Objectives - Rock, Paper, Baron

Objectives are a very important part of the game, however many people don't realize the certain value and trade offs that come by doing, or not doing them. League of Legends has several different objectives, and I'll be going through each one, explaining the value of each.

• The first and most important objectives are the towers. Towers supply 190 gold to the entire team, they supply map control, and once gone they don't respawn. Towers are a good gold boost to your team, they are equal to a dragon kill, however they give your team more map control by pushing back the direct line of sight as well as getting rid of defensive capabilities of the enemy team.
• The second objectives are inhibitors. They give a small amount of gold, however they spawn super miniins which puts a lot of pressure on the enemy team, allowing the team to keep the lane pushed while doing something else. It also exposes the nexus tower making them vulnerable.
• The third objective is dragon, a 190 gold boost for everyone on the team  and experience to whoever is around at the time of its death. Dragons are a great way to boost your team's gold advantage or force a team fight, however it isn't as valuable as a tower, and should not be traded for one ever.
• The fourth objective is baron. A mid to late game objective that supplies good gold, experience, and a very strong buff for a short amount of time. This buff can swing teamfights, and is very important later in the game. Baron is usually the spot that decides games as it forces a teamfight or else the baroning team will get a significant advantage.

Role - Tank

We here the word "tank" thrown around a lot, but what exactly does the term entail? When referring to a tank, people are normally talking about a champion with a lot of survivability through damage migitation and increased health. But being a tank is more than just being really hard to kill. Because the tank is building other items besides damage, he has to make himself useful through other ways. Main tank champions should always have a decent amount of crowd control in order to disrupt the enemy. If a tank has no CC he is basically useless since the other team can just ignore him due to his low damage output.

A tank's main job is to run interference on the enemy team. He has to find the enemy team's top priority carry and lock him down. If he can't do that, then has to push him out of the fight. If the team you are going against has carries that can dive onto your carries, your main job should be peeling (Keeping champions away from the champion you are peeling for) off your carries.

A main tank champion should have decent survivability stats, high crowd control, and damage migitation runes and masteries. Some examples of main tanks would be: Shen, Singed, Maokai, Malphite, Amumu. These champions have good CC as well as good mobility for initiation. Every one except Singed has an ability that also lends itself to damage migitation, or some kind of shield. The combination of all these make an extremely good main tank that has good survivability and can disrupt the enemy extremely well.

Focus: An Essential Tool for Any Teamfight

When playing games, one of the big things people seem to struggle with is who ti focus in a teamfight. It's a natural reaction to go for the squishiest target first, such a support like Sona or Soraka, however the support is usually the last person to go for, apart from a pure tank. To make it easy, there is one rule everyone should follow. "Kill or CC the champion that does the most damage." The type of champion that is doing the most damage usually changes throughout the game, as well as depends on who won their lane or not. However there is a general layout if your lanes come out close to even.

• Early Game - During most early game engagements, the AP carry will do significant damage compared to most other carries. They also normally have a good CC so it's always good to get them out of the way first.
• Middle Game - Middle Game usually the AP Carry is still the main target unless the ADC has has extremely good farm. This isn't to say ADC don't do anything, because the middle game is when they begin to get good damage. However an AP Carry will still do more damage with the level advantage, and most likely has some AOE ability.
• Late game - This is when ADCs shine the most, and will usually make or break a team. By late game, ADCs usually have a few main items and really punch a hole in anything that moves. They should be the first to die in a team fight and should be the main target for CC.

These generalizations are assuming that your lanes were pretty equal, and no one was extremely fed. In the case of a very fed champion, always focus and CC him. When it comes to early or mid game fed champions, it usually means that he took the majority of the kills and left his team underfed. A well rounded team will beat out a team with a fed champion any day, it just takes patience and communication.

Role - Initiator - Getting Grabbed in Special Places

Every teamfight starts with an initiation, whether it's a tank charging into the middle of the team, someone getting caught in the jungle, or getting grabbed through the wall by Blitzcrank, an initiation is extremely important to the success of the teamfight, and thus the game. Initiations depend on what your team can handle, and knowing where the enemy champions are at. There are a number of initiations used, and I'll explain some of the more popular ones below.

• The first kind of initiation is the basic tank charge in and force a team fight. This initiation basically relies on the tank being able to disrupt the enemy team, find the Carry and CC him until the team can catch up and pick off the carry.
• The second kind of initiation has to do with picking off a target and forcing an unbalanced teamfight. Often times, teams will sit in the jungle waiting for an unlucky summoner to walk into their trap, and then they quickly burn them down, making the following teamfight 4v5. This requires good jungle vision and communication. Without vision, your team might walk into a trap or get jumped on themselves.
• The third initiation is quite literally forcing a teamfight. It requires a champion with a movement displacement ability such as Blitcrank, Nautilus, or Singed. If a high priority champion is caught and either flung or pulled back to the team, they can make short work of the caught champion, which forces the enemy to come to its aid, or retreat and fight an unbalanced team fight later.

Feeding: What, Where, and When? (Part Two)

Every position has a different look at feeding, some need it more than others to keep up, and others benefit from it more than others. Here I will try to explain certain priorities of the different roles, however keep in mind that the three rules from part 1 should generally trump these.

• Top- Top laners generally get enough farm from their lane in order to keep up with the game. Often times junglers will come and gank top lane and get a kill, and this supplements their gold and experience income. Some carries do play top, and in this case their feeding priority would be slightly higher, however for a tankier top: Feeding Priority = Low
• Middle - Most of the time middle will have an AP carry laning, and they benefit largely from experience then gold, so often time being involved in a kill gives them a good advantage, whether its a kill or an assist. Feeding Priority = Medium
• Jungle - The feeding priority of junglers varies significantly depending on the jungler. Any type of assasination type junglers such as Shaco will have higher priority than top or support, and if they are roaming more than middle, slightly higher. If its a utility jungler such as Maokai, the priority will be slightly higher than support and top. Feeding Priority = Medium/Medium-High
• Support - In most situations a support should not be taking kills, however they should always get assists. Feeding Priority = Very Low
• ADC - ADC's benefit the most from gold and experience, and they snowball the hardest. ADC players should be getting fed the most as it will benefit them the most. Feeding Priority = High

Feeding: What, Why, and When?

What is 'feeding'? Feeding is assisting a champion in getting gold and experience. This term can be used from several points of view, the most common is probably when someone is yelling "OMG STOP FEEDING HEIMERDINGER YOU NOOB1!1!1!!!!" In this case, we would assume that there is a player or players continuously dieing to Heimerdinger, giving him extra gold and experience. Of course the person yelling could also just be an elitist douche, which could quite possibly be the case. Of course there are several other uses of this word that are prevalent in LoL.

1. The first is of course dieing to a champion. It could be said that you are "feeding" the enemy champion. (The proper response to death is "Worth!!!" this denotes that your death wasn't in vain and people should praise you for your noble sacrifice.)
2. The second usage is from a teammates view point. When a jungler comes to gank a lane and allows the carry to get the killing blow, it would be said that 'Maokai' is feeding 'Vayne'.
3. Feeding doesnt have to consist of champion kills either, a support could help feed a carry by ensuring that he gets minion kills.

Why Feed? Feeding is an important part of the game, and is vital to understand in order to be successful in any position. If you begin to feed an enemy champion it can cause him to snowball, having a very negative effect on your team. However when you either assist someone, or you yourself begin to get fed it, helps out your team in a positive way for the same reasons.  To understand the full benefits of feeding, you have to understand who benefits the most from kills, and when its ok to take kills or feed which I will explain next.

When is it ok to feed or get fed? Well by now it should be obvious that you should try your best to not feed the enemy team, as it will always end up poorly for your team. But when is it good to feed a teammate and when is it appropriate to take kills? I'll explain it by each role, however there are a few universal rules that should be followed no matter what.

1. If the champion is going to get away, SECURE THE KILL. Even if you are Soraka, take the kill if the champion is getting away. An assist and part of the exp and gold is better than none.
2. If you are godmoding or hardcore snowballing, let someone else get the kill. Its better to distribute the wealth instead of concentrate it in one place. This is because if one champion is fed and the rest of the team is underfed, all the enemy team has to do is focus the one fed champion and its game over.
3. If you are an underfed ADC and the game is heading towards late-game take the kill. ADC are the major damage source of late game fights.

Part two will explain the roles.

Player Attitude and a Goal for this Blog

Whether it is in a game, on the forums, or in a chat room, there is a lot of hostility and unsportsmanship in League of Legends. Trolls abound in LoL, more so than any other game i've seen. These toxic players make games unenjoyable, difficult, and hardly any fun, and they are at the front when people see League of Legends community. Although at times it might seem like League's community is completely taken over by immature trolls that only want to antagonize the people that are just trying to have fun, there still exists fun and team-oriented Summoners.

My goal for this blog was to judge the communities response, and to see the popularity of the content I am posting. My hopes were that if it was popular enough, I would be able to start up a website dedicated to developing a strong community of Summoners that just want to play without trolls, and being harassed by teammates.

The community would be there to help, teach, and answer questions through blogs, guides, and forums so that players could understand the game instead of being belittled just because they are new. This wouldn't be strictly LoL oriented, it would also expand to other gaming communities such as Minecraft, Neverwinter, two other games that are currently in development  and more. Instead of being focused solely on one game, it would create a gaming community that players could use to band together and enjoy games the way they were meant to be.

If you would be interested in seeing this project, become reality, check and submit what you might be interested in, by using the poll labeled "Interest in Website". If you want to take a bigger role in the website, send me an email at Kaepowify@gmail.com

Caitlyn: Poke, Poke, ULTI! (Top Lane)

To go along with my last post, I decided to write an odd champion article on an ADC top, and seeing how Caitlyn has probably had the most success in top lane, I chose her.

Caitlyn's combination of poke capability, slows, snares and decent burst make her a perfect candidate for ADC top. Her poke allows her to control and maintain her lane, while her slow and snare prevents or slows ganks from ither lanes. Her long range allows her to farm at a safe distance and punish any overly aggressive opponents.

Caitlyn's passive serves to add a little extra burst every few shots, the shots required to get the bonus damage is lowered when she auto attacks from the bushes, this makes it quite beneficial for Cait to dodge in and out of bushes to utilize her passive fully.

Her first ability gives Caitlyn some nice damage and aoe, this is mostly used to clear minion waves, do a little burst damage, or snipe when her ultimate is down.

Caitlyn's second skill is a very useful snare that can be utilized countless ways. Most top players will choose to place their traps defensively due to the potential ganks that could come from other lanes. The trap can act like a cheap ward when placed in the right area such as river bush, where people will unknowingly step on it and alert you to the threat.

The third skill is a slow and self pushback. Caitlyn shoots out a net that slows the champion it hits, and pushes Caitlyn back the opposite way. This is very useful for disengaging and putting some distance in between your opponents and you.

Caitlyn's ultimate is a nice damaging ability with a great range. Its great for picking up kills and getting assists from kills that are to far away to help on.

Items on Caitlyn really depend on who she is going up against, what they are building, and if you are being hard pressed and need survivability. Most items will be the same as regular Cait, however you might find yourself building a Frozen Mallet or The Black Cleaver.

New Meta - Evolution of the Top Lane

As a game that is constantly changed and updated through patches, League of Legends is  in a constant state of change, and this allows countless play-styles to be utilized successfully. Of course not every play style is viable, however, the main gameplay, AKA Meta, is constantly evolving through the experimentation of the community, as well as the changes brought by every patch.

The current "Meta" most people would agree on is a normally tanky top, a high burst AD or AP mid, a jungler with a lot of utility, and a bottom composed of a support and an ADC. Of course there is always odd exceptions, but that is what is looked at as 'normal'. However with the addition of new items, and some changes to current ones, variations are becoming viable.

The variation I will be talking about concerns the top lane, hence the title. Putting the ADC in the top solo lane. Although this isn't a new idea, I believe it is an idea that will force the top, or any solo lane to evolve. This strategy has been used a few times in professional game, however it hasn't been very popular in regular games due to the higher skill it requires for the ADC. Of course there are skeptics that would ask the age old question "Why change what isn't broken?" Well I will list some of the pros and cons of this new setup.

Pros

• Having an ADC in a solo lane would give that champion much more experience than in a duo lane because he/she wouldn't have to share experience. Although experience isn't as important to an ADC as gold, it's still important, and it would give a level advantage.
• Most match ups in top lane would be in the ADC favor as most tops have short range and are susceptible to being kited. This would allow an ADC to farm almost unchallenged and push back any melee trying to farm.
• In an ADC vs ADC lane, it would most likely become a farm-fest, however the lane would  also be easier to gank or counter-gank.

Cons

• More susceptible to ganks.
• The sustainability added by supports wouldn't be there.
• Junglers would need to be attentive and ready to counter gank if needed.

 A popular ADC  to run top is Caitlyn because of her long range to poke, traps to help prevent ganks, and her net to disengage. She had high survivability thanks to her skills, and is able to control her lane with ease.

AP Tristana: Dead in Three Seconds or Less

For my second 'Odd Champion' article I will be discussing one of my favorite mid champions, AP Tristana. Tristana has the highest AP ratios of any champion in the game, and this gives her an insane amount of burst. I'll start of by explaining her abilities.

Her passive extends the range of her attacks and ranged skills every level. By level 18 she has an insane range that gives her great poke, and keeps her away from harm.

Tristana's first skill is an attack speed buff. For the most part, you don't need this skill until late game.

Her second skill jumps her anywhere within a certain radius and does great damage. This gives Tristana good mobility as well as good damage. For added mobility, the cooldown of this skill is reset every time Tristana gets a kill or assist. Just like Katarina, resets can turn a team fight very easily. This skill is best used to finish of enemies in team fights. Its important to wait for all the big abilities to be used, then jump in and clean up.

Her third ability is a DoT (Damage over Time) skill, that also decreases healing to a target. The AP ratio on this skill is insane and it can end up doing more damage then Malzahar's DoT. The range of this skill is effected by her passive so this gives her great early lane pressure, and contributes to her long term damage.

Tristana's ultimate is pure damage. It can and will destroy health bars, leaving the enemy asking "wtf was that?"

Just like Evelynn, Deathfire's Grasp is a great item to combo with her skills. It does a good amount of damage all game long, as well as increases all magic damage to that target.

Kill Lane: Does the Snowball Roll or Melt?

Running a kill lane has been an on and off fad for awhile now, however it has definitely Had a big effect on the ADC lane. For those of you who don't have a full understanding of what a kill lane is; A kill lane is a duo lane that lacks the conventional support role, and substitutes a champion with more damage and crowd control in its place. A kill lane trades sustainability for more kill, farm, and denying potential. A kill lane excels at aggressive play, and can limit the farm of the opposing side because of the absolute control they can maintain on a lane.

Pantheon is a popular pick for a kill lane because he has great damage output, a solid stun, he's naturally tanky, and he has huge tower diving potential with his ultimate and his shield. His spear also provides a strong poke to keep the enemy ADC off his minion wave. Of course Pantheon isn't the only champion that excels in a kill lane, there are many other equally potent champions, this is just an explanation as to why he is good, so you know what to look for in other champions.

The downside to a kill lane is that it is often played too aggressively, and the enemy jungler will take advantage of that and gank continuously. The other negative side of a kill lane is the need for kills. Because there are basically two carries in one lane, one of them will be under-farmed, and if they aren't getting kills or assists to supplement their gold income, they can end up falling behind in items.

In order to make a kill lane work, you need a few things.

1. A champion with decent damage, a hard CC(stun, suppression, snare), and some survivability.
2. Wards! (Must have)
3. Coordination with your partner.

A kill lane best works when you can talk to your partner, however as long as you can understand pings you should be fine. 

Another popular kill lane champion is Lux because she can fulfill a few different roles. Lux has great burst damage when she combos her abilities, and the long range of each skill allows her to have great poke. She has a hard CC(snare), and even a shield for added survivability. Lux can be played as another AP carry, or you can build has as a support, however keep in mind that her shield scales with AP, so AP is beneficial in either instance.

Laning: When it Comes to Push and Shove

Laning might seem like an easy enough concept to grasp, however it surprises me how many people don't understand how to fully control their lane, and minion waves. The goal of this article is to explain how a lane works, and ways to control and maintain it.

A minion wave spawns every 30 seconds after gametime reaches 1:30. It's important to learn how to control your minions because it is vital in order to maintain lane control. A few terms you need to know are:

• Pushing- Pushing your lane involves forcing your minions towards the opposing tower. This usually requires killing off enemy minions quickly so your minions are free to continue down the lane.
• Maintaining- Maintaining your lane means keeping it where it is. This often requires very little minion interaction, other than last hitting. The main idea of this is that you want the minions to slowly work each other down and cancel each other out. This gives incoming minion waves time to reach the front, and stall the lane more.
• 'Letting the lane push'- basically what it sounds like, normally refers to letting the enemy champions and/or minions push the lane towards your tower. This requires playing a little passive, and doing as little possible damage to the minions.

In order to maintain control of your lane, you will need to be able to do each of those things at a point in the game. If the enemy champion is out of your lane, you might want to push the minion wave into the tower so that the tower can be damaged, and the tower ends up killing the minions rather than your opponent. This is called Denying because it denies the enemy the gold and experience from those minions.

If the enemy jungler is camping your lane  and you can't CS without being ganked, it might be better to allow the lane to push so that you can farm under the protection of the tower. It also helps to allow the lane to push when you know your team is coming to gank. This forces the enemy champion to farm farther away from his tower, leaving him more vulnerable to ganks.

Maintaining your lane is optimal when you have good ward coverage, and both sides of the lane are farming. This is the easiest way to farm without the tower taking minion kills, and allowing your lane to be gankable. It allows full utilization of the bushes for your team, and puts you in a good position to shove your lane (Push it very quickly) if your team wants to go for an objective like dragon, or try and take down the tower.

Evelynn: A Little Bit of Everything

As my first article on a specific champion, I decided to write on Evelynn because she isn't a champion that gets a lot of attention, even after her rehaul. This article is purely based off my experiences with her, so it can be, and probably is biased.

Evelynn is an extremely flexible and versatile champion. She can fulfill the role of AP Carry, Jungler, and she is an exceptional roamer. I primarily play her as a Jungler/Roamer so that's what I will be discussing in this post.

 Putting Evelynn in the jungle gives your team a roamer with high burst, high mobility, and a close to undetectable ganker. Evelynn's passive allows her to move around the map unnoticeable to any regular wards, only pink wards and champions within a certain radius can see her. This allows Eve to position herself almost perfectly for ganks, and sneak into bushes without the enemy team knowing easily.

Evelynn's first skill acts almost like a ranged autoattack, and scales off her AD as well as AP. The great thing about this skill is that it can be casted while moving. This makes Eve an incredible kiter when paired with her second skill.

Her second skill is a cleanse-like ability that removes any slows from Eve, and gives her a speed boost for a short time. This skill helps keep her out of harms way, and gives her the mobility she needs to dart in and out of team fights.

Evelynn's third skill is a melee range nuke that scales off her AD and AP, as well as giving her a short buff to her attack speed. This is great for backdooring, since Eve's auto attack damage is pretty high already, and you can use this skill on minions to get the attack speed buff.

Eve's ultimate completes her combo by giving her good burst damage as well as survivability. When first used, it does damage based on the health of the champions it hits, this percentage scales off her AP. The survivability part comes through the shield she is given on use of her ulti. The amount of damage the shield blocks is dependent on how many champions are in her ultimate. The more champions caught in it, the larger the shield is.

The one 'must have' item for Evelynn is Deathfire's Grasp. It does damage based on the targets maximum health, as well as increases all magic damage to that target. This item gives Eve insane burst, and allows her to one shot most carries, and health stacking bruisers.

Attack Damage Carry: Farming From Dawn to Dusk

I finally reach the ADC section. Probably my least favorite position, however it is arguably the most important. The life of an ADC is fairly simple, farm until mid game, take part in team fights, farm more, win. Of course in game it is much more difficult to execute because you have to take ganks into account, crazy aggressive supports, and anything else that could disrupt your ability to farm.

Farming is the most important aspect in ADC gameplay. This is because they are entirely dependent on items, which require gold to purchase. The more farm you get, the more gold you have, the more items you can buy, and the faster you reach your potential and dominate.

A support mixes up the game a little. Although their main job is to protect their ADC, and give him sustainability in lane, most time you will see them move into position to disrupt the opposing ADC farming ability. Especially with supports such as Blitzcrank and Thresh, players often times find themselves put on defense because of the aggression these supports can get away with. 

ADCs also have to be cautious of ganks,either from the jungle, or from other lanes. The bushes in river or in lane will almost always be utilized in order to catch the enemy off-guard. This is why wards are so important, and map vision and awareness are a must.

Wards are an extremely important part of the game, and contrary to popular belief; Warding is the responsibility of the entire team, not just the support! So next time you go back and buy items and have some gold leftover, buy a few wards. It will help your team out, and will probably save your life, and might even lead to a kill or five.

Support: Hooked on Heals

The main priority for any support, is to protect its ADC as well as do its best to get it fed. Different champions do this different ways.

Some champions such as Janna and Lulu protect their ADC through anticipating damage and shielding their ADC beforehand. They also have high Crowd Control potential which allows them to interrupt and even stop ganks or high aggression instantly.

Other champions protect their ADC by forcing the opposing team to be on the defensive. Blitzcrank and Thresh are examples of these champions as they can be very aggressive and catch the opposing team off guard. These champions use hooks, slow and knockups to force an initiation and lock down the hooked target.

Other champions support by healing damage after its been dealt. Champions such as Soraka, Nidalee, and Nami are excellent healers but can also put a decent amount of damage out when needed. 

Wards are also an important part of a supports job. Well placed wards can reveal an incoming gank, a dragon attempt, and allows the team to know where everyone is at any time. Map vision is extremely important especially as the game goes on, and team fights begin to happen. Games are often thrown because there was not enough ward coverage and someone got caught, forcing a 4v5 which is quite hard to win. Although warding is something a support should definitely focus on, it isn't solely your responsibility, teammates should always try to ward whenever they can as this allows for optimal vision, instead of relying on one person to ward the entire map.

Jungle: Where the Wild Ones Roam

The Jungler is a key influence in the pace of the game. If the Junglers are very passive and decides to farm rather than gank the lanes, the game will usually be much slower, and the game will turn into a farm fest, with very few kills in the begining. However if the Junglers  are constantly ganking you will see the game pace pickup and get much more tense and there is much more action. I see the Junglers as the play makers of the League of Legends world. It's often up to them to gank a lane, and swing it in one of the teams favors. This can be good or bad as a Jungler can swing it either way by doing certain things.

1. A Jungler can have a positive effect by putting pressure on a lane through ganking, whether this results in a kill, or just pushes the opposing champion(s) back off the minion wave and denying them farm. This puts your teammate in a good position to continue to farm and get more gold and experience than his opponent, giving him a lane advantage.
2. Another way a Jungler can have a positive effect is through counter ganking, often times a Jungler will have to "camp" a lane in order to swing it in that team's favor. This means that he spends a considerable amount of time in position to gank, or ganking a lane. If a lane is being camped by the opposing team's Jungler, the lane should be warded as much as possible, and the team's Jungler should get into position to counter gank. This often means hiding just out of site by a turret, or in side bushes along the lane. (I will get more into using the bushes in a later post.)
3. We've discussed  positive effects Junglers can have on their team's lanes, however an inexperienced Jungler can also have very negative effects as well. Ganks in balanced lanes always result in farm loss, this happens to the enemy team as well as your team. If the Jungler has several unsuccessful ganks and they don't force the lane off their minion wave, it can leave the Jungler, and his team's carry at a farm disadvantage as they are spending more time trying to kill the opposing team instead of farm.
4. Feeding of course has a very negative effect as well. I've seen entire lanes thrown because a Jungler acts to aggressive or gets counter ganked and gets himself killed, and sometimes his team. It's important to be patient as a Jungler and learn to judge whether it will be worth camping in a bush for a few seconds, or if you should just move on. A very important thing to remember is: The more time a Jungler spends in a lane, the more experience is taken away from that lane's champions and this can put them behind.

The great thing about the Jungle is that it has such a wide variety of champions that can use it. One of my favorite champions to jungle with is Evelynn. She offers great damage and burst, and her invisibility allows her to get into positions for ganks that might otherwise be impossible. Of course you always have to keep in mind what exactly your team needs. If your team is light on crowd control, it would be better going someone with less damage but more crowd control. Amumu and Maokai offer amazing crowd control with great gank potential through gaps closers like Amumu's Bandage Toss and Maokai's Twisted Advance.

If you need someone with a little bit more mobility, Shaco is a great choice for the Jungle. He has one of the fastest Jungle clears, he is a deadly counter-Jungler, and his invisibility allows him to setup ganks very well. This is not to mention his great damage output, and he can usually take out carries by himself if he sets up good boxes.

In conclusion, there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to the Jungle, and it is important to realize what your team needs and what they are good at. It's also important to understand when it is time to stay in Jungle and farm, and when to go and help out lanes and gank and this all comes with experience. A Jungler is a very important part of the game, and it make make or break games.

Middle Lane: Kings and Queens of Burst

The middle lane is usually where ability powered nukers (AP carries) reside. Champions like Brand, Veigar, and Lissandra are high damage champions that reach an extremely high burst potential by combing all of their skills together and executing them in rapid succession. This champions flourish in the middle lane because their high burst damage allows them to burn down a target quickly during a gank or 1v1. Often time middle laners will also have some kind of crowd control ability, whether this is a stun, slow, or suppression. This helps the jungler get into position to pull off a successful gank.

A middle laner needs to focus on staying in lane as much as possible, because the experience they gain is much more important than gold in the early game. This is primarily do to the large amount of damage AP carries get when leveling up skills. This is their primary source of damage until the mid game where they begin  buying better items. This is not to say that gold isn't an important resource, because that is far from the truth. Any champion in any lane should always maximize their gold input by farming minions, the jungle, etc (unless this means that you are a support taking minion kills from one of your team's carries.)

When an AP carry has sufficient control of its lane, they are often able to roam and gank the other lanes. AP Twisted Fates will often use their ultimate to teleport to another lane and try to get a kill or at least push back the opposing lane. However, mid players have to be careful as leaving their lane gives the opposing AP carry a chance to push the lane and get a tower down, or farm the minions and give the turret kills instead.

An AP carries main role in a team fight is to find high priority targets such as the enemies ADC or opposing AP carry and burst them down, killing them, or at least pushing them out of the fight. As an AP carry it's important to keep a safe distance and save any kind of crowd control you have for these high priority targets.

Top Lane: Home of the Bruisers

As the title suggests, top is where most of LoL's deadliest bruisers spend their time. If you don't know what a bruiser is, then here is a little explanation: A bruiser is a champion that can be built very tanky while at the same time being able to deal out a decent amount of damage. Champions such as Riven, Jax, and Renekton thrive in top lane 1v1 due to their survivability, and great damage output. While these champions may be excellent top lane candidates for 1v1, that does not mean that they will fit well into any team composition in ranked queue. These champions fall short of map-wide mobilization. What this means is that although they might win their lane in a game, they lack the power to compliment their team easily. \

Here is a situation: Team A is making a move on dragon, there is a 1v1 going on in top, where Shen is on Team A, and Riven is on Team B. Team B has the middle, jungle, and both bottom players begin dragon, however Team A sees this and moves to counter. At this time, it is a 4v4 as everyone has collapsed onto dragon, however Shen has his ultimate and he uses it to teleport down and Team A engages on Team B. It is now a 5v4 in Team A's favor because Riven is stuck top. This is an easy win and dragon pickup for Team A in this theoretical world.

With this demonstration it is easy to see the power of a global ability like Shen's ultimate. This is often why champions take the summoner skill, Teleport when they go to top lane, giving them that extra mobility that they need in order to join team fights from across the map.

While a map-wide presence is important, it can also be countered. Say that in our theoretical world, that the first situation is occurring, and Shen used his ultimate to get down to dragon pit to help. Riven could immediately shove his lane towards Team A's tower and begin putting damage on it while no one is top. If he is able to destroy the tower, and no one died in the dragon pit skirmish, it would be an equal trade in gold and would actually give more map control to Team B.

There is an obvious trade off between these two tactics. Having map-presence vs having push potential. Both are viable options, and each has their own advantages. It's up to the player to really decide what will be most beneficial to the team.

Ranked setup

This is a quick overview of lane position setups in a normal ranked game. In depth explantation will be coming shortly of each individual position explaining exactly what their goal is, and how they interact within the team. A normal ranked 5v5 game will consist of:

• 1 top laner, normally a tanky bruiser type of champion. (Example: Shen, Singed, Jax) Champions with high mobility such as Shen's ultimate, or taking Teleport as a summoner skill are often very successful top laners because it allows them access to the rest of the map instantly, rather than having to walk down to a team fight from their lane. It allows quick coordination of dragon attempts, split pushing then rejoining the team, and even suprise ward teleport ganks.
• 1 mid laner, usually a bursty ap (sometimes ad, e.g. zed, khazix) with some kind of crowd control ability. Mid champions focus on sustainability in lane as experience is extremely valuable to them, as each level of their abilities add more damage, longer durations, and sometimes lower cooldowns. Good examples of mid laners would be, Lissandra, Annie, Khazix.
• 1 jungle, this position can vary as it is based on your team synergy and play style. Popular jungles usually have some kind of crowd control, whether it's a slow, or a hard stun. Most junglers need a slow or stun in order to gank lanes successfully, however sometimes a simple gap closer can be enough. Examples of a burst damage jungler would be: Shaco, Evelynn, or Xin Zhao. An example of a more tanky, and crowd control centered champion would be : Maokai, Vi, or Sejuani
• 2 bottom laners, this is usually made up of a support and an ad ranged carry. There's a few select ad carries. Graves, Vayne, and Caitlyn to name a few. Their main job is to maintain bottom lane and farm (or kill) as many creeps as possible in order to accumulate gold for later in the game. Ad carries gain most of their damage through items that effect their auto attack; attack damage, attack speed, and critical chance. Supports are there to provide sustain to their ad carry so that they will maximize their time in lane and farm as many minions as possible. There are a wide variety of support champions as well. Some focus on mitigating or preventing damage, while others specialize in healing damage that was dealt. Examples of supports that mitigate damage would include Janna, Thresh, or Leona. Supports that assist through healing include: Soraka, Taric, or Nami.

This is a very general overview or the lanes, and there are always exceptions to the rules, or champions that can fill roles simultaneously. This is not to be taken as set in stone rules, this is just a overall view of what a 'regular' game might look like. I will be going in-depths into each role in the future, to explain exactly what its goal is, and how it is achieved.

League of Legends

As a gamer who has been playing League of Legends since before season one, I have been able to see the growth and changes the game and its community has gone through. From being a small few thousand player game, to the now massive worldwide success it is now. Despite the competition it has faced, through the likes of HoN, Dota, and Dota 2, it has developped a multi-million player community that thrives off playing, watching, and theorycrafting this popular game. Through the use of this blog, I will be sharing information on the game. This information will vary from new announcements, patch notes, the basics, to the meta game, and champion analysis.