Team Builder Live

If you haven't been keeping your eyes out, then you might have missed the two day beta test called team builder. Each region got two days to test out this beta over a ten day period. So how did Team builder comapre to the normal game mode that most of us have come to either love or hate?

First, what is team builder? IN the normal queues, you are randomly matched with people who want to play a whole variety of position's and in the pre game lobby, you say what you wanna play. This can cause fighting because you sometimes have the person that wanted to play the Attack Damage Carry and got stuck as the support. In team builder, before you even queue in, you actually pick the champion you want to play, then you pick the archetype like mage, support, tank, marksman, or assassin, then you pick the lane you want to play. You are then either team captain and choose the spots that you want played such as whether or not you have duo top or a jungler or you are placed into a queue where you are waiting for a team captain. Then the match queue,once both teams are made, proceeds as normal.

I did like team builder because you locked into the champion and posistion before queing in. It gave the chance to take a typical mid-laner top lane or a jungler bottom lane. Also, it helped eliminated the fighting of calling positions in the chat room and preventing confusion. It was also a good idea because you had the potential to meta break because if you wanted to play Sivir mid-lane, you you could play Sivir mid-lane almost no questions asked. You wanted to play Soraka as a tank? You could take Tankraka top lane.

Though it was supposed to be innovative in how the teams were made,  it was not without flaws. My main complaint was the fact I tried to be as meta breaking as possible,such as taking Fiddlesticks top lane(which worked quite well) but most people tried to stick to the meta as much as they possibly could. I wanted to see some shenanigans that would have made the game a lot more fun, but regardless if it was just the games I played, I wanted to see some form of meta breaking. Another complaint I read about online was the queue it self had some hiccups. It seemed there was a lack of team captains and too many people looking for captains. Even as team captain, I had some problems finding players to be honest, but I was also playing during a high point.

Honestly,I liked the idea of the team builder, due to the fact it could eliminate the painof trying to call positions. I hope to see this game mode return in the future as more than just a two day beta, or a permanent
game mode.

Sora no Otoshimono: Tokeikake no Angeloid

To be honest, ecchi series are almost a guilty pleasure for me sometimes. There is just something about it that just appeals to me. Maybe it's a lack of story that falls into comedy, or maybe that wide grin I get because I know that guys are enjoying the panty shots and boobs, in which I see those everyday no problem, or maybe it's because it's just senseless fun that helps me enjoy this so much. When I heard one of my favorite ecchi series was getting a movie, I couldn't help but to think that this was an advancement for the genre on a whole. However I think they took the steps in the wrong directions.

Our plot is almost non-existent, which in ecchi, not always a bad thing, but in this movie did not work at all. The first half of the movies was a recap of the first two seasons of the anime through the eyes of Sakurai Tomoki's stalker,Kazane Hiyori. The next part of the plot after the recap is her joining the club Tomoki is in, and her adventures there.

Where to begin on this train wreck of misfortune. The plot was weak, seeing as it was over half the movie recaping the first two seasons of the anime. While yes, it was good to have a refresher, I think they should have made the recap portion shorter, because if you skip the recap, you essentially have a thirty-five minute to a forty-five minute OVA, not an hour and a half movie.

The art for the movie was basically the same as the anime series, with Sakurai going chibi at random monets through out, and the weird censors. It was fluid, and clean. The characters were well designed, and they each were distinguishable.

In the characters department, I don't think they advanced that far for two reasons: one is the fact that yes, half the movie is recap, and that limits how much they could develop. Also, I don't think they could develop the characters too much because it's a movie, and they could not deviate too much from the source material aa the manga. I can respect this, but it still doesn't change the fact that the side characters hardly got any development, let alone screen time. I think they could have incorporated the side side characters more into the story. I wish Kazane's story was a bit more explained out, in which  I will not spoil anything, but they did a weak job on her character.

Overall, this movie was a let down. Not a good story or character development was present, nor did the characters do well overall. I would recommend this to the hard-core fans, and even then, this movie is a let down. The characters were weak, the plot was non existent, and this movie, honestly though I hate to admit it, since I'm very glad that an ecchi anime got a movie, but this could have easily worked as an OVA or maybe this arc could have been incorporated in the third season. What ever the case may be, I just honestly pray that the third season is better than the movie.