This Saturday, Fairvale College from New South Wales will take on Roxburgh College from Victoria in front of 400 screaming fans in the John Invararity Music and Drama Centre at Hale School in a best of three that will crown the Flaktest Gaming League of Legends National Champions for 2017.. the tickets are free and you can get yours here but for the uninitiated, League of Legends can be a very confusing game, so here at Flaktest Gaming we thought we’d give you a simple break down about what it actually is you’ll be watching on Saturday, and how it works!
There is so much to this game, what we’ll be taking you through is the key points worth knowing!
The object of the game:
League of Legends is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Played on a square field called Summoner’s Rift, the object of the game is to strategically battle the opposing team to infiltrate their base and destroy their nexus! (the big crystal like thing in either the top right or bottom left corner)
To do this, two teams of 5 must jockey each other across the top lane, middle lane, bottom lane, and through the jungle. Each of these areas is filled with enemy turrets, and items and creatures to either hinder or help a team.
Welcome to Summoner’s Rift
Before the teams enter Summoner’s Rift:
Before any fighting takes place, both teams made up of five players must go through and choose which champion (character) they are going to play as from a huge roster choc full of selections with various strengths and abilities:
Each one of those portraits is a character that can be chosen.. where do you even start?!
Both teams will go into a screen known as “Champion Select” where they will take turns doing ‘picks and bans’.
Once this is all done, you will see on your screen something like this (except all summoners will have a character picked):
Take note of the Rick Rolling..
What’s waiting for each team in Summoner’s Rift:
There is heaps available in the rift that will either help a team defend, or help a team attack!
First the teams will spread to different parts of the map and prepare to engage while the Junglers (players you will see spend most of their time in the jungle) will move along the map to support their team mates.
Each lane is lined with turrets ready to do damage to enemy players, but these aren’t the only things waiting:
Creatures roam the jungle on both side of the map. Killing these creatures will provide a short term power-up called a “buff” – and every so often one of four different types of dragons will spawn, the killing of which gives a team a permanent buff that enhances speed, defense, attack, or support:
4 dragons, 4 different buffs
Finally there are two more important creatures you might hear us talk about during the game – rift herald and Baron Nashor:
Baron can change a game’s outcome!
The Rift Herald is a beast that can be summoned at any time by the team that captured it and is there to help take down turrets in the lanes.
Killing Baron Nashor grants a team a buff to their overall attack sets for three and a half minutes – very handy in team on team engagements!
What are those tiny little guys I can see fighting each other through the lanes?
Minions!
When you hear us talking about ‘farming gold’ or ‘gold score’, we’re generally talking about how many of these each team is killing – this is the main way a team collects gold, and the more gold you have, the more weapons / armour / etc you can buy which is important for gaining power, and the upper hand over the other team.
Anything else?
As the game goes on, it’s important to not get killed – the more your champion dies, the longer it takes for your champion to respawn as the game goes on! Which is why it’s important to watch the big all-in team fights late in the game because if a team gets completely obliterated, it could be over 60 seconds until any of them are able to come back to defend, which is plenty of time for the other team to charge into their base and do some damage!
Anything anything else?
Yeah, plenty… but it’s not stuff you really need to worry about – just come and enjoy the show!
See you at the Grand Final!
#gameonAUS
