After taking a small break last night Karl, Bryff and I played two Twisted Treeline games.

We ended up playing vs a Silver I team trying to promo to Gold in back-to-back games. We definitely ended there promo dreams. We beat them both games without breaking to much of a sweat. After reviewing there solo queue ranks it was pretty obvious why we won so handly. They were low gold players. So I guess you get a little bit of everything in Twisted Treeline. Challenger teams mixed in with really bad teams.

Anyway we are one win away from getting promoted to platnium in Twisted Treeline Huzzah!

Once this patch hits the LCS here are my predictions:

• Ziggs will no longer be played over Syndra, Xerath (they just do it better now)
• Lux will see play with the buffs and the meta favors her play style
• Vel'Koz might be seen once or twice  
• Tanky CC junglers will make a come back (Mao, Nautilus specifically)
• Jarvan, Xin, Pantheon, and Kha will be played while the new jungle meta is being figure out
• Rengar has a strong chance to be the top jungler pick
• I am going to take a gamble and say Udyr will be played in the LCS
• ADC meta will more or less remain the same with maybe a few more Caitlyn games and a wild Ezreal here and there
• Graves will be played in the LCS again
• Leona/annie might resurface as supports
• Morgana will be the highest priority support pick, expect her picked or banned in 100% of games
• Shyvana will never be played in the LCS (she is pretty rare as it is)
• Ryze will be played more over lulu
• I also think the gragas "nerfs" are a buff he will be just as popular as he is now. Most likely 100% picked or banned.

I predict games going even longer than usual do to jungle pressure being reduced from the shift away from the big 3. Hyper late game ADC's will still dominate.

I feel that Nunu could also be huge in the jungle on this patch. He is already very popular in Korea but I would expect him to start being picked up more often in the NA and EU scenes. Meteos and Kez already play him for Cloud 9 and Complexity Black.

well... maybe.  I really do enjoy playing him as a support jungler.   I find him to work well enough in many comps as is.  Not really sure how much of a difference the nerfs to other junglers will make to him.

edit - oh I missed the janna change.  Whirlwind (q) starts cooling down when you start the initial cast.  That's an ok buff for her imo.

Also - want to highlight team builder a bit as I expect I'll be grinding out there a bit more. 1st, you play 5 games in a role, you get a new summoner icon.  So, 5 roles, 5 icons to grab, 25 games total.  Getting icons for free is fun, so join meh... also..6 roles apparently?

The other new thing is this:

"We've been experimenting with other features in Team Builder for a while now, and we've added one of them that we think will help make Team Builder even better. With "Suggested Players," you'll see a box in your Team Builder lobby filled with players we believe you'll have a positive experience with. A one-click invite adds them to your team before you start searching for solo players. We'll expand this feature over time, and could possibly go into detail on the algorithms in the future if there's enough interest."

Looking forward to seeing how that works

OH and 

RE: gragas

I didn't get a chance to read the updated patch notes until now. I must of miss read them or they changed them again. I thought his W was going to have a longer damage reduction time. Gragas is going to be a lot worse this patch. Yeah he might fall off the face of the world. 

well, they reduced the cooldown.

So you're able to have a slightly higher uptime if you weren't building much CDR (before let's say at Rank 5 you had 20% CDR, it's be 3 second uptime with a 4.8s CD (so 62.5% uptime). Now it'd be 2.5 second uptime with a 3.2s CD (78% uptime).

The shorter cooldown also means slightly higher teamfight damage, esp if you go Sheen. On the other hand, since you have to pay for it, that's a pretty significant laning nerf, esp combined with the 30% damage reduction on minions with his Q now.

So - i think the summoner icon thing in team builder is pretty busted.  I got 3 icons for 3-4 games and I'm building my mage icon.  Its either bugged in favor of people hosting team builder games (I was) or favors people that have already played a bunch of team builder.

I actually think it gives you badges based on previous games in team builder.  So, for someone like me that has played a bit of team builder, I would get a "free" adc/support icon by completing 1 game. I'm think that is the case.  I think karl got a badge instantly for jungling and then got jack for tank or something like that.  not sure. 

Let me know what your experiences were in team builder re: when you got badges.  I currently have 3 and have 3/5 points needed for mages. 

Saw this on PBE - probably ward pings

New UI Assets

Two new UI files have been added, "enemyWard" and "friendlyWard". While they look like something for the smart ping system, no official details yet on what they are for but they are not currently hooked up in-game.

So, gnar is alot of fun to play actually.  His transformation mechanic doesn't seem to work the way I think it would.  It says he transforms when you use an ability next, but it actually seems to be when you attack next.  It does give you an imediate heal when you change forms, so its actually quite useful for countering all ins. 

So, here's the mechanical keyboard I picked up a few days ago (and am returning):  http://www.amazon.com/CM-Storm-QuickFire-TK-Mechanical/dp/B00A378L4C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1406821436&sr=1-1&keywords=CM+Storm+QuickFire+TK

If you look at it, the main reason I'm returning is because of the keypad + arrow key layout.  It's exceptionally built, though.  Had really good response/feel + excellent customization options for the back lighting.  Really nice keyboard, but layout was something I didn't realize was different (sadly) and my wife disliked as well.

So, here's what I got in its place - Corsair vengeance k70:  http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-Mechanical-Gaming-Keyboard/dp/B00CD1FC6G/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1406821565&sr=1-1&keywords=Corsair+vengeance+k70

Still getting the hang of this.  It has custom contoured keys that you can use or not use for wasd + 1-6.  Pretty good design. Also has very customizable backlighting options.  Still figuring everything out, but its a pretty decent keyboard imo. 

In response to the icons for Team Builder, iirc, past Team Builder games count towards them. So if you had like 7 previous games as a Mage, play it once and you'll receive the icon me thinks.

And oh goodness that key layout is pretty gross . But can't really doubt the quality of the keyboard. I'm currently running a Ducky Shine 3.

As for an update in regards to my Internship that I brought up however long ago in one of our discussions. I am currently in the hiring process and will be starting within a few weeks :]. Albeit, this isn't the same company I was talking to whoever about initially, I happened to receive a second offer.

Hey there cuties... I should be moved/moving by the end of the weekend.  hope it all goes according to plan.   

Want to have a housewarming party with me

Good luck, swan!

Well, no games with you fellas tonight, but I did get to spend some time in team builder.  Actually did pretty decent as syndra and finished my mage badge.  Went lux support bot (one of my old favs) and really dominated.  And last game went graves (one of my crappier ad's) and went 9/0/5.

Felt like most of the games were mismatches.  Not like crazy we are diamonds stomping wood, but like plat vs silver stuff.  Honestly (seriously honest), if I kick your ass in mid enough to merit a lane rotation... then kick the lane rotations ass as a mid, I immediately think I'm fighting against garbage.  My mid is serviceable at best imo.  Really curious to see how matchmaking continues in team builder.  I think most of our experiences are either wut... I'm playing against 4 diamond 1's or wut I'm playing against 2 golds, 1 plat, and 2 bronze (solo queue examples for me anyway). 

edit - looked up the stats on the game I played mid and merited a lane swap apparently... kick the crap out of a diamond 2 and a diamond 3 in mid... I have no idea.  I'm quite bad mid...

edit edit - also, I created a channel called lord pacov's buttox in ts on the Madcast ts and folks are still using it.. so there... I'm clearly amazing.  Night all!