Yordle Stomper Issue 1
THE ISSUES OF USER GENERATED CONTENT
YORDLE STOMPER
Firstly, allow me to introduce myself and the project I have started working on, which I hope will bring some quality content to everyone interested in their favorite MOBA, League Of Legends. My name is Jovan Petrovic, and Yordle Stomper is my attempt to broaden the journalistic aspect of League Of Legends, by creating a publishing service which will shape its articles in the form of a web magazine (e-zine). The popularity of League Of Legends is growing, and the need for reading material is becoming larger by the day. There are blogs and forums, quality content on Reddit and other websites, but there has been no magazine shaped edition; until now. My goal will be to please the people used to reading articles as newspaper stories, be it on an iPad, Kindle or printed out. I personally have only little experience in writing articles, but more so perhaps than others, as I have a three-years' journalism course under my belt. I hope this introduction didn't bore you too much, and explained some dilemmas you may have had. Please, enjoy the first article.
The growing need of information about champions’ builds, counters and synergies is caused by Riot's tactful schedule of releasing new champions and fine-tuning existing ones. There is no wonder, then, that a huge number of websites dedicated to help the average player solve these problems and stay in touch with the game have appeared. This is all a good step forward, of course, but the ever-growing need for information has caught eye of webmasters, quasi-connaiseurs and people looking to grab a slice of the money cake which was created by this, originally, honest and innocent need. This process happens, of course, in many other cases. It is, after-all, a capitalist society we all live in. This process distills the quality information from hastily-written, low-effort jiberish created only to make monetary gain. There is also another source of this new mal-written input coming from people who think they have an objective observation, but are influenced by their own gut feelings. This would be fine if they kept their opinions enclosed in their personal circle, but everyone is given a chance to form their own idea in a professional-looking shape on a popular community website, and be judged by thousands.
Allow me to digress; I am not attacking anyone or saying people aren't entitled to their own opinion. I am trying to turn attention to the fact that guides and information we get about the game are in most cases written by people who are acquainted with the game no more than you. This isn't always the case, of course. A phenomenal example are livestreams. Professional players (mostly) know exactly what they are talking about. They are the ones who set the rules and the pace of the game. They don't follow the rules or the meta-game, they shape it.
The Genja Effect
Nobody can deny that the appearance of Moscow 5 (formerly Empire) rocked everyone's chairs starting with their win over SK in the IEM qualifiers in 2011. They broke many rules during their climb to world fame, some being Diamondez's Shyvana and GoSu Pepper's support Nunu. However, the one who made most people drop their jaws, was Genja, the AD carry ofMoscow 5. The team says they brainstorm together, and their discoveries are to be accredited to the entire team, but seeing Genja in action with Flash/Revive Ashe, and later-on Urgot, which would be impressive on it's own, as Urgot was considered unuseable at the time, but the fact that he destroyed lanes without building Manamune, which was considered an absolute must (and still is by some NA professional players) gave everyone a reason to rethink the game and ask themselves whether they are really playing and building at an optimal level.
This is a perfect example of an inflexible and take-for-grantedopinion of the game is shattered by one team with the guts to try something else. My opinion is that the game was the worst between the establishment of the current meta-game and the appearance of Team Empire. The game was stale and attempts to change it around were second to none (with the exception of a frivolous attempt by Ocelote to run Smite on an AP carry).
Nowadays, things have changed quite a bit. Wickd has introduced the previously ridiculed Hauntingguise, Koreans are running kill-lanes on bottom, and every champion gets to be revisited at a certain period; the infamous 'Flavor OfThe Month’ effect. This tide-shifting circle wouldn't be possible if Riot wasn't doing such agood job at making every champion close to equal. But let's head back to my primary topic
User-submited guides, Tier lists and Counter websites
I think I made my point about not taking all guides on Mobafire, Solomid, Clgaming.net for granted pretty clear, unless they are written by professional players (who can also write a bad guide or two, just take a look at LoLPro) but they will continue to exist no matter what, so let's get down on the subject of tier lists.
The first tier lists were created by former CLG player Elements. They were extremely appealing at the time, due to the fact that they provided a clear and simple answer about which champion is good or not. Formerly, you couldn't get an actual answer, because every champion has his or her bad sides and it has been proven many times that there is a counter for everything. This was a Jungle tier list. Intentionally or not, it is the easiest one to assemble (it's obvious whether a certain champion can clear camps quickly or not, as opposed to the millions of lane match-ups and combinations) and it inevitably propelled Elementz to internet fame. In a short few months his list went from the League OfLegends Forums, to their own blog and website. However, people started realizing the obvious flaws of the tier list. The community started to ridicule people who would follow the lists. I don't know what caused it, but it was another wake-up call for summoners everywhere. Nowadays, the tier lists are still popular. I will repeat myself as many times as necessary by saying that they are not bad, but they shouldn't be taken for granted. If they are written by a semi-serious anonymous, there is no guarantee that they know better than you do. On another hand, if they are authored by professional players, it's an opinion based on a high level of competitive play, which is an entirely different game to the one you and me play. It's good that we have them, especially because of new players who have yet to discover the game, but I recommend taking everything you read with a pinch of salt (even the article you are reading).
Counter websites, particularly championselect.net are a relatively new form of providing information to people who are in pursuit of improving their ELO. The concept seems simple enough; every champion has a counter, so in order to win, You have to outpick your enemy before he outpicks you. The game is won before it has even started. Of course, this barely works in practice. In some cases it can make a game harder for you, rather than helping you win it. Firstly, there has to be at least a tiny bit of logic behind Your team composition. You cannot pick champions without thinking about your teammates’ choices. Because if you ignore their picks, before you know it, you will find yourself in a team with purely physical damage (which happens often when an enemy Mid-laner is countered by Talon, and Top-laner and the Jungler also pick a physical champions) which has little chance in winning, or perhaps in a team with either no Crowd-Control or no Damage.
Secondly, you will always do better playing a champion that you know well, rather than one that you aren't familiar with, even thought it might be a counter to your lane counterpart. A popular example is something I can confirm from personal experience. Olaf is considered a counter to Irelia on Top Lane, but I tend to win against Olaf more often, as I know my champion well and the enemy players has only picked Olaf because he was under the impression it will be an easy win, albeit he isn't experienced with their champion. I would like to point out that this rule needn't apply at a professional level. We have recently witnessed Wickd commonly picking Rumble for his Top Lane. He isn't that experienced with the champion, but is rather taking advantage of the slight imbalance in his damage. This works at a professional level because in these games, the knowledge and execution of the game itself is as, if not more important than the champion you play.
Looking back at the average player, if you become a firm believer in the Counter Pick website, and you notice that the enemy has used your tactic against you, and ‘counters’ rather than you ‘countering’ him, You will play the matchup believing that he is much stronger than you, and will inevitably lose the lane, even though your counterpart might not have proper knowledge of his champion, or you just being better than him.
You can notice how inconsistent the championse1ect.net website is by looking at the comments. You will see that Champion A counters Champion B, but there will be numerous comment's about a person playing ‘Champion B’ and winning numerous times against ‘Champion A’ I don't want for people to consider me as someone who is against this website or the people who created it, I am just trying to raise awareness to the average player. These rankings are unreliable and anyone can vote, even people who have way less knowledge of the game than yourself. Again, don't take anything for granted.
I hope some of my advice will help you win some games and improve as a player, but also raise your awareness about things written on the internet. I have no way, nor is it my intention to make you believe I am better or smarter than you, or anyone who writes guides and posts blogs. It is something that spontaneously appears when a game is exciting and popular. Noone can be always right, or always wrong. It is up to you to decide who and what you believe.
Jovan Petrovic
If You would like to provide any feedback, positive or negative, I would greatly appreciate it.
Send them over to yordle@munch.rs or send me a Direct Message on Reddit. Also, I will always welcome people who want to write articles and need help in having their opinion heard.
August 07, 2012.
free internet distributed issue.
Picture under copyright of Riot Games.
YORDLE
STOMPER
