Friday, February 21, 2014

Chinese League of Legends: Moving Forward

Don't actually answer that.

It's been a while.  For those of you who have read this in the past, I hope you've gotten something out of it.  For those who are new—I can't say I expect any new readers—welcome!  I've been hired on as a freelance writer for lolesports.com primarily to cover the LoL Pro League, or LPL, which is the Chinese LCS.

Though the format is something of a cross between LCS and OGN with fewer matchups per week and best of twos instead of best of ones, but I digress.

So far, I've only put out two pieces for them:
But the point of this blog has never been to just link other content.  I'd like to focus this more, going forward, on analysis related to Chinese League of Legends or LPL (with exceptions because focus has never been my strong suit).  After all, there's a difference between what lolesports.com can publish, and what I want to say.  
So I'm going to start this off by outlining what has been going on in Chinese League of Legends.  Then I'll move into three important topics: OMG's potential lineups, PE without their bottom lane, my top three LPL teams for Spring, and the absurd popularity of Syndra in competitive Chinese LoL.

What is going on in China?

This is not a dramatization.

The primary reason I want to get into this is that the guy who covered LPL before I joined lolesports—whose name is protected—stated that "It's strange to witness how a single mid-tier team's departure (LMQ to NA) can so radically shake up a scene," which is, first and foremost, a radical simplification of a much more important issue.

LMQ's departure did not shake up the scene; it was shaken up already, and this is why LMQ left.


This is an important thing to highlight.  A frequent misconception I hear is that LMQ came to the US because they weren't good enough to represent China at the Season 4 World Championships, so they thought it would be easier to get a spot from the NA region.  While this may have played some factor, the bigger issue is the disparity in player salaries between China and NA.


While not all NA players will boast a Scarra/ocelote level annual income, the base salary for LCS players is $12.5K per split, which amounts to $25,000 a year.  This does not include things provided by sponsors, such as housing, equipment, sponsor salaries, or prizes.  It also doesn't include other payouts Riot gives LCS players which aren't directly listed.  Or, for fuck's sake, streaming fees.


Mikako Tabe became something of the English-speaking world's window into Chinese League of Legends, and he has frequently spoken out against the L.ACE organization, which controls the majority of LPL teams and how little players are paid, how restrictive contracts are, etc.,.


He has said that he will never go back to playing because the amount he makes for making vods independently (suggesting that much of this revenue is taken by the L.ACE organization or that players or forbidden to control and produce their own content) far exceeds anything he could make by competing.  That is, he didn't make enough money to propose to his girlfriend from the team's win at World's; he quit playing after World's to do so.



He looks tired, doesn't he?

Eventually, L.ACE banned Tabe from ever being employed by any of their teams: as a coach, a player, manager, or otherwise.  As a result, he broke off and wanted to take players from top L.ACE teams to form a group to compete in the GPL, or Southeast Asian and Taiwan circuit.


If this was going on, it's not a far stretch to think that LMQ, the sister team of RYC and well acquainted with Tabe, who spoke praises about his experience competing in LA at World's, would decide there were better opportunities in that country: more fans, more cash, less restrictions.  I mean, for fuck's sake, GoDLike, Tabe's top laner, went with them.


Once LMQ left, however, this created a void in the LPL.  Due to the political controversies around player salaries, one of China's billionaires had the funding and impetus to create a new team from the top players and offer them highly competitive salaries: around $80,000 per player, as is stated in the article by Mundoverse.  It's heavily speculated Tabe is involved, since whispers of his team competing in GPL pretty much died down, and he likely put his efforts behind this.


This team also functions outside L.ACE.


So you can see it's extremely reductive and kind of insulting to say this was all caused by LMQ's departure, when in reality, LMQ's departure is just another symptom of a huge injustice in the Chinese LoL scene.  In fact, it's insulting to what EDG is trying to accomplish.  This is what is going on in China, and it informs everything that follows (except maybe Syndra's popularity).


OMG's Lineup(s)

Here they are in their once glory.

For those who don't know, OMG was the top team in China for most of 2013, and Royal Club's defeat of OMG was very much an upset, both at the World's qualifiers and at World's itself.  The fact that other teams like PE and WE were able to crush them in the offseason speaks more to the unrest with the mid laner, Cool, than anything else.

One of the rumors—meaning absolutely no real confirmation at all—is that Cool was sought as a mid laner for EDG, but he had difficulty securing the transfer.  As a result, he lost a lot of his motivation to play for OMG at all, and as such the team began scouting his replacement.  I don't blame Cool; I would be pissed too, but China's shining stars will have to suffer the consequences.  What is confirmed, however, is that this list of players is signed to the roster:
  • Gogoing
  • bigpomelo
  • xiyang
  • san
  • Lovelin
  • Ziv
  • Cool
  • Sicca
They were listed under the team roster lock on the 19th.  There are three rumors for how these players will be placed on the team, and I'd like to go over each, what I think about them, and how they should affect LPL.

1) xiyang replaces Cool in mid

If he's so cool, why does he make the shorts sizzle?

Of the rumors, this one is the most likely to actually happen, and it makes the most sense.  If Cool is under-performing due to dissatisfaction or flat-out refusal to play, he will be replaced.  As such, it is likely xiyang will show up in the team's first match against PE on Saturday.

What do we know about xiyang?  For one thing, he looks like this.

Not the most flattering picture.

Rumors suggest he's, gasp, a highly rated solo queue Syndra player.  Rumors also suggest that the team doesn't look as good without Cool.  I will buy both.  But I will argue that the team will look better with xiyang (not that Cool is an ugly fellow) than it would with Cool given the amount of practice Cool has put in lately, and that they could eventually look better than they did if xiyang has the same level of commitment that Cool once did.  It's the best move the team could make, given the circumstances, and OMG will suffer in the short term, but it could pay dividends.

2) Sicca plays support

Don't Google Image "sicca" without "LoL"; trust me

Sicca is the best support player in the world.  I don't care what you think about Mafa/Madlife/Mata/Tabe/Xpecial/whatever.  Sicca is better.  But part of what made him so good was his synergy with NaMei.  They were the best bottom lane in the world, and they didn't show up at World's.  He would be an asset to any team, but if he can't click with san the same way he could with NaMei, that's a problem, and that's the only reason I could see OMG not playing Sicca on their starting roster.

So why didn't EDG take Sicca?  Because of a controversy that split WE in half—that may or may not have involved lies about a certain coach's imaginary suicidal sister—the team lost their coach, their support, and their jungler; these three became EDG's first acquisitions, so when NaMei came around, bringing Sicca with him wasn't an option.  In the great OMG/PE merger, OMG picked up Sicca.  I'm not clear on the details, but I would guess it had to do with Sicca having experience playing for OMG at 2013 WCG, and comA (now Trickyboy) worked better with PE's new ADC acquisition from Rising Stars.  In addition, Trickyboy is an established shot-caller, and with the shuffling, Ziv, previously PE's shot-caller, was benched.

Fun fact: his IGN literally means "3"

Personally, I think san is an extremely underrated player, and comA and bigpomelo have made him stand in the background.  I would argue he played better than Cool at World's, and Sicca should make OMG's bottom lane one of the best in China.  I'd take it over NaMei/Fzzf for one thing.  But again, it all comes down to chemistry, and if san doesn't like Sicca, he can't start on OMG's roster.

3) bigpomelo and Lovelin once again switch roles

Google Image is the best; thank you Deviant Artist, teascribe.

According to one of the last statements on weibo, the official team roster for OMG is

Gogoing - Top
Bigpomelo - Jungle
xiyang - Mid
san - ADC
Lovelin - Support

This is most like the way the team was in the Spring.  Bigpomelo played jungle, and Lovelin played support.  In terms of final results, this is arguably the team's more successful arrangement; in the Spring, OMG came in first in the playoffs, and they came in second in Summer.  But in terms of influence, Lovelin is a smarter jungler than Bigpomelo, so his sphere was much wider.  This was the reason for the swap in the first place.

Again, I think the idea behind this might be synergy.  If bigpomelo works better with xiyang's style, they already know Lovelin works with san.  And taking Lovelin off your roster would be considered a travesty by pretty much anyone because he is so smart and mechanically gifted, so this could also explain keeping Sicca in a sub position.  That, and the rest of the team already knows how to work with this setup.  There is definitely something to be said for keeping as much chemistry whole as possible.  Subbing more than one member out may be considered too much of a stress test.  This lineup is likely, but I can't say I particularly favor it.

In a perfect world, I would like to see Summer's OMG roster with Sicca instead of Bigpomelo/comA.  But, naturally, what seems like a good idea on paper creates practical problems with implementation, and I trust any management decisions OMG has had to make.  Still, I feel like this version of OMG won't make top three this split, and that's pretty much a travesty.


His name is not a typo for "Nami"

The weirdest thing I hear these days is "PE's solo lanes made the team."

I don't really even know how to begin to address this statement other than to assume the perpetrator didn't watch any LPL ever.

Jojo has never been the strongest of mids, as he has been, on occasion, known to lose lane to Energy Pacemaker's SuperCat, and Canines is middling in performance next to other high-ranked top laners in China like PDD and Gogoing.  What really made PE shine, as I've already stated, was their bottom lane duo of NaMei and Sicca.  Sicca's wide champion pool and NaMei's ability to solo pretty much anyone made them the real carries of the team.  Any incarnation PE puts forth without them might flop around like a tipped oil rig on an ice flow.

Though his facial expression may betray him, he is not actually in a coma.

This is likely the reason they brought in Trickyboy.  They need a good shot-caller to bring together what remains of the team.  Face is a good player, but he's not a jungler; he's a mid laner.  And many rumors of the team's lineup suggest he'll be playing mid, and Jojo will be moving to the jungle.  I don't necessarily see this working out, since Jojo wasn't really a roaming mid, so I don't see him transitioning.  I do think Canines will do as well as he ever has, which means he'll be "competitive," and Ycc is a strong player as one of the pieces salvaged from the "Goddamnit why weren't you good" disaster that was Rising Stars Gaming.

I think this team can do well, but I don't see it returning to what it was with NaMei and Sicca.  While OMG might have a chance to be as good as it was, I see PE starting shaky and staying shaky.  They'll probably place top six—but that means they'll beat out EP and LGD, and god only knows what that amounts to.  All I can say is that I hope this team proves me wrong and shows up on Saturday.

My top three


I know; my originality is striking.

1. Invictus Gaming
2. Edward Gaming
3. World Elite

This isn't surprising.  It's kind of a "who is left standing" exercise, but I do think it's more than that.  World Elite broke apart early, which means that, after EDG, they had the first choice of who they wanted on their team.  Misaya retired, probably because he was just tired of all the bullshit, and the team picked up a jungle mid duo that already had a high level of synergy: Ruo and sukiM.  These guys are deadly together, and it again begs the aforementioned question of "Goddamnit, why weren't Rising Stars good?"

If you're going to pay $80,000 a pop to get the roster you want, you're going to have a good team.  You can say, 'I'm going to pay for a good team' on paper, the way Froggen did, but he didn't have the money or the backing to put where his mouth was.  He couldn't get Freeze.  Alliance made him keep Wickd.  He couldn't get Edward.  But he didn't have $80,000 to pay for a signing bonus either.

Arguably, the team couldn't get Cool.  But it's likely they got their number two.  They got the best AD carry in China—after or before Uzi, who is now a mid laner who doesn't know how to roam and might occasionally decide Vayne is a good match for Orianna.  They escured a pickup from the Rising Stars disaster in the top lane, who already had excellent synergy with their jungle pickup, having been mentored by him.  They also acquired some of the best players from WE: Fzzf and Clearlove.  To iron out their final path to success, they picked up, despite his poor life decisions, Aaron, arguably the best coach in China.

I don't really have to explain why this team is beautiful on paper.  Or, at least, a hell of a lot prettier than these guys.


Rumor has it they don't just "seldom lose scrims" the way I mentioned in my LPL Preview, they don't lose scrims.  Don't.  As in never.  As in they don't.  Lose.  Scrims.

But we'll have to see for ourselves this weekend.  I've been hurt before.  And it won't be surprising if Invictus Gaming does the hurting.  All offseason, they've only lost trophies when PDD was subbed out.  PDD is their star player, and he always has been.  But illuSion and Zzitai—can we talk about how, collectively, Chinese mid laners have the dumbest names?—aren't slouches.  Kid is solid, and Kitties is, you guessed, the last of Rising Stars' parts heap.  His acquisition is really what kicked the team into gear.  With him, iG knows every single member can play at the top of the Chinese scene, and whether the Kitties factor is really that huge or the team just doubled down on practice after failing to place top four in the Summer split, they're looking unstoppable.

But the most telling thing about iG's lineup is this: none of them were even tempted by EDG's offer.  They know they have a winning roster with their new support, and they aren't about to jeopardize it.  Most Chinese players might have dollar signs in their eyes, but iG is focused on the big V.  Expect to be impressed.



So the first question is why don't people play Syndra in other regions, aside from the occasional "every other mid is banned" smattering.  Typically, it has to do with mobility; she doesn't have it.  She can't hop to safety or get out of jail free.  She has to burn her flash.

So why play her at all?

1) Long range stun
2) Single target assassination potential
3) General zone control

China fights 5v5 more than any other region (except Garena regions, but they don't fight 5v5 as well), and this is where Syndra comes into play.  She has the longest range stun of any Mage with maxed scatter the weak, she can still assassinate a single target, and she makes it damn near difficult for a team to navigate a fight without stepping on a land mine.

I have a feeling that, as she's played/banned in LPL, she'll filter more into other regions, but I don't think she'll do as well in other regions that work more on splitting and extending pressure, like Korea or EU.  I do, however, think she'll still be a good asset when she does appear somewhere else.

Predictions for this Week's Games

1. iG vs EDG 1:1
2. OMG vs PE 2:0 OMG
3. LGD vs EP 2:0 LGD
4. WE vs RYC 2:0 WE

Good luck to you all.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Lessons learned from Season Three roles

I am working on a detailed analysis of changes to masteries, but since Season Three is officially over and, by all accounts, roles will be fundamentally altered, I wanted to do a write a small homage to what playing each roles has taught us—as well as some advice on what to practice in the off season.

There's been a rash of people who specialize since the professional scene picked up speed and exposure.  Very few top players are jacks of all trades these days who can play any role well or better than anyone else.  Examples that people list are often Madlife, Voyboy, or Xpecial, but often, if you ask these players, they'll tell you that's flat out wrong.

Well.  Maybe not Madlife.


While I'm not much of a comedian, I'd say that certain types of players gravitate toward each role, but I don't even think that's the case.  I think the habit of constantly playing the role of your choice will develop certain skill related to the game while others stagnate.  For example, AD carry mains often claim they have worse game knowledge and higher mechanical skill because the champions they play typically aren't play-makers, but they rely on the player's ability to get out of CC-locks or get in range to do damage when they probably shouldn't be able to do so.


I don't really agree with the title, since he gets hit by everything, but he still rightclicks the fuck out of bitches.

So I'm going to tell you a little bit about why you need to know how to play every role before you can advance to a high enough level to specialize.  Namely, why you probably shouldn't "main" a role until you've absorbed valuable lessons from each one.

Marksman teaches mechanics



The Marksman role has taught us mechanics.  Since this set of champions doesn't typically do the most burst damage—yes, I know this is a Graves clip—they can't rely on blowing all their cooldowns to do as much damage as quickly as possible before dying.  These guys have to stay alive throughout the entire fight to maximize their destructive capability, which means, generally, avoiding getting hit and continuing to attack at the same time.

To add to this, AD, Crit chance, and attack speed are some of the more expensive stats per point in the game, with AD being twice the price of AP (I'm using LoL Wiki calculations here, though I think the true prices of AD and AP are different, and I'll get to that in a future entry).  So they also have to be able to get really high creep scores in order to be effective.

I chose this clip because, even when Captain Jack doesn't avoid the Lay Wastes and stands in Defile, or gets knocked up by Blitzcrank, he continues to move and do damage.  At the end, he even gets the farm.  This is good right-clicking.  He is constantly moving and putting out damage.  This nets him a double kill even after Lustboy shits the bed.

By all accounts, this role is looking less important in Season Four (Doublelift has mentioned that he'd consider switching roles, but he also said that last season), so it's worth mentioning here that this role requires some heavy mechanics to master.  That's why, if you want to improve your mechanical skill or your creep score, play some normals as an AD carry.  You won't make the plays, but you'll get better at farming, dodging, and delivering the sustained damage, or you'll force your entire team to lose.



This is useful in all roles for obvious reasons.  Having a good creep score is important in mid and bottom lane.  Dodging skill shots is a tool that will put you ahead in all roles.  Being able to dish out auto attacks can catch your lane opponents off guard and increase DPS output on any champion.  Of course, your auto attacks won't do as much damage as an AD carry's, but isn't that the point?  If there's more pressure on you to be mechanically skilled, you have to learn to do it quickly.  Then you can carry that ability over to other areas where it's still applicable, though not quite as pressure-intensive.

Support teaches you to play from behind

This one is less obvious.  Or perhaps more obvious.  I don't know.



Now, in the above example, Curse isn't behind, but they do end up losing the game!  Does that count?  No.  Well, the point is, that what Edward used to get a gold advantage here for his team was a ward, which cost him 75 gold.  This same play could have been made had Curse been 10,000 gold down.  In fact, it probably would have been easier to predict because supports are pretty much in baron pit warding it 24/7 after the fifteen minute mark.

As a support player, you will always have less gold than the rest of your team—with some notable exceptions, but in an ideal competitive environment in which you're all of equal skill level and doing your assigned job, you should have less gold than the rest of your team—which means that you need to be creative.  You need to find ways to not just be free food or caught out by the enemy when you're in baron pit.  You can't really 1v1 anyone in normal situations unless you're extremely smart, and they're extremely dumb, but that's exactly what I'm talking about.


Now please don't try to 1v1 your opponents as a support player, but if you get caught out by the enemy, some quick thinking can get you away or force them off you.  Your tools will be cheap—typically some wards, an oracle's elixir, and a pair of boots—but that doesn't mean that they can't net your team upwards of 300 gold.  Clever warding will create opportunities, and well-timed CC-locks can help out a teammate.  When you're in a situation where you are behind, you need to think more about what your champion is capable of instead of rushing headlong into someone else and relying on your ability to rightclick and your ten bloodthirsters to kill them.

Playing from behind is perhaps the most valuable skill you can pick up to advance in this game because, chances are, you will find that your team is falling behind at some point in your League life.  If you don't know where good places are to ward so you can get picks, how to escape from an extremely fed Riven, or how to utilize vision to retake control of an area, you're just going to fall further behind.  Practicing support is the best way to learn these skills because a good support thrives when they have less gold than pretty much everyone else in the game; he still manages to carry his useless team.  The best thing about this, of course, is that anyone can buy wards.  You don't have to be a support player to get your team crucial vision that will put them back in the game.  If you get a kill, you just spent -225 gold on your ward.  So think about that next time you type "0 wards OP" to antagonize a teammate, and for fuck's sake, play some support games.

Jungle teaches map awareness


If you assume what I mean by "map awareness" is the ability to look at the map more frequently, then you probably should play a few games in the jungle.  You'll figure out what map awareness really means or your entire team will bitch—and they'll have a right.



Matchups in lanes
Attention to timers
Position of enemy
Awareness

Understanding matchups in lanes can tell you which lane to pressure.  You don't want to waste time on a lane unless it has kill potential, typically, as that will cause you to fall behind.  Attention to timers will tell you which side of the map you should be on.  If the enemy blue buff is about to spawn, and you can contest it—again, a factor in understanding matchups; where is the advantage?—you should probably be on that side of the map.  If dragon is in play, you shouldn't show top, and if baron is in play, you shouldn't show bottom because you carry your team's smite, or objective secure tool.  Finally, knowing where your enemy jungler is going to gank—which of his lanes has kill potential—can allow you to turn a fight or create an advantage for your team on another part of the map.

In the clip, bengi knows that his team has an advantage in an upcoming altercation because SKT will have a numbers advantage and an items advantage since they are ahead.  He was aware of the timer on his own red buff better than Watch, the enemy jungler, as he had just completed it before the clip began.  He also knew the position of the enemies because of the ward and vision on bottom lane, so he could choose that opportunity to engage.  He even landed a blind Resonating Strike—no pun—because of how well he could guess where Watch and Expession might be and the angle of approach they would take. 

As a jungler in Season Three, one would always ask himself which of his lanes and the enemy team's lanes had kill potential pre and post level 6, where the enemy jungler was, and when would be the best time to pressure early objectives like dragon and buffs.  If he couldn't get a handle on that, he would lose control of the map, and his team would fall behind.

There are obvious reasons why this skill is most crucial to a good jungler, but there are also obvious reasons why this skill is applicable to other roles.  If you know matchups, timers, and the position of the enemy jungler, you can make calls and help your jungler make plays, instead of relying upon him to do it for you.  I have a feeling that, in Season Four, this skill will be even more important due to increased roaming and more gold to be had outside lanes, so if you were a Season Three jungle main, you might have an advantage.

Top teaches dueling and fight-picking

Season Two was pretty much all about top laners and AD carries.  Season Three was about mid lane and jungle—it's likely Season Four will be, too, but hey—yet some teams with highly skilled top laners still formed teams around their picks.  The reasoning behind this is that the top lane pick will easily determine which type of team composition is used in a game.  The two types of champions played in top lane in Season Three were almost exclusively fight-initiating tanks and high-damage split-pushers capable of coming out ahead in duels.


Or sometimes a bit of both.





I really wanted to find a clip from MVP Blue Cheonju's Rumble in the finals for 2013 WCG Qualifier, and I'm honestly shocked no one has taken it and uploaded it, but Balls will more than suffice.  In this clip, Balls landed some very nice Rumble ults that both game him an advantage in duels (specifically, a 2v1) and completely controlled fights when paired with Meteos' Zac and LemonNation's Zyra.

Even though the game, of late, at the highest level of play has been more about avoiding fights and taking advantage of teams being out of position to take free objectives, champions in the top lane are designed more than any other to fight.  In the split push style of composition, the top laner will stay in the top lane, defeating anyone who comes to oppose him 1v1 while his team pressures other parts of the map.  In the team fight style, the top lane must know when to initiate, either with a well-timed ultimate, or simply being tanky enough to dive into five members and cause disruption—most often still with a well-timed ultimate.

Because of this, top lane, more than any other Season Three role, taught us how to test the limits of our champions, when was a good time to distract attention in another lane, and when was a good time to start a fight over dragon by teleporting bottom.  Playing top lane gives you the tools to initiate winning fights, so knowing how to pick them is crucial.

Another good thing about this clip, of course, is that most the campions on Balls' team had some sort of AoE initiation tool—with the notable exception of Hai's Zed—so it's clear how this knowledge translates to other roles.  Tools to start fights aren't exclusive to top lane, but top lane is all about starting fights, so playing a lot of solo top will force you to develop those skills and force you to learn when you can beat someone in a duel and when your team should fight.

Mid lane teaches pressure

 I struggled with this at first, since I believe all the skills I've mentioned so far are very important to a good midlaner.  Mid is in the center of the map, must farm a lot of gold and outplay an opponent, must roam, must help secure objectives, often comes with some form of initiation, whether its deleting a member of the enemy team or using an AoE ultimate, and should probably know how to ward and come back from behind.



But the midlaner was in a very unique position in Season Three.  Being in the center of the map, he has nearly as easy access to all objectives as the jungler.  In addition, he'll have as much gold as the other farming roles: mid and top.  This means that, when he shows up in a lane, he brings damage and almost certain death for the enemy laner.  His presence in an attempted buff steal will easily force the enemy team away if he is ahead or their mid laner is not also present.  

This means that the mid laner has the highest potential to create map pressure.  In the above clip, taken from Korean solo queue, Faker creates pressure in several ways.  First, he deletes Karthus from the map, creating an opportunity for his team to take Baron.  Second, he fends off Thresh and Tristana's approach by zoning them away from his team, which has two low health members: Rumble and Lulu.  This splits the team and lets his team take the buff and a kill on Kennen.  Then, at extremely low health, he pulls Lee Sin and Tristana top, which 1) lets his low health teammates escape, and 2) draws them away from the wave of blue team minions pushing bottom.  To top it off, his nice mechanics and kiting net him two more kills.

Now, one can argue that top was the only place that he could conceivably go, and the fact that bottom was pushing was just lucky, but if the enemy team didn't chase him, they could have easily just backed or gone on the rest of Faker's team.  Since he is such a powerful Lissandra, and putting him on a death timer would be so beneficial for the enemy team, he could force them to chase him over meeting other goals.

A good mid laner understands that he has a great deal of power and easy access to most of the map, so he must decide where this pressure is best used.  That means that, if the enemy mid laner is roaming, he is applying pressure, and you need to decide how to counter this.  Pressure sounds very similar to MAP Awareness, but the difference is that, if your jungler shows up to a fight, his low gold totals make him less of a threat than a mid laner with 200 farm and a Deathfire Grasp that can instantly annihilate a single member of the enemy team.  As a mid laner, you need to understand pressure and where to put it.  This will put you in good stead throughout your League of Legends lifetime.

TL;DR

In Season Four, roles may change drastically, so it's important to remember the individual lessons they taught us through Season Three.  Regardless of where the game goes, it's hard to imagine that any of these tools will be less valuable, so take the opportunity in the off season to practice up.  Pick your weakest skill, and head to the rift to practice the corresponding role.  You'll thank yourself later.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Veigar can support, stop laughing!: a discussion for Veigar in bot lane


We watched Annie throughout the past season of Chinese LPL, and when Tabe brought her to the Season Three World Championships, and bans continued to be flung his way, it wasn't a surprise that she started popping up all over the world.  Solo queue has seen a rash of Annie supports, but Annie wasn't the only off-meta support China tried out.

OMG's bigpomelo played Veigar support in a somewhat troll match against Lemondogs.  They didn't run an AD carry.  But with Curse Academy and Taipei Assassins consistently running Marksman-less compositions, you have to wonder just how "troll" other aspects of OMG's composition are.  In particular, I look at Veigar support and advocate his use in bottom lane.

Assumptions
Annie is viable in the support role. This discussion relies upon a comparison between Veigar and Annie; ie, Veigar is useful because Annie is useful.
Annie is useful because of her lane zone control, high early burst damage, and AoE stun initiation. If you think she should be used for any other reason, this probably won't convince you of anything.

The purpose there is, obviously, to make sure you aren't wasting your time!

The AoE Initiation Argument

Accurate representation.

The biggest reason to choose Annie is her AoE stun initiation with Tibbers.  The argument for Veigar is that he can accomplish the same thing—AoE stun initiation—at a lower cooldown.  Consider max level Event Horizon has a 16 second cooldown vs a Tibbers at 120.  The duration of max level Event Horizon stun is a full 2.5 seconds (and the obstruction remains on the rift for three full seconds), while Annie's passive only grants her 1.75.  In addition, because Tibbers' range is 600, many support Annies must burn flash to get a good initiation, while Veigar's event horizon has 650 range from the center with a 375 radius.  Even if it lands around the target and not on the target, it provides important disengage for a full three seconds, similar to a Zyra ult (except its area is active for only two seconds).  This means he doesn't really have to flash to use it, and the zone it creates is larger.

So consider Annie cooldown for her safe AoE initiation is going to be two to five minutes.  As opposed to Veigar's 16 seconds.  Every 16 seconds, you can also pretty much do free damage to a turret by trapping an enemy with Event Horizon.  It's much easier to siege that way.  Tibbers won't do this.

Now the obvious argument is that Annie's ult also does damage when it lands, while Event Horizon doesn't.  This is important.  But the tradeoff is, again, the longer duration and the large area that provides disengage in addition to engage.  Considering the fact that Annie won't have much damage built on her in the support role, generally your sustained damage carries, who actually build damage,  will be able to more than compensate for the damage she does with the extra duration.

Some examples from Diamond support Veigar games:


Laning Damage

But damage is a factor, though I have slightly brushed it aside.  Annie brings damage to lane and the ability to zone with her stun and auto attack range.  Obviously, Veigar won't have the auto attack range Annie does.  His auto range is actually lower than most other popular supports in high level play.

Auto Attack Range
625
550
475
525
575
But when you consider the range on his spells and Annie's spells, his big AoE damage and wave clear will be his dark matter, which has a smaller radius, but it will still provide a lot of push potential and pressure or damage to champions caught in event horizon.  It also can provide vision and bring threat, but the base damage at level 1 will be 1.5*Annie's Incinerate.  It also has the same per level scaling on base damage.  So though support Veigars often level Event Horizon first, Annie won't be able to match its level 1 damage until she's level 4 (assuming she takes points in Molten Shield and Q to help charge her stun; as a disclaimer, I acknowledge that many support Annies don't do this).  And it only has two seconds longer on CD, so the dps from this ability will still be greater.

Spell Damage Scaling CD AoE
80/130/180/230/280
75%
8
170,355.9
120/170/220/270/320
100%
10
39,740.6

So let's talk q.  Since he won't be leveling it first, Baleful Strike has an 8 second cd for most of laning phase, and Annie will have a 4 second cd on Disintegrate.  These two spells are almost identical otherwise, except for things that pertain more to AP Annie and Veigar (getting AP on last hits, AP scaling differences, etc.,).  There are slight differences to range (Veigar favored, 25) and level one base (Annie favored, 5), but it does the same thing on 4 vs 8 cd in terms of damage.  Their uses, however, differ.  Annie will use it to initiate or disengage a jungler in lane more than she will use it specifically to do damage.  In this case, she will be dependent on full rotation cooldowns for the stun component.  Similarly, Veigar's slight spell range advantage allows him to use this more to harass.  Or he saves it for the initiate.  In which case, the use of both of these spells optimally is dependent on other cds, so their own cd differences are less relevant.

Spell Damage Scaling CD Range
85/125/165/205/245
70%
4
625
80/125/170/215/260
60%
8/7/6/5/4
650
Stun Cooldowns and Mana Costs
Specifically in Lane

The more important nuance, though, is the availability of stun during laning phase.  Stuns provide disengage upon the appearance of the enemy jungler, engage in 2v2s to derive an advantage, and zoning potential.  

Annie's stun will be up more frequently than the max level Event Horizon.  She has to cast 4 spells to get a stun.  Assuming all spells are available (level 3) and off cd, this means Annie casts all of them, then waits 4 seconds for disintegrate, then waits an additional 8 seconds for incinerate/another disintegrate.  So she must wait 8 seconds to initiate.  After she does this, she has to wait for cds again.  If she used Molten Shield recently, she could have to wait as long as 14 seconds to get a new stun.  8-14 seconds vs 16-20 is definitely an issue, but Veigar's Event Horizon, again, creates a larger zone as it has a longer cast range and area of effect, has a longer duration with 3 points (same duration with 2), and a bigger area of disruption.  This means his presence and threat when he hasn't cast it recently is larger, especially since Annie has an indicator for when she has stun up, and he doesn't (though there are ways to sneak this for Annie; this, in itself, can create an issue that will be covered and damages Annie's potential dps output).

In addition, 4 ability casts means that Annie's stun will cost ~280 mana (level 1 spells), while Veigar's Event Horizon is 80-120 (1-5).  So the cost of a stun is something to consider as well.  You can't stun a target every 8-14 seconds if you don't have 280 mana for it (370 at level 9 with maxed W!).

Stun mana cost
Level
1
3
6
9
18
300 
280
320-330* 
 360-370* 
 390-400* 
80
 80-90** 
100
120
120
*Skill level ordering and usage of Tibbers
**Depending on E,W,Q or E,W,E leveling

Also, in terms of damage on initiations, many Annies will Q, then W covertly while Q travels, to get a surprise initiation (if Molten Shield is on cooldown).  But if they're maxing W, this also means they blew their big damage on nothing and won't be able to use it on a stunned target.  Veigar will not have this problem.

Last, some might argue that, if Veigar doesn't catch someone on the border of his Event Horizon, it's a waste.  This isn't true.  If you create the zone and trap the enemy, your AD carry can still get free damage off if they're longer range or bait the enemy into walking into it in certain situations.  Missing Event Horizon, for this reason, is more of an issue on midlane Veigars who rely on hitting Dark Matter for damage.

Ults


I already mentioned the fact that having a larger area of disruption on a lower cd is big, but then we have to account for the damage Annie's ult does.  250/375/500 (1.2%) on single target with additional 80% enemy AP.  Annie's ult is AoE 200/325/450 (70%), with a 35 (20%) dot.  Dealing all that damage to a team is important, but at later levels, it matters a lot less, whereas Veigar's single target will continue to scale if the enemy team has an AP assassin.  


It means that, if your assassin or burst damage dealer is behind, you can likely still 100 to 0 someone on the enemy team with the burst damage dealer's combo and Veigar's ult, which is pretty powerful.  And he has 650 range on it.  Obviously, these ults are not the same, but to have a support that does damage that scales into late game is pretty nice and carves out a niche for Veigar that Annie doesn't necessarily have.

Safety

Briefly mentioned, Veigar's spell range keeps him safe while he does damage, which means he can do more damage, ultimately, and clear waves.  Every time Annie uses incinerate to clear waves, she has to be right in front of it, which makes her susceptible to damage. 900 range on Dark Matter means this isn't the case for Veigar.

Annie has 30 more base health at level 1, but Veigar's health will scale better into mid and late game, where burst damage from assassins and mids is a bigger problem.  He also has 4.25 more armor at level 1, which is actually kind of big.  Now, her molten shield is really nice, so I'll definitely give that to Annie.  But it won't give 60 free resistances until level 18 because she'll max it last.  Most the game, she only gets 20.  And this is easy to break through at her close range, while the distance Veigar keeps protects him.

Safety Factor
20 (+10/level) resistances
900 cast range
650 cast range on R
650 range on Q

When to use Veigar over Annie

Obviously, both supports are very similar in functionality, and I'm not saying Veigar is out-and-out better than Annie or vice versa.  Obviously, in a situation where there is no AP on the enemy team, Veigar loses a lot of usefulness.  Against our friend, Zed, the AD assassin terror, Annie might still be a better choice, especially since trapping him can be trickier.


But when should you use Veigar?  If you have a siege-focused composition, Veigar will be very strong.  His ability to catch people out at a distance to give Nidalee a free max range spear is invaluable.  In addition, if your AD will have a longer range than the enemy, trapping the opponent in a cage during laning allows Caitlyn and her ilk to get free pot shots for a three second time period, so Veigar is a great choice.


Veigar also works better than Annie if your team is in grave need of disengage.  If your mid laner is Gragas, this is less necessary, but if Veigar can accomplish what he can without forcing him to use his ult, that's extremely powerful.


And, as mentioned, Veigar will be very strong against mid lane AP assassins.  He almost provides something akin to a free DFG.  He's also very good paired with sustained damage, as three seconds creates a lot of time for that damage to be used.  He works with burst comps as well, but he has an edge over Annie in the damage over time game where long team fights are king.

TL;DR


Annie is useful for the burst of AoE damage she brings early and mid game alongside an AoE initiation.  It allows her to create zone threat and shove lanes.  Veigar has a larger zoning threat, comparable damage per second, and significantly lower initiation mana costs at slightly inflated cooldowns.

Annie provides longer autoattack ranges, but Veigar brings longer spell ranges.

Veigar's AoE initiation is on a lower cooldown, a wider radius, and also provides disengage and siege potential.  Though it doesn't bring damage, its longer duration provides more opportunity for allies who actually build damage to do damage and compensate.

Veigar's ult does single target damage that scales into late game with enemy assassin AP.

Annie's safety comes from Molten Shield's resistances, while Veigar keeps himself safe with long range spells and positioning.

Images and Numbers from League of Legends Wiki.
Credit to Froskurinn, who provided Veigar support in Diamond ELO vods.