Renegades into the LCS // Female Gamers

This week was the conclusion of the LCS Challenger Series in North America. This is a long collection of matches that take the best teams in North America that currently aren't in the LCS, and matches them up against the lowest winning teams in the LCS from the previous split. Essentially, the Challenger teams are fighting for a chance to become part of the LCS, and the relegated LCS teams are fighting to get back into the LCS and have another season as professionals.

A relegated team from this last season, Team Coast, made it up to the final round and only had one team left to beat. Up against them was Team Renegades, a challenger team that now only had to defeat coast to become an LCS team. The finals are played in a Best of Five games, and it got taken all the way. Renegades won 3-2, and secured their spot in the NA LCS in the upcoming season. A big congratulations to them, and I look forward to watching them play once the regular season starts up again.

Now, you may be wondering why I'm mentioning and explaining all of this. Team Renegades represents something new to League of Legends eSports. The Support player on their team, Remilia (Current team picture on the right) is a female. This is the first time since League began that a team has made it to the professional circuit with a female member. I'M SO FREAKIN' PUMPED. I know how toxic the gaming community can be towards women who game, so I give her all the support in the world. I hope she just takes the encouragement from the positive members of the community and ignores the idiots that exist in any culture.

There was a team entirely made up of women that tried to get into the LCS, but they unfortunately fell to infighting and their in-game performance suffered too greatly. They now feed the terrible stereotype on Twitch that women just use their bodies to get followers instead of good gameplay. Those who follow the League scene know who I'm talking about, so I won't be mentioning any names.

Best of luck to Renegades, and kick some ass Remilia! Keep on rocking that Thresh!

Renegades website here

Toodles!

The LCS Workout

Happy Friday, folks!

Today is video-game day, and what better game to discuss than my favourite one, League of Legends. The most played game in the world, with literally millions of players, League of Legends is a based on a hidden mini-game within the old Warcraft III game (Not World of Warcraft, it's much older than that). The main game mode for League puts you on a team of players against an equal team of opponents, both made up of five players. The game has an ever-evolving "meta", which is to say, certain strategies that are strong at the moment. This meta changes constantly, as the game is updated every few weeks for balances, new features, and new playable characters. This constant evolution makes the game feel fresh and fun to play over longer periods of time than other, more stagnant games. On top of it all, the game is free!

I could talk about the intricacies of League forever, and it will probably make a lot of appearances in my Friday posts. BUT, today I wanted to talk about the professional tournament that League of Legends puts on. The League Championship Series, or LCS, takes the best teams in North America and Europe and pits them against each other each week in a series of games. Korea, China, and Oceania all have their own separate tournaments. At the end of these tournaments, the winners from all around the world come together and duke it out to be the best in the world (It's usually the Koreans, spoilers). Basically, the LCS is sports for nerds. They have analysts, coaches, shoutcasters, referees, tech specialists, and a butt-load of production money. There's a Fantasy League of Legends League, more on that in a moment! Players in the LCS have even been given travel visas as professional athletes because of their position in the world's biggest eSport.

Like a bunch of people hanging out to watch football, the LCS matches take place over several hours. Each match takes anywhere from 20 minutes to more than 60, depending on how well a team performs. There are usually four or fives games streamed in a single day, and there are two days each for Europe and North America. Doing the math, that's a ton of time sitting and watching.

It may come as a shock to some of you, but not all gamers are out of shape. There are several members of the LCS that are in extremely good shape. One of these players started a workout regiment for people watching the tournament, based on the player performances. As I am part of a Fantasy league myself, I decided to throw together a workout regiment for my group of friends. How many follow this, I don't know, but I sure am going to do it!

Player point exercises:
1 kill = 1 push up
1 death = 1 sit up/crunch
1 assist = 1 jumping jack
1 CS = 1 second of wall sits
Triple Kill = Add 5 to everything
Quadra Kill = Add 10 to everything
Pentakill = Add 20 to everything
10+ Kills or Assists = Add 10 to everything

Team Point exercises:
First Blood = 5 burpees
Towers = 5 squats/tower
Baron = 10 lunges/Baron
Dragons = 5 russian twists/dragon
Match Victory = 10 high kicks
<30 min Victory = Plank time equal to CS count

Bonus Stuff:
Having a player worth negative points = Double all exercises
Dragon Steals = Double dragon score
Baron Steals = Double baron score

Enjoy your workout, folks!

Download and try League of Legends here
Watch the LCS here

Toodles!