Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Hexakill

If you have been playing league recently, then you know that there is a new format called Hexakill. Instead of there being five champions on each team, there is now an extra person making it six vs six. I admit, when I heard about it, I was excited to try it out due to hey something other than Classic Summoners' Rift or ARAM, even though Hexakill is played on Summoners Rift. However, just because something is shiney and new does not mean that is all fun and games: Hexakill is sometimes annoying to play.


With there being an extra champion, that means there is a couple of options to dividing up the champions between lanes. You could do two at top lane, two at bottom lane, and two at middle lane, or you could go two top, two bottom, one middle and a jungle. During champion select during normal matches, especially with queuing in with random people, it is sometimes a mess calling positions, but everything can work itself out by the time champion select is over.In Hexakill however, the mess continues up until the game actually starts because half of the team favors the two in every lane and the other half goes with there being a jungler. While I have found in my experience that sending two in every lane is usually efficient, there is also great power in there being a jungle.

Another problem I have had with Hexakill is what type of champion to send where. In normal game mode, you send your tanks or bruisers top lane, like Nassus, Riven and Tryndmere;you send your Assassins middle lane, like Ahri,Fizz, and Katarina; and you send your Attack Damage Carry,or ADC, such as Sivir, Ashe and Caitlyn and your Support bottom lane, such as Soraka, Thresh or Leona. In that mix you could have a jungler, like Vi or Fiddlesticks, but it almost optional. However, in Hexakill, I have seen them send a tank and an Assassin top lane to disrupt the top lane and them to send tanks bot lane to give the ADC some support. I admit, the main problem is people keep trying to play it like they play Classic Rift during Hexakill due to the fact Hexakill is not classic Rift; Hexakill does not have a clear defined meta, which is also a good quality because it allows people to experiment. I admit, the combo of Nassus and Ahri top would have never happened in classic, but it an awesome combination due to Ahri charming and Nassus farming for the kill.

One of the fun things bout it though is experiment with different champion combos, like the Nassus-Ahri combo. For example if you do pick to have two middle lane champions, you can see how different champions interact with each other. It is kind of funny how mid just starts spamming combos and eventually gets there.

Speaking of experimenting, I feel a greater ease experimenting with different champions. I admit to experimenting with Syndra and Orianna the whole time while I do Hexakill. While you can experiment on Rift, people will flame you if you do bad, but in Hexakill, while there is flaming, the thing that makes it better is the fact that it's not a "real" format, meaning while you do get IP and EXP, its a fun format.It not competitive like it is on rift;it just exists,sorta like ARAM.

Overall, while I have had some bad experience trying to figure out Hexakill, I hope in the coming days, I will continue having fun playing League. I hope Riot can keep giving us these fun formats, such as Hexakill, All for One, Showdown, etc, and maybe keep them a bit longer.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

A Few Words on the Banning of Sylvan Primordial

If you are an avid Elder Dragon Highlander, or EDH, player like me, then you know that there is anew card to the banned list: Sylvan Primordial from Gatecrash. Ironically, the card was actually designed for EDH to replace Primeval Titan, a six drop that said whenever Primeval Titan enter the battle fiend or attacks, search your library for two forest cards and put them into play. Now while Sylvan Primordial only triggered when it entered the battlefield, it could have still been a problem.

Although I have never used Sylvan Primemordial in EDH, I can see where some problems might arise such as reanimation or flickering, but there are other cards with much worse effects to animate to,such as Kokusho, the Evening Star. When i read Sylvan Primordial, it was intresting to see green get some destruction, even some land destruction;it doesn't destroy creatures.  Along with that is mana ramp, which green does very very well, although since Sylvan Primordial is a seven drop, i was doubting its usefulness. 

Overall, I am very very surprised it got banned in EDH, and Honestly , i don't think it deserved it, because it doesn't destroy creatures.