Pain in the arse - I decided I'd run over to barnes and nobles to pick up pc gamer and it looks like they were either sold out or don't carry it.  Anyone know of a store that keeps has that magazine?  I'm wondering if Best Buy keeps stuff like that or not.

Had some fun games yesterday.  1st game where just a matchmaking mess - we had an insanely easy 1st game (we somehow ended up against a level 10 and a level 16 or something - no idea how that happened.  Methinks they might have problems even in non-ranked games.  Anyway, had a few fun ones and a few not so fun ones. 

Got to play with dark some again tonight (amongst others) - dark was in a bad mood.    I suppose the 12 and 13 year olds on lol can get under one's skin if you listen.

I did learn that you can just go /ignore all

didn't know there was an command for all.  Anyway, must call it an early night.  Super fun work tomorrow.  I think my fav person to pug with consistently is now mccheesypants.  He's not super great, but certainly not bad.  Very light hearted fellow.  I highly recommend adding him and getting some games with him if you played with him and me before. 

Anyway, mostly fun games.

I got to play almost 2 hours worth of Dominion today since I was around during the Beta window.

Its pretty fun.  I think that there are going to be some serious balancing issues (Garen and Singed...ugh), but its definitely something different. 

Also, ranked is stupid.  Riot doesnt understand basic statistics, so they do this thing where they are rewarding your first few games with big ELO boosts for a win and big losses for a loss.  Its under the idea that it will place you in your "correct" ELO more quickly.

Which is nonsense.  You converge toward your true ELO pretty slowly - the Monte Carlo simulations I've seen people do (basically meaning a simulation with a random number generator) says that it takes hundreds of games to converge to your real ELO.  So heavily emphasizing your first few games just makes the noise worse.

I lost 4 straight games due to no fault of my own (had a rage quitter, a game where both top and bot fed hard, and a game with a Janna who rushed Rageblade and randomly ulted) and that dropped me almost 200 ELO.  Fun! 

yeah... I've been getting that impression myself.  Hopefully they can get that sorted asap.  Crap stat systems can pretty well end competitive play.  I really think the problems go a bit deeper than just some elo adjustments.  Some of my recent games even in non ranked play have been really mismatched (putting a group of level 30s and 25+ together then having a level 16 and 10 on the other team.  Things seem goofy since that last big patch.

Utter crap about getting bounced to 200 ELO like that.  Rubbish.

I guess that's the bright side.  I'm still looking forward to trying it out.  Someday...

Was fun gents.

Glad I caught yall finally.

Shame on that last game. We could of had it, I should of played less aggresive.

Some fun games tonight.  Been trying out Teemo (decided to unlock him with ip).  I'm not a huge fan, but he is fun to play at least.  A little too squishy for my tastes, but ooo so fast. 

Finally got to play some games with carbon.  Fun stuff and thx for the games tonight, fellas (and dark)!

Ahhh, you should have tried Teemo way back before he was (and his mushrooms were) nerfed, you could plant a new trap every 13 seconds with max CDR and his "turbo" ability had half its CD. Fun times, specially in the Twisted Treeline (smaller 3v3 map) ^^

^No one beats Xin Zhao when he was first released. You literally had to stop playing normal games because the team with the Xin Zhao will always win. He could've jumped in and killed everything 1v5.

Tower dodging Jax. Nuff said.

dominion beta is live right now - about to try my first game!

edit - 2nd pug... starting to see the strategy.  No one else appears to be in the games I'm playing though.    Doesn't sound that unreasonable to always have 1 person or 2 appear to handle the enemy trying to steal points you control.

Anyway, playing with vlad and his buds now.

side note - what i meant to say was I'd be a lobby with vlad and his friends.  The game would start and then vlad would be dc'd, then we'd get slaughtered 4v5.

>.> My internet just suddenly decided I spend to much time on it

pacov still loves ya

OK - I really dig dominion now. 

Here's are the pros

• Fast games - if you have someone drop and make it a 4v5, your losing game will take 5 minutes if the other team is worth a crap
• Fast games - even in a good match up, 20-30 is about how long it will take
• Games can (shouldn't) flip flop alot.  You can be almost about to lose and then have a team hand it over to you - its like folks completely do not understand the simple concept of defending - seems like most pug games at this point have some (or more) goof balls that want to push after the game is a lock and then lose it
• It's very fast paced - I don't really cringe if I get ganked going for a 1v1 or 1v2 tradeoff - even if I do something idiotic, I'm right back in the game very quickly - on my way to defend a point etc.
• You get money and level VERY QUICKLY - this mode removes the laning aspect almost completely - in that its similar to mid level dg play (eg farming is nice, but I don't care)
• "Towers" are not op - you don't worry unless super low hp about trying to capture a point (capture points act as slow damaging towers) - you can aggressively try to capture points
• Games typically don't devolve into 5v5 match ups (a big gripe folks have about late game lol).  In every game I played, at least 1 (generally 2) player is always required to head off to defend or capture a flag while the others fight

cons

• I dont know that support players are all that viable.  I cringe to think of playing zil in dom mode.  I might be wrong as I haven't tried it yet
• Retarded strategy by 1 or 2 can cost you the game pretty damn quickly.  If 2 on your team want to push when the rest are wisely defending to continue dominating, you are boned.  Once they are killed, its 3v5 and you can't defend adequately or push.  I, somewhat reasonably believe that 1 player can probably ruin you by being an idiot and VERY reasonably believe that 2 can easily generate a loss.  I have seen this happen MANY times in my like 5-8 games (note - all games but 1 were like this).  I think this will change over time, but its a game ender now
• 1 teammate dropping means you have lost against any reasonable team (its like that in normal mode, but in dominion, its literally a 5 min game). 
• The griefing potential for this mode is through the roof.  Consider what I said and an intentional feeder.  Its a guaranteed loss.  On the bright side, you only have to put up with it for 5-8 minutes (as you will lose), but 1 person can easily end a game.

Anyway, bottom line, its fun.  I think I like it much more than the standard LoL game.  It's much closer to a Demigod type game (still not as good, imo - but closer).  The mode almost completely removes the laning phase and encourages you to focus on capturing (and holding - pacov says to the good players) "flags."  In that, its just like dg as flags are often a huge focus for early mid game.  There is plenty of room for strategy (giving up a close flag to capture one that is far away, etc). 

I think this will be an excellent mode and something I might really enjoy.  Give it a go if the beta is still going on if you haven't played yet (anyone can play in the beta as long as its open - riot games seems to turn on and off the beta access lately).  If we are really lucky, mayhaps they will keep it available. 

Blah, I played it eariler and with you also,

Im overall not a fan. Its great for pre mades and higher tier gameplays. Or competive. Hardcore.

Or my natural choice in characters are just horrible for this super face pace.

I want to like it, I do have fun. But getting steamrolled is wearing on me alot.

In the end I think if your not playing carry, its to fast paced.

Indeed.  Towers are so easily neutralized, they flip way too fast for defense to matter much against higher numbers, even at entry levels.  Since we start off at diving strength pretty much, it's all the worse.

If there were a much heavier penalty on restarting your channeling, defense would be a little more practical, but the tower really just doesn't matter the way it is, even if you can smoke someone with a long range poke until they pull their hair out.