not active for a bit

Im currently moving countries so I wont be on much over the next two weeks hopefully after that should be back to normal :D currently watching the TSM invitationals you cant watch it at http://www.solomid.net/

Champion Spotlight and Patch Preview - Darius, the Hand of Noxus

I thought id share this with you as the Champion is out soon and Phreak as always is giving tips on how to play him. He looks like a good top/jungle hero but it doesn't look like he has very good sustain. The Champion Spotlight videos  are always funny to watch for me as the people Phreak is killing really have no clue :D

Hope you enjoy and learn a few things, I am looking forward to him as I enjoy playing top and hope he will be viable. Of course he will counter some heroes and in turn be countered by a few aswell but thats part of the fun in LoL.

The Darius skin just looks like a pimped out shiny version of the original Darius. Its nothing special and I doubt i will be buying the riot point bundle. 

In case you have not seen the patch preview this will keep you up to date of all the new changes incoming with Darius, there is also the visual updates and new item and champion changes in the video. Enjoy.

My Favorite Skin Theme

So there have been a lot of themed skins for LoL with the Hextech, Commando, Pentakill and the Winter/Frost themes etc. They are all really good but my favorite is defiantly the Doctor theme :D 

Kennen M.D. has the exact look of House which always makes me laugh when I see him. Im pretty sure every guy alive likes the Nurse Akali skin, for a character she is very cute haha. Lastly Surgeon Shen reminds me of Turk from Scrubs, he looks so intelligent here unlike his other ninja based looks.

These are the other three skins I also love, Ziggs' voice is crazy as it is so when you add this skin as well its even more hilarious. Corporate Mundo is my personal favorite skin at the moment, its so awesome seeing an educated side to the Dr. I wish he would throw his phone sometimes, I would probably just be sitting there throwing suitcases and phones at the trees! Finally everyone's most loved champion... Astronaut Teemo :p if people say they hate him they are secretly lying. His voice is so adorable through a microphone and he drops little satellites instead of mushrooms :)

I have put a poll up and want to see you guys most favorite skins. Please vote so i can see which ones you like.

LoL overhauls with Darius, TSM and Athene!

This is a very anticipated upcoming patch in LoL, Riot have completely redesigned Summoners Rift and are making it look gorgeous, I have seen it on the test realms and all the new details make it look so much more pretty, from the new animations to the color of the water and a new shopkeeper that looks like Teemo's father :D

So here are the stats for the new hero.

Darius The Hand of Noxus

• Damage:53.5(+3.5 per level)
• Health:519(+93 per level)
• Mana:237.5(+37.5 per level)
• Movement Speed:315
• Armor:23.5(+3.5 per level)
• Magic Resist:31.25(+1.25 per level)
• Health Per 5 Sec:8.25
• Mana Per 5 Sec:6
• Range:125

Hemorrhage 

• Darius aims his attacks strategically, causing his target bleed. This effect stacks up to five times.

Pretty straight forward passive, nice extra damage similar to gangplank and every stack on an enemy increases your ultimate damage.

Decimate

 

• Deals 70/105/140/175/210 (+0.7) physical damage to all nearby enemies in a circle. Champions in the outer half of the ability are struck by the blade, taking 50% additional damage.
• Cost: 40 mana
• Range: 425
• Cooldown: 9 Seconds

Nuke with a nice little twist, praises good positioning which i like and encourages you to get up close in team fights to hit multiple targets.

Crippling Strike

• The next basic attack deals 120/140/160/180/200% damage and slows the target's movement and attack speed by 20/25/30/35/40% for 2 seconds. Crippling Strike's cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target.
• Cost: 30/35/40/45/50 mana
• Range: 300
• Cooldown: 8 Seconds

Darius' slow, hopefully it will reset swing timer so you can do some burst and slow at the same time, with some Cooldown Reduction and 5 hemorrhage stacks on target, this skill will instantly refresh.

Apprehend

• Passive: Grants 5/10/15/20/25% armor penetration.
• Active: Pulls in all enemies in front of Darius.
• Cost: 45
• Range: 550
• Cooldown: 24/21/18/15/12 Seconds

I do like the look of this skill, the passive armor penetration will let him scale into late game and another mini cc for him to keep time on target.

Noxian Guillotine

• Leaps to target enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing 160/250/340 (+1.2) true damage. For each stack of Hemorrhage on the target, Noxian Guillotine deals an additional 20% damage. The cooldown is refreshed if Noxian Guillotine kills the target.
• Cost: 100
• Range: 475
• Cooldown: 60 Seconds

A similar ultimate to Garen, he can charge a hero for a huge nuke on the target, if Hemorrhage is stacked this can easily take a hero with 20% hp to dead. I cant wait to see a Play of the week where Darius does 5 ultimate's on a almost dead team after a team fight and get a pentakill :p

So Darius will be a very strong Jungler and equally as viable as a top lane, I hope see him in competitive play soon! There are some slight changes to a couple of other champions in the upcoming patch as well.

Dr. Mundo

• Sadism - Maximum Health regenerated reduced to 40/50/60%, from 40/55/70%.

Sad to see as I love Mundo but I think it was needed, not a huge nerf as you will still go from almost dead to full hp with a spirit visage. 

Hecarim

• Rampage - Damage to minions increased to 66%, from 50%.

Nice damage buff but I doubt it will be enough to see him more in ranked play.

Lulu

• Glitterlance - Damage and ability power ratio reduced to 80/125/170/215/260 (+0.5), from  80/130/180/230/280 (+0.6).

This was defiantly needed, Lulu's damage was insane if she went AP carry mid way too much damage and utility from one hero

Malphite

• Health increased to 513 (+90 per level), from 505 (+82 per level).

Nice little buff but like Hecarim I doubt it will be enough to see him being played in the Jungle or Top in ranked play.
Fiddlesticks

• Darkwind - Damage to minions is increased by 50%.

This change will help Jungle Fiddle's clear time so I like this buff, plus a friend of mine loves playing Jungle Fiddle so he is happy about it :)

Gangplank

• Parrrley - Total Gold Plundered added to tooltip

Nice update, like Veigar it will show you how much extra gold you have accumulate from Parrrley.
Ashe

• Hawkshot - Total Gold Retrieved added to tooltip.

Like Gangplank this change will be good to show you how much extra gold you have gained. Also in the upcoming patch the Ashe Classic skin will get a big change and hero, Volley and Enchanted Crystal Arrow's color will change for each skin. I have seen pink, purple and light green animations and does look really nice.

So with this huge LoL make-over of course Riot have added a new item to the game and Athene managed to get enough referrals to get an item designed for the game.

Athene's Unholy Grail 

• Item Cost - 2950
• Recipe Cost - 500
• Components - Fiendish Codex, Amplifying Tome, Chalice of Harmony
• Stats - +80 Ability Power, +40 Magic Resist, +15 MP5, +15% Cooldown Reduction, Passive: Restores 12% of your max Mana on Kill or Assist, UNIQUE Passive: Increases your Mana Regen by 1% per 1% Mana you are missing. Does not stack with Chalice of Harmony.

This will add some variety for the mana hungry AP heroes, I can definatly see this being a core item for Galio in the future.

Speaking of Athene, he managed to get the World first level 60 on Diablo 3 even though he was 6 hours behind the Asian servers. He was also going for World First Inferno Clear but had to stop as Blizzard hot fixed a skill in which their Monk characters could go invulnerable for 2 seconds down to half a second. He decided to go for it with a new setup with a Barbarian Tank and 3 Demon Hunters but Method finished Inferno difficulty it earlier today.

Finally in the National ESL Pro Series, the match was TSM vs CLG.NA, I enjoyed the two matches between them, the first game was very close for the first 20 minutes, it looked like CLG had the advantage with a lot of successful Blitzcrank hooks onto Reginald who was playing Karthus. I don't know if TSM planned to eat these hooks but it worked in favor for TSM every time, Karthus would get some huge AoE damage on CLG's team and just before death, Dyrus playing Kayle would use his ultimate and save Reginald from certain death. This won TSM the team fights and led them to win the game. In the next game TSM really steamrolled CLG going up 17-0 within 20 minutes and going on to effortlessly win the game 24 mins in. This was a slaughter not often seen between two professional teams.

Champion Sneak Peek - Darius

The newest Champion to join the League has been announced Darius, the Hand of Noxus. This guy looks like an absolute beast! :p a lot of speculation after reading forums that he might be similar to Ax/Legionare from Dota and HoN. There are not any "proc" effecs in LoL so I don't mind seeing this hero being introduced with a similar effect. If you are unfamiliar I will show you what i mean. 

The Legionnaire's skill with a Battle Axe is unrivaled. Every time he is attacked, he has a small chance to perform a Whirling Blade maneuver, which damages all nearby enemies.

Skills Table

Level	Mana Cost	Cooldown	Cast Range	Area of Effect	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	0.7 seconds	N/A	300	N/A	17% chance to damage enemies in radius for 100 when attacked. Gains one charge when attacked, automatically spinning when the 12th charge is gained.

• Charges are reset to zero when a spin happens or 5 seconds pass without being hit.
• Whirling Blade procs even when stunned, hexed, silenced, etc.

Counter Helix (X) Mogul Kahn counters some blows made to him dealing damage to all nearby enemy units. 17% chance to trigger. Level 1 - Deals 100 damage. • Damage type: physical • Counter Helix checks for triggering whenever an attack against Axe begins, not when Axe is actually damaged by said attack. • Area of Effect: 300 Mana Cost: N/A Cooldown: 0.7/0.65/0.6/0.55 So this is what might be being introduced, the ability is slightly different in HoN with a guaranteed proc after being hit 12 times, from experience i would say i am an unlucky Axe player :) i have sat there in a HoN game watching the 12 stacks count up before getting my swing in the jungle. Garen already has the ultimate but I can see something identical being used. A lot of heroes have an AoE stun as an Ultimate so having two with an execute wont be a problem. I am excited about this new hero as i can see him being a solo top or jungle monster haha, roles I do enjoy playing. And the last four heroes have been AD carry, Jungle, Support and AP mid respectively so i am confident he will be a new addition to the pool of Solo Top heroes :D This is the teaser Riot have released on him, hope to see some updates on skills soon!If you’ve ever been frustrated by your progress in a given position, you might want to look to Darius, the Hand of Noxus, for inspiration. In order to secure his own advancement, this determined champion has repeatedly employed the foolproof method of lopping his boss’ head off. So whether you believe that the road to power is paved with the headless bodies of your enemies, or you simply think that a good beheading is a rather expedient method of dealing with red tape, we think you’ll agree that Darius makes a fine addition to the League of Legends. * Riot Games does not endorse participation in any beheadings, decapitations or other incidences of fatal mayhem. In the event that you should experience sudden bouts of Machiavellian violence or rapid and very explicable career advancement, please consult your doctor or therapist. By purchasing Darius you absolve Riot Games of responsibility for any maniacal rampages that may ensue.

Athene Going for EU First Level 60 Diablo 3

So Athene the worlds most famous record breaking profession gamer is going to go for EU first level 60 on Diablo 3, He will be doing it 4 player Co-Op with other WoW legends including Hydra, in my eyes the worlds best Priest player and has been for years. Braindeadly, the Neilyo of Hunters :D and of course Jimos the funny Retribution Paladin, its nice to see the three Englishmen with Athene I bet they are having such a laugh getting prepared for this. Athene is promoting this on his live stream Operation Sharecraft.

This first video had people wondering if he had been banned on the Chinese battle.net, as they could play 6 hours earlier but this was just Athene being Athene :p it was fake and they haven't been banned, they will be starting very soon trying to include the whole community by getting them to donate in game game to level Blacksmithing for him, every 5 thousand gold donated will put you in a pool to win some Razor gear from Operation Sharecraft (which has in fact raised over 625 thousand dollars which is insane and so great!)

I am pretty confident he will make the record as he is a very intelligent gamer and has been practicing on the Diablo 3 Beta a fair amount, and with the amount of fans helping him just like with WoW record and Starcraft record etc. It should not be too hard for him.

Check out his live stream he will be starting very soon http://www.athenelive.com/stream/42146/?Athene 

                           

Manchester City Win the Premier League!

Manchester City scored twice in stoppage time to be crowned champions for the first time in 44 years by beating Queen's Park Rangers to win the Premier League on goal difference.

City took the lead through Pablo Zabaleta seven minutes before half time as they looked set to seal their first league championship since 1968.

But their dreams looked set to be shattered when Djibril Cisse and Jamie Mackie put the R's 2-1 up.
However, Edin Dzeko hit a 90th minute equaliser befor Aguero wrapped up the title with practically the last kick of the season to send the Etihad support into hysteria.
Mancini said: "It was incredible — they deserved this. To win it like this is incredible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finale like this.
“We didn’t deserve to lose, we had a lot of chances and we deserved to win the game and championship.
“It’s fantastic for the club and the supporters after 44 years. It’s been a crazy season and a crazy last minute.” 

 Possession

                      QPR 38%                                                        Manchester City 62%

 102mins

City were defiantly dominant in their game and even though im an Arsenal fan they deserved the trophy. A lot of people will say they bought it but i have watched them play and they have gelled well over the season and are a very strong team indeed. The league tables was very close for the 3-6 spots for the UEFA and of course the Champions League, it will be interesting how Newcastle will do as they have come out of nowhere this season and have been incredible, this is the table after the final matches today.

#	Team Name	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Manchester City	38	28	5	5	93	29	+64	89
2	Manchester United	38	28	5	5	89	33	+56	89
3	Arsenal	38	21	7	10	74	49	+25	70
4	Tottenham	38	20	9	9	66	41	+25	69
5	Newcastle	38	19	8	11	56	51	+5	65
6	Chelsea	38	18	10	10	65	46	+19	64
7	Everton	38	15	11	12	50	40	+10	56
8	Liverpool	38	14	10	14	47	40	+7	52
9	Fulham	38	14	10	14	48	51	–3	52
10	West Bromwich	38	13	8	17	45	52	–7	47
11	Swansea	38	12	11	15	44	51	–7	47
12	Norwich	38	12	11	15	52	66	–14	47
13	Sunderland	38	11	12	15	45	46	–1	45
14	Stoke	38	11	12	15	36	53	–17	45
15	Wigan	38	11	10	17	42	62	–20	43
16	Aston Villa	38	7	17	14	37	53	–16	38
17	Queens Park Rangers	38	10	7	21	43	66	–23	37
18	Bolton	38	10	6	22	46	77	–31	36
19	Blackburn	38	8	7	23	48	78	–30	31
20	Wolverhampton	38	5	10	23	40	82	–42	25

Mentioning the United game i thought it was very dull i hate to say it but their last few games have been very similar and i feel like they lost the passion after their loss to City a few weeks ago. I will be very looking forward to the transfers coming up the biggest rumor i have heard is Gareth Bale going to Barcelona.

But wow congratulations to Manchester City with your well earned trophy, i am very very excited for next season, i want to see some flair from Liverpool and Chelsea to see them climb the tables and show England they are still some of the best teams out there :D

Solomid EU Invitationals

Just a quick update because im watching the stream live myself but its the TSM is having their first European tournament, eight invited teams will compete for a prize pool of 1500 Euros. Attending teams include Against All Authority, Counter Logic Gaming EU and Absolute Legends, and of course Team SoloMid. The tournament is live right now and continues on Sunday, May 13 at 4:00 am Pacific Time (13:00 CEST). Follow all of the action at http://www.solomid.net/


This is mostly for fun with only 1.5k up for grabs but im sure tsm will make most of the money back for the stream over the next two days, its the first match and there are already 19k  viewesr, and a few thousand on dyrus and chaox streams aswell. This is going to be very entertaining as its TSM vs AL first go check it out

TSM not going to ESL

So Team Solo Mid are not attending the upcoming ESL due to them not being able to stream it. As it is their main source of income and ESL also make all the people attending unable to stream so they get all the viewing commerce. ESL also make the teams and players pay to travel and thier own accommodation, so even if TSM won they wouldn't make as much money from streaming it. 


1.6.1.4 League bans and penalty points outside The Intel Extreme Masters League bans and penalty points outside the Intel Extreme Masters do normally not apply towards the Intel Extreme Masters the exception is when the penalty points have been awarded due to cheating. Some other misbehaviours like ringing/faking or insults can also be punished, depending on the severity.


The casters have made enemies here and there are rumors that they are going to be banned to other upcoming tournaments for a year but this is just false. Others are saying TSM want to dodge this tournament as they haven't been playing to their full potential loosing scrims to team as SK and Epik Gamer. Being a TSM fan this saddens me but at the end of the day they need to pay bills and could easily come to a deal with ESL to share the income from streaming to the 200+ thousand expected viewers. 

New Free Champion Rotation (Season Two: Week 24)

So he is here, and yeah he is pretty unstoppable. Played him a lot today and he is very hard to beat, his damage is naturally high with a passive Wit's End, and a quick double tap of Q in a trade if you have 3 stacks of your passive on your target will win even against Vayne's burst.

His passive is better than I expected, if you need to push a lane his passive last long enough for you to kill a melee creep just in time to refresh on another melee creep. His Q is so much fun and reminds me of when I played Windrunner in Dota, she was one of my favorite heroes so this makes me really happy haha. 


His W is also good as it is % health based, this makes him a strong carry throughout the game so i am looking forward to see him in tournament scrims and upcoming matches. His E is a tiny bit weaker than i thought, yeah it slows and reduces healing received but the debuff is instantly gone if you move out of it. I suppose if it was not like that it would be considered too OP, I usually use it a few seconds into a team fight or in choke points so enemies have to run through it to chase you. Finnaly his ulti is so fun, i remember a match today we were loosing a team fight, i cast it and it bounced through all 5 heroes cripplingly slowing them and we turned the fight around and aced them :D





A good mix of Free to Play heroes this week


Mid: Annie Twisted Fate Vladimir Talon
Top: Kayle Malphite Olaf Warwick Vladimir Talon
AD: Caitlyn Twisted Fate
Jungle: Olaf Talon Warwick Malphite
Support: Kayle Leona


Alot of bruisers this week mainly top/jungle heroes, nobody too OP so thats nice, lastly IPL 5 Open Regional Qualifiers has been announced so I will be watching that routing for TSM :p

Varus, the Arrow of Retribution

So I am pretty excited about this new hero coming out. This guy is going to be a new AD carry, I am a solo top player but play AD carry as my second choice so I will defiantly be trying him out, I have done some research and found some builds that can build him as AP and he can almost do as much damage if he was AD. This means he has the potential to go mid like Kog'Maw and Tristana. 

           Health 482 (+82)                           Attack damage 49.0 (+3.2)               

 Health regen 4.5 (+0.55)                            Attack speed 0.658 (+2.65%)    

           Mana 286 (+36)                                        Armor 16.9 (+3.4)               

  Mana regen 6.5 (0.6)                                     Magic res. 30                    

         Range 575                                          Mov. Speed 310 

Ok so these base stats are really good, alot of them are higher than all other AD carries so he is looking very promising. Now for his abilities.

(Innate): On champion kill or assist, Varus gains 40% attack speed for 6 seconds.

On minion kill, Varus gains 20% attack speed for 3 seconds.

Im not too sure about this passive, obviously it is good in some situations, for example in a team fight if you manage to pick off a hero early, maybe the support or someone out of position you snowball and can do some really good damage. But when you are laning the 20% is kind of useless as you are only last hitting, it could be okay if you last hit the last creep of the way then get some cheeky fast shots in.

Q Piercing Arrow

(First Cast): Varus starts drawing back his next shot, gradually increasing its range and damage.

(Second Cast): Varus fires, dealing physical damage, reduced by 15% per enemy hit (minimum 33%). While preparing to shoot, Varus cannot autoattack or use abilities, and his movement speed is slowed by 20%. After 4 seconds, Piercing Arrow fails but refunds half its mana cost.

Cooldown: 16 / 14 / 12 / 10 / 8 seconds

Cost: 70 / 75 / 80 / 85 / 90 mana

Minimum Damage: 10 / 43 / 77 / 110 / 143 (+1.0 per attack damage)

Maximum Damage: 15 / 65 / 115 / 165 / 215 (+1.6 per attack damage)

This skill is very interesting, it reminds me of Windrunners Q in HoN, you press Q and the range steadily increases until you release the shot, you can move around but your movement is slower, the damage is small early but with a 1.6 attack damage scale end game it will be doing 500 or so damage which is not bad. 

W Blighted Quiver

(Passive): Varus' basic attacks deal bonus magic damage and apply Blight for 6 seconds (stacks 3 times).

Varus' other abilities detonate Blight, dealing magic damage equal to a percentage of the target's maximum health per stack. This damage is capped against monsters.

On-hit Damage: 10 / 14 / 18 / 22 / 26 (+0.25 per ability power)

Blight Damage per Stack: 2 / 2.75 / 3.5 / 4.25 / 5% (+0.01% per ability power)

This passive is okay, if you max it first your auto attacks will be doing some nice damage but it scales with AP so im not sure how useful it will be, I do like the stacking debuff which detonates with another spell though, at max rank with 3 stacks on a hero you can do 15% of their max life which is insane. I can see some Vayne-like Black Cleaver builds on this guy. 

E Hail of Arrows

(Active): Varus fires a hail of arrows that deals physical damage and desecrates the ground for 4 seconds.

Desecrated Ground reduces healing effects by 50% and slows enemy movement speed.

• Cost: 80 mana
• Range: 925

Cooldown: 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 / 10seconds

Physical Damage: 65 / 105 / 145 / 185 / 225 (+0.6 per bonus attack damage)

Slow Percentage: 30 / 35 / 40 / 45 / 50%

This ability is like Miss Fortunes Make it Rain, but it also gives a 50% healing debuff, again this ability is really strong, an AoE 50% healing debuff with a slow in a teamfight will just instantly turn it to your favour.

R Chain of Corruption

(Active): Varus flings out a tendril of corruption that deals magic damage and immobilizes the first enemy champion hit for 2 seconds.

The corruption then spreads towards nearby uninfected enemy champions, applying the same damage and immobilize if it reaches them. The corruption will continue to spread until there are no further unaffected targets in range.

• Cost: 120 mana
• Range: 1075

Cooldown: 120 / 105 / 90seconds

Magic Damage: 150 / 250 / 350(+1.0 per ability power)

This an AoE skillshot stun like Sejuani's, this has alot of potential if you Hail of Arrows into your ultimate you will have a huge edge in a team fight or just a 2v2 bot lane, I really like it but mixed with all of this other skills he seems a little overpowered, but most champions are like this on release. Overall I think this hero will be in almost every game for a few weeks as his base stats are naturally high and his abilities are really strong in 1v1 and in team fights.

Ill leave the lore here if you want to read it, it is better than some of the other ones haha

Lore:

For his incomparable skill with the bow and his unquestioned sense of honor, Varus was chosen to be the warden of a sacred Ionian temple. The temple was built to contain an ancient pit of corruption so vile that Ionian Elders feared it could envelop the island in darkness. Varus prided himself on his position, as only the most exceptional Ionian warriors were selected for the role. He lived with his family in a nearby village and led a quiet life of disciplined routine until the day the forces of Noxus invaded Ionia. Their shock troops left nothing but death and desolation in their wake, and the temple lay in their path. Varus was forced to make a decision. He was bound by honor to stay and defend the temple, but without him the village's few inhabitants could offer little resistance against the oncoming war machine. Gravely, he chose to fulfill his duty as a warden. The corruption could not be allowed to escape.

His arrows sundered the troops who tried to wrest the temple from him that day. However, when he returned to the village, he found that it had been reduced to a smoldering graveyard. Remorse at the sight of his slain family gave way to overwhelming regret and then to seething hatred. He swore to slaughter every Noxian invader, but first he needed to become stronger. He turned to that which he had sacrificed everything to protect. The pit of corruption would consume him wholly, as a flame devours a wick, but its abominable power would burn within him until he was lost. This was a path from which there could be no return. With grim resolve, he condemned himself to the black flames, feeling malevolent energy bond to his skin...and with it, the promise of ruin. He left, seeking the blood of all Noxians involved with the invasion, a grisly task that eventually led him to the invasion's most infamous perpetrators in the League of Legends.

''The life of an arrow is fleeting, built of nothing but direction and intent.''
-Varus