This is the first of what should be an ongoing series of game recounts with Omega and myself. Omega, for those not aware, is part of AA Gaming Hub’s staff. He assists in game testing and specializes in RTS and FPS games.
In the past I’ve tried to get him to give League of Legends and shot, but he’s not been interested in it. I finally managed to get him to try it yesterday, describing it as “an RPG/RTS hybrid,” and telling him it was “like Rise of Nations (one of our favorite games) but you only control one unit.” He bit, and we dove in.
First up was summoner creation and icon/avatar selection. This took quite some time. When he finished that he opted to skip the tutorials and trial battle and declared himself ready to play. I cautiously started a Co-op vs. AI match.
Wait…
No! I don’t want Co-op vs. AI! I don’t want/need others around for the growing pains to come! Dammit, now we had to quit, putting a black mark on both of our accounts. I hate myself sometimes.
Trying again, I started a custom game and invited him to it. Much better! We teamed up – I as Tristana, he as Corki – in our first match with Nasus-, Sivir- and Annie-bots against Malphite, Master Yi, Annie, Nasus and Shen. Let the battle begin!
I actually sabatoged our team by instructing him to follow me top lane, leaving the bottom lane to go 1 on 2. This was so I could watch him better and help him learn, and what I learned early on was that he was a little too aggressive. He’d charge in and get badly hurt, and eventually dying. This, as you might imagine, is a bad thing. I repeatedly told him that staying alive is more valuable to us then him killing enemy champions, but I kept unintentionally leaving out one crucial piece of advice (which I’ll divulge later). I also told him to keep minions between him and the tower but that wasn’t his problem. His problem was attacking enemy champions with reckless abandon.
About halfway through the battle I sent him to the bottom lane to see how he handled himself. I told him, “go get the guy with the cat ears,” meaning Nasus. He got down there and saw the golems in the jungle and attacked them instead. he killed them but that didn’t help our cause much. At one point he teleported back to our base but couldn’t afford what he wanted at the store and said that he’d just sit there and wait until he had enough gold. Really? Seriously?! Damn it, get back out there and KILL THINGS if you want gold!! He reluctantly headed back to his lane.
Through all of this, Nasus-bot and I had pushed into the enemy base and were working on the towers around the nexus. I’m not a terrible LoLer so we took it down with ease. For the record, here’s our final talley.
Despite dying 10 times and netting zero kills (and not even reaching level 10) Omega was all set afterwards to try it again. Round two, start!
He again chose Corki while I took my favorite champion, Nunu. Sivir, Nasus and Master Yi rounded out our side. The same bots as last time (in a different order) comprised our foes. This time Omega decided he was going “straight up the middle.” Ok, whatever. We’re only playing bots, anyway. It’s not worth it to argue with him, to be honest.
This match was a beating for the AI. Omega pushed his lane, and thanks to his 2 on 1 advantage reached the enemy base before I did. I was busy kicking ass and taking names, personally. I was facing Master Yi- and Annie-bots in my lane and I killed them each at least 10 times, with at least three double kills. It’s times like this where I can’t wait for the AI upgrade Riot has coming.
The battle continued and we were good and set to win it with ease when I died to a turret. Omega and were both dead as the game ended, which was kind of anti-climatic. Here’s the final score for this match.
Omega did a little better but still has a good ways to go. It was looking at this screen when I learned that I’d forgotten to give him a crucial piece of advice: farm the minions. He was mostly ignoring them, it seems, which could be a large part of his struggles. That and his kamikaze tactics.
Will Omega get League of Legends’ nuances and get good at the game? Only if he learns a tactic other then “divine wind.”
