all NA players do.

Now going forward with some of the questions that people had about you, several of them have actually been about the man behind the keyboard and what he does during the daytime while he's not locked into the field of justice. What is it that you do for a living and what are your future dreams and aspirations for a career?

I'm a full time student at college, I don't currently have a job. As for future dreams and aspirations, I really have nothing. I intend to go to university studying French and Spanish, and then I'll see where I go from there.

Lastly, I have these small questions that I found littered on the floor of a subway restroom. It would seem that my subway sources have some rather.... intriguing questions they'd like to ask you in regards to yourself. I only mildly encouraged the following as a test of wits. Please elaborate as you see fit with the following:

• 3 random facts about yourself not related to League?

• I dare you to make a video asking girls out using your Master tier e-peen. (This question was asked by 90% of MOBAfirians)

• Have you found new loves besides that overdramatic and slightly silly girl here on mobafiur?

(response to 3 facts) I'm from the Canary Islands but I live in England, my first language is English, despite having been born in the Canary Islands, and I'm STRAIGHT, so stop hitting on me False. >:l
(response to epeen video)I can't make a video, but here's me asking out a girl using my Master tier e-peen.

Quoted:

Vapora Dark: missmaw, i am master, will u go out on a date with me

MissMaw: well if ur master, then sure!
(response to new loves)Wouldn't you like to know, False. : ^)

Past spotlights

[quote=Toshabi][center][img="http://i.imgur.com/ylVTDdq.png" width=700][/center] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/profile/vapora-dark-137406][center][img="http://i.imgur.com/cuEjglJ.png" width=350][/center][/url] Salutations! And welcome to another new and exciting [color=#ff8000]MOBA[/color][color=#ffff00]Fire[/color]'s monthly Community Spotlight. In this month's episode, we'll be taking a closer look at MOBAfire's [url=http://www.mobafire.com/profile/vapora-dark-137406]Vapora Dark[/url], a master of League of Legends and the model [[Talon]] player. Vapora, a seasoned veteran of both LoL and [color=#ff8000]MOBA[/color][color=#ffff00]Fire[/color] alike, has been around the halls of justice and this site since 2011. So with all this knowledge and mastery of the game, we've elected to take a closer look towards the thought process and mind of [color=#ff8000]MOBA[/color][color=#ffff00]Fire's[/color]master [[Talon]] player. I stood outside his door late into the night with only my bath robe on and brew of tea in hand, and surprisingly he took me into his house hold, arms wide open in an embrace that'd make Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's embrace on the Titanic look like something straight out of the Little Rascals. So without any more delays, I sat him down on his couch, stared deeply into his eyes, then our interview commenced. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]To begin, I believe we should start off by asking you a little bit about yourself and what your origins were to this game. Vapora, what caused you to pick up league of legends and what geared you towards taking the game to the competitive level that you are currently at today?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]I started playing League of Legends because one of my friends that I knew from a different game was constantly going afk every time he went into a League game, and after a month or so I decided to give League a go seeing as I was getting bored of the other thing. I liked it and I've pretty much been playing non-stop ever since. I just wanted to be really good at the game. I'm a really competitive person and being the best player that I knew was a really cool prospect to work towards to, even though I didn't think it could happen. Right now I don't personally know any players who are higher ranked than me, so for now it seems like my 4 year long quest is finally coming to fruition.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][color=#ff8000][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/color][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]Most people have been playing League ever since the game first hit the public market and yet, they still cannot attain a high ranking in the competitive sense. I know the saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' is the common mantra for getting better at anything, but in my time, I know that that's not always the case.[/color] [color=#0080ff][/color] [color=#0080ff]What exactly do you feel like you did to seperate yourself from the rest of the crowd, training wise? Was there a specific thing you researched and would do to practice to perfect your craft? What is the thought process and work ethic behind your training to cause you to rise to the rankings you did?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]I don't think there's anything I did differently from most players. I probably just played more ranked than them. I get bored of normals pretty often because the atmosphere doesn't feel try-hard enough, like people aren't really trying to win. The best way to get better at League of Legends is to spam ranked. I had about 600 ranked games in season 3 and around the same in season 4, and I think that was by far the biggest factor that led to me getting Master tier this season. Over season 3 and season 4 I just put a lot of effort into climbing, and now it's ended up paying off. I think a lot of players are just too short-sighted and get frustrated at the fact that they're not climbing "now", when playing ranked is meant to slowly increase your rank over time, and increase your skills over that time too. I got frustrated too sometimes, but I never really gave up or "ragequit" ranked or anything, because for me it was still the most fun game mode to play whenever I wasn't playing with 3-4 friends. And the practice I got from ranked was worth a lot more than the practice I'd get from normals when I'd play with friends.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]One of the main problems that I've seen personally come up from the general League of Legends crowd is attitude and being stuck in "ELO hell". Many of those players do boast quite a few normal games that go hand in hand with the amount of ranked games that they play, sometimes having the amount of normal games they play eclipse the amount of ranked they play. Do you feel as though normal queue games dull the blade of one's skill set in terms of bettering themselves at league? And do you truly believe ELO hell to be a concept that actually exists in this day and age, or is it nothing more than a mindset that works as a placebo to help those accept that they're only in the rank category they're in due to bad teammates?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]I wouldn't say normal games make you worse, exactly. They should generally help you get better at the game. But as I said before, the atmosphere in normals just feels a lot different to me than in ranked. When I play [[Talon]] for example, in ranked, I lane, then roam while still in laning phase, then generally each team groups up and it becomes a much more team-fighting, objective focused game. Whereas when I play [[Talon]] in normals, it feels like I lane, kill my lane opponent over and over. Roam, murder people, then keep roaming, roaming, roaming. Everyone's split, separated, doing their own thing, having fun, and I can get 20 kills in 25 minutes in the average game because no one wants to just group and do whatever they have to do to win, like buy pinks and CC Talon to shut him down in teamfights. Normals can help you improve your mechanics, and they should definitely be just as good as ranked in that aspect, but when it comes to the more strategical side of League, if you play 80% normals and 20% ranked, you probably won't be as good at the theory of how to win ranked games becuase you're just used to the normals atmosphere where everyone's focusing on having fun (by winning, but winning while having fun). As for Elo hell, I don't think it's a thing. Every rank feels impossible to climb at times. When I play at plat 1 I constantly get games where I lose and think "holy crap, could my team have been any more in competent there". This happens at every tier, it even happens to me at Master, but it generally happens more often the closer you are to your true Elo. When you're much better than the average person fo your Elo, then you'll just hard carry games and won't notice your teams being a problem for the most part.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]That's a rather enlightening perspective on ELO hell as a whole. The same goes for each game mode's atmosphere being a factor on how it influences one's play style. Now, I want to shift gears a bit to focus on your pride and joy (as it is known to the members of [color=#ff8000]MOBA[/color][color=#ffff00]Fire[/color]) to your trophy champion: [[Talon]]. In ranked, at least in the games I play, [[Talon]] is very rarely picked, and yet, in your hands, he is single-handedly one of the deadliest champions in this game (My mind recalls a humorous screen shot you had in your signature asking someone you obliterated for how quickly they died). You've probably been interviewed about your [[talon]] the most, though it never seems like we can stop asking questions about it, given just how flawlessly you use the champion. What inspired you to pick up [[Talon]] and what is it about this champion that makes you enjoy playing as him the most?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]When I first started playing League of Legends, the only champion I was good at was [[Warwick]], and so I spammed him a lot. [[Talon]] was the first 6300 IP champion I bought because he looked really cool, but believe it or not, when I tried him I didn't like him. Among all the [[Warwick]] spamming, every now and again I'd try playing [[Talon]] a few times because I wanted to be good at something other than just [[Warwick]], and I didn't want my 6300 IP purchase to be wasted. Then one day it was like something clicked and I started doing really well as [[Talon]], better than I had been doing with [[Warwick]], and I started maining him over [[Warwick]] since then. I like the sense of control I get from playing him. With his insanely strong burst that takes such a short time to cast, whoever I choose to die, dies. Even after removing his silence, that part of [[Talon]] hasn't changed. It's really hard to counterplay a [[Talon]] who gets in range of you as an ADC, and boy do I love no counterplay (when I'm not the ADC). It feels like if I'm ahead, then I'm just in complete control of the game. The enemy mid laner can't survive against me if he doesn't keep a very big distance, and if I roam I'm likely to pick up a kill or two wherever I go. And considering that I've probably played him at least 2,000 times since I started playing in 2011, it just feels good that I'm almost always the best player in each game when I'm playing [[Talon]].[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]That has to feel good going into a match like that, and it has to feel even better to you knowing that [[Talon]] is one of those champions that most people don't ban. Knowing your mastery of the champion, you've already learned how to deal with your worst nightmares (counter picks to [[Talon]]). In your opinion, what are the hardest counters to [[Talon]], and do you still have a hard time dealing with those champions?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol][[Lulu]] is absolutely the worst possible matchup I could think of. Even if I'm 2 whole ranked tiers ahead of whoever's playing her, the matchup is still a nightmare. Her Q's slow counters his attempt at getting near someone to burst them down, her W instantly makes him useless right when he jumps onto someone to burst them down, her E either shields the person he's trying to burst down, or reveals him during his ultimate's stealth while he's trying to get away, and her ult knocks him back while trying to burst someone down, and even makes them too tanky for him to burst down anyway. This makes her counter him both in and out of lane. For the most part though, as far as [[Talon]] counters go, right now is a pretty good time to play [[Talon]]. The only FotM [[Talon]] counter on mid lane is [[Lissandra]], and she's usually banned. I always ban her, anyway. As for having a hard time dealing with her, as far as [[Talon]] hard counters go, she's probably the softest hard counter. In the hands of a bad player it's still very winnable for [[Talon]]. As far as other, not so popular counters, [[Kayle]] is pretty nightmare'ish considering the hardest thing about playing her is self casting R. (Which isn't hard at all) [[Mordekaiser]] is also stupid to lane against because you can't poke him down, you can't burst him down, and you can't out-duel him. It's easy if your jungler camps him, as he has no escapes, but in a 1v1 perspective, [[Talon]] is really useless against him. I usually have trouble against all of [[Talon]]'s counters in lane, but I cope by either somehow cheesing a kill out of them, or surviving and getting a good gank off on another lane. They're workable, but I'd still much rather ban out whichever counters are popular if I'm first pick than risk having to lane against them.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]In ranked games, you must not always be able to get the role you need to pick up Talon. It also goes without saying that you've been playing quite a lot of ADC as of late. Was it simply spawned out of the fact that you needed a second role to hang your hat on in case playing mid wasn't an option?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]Well, I started maining mid lane when I first started playing because bot and top lane were both duo lanes at my MMR/level, and I hated going on either of them because winning lane depended on how good your partner was, and whether your duo lane was stronger than theirs or not. On mid lane I felt like winning was a true test of my skill (aside from when I got camped), as I only had to rely on myself and my opponent could only rely on himself too. I started off playing [[Warwick]] mid (I've always liked Lanewick as opposed to jungle), then [[Talon]], and whenever I tried a new champion I'd play them mid too. When I got better, got a better grasp of the meta, and expanded my champion pool, it was just natural for me to pick up other mid laners and keep playing mid lane, as it's all I was used to. At the start, I probably did genuinely prefer mid laners to AD carries, but as I got mechanically better at the game and started applying orb-walking/stutterstepping to my play, it got more fun to play ranged champions with high attack speed. Which led me to constantly try out things like AD [[Tristana]] mid, [[Jayce]], top lane [[Vayne]], etc., then finally [[Ezreal]] mid (before it was popular). Shortly after my [[Ezreal]] mid craze, I was upset for a while because of stuff that had happened, and I decided to properly learn ADC in the proper role to keep my mind off things. I got my friend who doesn't play anymore to lend me his silver 5 account, and I just spammed ADC from silver 5 to plat 5 in about a week. After that I left his account and moved onto my own plat 5 smurf "can i go mid plz" (which I later renamed to Uzi Junior), and kept maining ADC on that account, and got to plat 1, although it was around diamond 4 MMR. At some point during all this I just realized that ADC's were so much more fun for me to play, because I just love ADC mechanics, as opposed to stuff like [[Zed]] who's mechanics mainly involve clicking the right spells in the right order. And so I've just mained ADC ever since, although I consider myself a [[Talon]] main over an ADC main.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]And being a master rank has had to have gotten you some sort of recognition in your games. In queue and in game, have you been recognized as a player and has this had some influence in how your team works with you?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]Actually, being Master doesn't get me much recognition at all. I got Master tier on the account I pretty much just spam [[Talon]] in every role on, and I don't play on that account outside of ranked because it doesn't have many champions. The only way I get recognized in-game is if someone recognizes me from [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/vaporas-guide-to-talon-336414]having read my Talon guide[/url]. But that's only ever been 1 player per team, so it hasn't had much of an influence over the game as a whole. In fact, more often than not, it's someone on the enemy team who recognizes me rather than someone from my team.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]I'll have to give Talon a try once this interview is concluded. Your guide is rather in depth and well explained in many, if not all, respects. [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/vaporas-guide-to-talon-336414](Click here to View Vapora's Guide to Talon)[/url] So this question was asked by several of our members in the Veteran's water cooler, located in the back alley near the building that houses the MOBAfire servers (oddly enough by the place where GrandmasterD and I do our very suspicious transactions with very shady people regarding male modeling): What have been your impressions of the veterans you see actively on MOBAfire?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol][color=#00ff00]Bryun[/color]: Back when I was a new'ish player his Akali guide inspired me to play Akali a few times. He seems like a pretty cool person, though I don't really interact with him much. He gave me an arctic Varus skin code once though, for which I shall love him forever. [color=#00ff00]FalseoGod[/color]: Stahp hitting on me, I like girls. D: [color=#00ff00]Janitsu[/color]: Most of his posts on MOBAFire have been hella annoying and spammy. Recently he's gotten better, but the poor guy will never live down the reputation he's built for himself. [color=#00ff00]Joxuu[/color]: He seems funny. [color=#00ff00]Luther3000[/color]: Pretty cool guy, I talk to him every now and again and enjoy our conversations. He needs to learn to accept that I'm the best ADC on MOBAFire though. :^) [color=#00ff00]Meiyjhe[/color]: I used to not like him much, he used to use ":D" every 5 seconds in every one of his posts which made them very annoying to read. He's gotten better since then, and I'd say I'm closer to liking him than I am to disliking him now, though we don't interact much. [color=#00ff00]MissMaw[/color]: I've "known" MissMaw for over 3 years, in the sense that we joined MOBAFire at more or less the same time and we've both been very active since then, but we never really interacted much for the most part. In fact, from the few interactions I do remember, I got the impression she didn't like me much. But because of reasons, we added each other on Skype in January last year but we never ended up talking on it until she randomly messaged me in May, and we've been pretty much best friends ever since, and still talked almost every day. [color=#00ff00]Nighthawk[/color]: I don't even remember how we became friends considering he's NA and I'm EUW, but somehow we are. He's a cool guy to talk to. [color=#00ff00]OTGBionicArm[/color]: I feel like OTG spent most of his time on MOBAFire suffering an identity crisis. First he was a Viktor main, then he was a Jayce main, and whatever else he mained, I don't remember. It was like he wanted to be a 1 trick pony but couldn't find any champion he wanted to be a 1 trick pony with. I think he's settled for playing several champs now. Aside from that, from what I see on MOBAFire he seems like a nice person. [color=#00ff00]Toshabi[/color]: People can say whatever they want about him, but I think his posts are pretty amusing most of the time. Come at me. [color=#00ff00]Vapora Dark[/color]: Epik guy, really good ADC player, best on MOBAFire. [color=#ff0000]Wayne3100[/color]: What the hell is up with those numbers, am I right hahaha... Ahem. I don't know too much about Wayne, but he seems to be a really nice guy both on MOBAFire and in person. It's been enjoyable having him around in Skype calls whenever I was playing with him, he can be pretty funny. [color=#ff0000]Psiguard[/color]: I don't get to interact with him much as he's on NA, but during his recent visits to the EUW server, it's been nice talking to him and it's a shame that he'll probably get bored of coming to EUW, as all NA players do.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]Now going forward with some of the questions that people had about you, several of them have actually been about the man behind the keyboard and what he does during the daytime while he's not locked into the field of justice. What is it that you do for a living and what are your future dreams and aspirations for a career?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol]I'm a full time student at college, I don't currently have a job. As for future dreams and aspirations, I really have nothing. I intend to go to university studying French and Spanish, and then I'll see where I go from there.[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [columns][size=7][img]http://i.imgur.com/ubwnbMD.png[/img][/size][nextcol width=20][nextcol][size=5][color=#0080ff]Lastly, I have these small questions that I found littered on the floor of a subway restroom. It would seem that my subway sources have some rather.... intriguing questions they'd like to ask you in regards to yourself. I only mildly encouraged the following as a test of wits. Please elaborate as you see fit with the following: • 3 random facts about yourself not related to League? • I dare you to make a video asking girls out using your Master tier e-peen. (This question was asked by 90% of MOBAfirians) • Have you found new loves besides that overdramatic and slightly silly girl here on mobafiur?[/color][/size][/columns] [columns][img]http://i.imgur.com/NuxG0fo.jpg[/img][nextcol width=20][nextcol][list][*](response to 3 facts) I'm from the Canary Islands but I live in England, my first language is English, despite having been born in the Canary Islands, and I'm STRAIGHT, so stop hitting on me False. >:l [*](response to epeen video)I can't make a video, but here's me asking out a girl using my Master tier e-peen. [quote] Vapora Dark: missmaw, i am master, will u go out on a date with me MissMaw: well if ur master, then sure![/quote] [*](response to new loves)Wouldn't you like to know, False. : ^)[/columns] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [spoiler=Past spotlights][list][*][url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-luther3000-34238]February 2015 Luther3000[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-koksei-33887]January 2015 - Koksei[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-wayne-33086] December 2014 - Wayne3100[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-mowen-32617] November 2014 - Mowen[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-joxuu-30608] July 2014 - Joxuu[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-icecreamy-28624] June 2014 - IceCreamy[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/community-spotlight-psiguard-28303] May 2014 - PsiGuard[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-emikadon-27946] April 2014 - Emikadon[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-xdanielwang-27454] February 2014 - xDanielWang[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-meiyjhe-26948] January 2014 - Meiyjhe[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-dewo-26087] November 2013 - DEWO[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-interview-jebus-mcazn-24960] September 2013 - Jebus McAzn[/url] [*] [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/news/mobafire-celebrity-jhoijhoi-24322] August 2013 - Jhoijhoi[/url][/list] [/spoiler][/quote]