State of CLG

My favorite team in the NA has always been CLG(Counter logic gaming), I followed them since there start. They have always been an iconic symbol for league of legends e-sports. They are in a tight spot fighting for their salaries, and a spot for the next season in the LCS. If they lose there is a possibility that they would disband as a team. One of the longest teams breaking up is very sad news to me. While HotshotGG the leader of the team has a lot to lose and shoulders a lot of the hatred at the team, he is a solid player but needs to realize a few huge points to help the team move out of this slump.

IMO: how to fix the team:

-Bench Hotshotgg, while he can play tanks his champion pool is outdated and holding them back. He stems a lot of arguements and has an always right attitude.

-Bench Chauster, while he can be considered the backbone and shotcaller, he can easily be replaced. His jungle skills are subpar to other LCS junglers. He is just there and not ready to adapt.

-They need to find a better top laner, and jungler which will solve most problems. I really hated when Saint Vicious got kicked from CLG, i was heartbroken at how CLG's best member at the time can get benched because of issues with Hotshotgg. While his calls can be blunt and downright mean he's consistently the best jungler in NA.

-If they kept saint vicious jungling, and voyboy top with link mid or even jiji mid and aphro/doublelift bot the team would easily be a top 2 team in NA

-I think if they plan to continue playing major changes have to be made, Hotshotgg should think from a bussiness perspective and just give other members a try in the team and see how the team does. It could be an eye opener to himself, and put his pride behind him. His era is over unless he trains harder he will not improve.

- I really hope CLG wins the reelegation and take this as a wake up call to climb out of their slump

Gaining Elo

Climbing the Elo ladders/ Tier system

while most people think climbing the Tier system is about individual skill they forget the fact that the game is a 5man game. You may be the best middle in the game you are playing but if you are unable to help out other lanes to give them that edge to win their lane, or guide the team to get group objectives the game can still be lost. Like Doublelift said "You play Soloq to get better as a player, only you can get better your 4 other teammates will always be the same". Whenever something happens blame it on yourself, oh bot died, I could roamed there to help. Oh top got gank I could warded for him to avoid the gank. Oh we lost the game, I could farmed 30 more cs to get that big item. The game is always changing so you want to follow the flavor of the months and MASTER them, not pick them because they are FOTM. Master them and use them to gain elo. Remember to never taunt your teammates or belittle them, you guys can flame after the game all you want but you wouldn't want someone nagging at all your mistakes during a game. Be the bigger person let it go. Good luck climbing the ladder!

LCS ALLSTAR GAME

The League championship allstar game is an important series of games for all the players and their respective country. Not only does it show which country is dominant, it gives the winning country an extra spot on the league championship series. This is huge for fans, as fans are voting players to play base on popularity rather than raw skill. Without realizing it, fans are voting for their favorite players to play but giving them less of a chance to compete in the world finals. This is such a pity and is being reposted throughout the forums and popular sites like Reddit, so I just thought i would say that.

My opinion:

NA:

Top lane: Voyboy, his play style really fits the meta right now, with his huge champion pool and excels at assassin like champions.

Middle lane: Reginald, although he is overly aggressive and makes bad plays at times, he is still playing accordly to the meta and really fits the team with VoyBoy and SaintVicious.

Jungler: SaintVicious, hands down the best NA jungler, aggresive, a 4th threat what NA needs

ADC: DoubleLift, again the best adc for NA, although not very consistent his mechanical play matches the standards of worlds

Support: Xpecial, although this is probably the hardest choice since its hard to break a duo bot lane up I think his consistent play throughout the season shows he can adapt to any ADC

EU:

Top lane: Darien, he still plays some of the worlds best top lane since s2

Middle lane: xPeke, one of the best middle laners, consistent and has a wide pool of champions

Jungler: Diamondprox, best jungler EU uncontested, his Lee is incredible

ADC: Genja, good synergy with Edward but his mechanics match Doublelifts

Support: Edward, best support in EU, hyper aggressive even carries game as support

Note: this is only my opinion and not facts or anything, good luck to all the countries allstar team, i hope to enjoy a good game from everyone!

Singed Guide

Hello, today we will be talking about Singed, a champion that excels at farming and kiting(running and killing champions). His kit seems very simple but takes a lot of game experience to truly master.

Abilities:

 Singed's passive increases his health by 100 for every 25 mana. This skill is very important, as stacking mana items will make him more tanky such as tear and catalyst.

 Singed's op skill, basically increases everything. You never want to fight your lane opponent without this skill, nor want to be farming in between towers without this skill.

Toss enemy, can be used to iniate or even do some tricks which i will explain later.

 Singed's bread and butter skill, used to farm and kill enemies, basically a line of posion gas behind singed.

His slow, very important for peeling and killing champions. 

Masteries:

The standard and most effective singed mastery build. You want the most out of the defensive stats, while getting enough utility to spam your poison gas.

Items:

Standard match up:

Fairy Charm/manapots/healthpots/ward IF jungler can pressure you->tear->catalyst->blasting wand->rod of ages->merc treads->spell vamp->armor/mr according to team->finish arch angel->build tanky

Skill Order: 

Q>E>Q>E>Q>R>Q>E>Q>E>W>W>W>R>W>W

I like to maximize my damage, therefore i max q and e before i put any on w.

Runes:

Standard:

Vs. mana champions that harass a lot

Easy match ups

Laning as Singed:

The most important phase for Singed is his laning phase. Singed has one of the longest laning phase of any champion.

One of the most important things about early game singed is not being greedy and pushing with your Q. Your Q is weak and you lose mana really easily. You want to save your Q for when you trade with the enemy, auto attack + Q. Otherwise farm with your normal attack.

If your lane does happened to get push, always run back to the brush and recall. If the enemy jungler appears just stand still and recall, if not continue to farm. Using this method is safe but can make you miss out on farm so therefore you usually do not want to push out. Make sure when laning you are constantly keeping your health above 75%, chugging all potions necessary. Also do not be afraid to toss your enemy into your minion line and add auto attacks as you run alongside the enemy. AUTO ATTACKS HURT!!!

Once you hit level 6, and have a tear you can start running past the enemy tower after shoving it to the tower and farm between towers. You want to make sure you buy plenty of potions, keep tabs of the jungler and use the recall brush trick whenever you cleared the minion wave. The trick i use when hiding in the brush is watching my own top lane, the minions spawn at the same time therefore move at the same speed, so once my own minions pass my 2nd tower i move out of the brush to farm. Farming like this is very important because it

1. Applies pressure throughout the map, if 2-3 people come gank you, your team can make plays through towers or dragon

2. Requires constant jungle attention, the enemy jungle must constantly try to stop you 

3. Kills champions without substain at towers, some champions cannot take minion damage, over time they get low and you can finish them off

4. Ensures you get as much farm as possible without missing any 

5. Slowly widdles the tower down

When playing singed it is also important to watch the map, if the enemy piles for a dragon you want to shove a lane as much as possible and get something out of the trade, you are constantly farming and using your teleport to join the fight after pulling people to guard your huge minion wave.

Team fighting:

Although I do not have photos of how to team fight, it is also really important to fight properly.

Your job as Singed is to iniate fights, use your W to protect your carries, toss tanks/brusiers out of your carries way ( even void tossing, trick shown later) and running at the enemy carries to apply pressure and seperate the team. It is good when mutiple people are attacking you, which means less damage applied to your team but you do not want to take free damage. Make sure you are always in between the fight, do not run too far away to secure kills, stay with your team and peel.

The Mechanics: Tricks/Tips

Void toss (not invented by me): a very important skill to learn, you face the wall and if your enemy is chasing behind you, you can toss them over the wall. Works for many thin walls or trees. Very important to master when getting ganked or in jungle fights.

Posion Gas tricks: 

1. By tapping Q you can perserve mana while still applying maximum amount of damage, very good for low level

2. Keeping posion gas on auto increases your max mana for tear

3. running in zig zags, and being just out of the minion's attack range is important when farming

4. Do not out run the enemy or minion, wait for them with a simple taunt or stop to apply damage.

5. Add auto atacks when running side by side with enemy champions to apply more damage

Mega adhesive:

VERY IMPORTANT: you aim the skill leading where the enemy is going not on top of the enemy, your circle should not be touching the enemy at all for a very good and long slow, espically if you have a rylais!!!

Match ups:

VERY Hard(need to give up farm, farm lanes and base constantly)(should probably not lane vs): KAYLE, ELISE, POPPY, SWAIN

Hard(can be laned vs but needs some expertise, and hard to kill): Teemo, Vladimir, Rumble, Akali, Yorick, Jayce, 

Medium(fair match ups, somewhat difficult): Nasus, Trydnamere, Soraka, Jarvan, Khaxiz, Lee Sin, Udyr

Easy match ups(counters)You better stomp them!: Everyone else ;)

Thanks for reading my Singed guide, i will add more to it.

P.S. Play Singed without fear, make sure you are in the enemy's face constantly farming and running around, barely escaping to add insult to injury. 

The AP Nidalee Guide

Today I will be talking about my favorite champion in the game, Nidalee. This guide will focus on AP nidalee. AP nidalee's far range spears make her very exciting and challenging to play. 

Abilities:

 Her passive Prowl increases her movement speed while in bushes. This skill is very helpful when running away from enemies or chasing a foe. Make sure you use this passive as much as you can, when you see a bush you should try to use it!

 Her Q skil Jav toss/ takedown is the bread and butter of AP nidalee. When using this skill, do not worry about hitting it full range as the rewards may be higher but hitting is better than missing. The shorter the range the less damage, but the applying damage is better than none. This skill can surprise people and even 1shot squishy champions. 

 Although Q is nidalee's bread and butter, this is my favorite skill for nidalee. I absolutely love trapping up my lane and lowering the area my opponent has to work with in lane. If they do happen to step on the trap I will make sure to punish them by harassing with normal attacks.

 Her E is great for farming while in tiger form and can save lives with the heal. Although the only time I rely on this skill is for killing towers faster or objectives faster.

Nidalee's ultimate make her a unique champion acquring 3 more skills and turning to a cougar at lvl 6. While she does not recieve bonus stats from this anymore the skill is still very useful, as described later on.

Masteries:

*LEVEL 1 CHEESE BUILD/FLAT AP BUILD*This is the more traditional Ap nidalee build, I take 2 in extra minion damage because getting cs before 6 can be a pain without ad. I try to maximize my ability power and use this build if i want to cheese starting with an Doran's ring and putting lvl 1 Q. (will be explained later on)

*MY VARIANT BUILD FOR AP NIDALEE* This mastery build focuses on trading with auto attacks despite being an AP focus hero. Many people forget at midlane a lot of damage comes from auto attacks at lower levels. This build helps me cs while maintaining extra defense for when I get caught shoving my lane so hard.

Items:
Cheese build: Dorans ring->Tear->Soul stealer->Sorc shoes->Death cap->archangels->Deathcap-> max cd item

Standard build: Fairy charm, mana pot, 3x hp pots, ward->tear->boots->dorans ring->sorc shoes->Death cap->archangels->max cd->void staff

Skill Order: 

Normally: R>Q>W>E [(first point in W) unless cheesing then first point in Q]

Getting camped/losing lane: R>Q>E>W ( use q to farm)

Runes:
Cheese build

  
Standard build

Cheesing as Nidalee: 

     The term cheesing refers to rushing or trying to get an opponent out of the game early by playing unconventional. The method I like to use when attempting to cheese is by running as many FLAT ap runes, and as much AP I can get from masteries. You should start with 40+ ability power atleast. I get my Q first at level 1 and immediately rush towards middle lane. Now according to what my jungler is, if they start blue or red I will predict where the enemy mid lane will attempt to help his jungler. I will stay within vision and if I spot them I will chuck my spear and as many autos as i can without getting hurt. If I do not see the middle laner I will resort to damaging the jungler to slow his path. 
     Right after that little trick head over to middle lane and auto attack as much as you can(minions or enemy). You want to apply pressure and level up as fast as possible. Whenever you walk up to attack the enemy champion keep auto attacking, if they attempt to juke just keep auto attacking until you feel comfortable hitting your spear. Many people overreact when trying to juke your spear taking free damage from your auto attack. If you play aggressive enough and use your level advantage, and hit consistent spears it should look somewhat like this. 

 As the game progresses and you aquire your tear, you want to spam skills such as your trap around the map and use your cougar form skills(manaless) to acquire stacks as fast as possible. When you get a blue buff do not worry about hitting your target, worry about throwing as many spears as possible, you have no mana to worry about. When you have killed your middle enough, or they are shivering in fear, or your getting camped by the enemy jungler shove mid out and proceed to roam. Make sure to communicate with the team and buy wards everytime you base to invade the enemy jungler and keep tabs on them, or you can get counter ganked!

As the game goes on, make sure to get all your blue buffs and NEVER ALLOW the enemy team to acquire dragons. Make sure you are purchasing as much ability power as possible, death cap into max cd. If the enemy attempts to get dragon, chuck them down with spears or attempt a steal, spam away and make them regret choosing to attempt dragon. When all outer towers are down, or middle tower is down proceed to roam and siege towers by trapping the tower and chucking spears from the side. Slowly widdle the opponent and tower but never dive unless you are sure where everyone is and you are going to get a free kill! 

The Mechanics: Tricks/Tips

Jumping through terrain: Here is the map

First start off by refering to the map yo where you can make nidalee jumps. When you find one that is possible head to the location.

Next click on the terrain which you want to jump over, not the floor, the TERRAIN!(some people like clicking on the floor(make sure your facing the area you want to jump over) and pressing Stop(s))

Now press W to jump over

Congrats!! you just made a wall jump

Spear through minions: By noticing when minions are about to die, if the enemy is behind a minion simply throw your spear as the minion is about to die to hit the enemy hiding behind the minion. If playing Nidalee correctly you should be using this tatic every game, everytime you enter lane atleast one time!!

Jumping catform spear: 
1. Jump back after a spear, by chucking the spear, turning back to catform and jumping backwards ( practice a few times before attempting). 
2. turn to catform, make sure cooldown is ready to transform again. Jump forward or left or right then as your midair transform to human and throw spear. You should be constantly using this after you clear a wave to surprise your enemy throwing spears randomly and quickly at them, giving them less time to react to your spear.

Fog of war Spear, Spearing for dummies: 
1. Make sure to abuse your spear's range and add the element of surprise when throwing spears. Throw spears from the jungle or the sides of the lane to give the enemy less time to react to spears.

 2.Whenever the enemy walks towards the side of a tower, or the corner of the wall throw your spear for easy damage that cannot miss. It can even be worth taking a tower shot for it! Whenever your enemy shoves hard and posters to base, harass them with your far range spear when they attempt to base, being annoying is part of nidalee's job.

Trap vision: Throw traps into a bush before you enter, or use as vision to hit people behind towers or fog of war! 

Trap City: By throwing traps around towers, or lanes, or choking off ramps to prevent ganks the uses of traps are endless. I max them 2nd since they lower magic resist and armor, and show vision when stepped on. This allows for my spears to do tremendous damage when hit while being spotted and helps employ my siege strategy when i trap the whole lane up. Try to avoid throwing traps where minions will travel through as seen in the pictures below , as using it for frontal minions can be a waste. Using traps to clear creeps is also effective at lower levels to shove up and roam/ protect jungle.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see more AP nidalees out there in the fields of justice playing correctly and making me proud!

Authors Note: Remember when playing Nidalee you are playing the game of killing towers and taking objectives, do not be greedy for kills! and when ahead continue to shove advantage not force unnecessary fights! Also in team fights you want to stay in human form throughout the fight throwing as many spears as you can, dont worry if you dont hit the carries, make sure your healing your allies and throwing traps. When you are winning a fight and need to chase or run away thats when you want to use your cougar form, because remember you are squishy.

Middle Lane Champion index(AP)

Today we will be discussing more about the middle lane

The middle lane champions are divided into 2 groups: Today we will be talking about the AP champions.

1. AP(ability power) champions: These champions are usually squishy and bursty, unlike attack damage they use spells to do damage. These spells are strengthen through acquiring more ability power through items. The main idea of an AP carry is for them farm up and do as much damage as they can before they die. They are the buffer zone for protecting your more valuable carries such as the AD(attack damage carry). Known to fall off as the game progresses the AP carry is invaluable during the early and middle game with there strong burst damage, some even able to 1 combo players. This is the lane to be watching for, kills are back and forth during games, and this the lane where the players will be looking to make plays around the map.

Here are some AP champions i think are the best at the moment:

Ahri: She is and has been a consistent safe pick since she was realeased. Known for her ultimate ( the ability to jump 3 times) allows her to move around the battlefield at ease. Her strengths include maxing Q and shoving the lane out to roam with her high mobility, or steal the enemy wraiths without fear of a gank. She is prone to ganks without any means of escape except her taunt pre-6, that is when you want to play safe and smart. 

Difficulty: Easy

Skill Order: R>Q>W>E

Items: Boots 3pots -> lucky pick/2x doran rings -> sorcerer boots -> DFG -> Death Cap -> Twin Shadows 

Runes/Masteries: 21/0/9     

Magic pen reds, Flat armor yellows, Flat magic resist blues, Flat ap quits

TL:DR farm safe till 6, farm wraiths, roam when lane is shoved, build DFG and high AP your goal is the run into the enemy front line and devastate there carry, a 1 for 1 trade atleast.

Anivia: Anivia is a highskill cap which requires a lot of farm. Her wave clearing capabilities are unmatched and can keep mid laners from roaming or they will lose a lot of experience. 

Difficulty: Hard

Skill Order: R>E>Q>W put 2 on Q before you start to max E

Items: Fairy Charm, Hp pots, ward-> Tear -> catalyst -> rod of ages -> death cap -> arch angel -> warmongs -> liandyras/void staff

Runes/Masteries: 21/0/9 vs people you can kill, 9/0/21 if you want to farm  

Magic pen reds, Flat armor yellows, Flat Mr resist blues, Flat ap quits  

or Magic pen reds, Hp per level yellows, ap per level blues, movement speed quits

TL:DR do not play passive even when you are low level, you are still very strong with your auto attacks and spells. if you land your Q you can get a kill easily, but your main concern is to farm up and get big. Use your walls to seperate your carries from getting killed, find fights in the jungle.

Lux: Lux is known for her long range spells, and 4 skill shots. All of her spells are skill shots making her one of the more difficult champions. You want to be a glass cannon that is always landing her ults on 5 people if possible, the point of the ult is not to ks in a teamfight but to hit everyone.

Difficulty: Hard

Skill Order: R>E>W>Q

Items: Fairy Charm, Hp pots, ward-> Tear -> Boots-> Mejai/Death Cap->Sorcerors->archangel->DFG-> (get cd items till near 40%) -> void staff

Runes/Masteries: 21/0/9 

Magic pen reds, ap per level yellows, ap per level blues, flat ap quit

TL:DR Farm far away as your damage is low in the early game, but once you hit 6 play aggressive and try to go for kills. Do not be afraid to use your ult to try to steal blues, dragons, or just to clear mid lane and base. Make sure you roam and snipe people that are low. ALWAYS ULT MULTIPLE PEOPLE DO NOT USE ULT TO KS IN TEAM FIGHTS

Nidalee: Nidalee is my best and favorite champion in the game. Being versatile and gaining a lot of mobility after hitting level 6 she can skirt around the map and look for easy targets to pick off.

Difficulty: Hard

Skill Order: R>Q>W>E TRAPS DO A LOT OF DAMAGE!

Items: Fairy Charm, Hp pots, ward-> Tear ->Sorceror boots-> Mejai/Death Cap->archangel->any cd items to hit 40% cd

Runes/Masteries: 21/9/0 make sure you get the spell pen and armor pen, as you will be doing a lot of physical attacks as Nidalee

TL:DR Farm till you get a tear, but be sure to be aggressive your normal attacks hurt! Spear away, and make sure you trap up lanes when you siege towers to lower surface area and increase chances of hitting a spear.