Views: 2498 Old People's Guide to LoL
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Hello World!
I'm a relative newcomer to LoL and HotS, having discovered the world of MOBAs and eSports through (you guessed it from the title) my boys. I managed to get ranked this Spring in HotS, and I'm working my way to level 30 (29 and counting as of this writing) in LoL.
Being solidly in the "old people" category for this sport, I decided to start this blog to see if there are any other over 40s out there playing MOBAs (and thoroughly enjoying them, minus the flamers!), and give us a space to discuss the specific challenges of getting good when we have jobs and can't spend 40+ hours/week playing over and over.
I have no illusions that I'll ever make the pro circuit, but I have come to discover that I do really enjoy eSports, and as a techno-geek, I'm more likely to spend a lunch hour watching an eSport match than I ever am to watch regular sports.
One of my greatest challenges has been team fights. When everything gets all mushed up in the middle I find that I'm rarely able to distinguish all the flashing lights one from another (much to my middle son's chagrin)...so I've found that playing support classes (like Nami) helps a lot with that -- because I don't necessarily have to track every single champion...just keep "the blue guys" alive :)
Well, this is long enough to gauge anyone's interest in continuing the discussion! Let me know if there are any more ancient unicorns like me out there!
-FullerDad
I'm a relative newcomer to LoL and HotS, having discovered the world of MOBAs and eSports through (you guessed it from the title) my boys. I managed to get ranked this Spring in HotS, and I'm working my way to level 30 (29 and counting as of this writing) in LoL.
Being solidly in the "old people" category for this sport, I decided to start this blog to see if there are any other over 40s out there playing MOBAs (and thoroughly enjoying them, minus the flamers!), and give us a space to discuss the specific challenges of getting good when we have jobs and can't spend 40+ hours/week playing over and over.
I have no illusions that I'll ever make the pro circuit, but I have come to discover that I do really enjoy eSports, and as a techno-geek, I'm more likely to spend a lunch hour watching an eSport match than I ever am to watch regular sports.
One of my greatest challenges has been team fights. When everything gets all mushed up in the middle I find that I'm rarely able to distinguish all the flashing lights one from another (much to my middle son's chagrin)...so I've found that playing support classes (like Nami) helps a lot with that -- because I don't necessarily have to track every single champion...just keep "the blue guys" alive :)
Well, this is long enough to gauge anyone's interest in continuing the discussion! Let me know if there are any more ancient unicorns like me out there!
-FullerDad
It was near 10:00 -- you know, old people bedtime -- and I thought, I'll just grab my laptop and spectate the end of the boys game. Due to the time-lag on spectation, they finished before I finished watching. I suspected something was up towards the end, because I clearly heard my youngest going up and down the stairs (like an elephant of course), but I didn't think too hard about it (it's bedtime, right?).
I finish watching, exit the spectating, only to find my league client lit up with chat messages -- not just from my sons, but also their friends: "Dad, pls" "Dad, whatch doin?" "Play?" :)
I may not be ranked, but clearly I'm better than random noobs...and what else could an old guy want for Christmas?
Merry Christmas if anyone is listening!
-FullerDad
I'm a geezer by e-sports standards. Two kids and a full time job.
I been playing since late Season 2. And I've roughly played about 2.5 seasons of ranked. Finally achieved Gold this season with a peak of Gold 2 at around 75-85 LP.
I manage to squeeze in about 2 and sometimes three games a day. Though I probably only do that about 5 days a week, with the other two being occupied with other things. Though some weekends I get in a boatload of games.
I probably only play ranked 2 times per week at the moment because I've been working with a new comer to league who wanted some help getting started.
Team fights:
As PsiGuard said, it is easy to get overwhelmed in team fights. The spacebar is your friend for centering the camera on your character when you get lost in a fight. I think there also may be some option for putting a halo over your character's head (seen it on some streams) when your hold the spacebar (I don't believe it is on by default)
I'd suggest trying to spend some time playing ARAMs where you skirmish and team fight all the time. It will also force you to play champions you aren't familiar with since the ones in the free rotation are available for your champion pool.
Learning as many abilities:
-what they do
-how far they go
-what the particles look like
-what the character casting animation looks like
Are all key to make sense of what is going on in the controlled chaos of a team fight.
Do you play with screen locked or unlocked? If playing with a locked screen, I'd suggestion going through the pain of playing with an unlocked screen. It will take a few games to get used to it, but it helps.
You can also turn off shadows and some of the ambiance effects to reduce eye clutter even further. I think I have most of my visual settings on Medium.
Sounds like you already play some support. I've found that playing ADC while teaching the support works reasonably well for getting people started. I recommend playing all the roles at some point, but that can come with time.
Feel free to hit me up with a PM if you have any questions.
I keep a blog here on Mobafire where I go through some of the things I'm thinking/learning and I keep a running list of my ranked games (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in the competitive section of the discussion boards.
Best of luck on the Rift!
And as of today, I just made lvl 30, so I suppose I could choose to get beat up in ranked play ;)
Also, I'll check out your blog posts!
And as of today, I just made lvl 30, so I suppose I could choose to get beat up in ranked play ;)
Also, I'll check out your blog posts!
I feel you on the max-max settings. I've got a pretty good rig too, but one coach I watch LS or LastShadow made the suggestion of turning things down and I went with it and I don't really miss them.
Congrats on getting to level 30!
If you have been playing PvP then it isn't a huge jump going into ranked. If you haven't been playing PvP then I'd suggest doing that first. Ranked is harder. People tend to try harder, play their best champions, and can get saltier when things aren't going well (though in my estimation, I end up with slightly more toxicity in normals, but mute is my friend).
I'll have a look this evening and take screen shot. I know there is a shadows option and a HUD animantions option that can be turned on or off. There aren't any specific ambiance settings (sorry for the off the cuff spec/terminology). Certain things just don't show up any more or not in as much detail when you set your visual settings down to Medium (I think there are 4 visual settings options boxes).
Thanks again...I never would have looked for them without your tip!
Thanks again...I never would have looked for them without your tip!
Cool. :-)
I tend to change these settings in Practice mode since that has been made available. Tends to load a little quicker than a custom game and you don't have to worry about people randomly joining your custom game/setting the join parameters to prevent that from happening.
I normally run Windowed Mode as Full Screen though for things like screen sharing through Skype I have found that I have to run it in Borderless (not sure of the exact reasons).
I believe these settings can only be changed in game, not through the options menu in the client.
I know a couple "old people" who play League. Quite frankly, most aren't very good, but that's okay if you find it fun. There are some adults in high rankings (like HISTORYTEACHER, who's literally a history teacher) so it's definitely attainable to climb.
Time commitment is a factor as you mentioned, but I think you can still improve while working full-time. It just depends how much time you're able to spend each day and how consistently you commit to practicing. If you're already almost level 30, it sounds like you're on the right track. Maybe your kids can even give you some tips to help you improve. :P
Let me know if you have any questions about the game, I'm happy to talk about this stuff. :)
Probably the greatest challenge if you can only play a couple games a day (best case) is getting the "muscle memory" for all the things you need to do. Even creeping up on lvl 30, a lot of things I have to remind myself to do rather than them being instinctive and pre-packaged in my brain. And as we discussed, it all goes out the window in team fights, and I just try to keep people alive (or the opposite if I'm playing mid).
In fact, the main things I've picked up from watching pro play is vision wins games, except good luck getting 4 randos in solo queue to ward as much as pro players do. XD
Seeing someone play a laning phase on your champion is a lot easier to learn from than in pro matches where you only see them for a few seconds at a time, and most times both players play clean enough that nothing exciting happens individually.