Tournaments shmournaments.
Man I don’t really have a good idea on how to play, I’ve played one practice game so far and I picket Urgot or whatever and he was pretty BA. But you only start with like 10 characters, and I’m not sure which ones are good yet. I was hoping I could play like a support role cause I figured most people would be picking the high-damage or tank style characters.
Edit: I guess the thing that throws me off worse is the sheer amount of options, like character choice, runes, spells, which ones are actually GOOD, etc…just a lot of stuff I don’t know about yet.
Edit: I think im settling on Tristana for now…fun!
The game can be intimidating at first, it certainly was for me because I never played DOTA. But after a couple of normal games things began to really sink in.
I think you can learn as you go, but if you don’t mind reading some material–there are some great resources that can help make it all gel together. The surprising part for me, is I haven’t found many diagrams–but I feel like this game is best explained with diagrams.
Here is a link to some general guides:
New User Guide - by Riot Games (I will admit, this thing is intimidating to skim, but was actually okay when I read it and watched the videos).
Directory of League of Legends Guides: General Guides
Also, if you have not unlocked your camera (press Y), I recommend doing it. You don’t have to do it every game because once you set it to lock or unlock, the options just defaults to the one you just chose. For me, there are some benefits to a locked camera–mainly when fights get tight and sometimes when chasing–but I use a manual lock by holding spacebar, when I’m in a situation where I’m more comfortable with a locked camera.
My Tips for Your First Games (I’m no expert btw)
These tips are centered around the idea of just learning the opening of the game first. I think if you focus here, you’ll have a foundation and I believe that when the midgame or endgame comes, you will naturally follow your team’s lead and work with them. But the opening is very important (some characters moreso than others) that it’s a great way to learn the finer points of the game.
Pick an Item
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Probably easiest recommended item at the start of the game and while learning is Doran’s Shield in general. Press P to open up the Shop while you are at the base. From the menu, click on Defensive Items --> Health and Doran’s Shield will be somewhere near the top.
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If you haven’t read any guides, you can try some of the recommended items. But as you read guides, you will start to find better items for your character. The recommended items are listed on the top right of the Shop window. Don’t forget that you can make components of those items–which are items that will also help boost your stats.
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Items are one of the biggest sources of your strength.
Farm Gold Defensively
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Pick one of the three towers farthest away from your base. The paths that these towers are on are called “lanes.” Also understand that in 5v5, the center lane should only have 1 person fighting around that tower while the outer two lanes should have 2 each.
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Your mission in the early part of the game is to get the last hit on each of the AI creeps fighting in the lane. Focus on that as your primary goal, but don’t go near the enemy tower (it will kill you fast).
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You slowly get gold over time in general. however…
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You earn quick gold when you deliver the killing blow to a minion. The best way is to not attack (you can hit S to stop your character from attacking, but at higher levels players often use right-click move to keep moving until it is time to attack–this way they can play footsie while delivering “last hits”)
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Last hitting minions is your primary source of income! It’s also a very easy goal to work on early in your game as you get a feel for things.
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Play Defensively. I’ll break this into 3 different things:
a) Play behind your minions (until you get more comfortable). If you are in front of them and the front one dies, you will be the next target. If you attack your opponent while near his minions–they will all attack you.
b) Don’t mow down the minions you want to kill–you should only kill them with 1 attack each. The reason is because you are at an advantage in this phase when you are farming on your side of the map. Once you cross into enemy territory, it becomes dangerous for you and it’s not hard for them to kill you. By doing the bare-minimum for farming gold, you keep the “tug of war” that is the farming (laning) phase on your side.
c) If you can keep the gold farming close to your tower, the better. Your tower will first attack the first enemy it sees and work its way outwards. However, the moment your opponent attacks you while within range of your tower–your tower will target him right away. This discourages him from attacking you while you farm around your tower.
Practice Watching the Minimap
This is the hard one. It’s also the last piece of advice I’m giving here, but it will build into a strong skill later. Your primary focus right now is to learn your character and get comfortable farming gold and eventually buying items. You’ll want to work on your combat, but I recommend starting defensive with an occasional assertive (not aggressive) attempt. Once you are comfortable with a character you can start to push it.
That said, here’s the big final tip… You don’t have to watch everything on the minimap, but at least learn to count how many enemies you see on the minimap. just focus on that number. Are there 5? Do you remember if any disconnected (so you know how many active players there are). If you see less than 5 (or however there are active), then consider the possibility that one of them is out to stab someone in the back. Don’t stress, but this will build into a very valuable skill down the road 
Eventually you’ll be able to read the map.
Right now, I’m not very good at this skill myself but it’s improving and the gains are huge.
Good luck and I look forward to playing with you sometime!
-Chanchai
I might have to pick some things up just so I can get Morgana…seems like she would fit how I play pretty well I think. AKA HELLA LAME
I heard this game was like easymode compared to HoN
Just got the most epic ending ever. Fired Enchanted arrow full screen right before victory, right before the nexus exploded, my arrow went through it then boom. I wish there was replay saves on this game
Just got the most epic ending ever. Fired Enchanted arrow full screen right before victory, right before the nexus exploded, my arrow went through it then boom. I wish there was replay saves on this game
Nice!
Replay saves are planned, but not in yet… So is observer mode. I imagine it’s gonna be a long while though… probably Season Two, since they seem mainly focused on upgrading servers, new map, constant rebalancing of heroes (not that that will ever stop), and the Mac version of the game (though I think they outsourced some of that work).
I think they do at least log match activities already though and use that for administrating player reports and complaints (I am surprised how much they actually do in that department, players do get suspensions and bans in this game for being abusive to other players–personally, I’m glad they do).
-Chanchai
Also on another note.
FUCK THAT CHRONOKEEPER JACKASS.
UPDATE: League of Legends will be shown at 4:30pm PST.
League of Legends @ World Cyber Games will be broadcast today after the Starcraft II tournament (which is currently showing):
Phreak will be doing the commentary for the LoL matches and imo, he did an awesome (and exciting) job at PAX. He used to be a high-level competitive Warcraft III player as well as a commentator at tournaments in that game as well. Does a good job of explaining things while following the pace of the game, he will also explain great plays when they happen and quickly explain why it was a great play so even a beginner can understand it.
I love SC2, but the commentary guy for SC2 at WCG is having a bit too many nerdgasms, but nice commentary otherwise.
I have to leave right now, but I hope there are videos I can watch later… 
Update: League of Legends is scheduled to go on air at 4:30pm PST on the WCG broadcast (which can be seen at the original link or ustream).
Another Update: Some Player Profiles posted by Riot
Counter-Logic Gaming
Hawkshot GG
Also, if you want to watch more casual fun play (with some fun music), community manager Pendragon has a livefeed. He admits he’s not that great of a player at all, but I find it enjoyable before the WCG broadcast.
Great stuff in that first WCG match. Game 2 (which is actually the final match) is almost starting, great stuff!
This is hella making me waste time lol
Zilean is my favorite. <3
EDIT: Fuck Teemo though.
Pretty exciting finals, particularly the first match!
The matches can be seen on the following links (again, I recommend the first part, even if you are new to the game Phreak does a good job of explaining what’s going on):
WCG North American League of Legends Final Part 1
WCG North American League of Legends Final Part 2
yo if you “like” LoL on facebook, then go to the LoL website (pvp.net i think) theres a link on there which lets you get Tristana and one of her alt. Skins for free. This was of great interest to me since I’m choosing to learn her first, I figure y’all can reap this benefit too so go nuts!
Thanks for pointing that out Ghrrk! Riot Girl Tristana is indeed pretty sweet
Here’s the Official Link
If you have problems getting Riot Girl Tristana, here is a link (I ran into problems myself the first time):
In case you’re having trouble
BTW, something that’s also pretty neat is how Southeast Asia has been building up their tournament to determine who gets to go to the WCG Finals next month. They almost made it like a reality show it seems. Video episodes and all
Just played my first successful game with Trist. Pretty dope. After playing one game and getting smashed I read hella guides and buffed my knowledge up, she’s pretty beast end-game and has a ton of power and burst. Just need to watch out for tanks and stuns early on. Its all about farming dat gold
Trist is a real beast endgame. If she goes the lifesteal route with her items, her rapid fire is massive damage mitigation and heal for her (I had to deal with one last night and in one of our fights, she out-shenned my shen by constantly regenerating health fast enough and she won a very close fight with the aid of minions)… Good Tris players are a nightmare to deal with. At least that’s my impression so far, but it always feels fair whether it’s a win, lose, or a draw.
- Fast Damage and Big Damage
- Pushes a lane pretty darn fast
- Can rocket jump for positioning on offense or defense
- Can reposition opponents
Scary stuff… and I know I didn’t put down everything
Awesome for Riot to make her so accessible to everyone!