#teamcurse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PT0bT5eNDg

The above video is Liquid Xpecial's most recent vlog on the recent roster changes for the Liquid (formerly Curse) team, and other things.

A quick summary of the points in his video log:

First video log in some time due to moving complications, etc.

Fenix and Piglet, the newest additions to Team Liquid, will probably not be able to play in Week 1 LCS due to visa complications. They might still be able to come back on time, but it is unlikely considering that the roster lock deadline for Week 1 is next Monday/Tuesday.

Due to the same circumstances stated above, Xpecial said to not expect that much from TL in the first two weeks, since there hasn't been much practice time, etc.

His predictions for 2015 Spring LCS:

Top 3: C9, TSM, TL

4-6: CLG, Dig, Gravity

6+: irrelevant

Though they haven't had much in-house practice time, the TL players have practiced a lot in solo q to figure out patch 5.1, and he is confident that they will be successful in the upcoming split

Each of his points raises a couple of interesting points that should be noted.

I personally think that the additions of Fenix in top lane, and Piglet in bot lane as ADC will be extremely valuable for Team Liquid. These were very smart acquisitions, especially seeing as Piglet is a notable player who won the S3 World Championships, and probably would have continued to dominate if his team as a whole didn't deteriorate.

Now that he has moved to the US to play, which is historically a weaker region than Korea, there is little chance that he will be a liability to his team as Team Liquid's former ADCs have generally been believed to be. Additionally, the fact that the full Team Liquid roster will not be there for the first one or maybe two weeks is disappointing, but is not too big of a deal in the context of the entire split. I am really looking forward to this new and improved Team Liquid's games in the LCS, and believe that they will definitely be top 3, as Xpecial predicts in this vlog. I also concur with his rankings, though CLG might also be able to place in the top 3 if they are able to realize their potential. TSM and C9 have historically been powerhouses in North America, and neither team has undergone major roster changes. Both teams also did extremely well at IEM Kiev, where they placed 2nd and 4th respectively.

All Chat, the reanimated corpse of Summoner’s Showcase

12/5/2014

Earlier today, Riot released its newest venture-- a talk show. Called All Chat, this show features three segments: Summoner’s Showcase, an interview with a content creator, and Name that Champion. The show’s success seems to hinge upon nostalgia for the Season 2 days of Summoner’s Showcase with Nikasaur. In fact, the official announcement for the web series even discusses its relation with the original Summoner’s Showcase:

“ll Chat isn’t Summoner Showcase, but it embraces what made that show special: a genuine connection with League players and an infectious enthusiasm for everything related to League.”

Just as their tagline states, the show focuses mainly on fan creations ranging from fanart to cosplay to player stories. The first episode (which was released today) focused mostly on fanart for the Summoner’s Showcase portion of the show. After that, there was an interview with Ben Bayouth, a fan and professional prop maker who has created giant to-scale versions of in-game weapons and creatures.

Personally, I found the show to be shallow and boring. And I know that I’m not the only one. In the comments of the video, one can find almost nothing but complaints about how scripted the show sounds and how unnatural the flow of dialogue is. While I don’t think that the show is THAT terrible, I still think that it is pretty bad. The complaints about the dialogue in the first video are definitely justified. The host, Melanie, seems to be incredibly uncomfortable while on screen. She talks extremely rapidly, continually looks at the camera while talking, and makes her laughs seem extremely forced.

Worst of all, the very idea of the show seems silly to me. Summoner Showcase only worked in Season 2 because people LOVED Nikasaur and had a fetish for every single piece of content that she generated. Even then, not that many people watched it, which is why it ended up getting cancelled. The S2 version of the show presented only fanart, and was a short segment with probably the most iconic Rioter at the time. The current iteration, All Chat, does the exact same thing except with added childishness and awkwardness thrown in.