League of Legends Experienced Player Review

League of Legends is a team combat game with intense battle scenarios. 'Summoners' (you, the player) must learn to use hot keys on their keyboards to instruct their chosen champion to execute various special abilities. The game, once you've entered into team play with other player-controlled champions can be frustrating and stressful.

Like soldiers in combat, players often talk gruffly to one another. Often when the team starts losing, one or more players will blame others for it. If you take the chat too seriously, it can throw your game off. League of Legends even tells players that genial and supportive teammates win more games but in the throes of combat, it's inevitable that when a loss seems imminent, players are going to verbalize their disappointment.

Keeping the focus on helping the team will aid players who don't want to be flamed by trolls who seem to feed off the woes (and mistakes) of new players. Sparingly use the ping system on map locations to let teammates where you are going or if you see an enemy attack forming on an unsuspecting teammate.

Players should know straight off that this game isn't for the meek or timid. Players that venture into match play without mastering bot play (playing against AI champions rather than player-controlled champions) are in for a rough ride. That's because the League of Legends community can be quite abrasive to newbies.

Not everyone complains when you make a noob mistake (like charging in alone against the entire opposing team), yet there are many who won't give employ subtlety in their advice.

It's a team game and mistakes by one can shift the advantage to the opposing team. So there are players that will let you know just how they feel about your mistakes.

Bearing in mind that many players have more than one account on League of Legends, the games can be just a wee bit difficult for new players. They have a training sequence, and players can fight against bots for practice, but it's still going to take awhile to get skilled at playing in live games.

The arena I've played in, primarily, is Summoner's Rift, and it's five to a team. The two sides battle it out over a large map, which also takes some time to get comfortable with.

There are so many champions available now, that it's probably a good idea to read up on some of their abilities before buying them (don't worry, you can play for free, and still buy champs with earned points). When I started playing, there were only a fraction of the champions that exist today. A new champion comes out once a month, so there's a never-ending variety to each game, if players wish to experiment with the various free champions made available each week.

The most important thing for new players to keep in mind, once they've started playing against real opponents, is that unranked games (match play) are your time to train. Ranked games are not available to players under level 30. This means you will have thirty levels of training before you are able to play in any games that count for anything rank-wise.

Use the thirty levels, if you plan to play that much, to learn how to best assist your team. There are five basic champion types that players need to know how to play when playing in ranked games: tank, ability power range, attack damage range, melee dps, and support. Knowing this and learning how to play them all, before you start working your way up to level 30, will give you a huge boost in your later attempts to succeed in ranked games.

If you do play your summoner to level 30, you'll be eligible to play in ranked games. League of Legends uses a point system to determine rank, and if you start losing games regularly, you'll find it very difficult to turn that around. That is, losing breeds more losing in ranked games. Because of this, players need to play one ranked game and then evaluate what happened before playing another. If the first game was a disaster, it's a good idea to go back to unranked and get more practice.

All the fooling around in the chat that goes on in unranked games is absent in ranked games. Players take ranked contests very seriously, and would definitely report players that are causing any disturbance during a game.

Ranked games are for the best of the best players of League of Legends. They aren't for everybody. I myself never achieved any sustained positive rank, but I'm still training and working on it. Some of the players who play in ranked games also play in regional and international tournaments. It's a great experience to get in there and see how seasoned players craft strategy and implement attacks as a team with startling precision.

And it's what team combat looks like at its finest. For a glimpse of accomplished ranked LoL players, choose spectate mode and observe.

League of Legends is possibly the best fast-paced, high stress combat game I've played, and I've played a few. The programming is exceptional, the graphics are awesome, and the theme and champions are absolutely outrageous.

If you like a rough crowd of hot-shot players to run with while your hacking away at your enemies, then this one's for you.