The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship has begun, and we're already well on our way to determining which teams will advance out of group A!
Updated Standings, Group A:
aAa - 3-0
Dignitas - 3-1
Fnatic - 2-2
CLG - 2-1
Alternate - 1-3
Millenium - 0-4 Spoiler - For Final Group A Standings, click "Read More" and scroll to the end of this post
Group A, Game 7: Dignitas vs. Millenium
18:00: Dignitas has a significant lead at the moment, taking first dragon and leading in kills 7-3. As far as map control is concerned, each team has a tower. Dignitas leads gold 28k to 22k.
28:00: Dignitas wins a fairly straightforward, one-sided game over Millenium, putting them at 3-1 in their group. We'll get new group standings in the next update, so stay tuned!
While League of Legends players such as ourselves are used to RP sale promotions from time to time, IP price reductions are more of a rarity.
Today, however, Riot Games announced that not just one but two champions are having their IP prices reduced. These changes will allow for significant savings, as they are both from 6300 to 4800. All of us League of Legends players just got an added incentive to check out Irelia and Miss Fortune.
Champion 1: Irelia
Previous price: 6300 IP
Current permanent price: 4800 IP
Irelia is a great champion that sees high-level play frequently. This reduction provides a great opportunity for any solo-top fans to finally grab her as part of their arsenal.
With the brand new Fiora patch rolled out on the League of Legends client, Riot was quick to post the new champion spotlight on their main site. Check out the Fiora Champion Spotlight below:
A couple of thoughts on the video:
Blade Waltz benefits from lifesteal and hits its initial target last. I take this to mean that Fiora, with her additional survivability from Riposte, will be able to re-join teamfights to help her team even if focused early. It also seems very effective at targeting and sticking to squishy champions.
Fiora is a great duelist. Although she was featured against Nasus, who she obviously hard-counters with Riposte, it's easy to see how effective her abilities synergize to make her a great 1v1 champion. Riposte is great for melee poking without risking damage by opposing physical damage.
In addition to our shiny new champion spotlight, we also get finalized patch notes! Changes from the original PBE patch notes are highlighted in red:
As we near the release of the Fiora patch tonight, Riot has given us a fresh list of free champions for us all to dabble with this week.
Season 2, Week 14:
There isn't much that stands out this week. As usual, we get to try out the last new champion (Nautilus) as well as a mix of champions in all different roles. The champions, from top right to bottom left:
Today is shaping up to be a great day for lovers of League of Legends artwork.
First up, we have the new Fiora Art Spotlight, fresh from the main page:
"There comes a time when every artist must step up and meet a challenge. So when Katie De Sousa told us that she had the perfect idea for the splash art for Fiora, the Grand Duelist, we had to consider her gauntlet thrown. We think you’ll agree that she really was ready to rise to the occasion!
Please enjoy this high-speed rendition of Katie deftly rendering the artwork for Fiora, the Grand Duelist!"
RiotLykaeus recently graced us with the most recent patch notes on the beta forums. Without further ado:
Alistar
Triumphant Roar mana cost increased to 28/41/54/67/80 from 20/35/50/65/80
Unbreakable Will mana cost reduced to 100 from 150
Trample damage increased to 10-27 per second from 10-23
Fizz
Base damage increased to 56 from 54
Armor per level increased to 3.4 from 3.1
Churn the Waters mana cost reduced to 100 from 150
Galio
Idol of Durand damage range increased to 600 from 575
Jax
Fixed a bug where Grandmaster's Might passive attack canceled if the buff ran out during the attack animation
Today we're covering the 78th Go4LoL cup on Europe West. Games are just starting in round 1 as we speak. We'll be focusing on TSM's games in the early rounds and we'll transition to covering some other teams later in the day!
You can check out the full tournament bracket here.
Stay tuned for live updates as we go through the tournament round by round!
Round 1: TSM vs. WLIIA
TSM was able to turn this game into a pretty straight-up stomp, taking an 8-1 kill lead early and using the advantage to methodically push their opponents back to their base turrets. A 21 minute Baron allowed TSM to make the final push, winning at the 25 minute mark. TSM now goes on to play dLgaming in the second round.
Today we're starting a new featured article series, IP Bargains, in which we feature two champions 1350 IP or under who can face up to the 6300's any day of the week. This segment is meant for players who are either just starting or who don't play enough to be able to afford the more expensive counterparts to our featured champions. Today, we'll be featuring Ryze and Sivir.
1. Ryze- 450 IP
Strengths
Lots of survivability - good for new players with few runes and masteries
Carries games
Easy to play
Ryze should be one of the first buys for any player. At 450 IP, Ryze will get you plenty of wins, arguably more effective at carrying games than most champions far more expensive than him. Considered a solo-mid AP bruiser, Ryze is one of the best champions for newer players to practice playing AP carry.
Played by top ladder players such as Alex Ich, Bigfatlp and TeddyRO, Ryze has lasting value, allowing you to stick with him as one of your only APs without losing effectiveness as a ranked player.
Riot has just given out more details on what we can expect in the next patch. In addition to getting Fiora, we'll be getting some significant changes to a few champions.
Lux
Lucent Singularity: Base cooldown increased, but cooldown will start to refresh upon spellcast, rather than after spell is activated.
Lucent Singularity and ultimate now both give vision during cast.
We've finally got the details on Fiora straight from Riot, and it seems the information that was leaked earlier this week was accurate. Riot is billing this champion as a "melee carry", what I'm guessing is a different iteration of Master Yi or Talon.
Abilities:
Duelist (passive) - Fiora regenerates health over 6 seconds each time she deals damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4 times.
Lunge (Q) - Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. Fiora can perform the dash a second time within a couple seconds at no mana cost.
Riposte(W) - Fiora's Attack Damage is increased. When activated, Fiora parries the next basic attack and reflects magic damage back to the attacker. Works against champions, monsters, and large minions.
Burst of Speed (E) - Fiora temporarily gains additional Attack Speed. Each basic attack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her Movement Speed. Killing a champion refreshes the cooldown on Burst of Speed.
Blade Waltz (R) - Fiora dashes around the battlefield to deal physical damage to enemy champions. Successive strikes against the same target deal less damage.
You can read Riot's entire write-up on Fiora here.
Corsair has recently announced a new tournament to begin in March with a huge $10,000 prize pool. This marks Corsair's first sponsored LoL tournament.
This is a great opportunity, not just for large gaming organizations, but for all 256 teams who are up to the challenge. That's right, the opening round of the tournament begins at 256 teams on March 12th on the European West server.
Everyone's favorite AP tank just got a sweet new skin courtesy of Riot. Say hello to the new and improved Dark Crystal Ryze:
From looking at the Riot store, the new skin is priced the same as any high-quality non-legendary skin, at 975 RP. From the looks of things they've certainly outdone themselves this time.
After some scouring of Youtube, I managed to find some video of the different skins for what appears to be the next new champion, Fiora. This is from OccupyMid's Youtube:
The video reveals what appears to be a pirate skin, which is good news for all-pirate teams. The recent update to the test server also included the Fiora files, which reveal her abilities:
With the release of our Shen and Yorick guides, we've recently added a new page dedicated to original Dojo champion builds.
You can access our list of guides here or by following the link in our navigation bar. Be sure to check out our guides, and leave feedback to tell us what you think!
Today we are releasing our second guide, this time for Shen, Eye of Twilight. This guide goes over how to play Shen in the jungle, constantly surprising your enemy with ganks and well-timed ultimates.
Here's an excerpt from the guide:
This build will lay out how to play Shen in an aggressive way, allowing you to be a threat across the map, even in multiple places at once. Due to the utility of his ultimate, Shen is probably the only jungler who can gank once and then immediately assist in another situation across the map. This allows you to give your team supreme map control, and will make you an essential part of carrying most teams to victory.
You can check out our Shen guide in its entirety here. Enjoy!
A whopping 60% of dojo visitors who voted in this week's poll want Riot to release a new support champion.
AD carry came in as the distant second choice at 15%, while AP carry and Solo top tied at 8% each. Only 6% of site visitors want a new jungle champion in the next patch.
The last new support champion to be released was Leona. Of the last 5 champions released, 2 have been AP carries, while 3 have been either jungle or top bruisers. We should get a sneak peek of the next new champion later this week, so stay tuned!
Today we are reviewing the newest addition to Riot's champion lineup: Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths
Class: Solo Top / Jungle Role: Tank, Ganking Jungle, Crowd Control Abilities
Staggering Blow (Passive): Initial basic attack immobilizes enemy champion and deals bonus damage. Effect can only trigger once every few seconds per champion.
Dredge Line (Q): Line skillshot. If it hits a champion, Nautilus pulls the champion towards him, moving forward to meet the target halfway. If it hits terrain, Nautilus is pulled forward to the area it hits.
The LoL Dojo has just released its first champion guide on Yorick, the Gravedigger. Our guide centers around an extremely aggressive style, meant to shut down your lane opponent and give you an edge into the late game.
Here's an excerpt from the guide:
Have you ever had a bad day? Bad enough that you wanted to not just win top lane but completely smack the other guy around to the point where he can't get a single minion kill without dying? This is the guide for you.
In this guide, I'll be going over how to play Yorick in a style designed to stay in lane for extended periods of time, constantly denying your opponent from getting experience and gold.
You can check out our Yorick guide in its entirety here. Enjoy!
For those of you eagerly awaiting more information on Riot's next champion, we just saw a glimpse of what will likely pop up on thousands of loading screens next week: the Nautilus splash art. You can view the art spotlight here:
Nautilus is looking like quite the badarse diver so far. I'm going to stick with my AD bruiser prediction for now. Check out Riot's full post on the art spotlight here.
On their site, Riot has just teased the next champion to be released, Nautilus.
To go along with our tradition of predicting what the champion will be before it gets revealed, I would guess Nautilus turns out to be a tanky, top-lane champion focused around crowd control with some type of rooting- or slowing-related abilities.
If Nautilus follows the normal Riot timetable, we should expect more information in a full reveal within a few days, and for Nautilus to be released in a patch next Tuesday.
You can check out Riot's Nautilus sneak peak for yourself here.
Today we are analyzing Riot's newest champion: Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert.
Class: AP Mid Role: Burst Damage, AoE Damage Abilities
Short Fuse (Passive): Every 12 seconds, Ziggs' next basic attack deals bonus magic damage. Cooldown reduced whenever Ziggs uses an ability.
Bouncing Bomb (Q): Long ranged skillshot with a small AoE radius upon explosion. The bomb will bounce forward from its initial landing spot. The farther the bomb is initially thrown, the faster and further it will bounce.
Satchel Charge (W): Ziggs lays an explosive trap on the ground that explodes after 4 seconds, or after Ziggs reactivates the ability. Enemies take damage and are knocked back. If Ziggs is within the explosion radius, he will be knocked away, but will not take damage.
Hexplosive Minefield (E): Ziggs scatters a cluster of proximity mines on the ground, exploding upon enemy contact. When exploded, the mines will damage and slow affected enemies.
The final two remaining teams in the Kings of Europe LoL tournament face off today, for what is sure to be a close and exciting match.
CLG.eu, the much-hyped counterpart to the prominent North American team, would be the first team to take out m5 in a large tournament if they were to win. m5 will look to retain their recent dominance, brought about by their aggressive counter-jungling strategy.
We will be live blogging the entire match, so click "read more" for live updates!
Riot revealed today some of the major changes on the way in the upcoming Ziggs patch. Below is the patch preview.
In summary, there are a few big tweaks to a few champions, including a significant nerf to one of the most used junglers, Lee Sin. Lee Sin is now getting less of an AS bonus from his passive and resonating strike does less execution damage.
Jax is receiving what I think is a significant buff, which frankly he's needed after his rework. He can now activate the stun on counterstrike early, rather than waiting for the dodge effect to wear off before stunning.
My thoughts: Both changes were needed at least somewhat, although frankly it's too early to say whether the Lee Sin changes were appropriate before seeing him in action with the nerfs. He should be slower at clearing jungle now and an all-around less effective ganker. I personally prefer GP anyway, so luckily I won't have to rage this patch. The Jax buff is a great change, as it will give Jax players more utility and decisionmaking integrated into their gameplay. He also effectively has an immediate AoE stun, which should make him more useful in late-game teamfights.
Riot just released more detail on the champion they had been hinting at earlier this week. As expected, he seems to be a new AP carry focused especially on skillshot techniques.
Abilities
Passive: Every 12 seconds, Ziggs' next attack deals bonus magic damage. This cooldown is shortened by each use of an ability.
Bouncing Bomb (Q): Skillshot that bounces and does magic damage
Satchel Charge (W): Throws a bomb that detonates after 4 seconds, or by activating the ability again.
Explosion deals damage and knocks enemies away. Ziggs is also knocked away if near the explosion, but does not take damage.
Hexplosive Minefield (E): Scatters multiple mines that explode upon enemy impact, dealing damage and slowing.
Mega Inferno Bomb (R): Long range AoE nuke. Enemies closer to the center of the blast take increased damage.
Today marks the beginning of a 4-day online tournament in which we will see the best European teams compete for a prize of 2,500 euros. We will be covering every match as they play out, and live blogging the last rounds of the tournament.
After the break, we'll start our coverage beginning with SK vs. exGBT
So stay tuned for a full weekend of top-level LoL tournament play!
It'll be interesting to see how CLG.eu, who wasn't present at IEM Kiev, fares against M5. We won't be live blogging this one, but I encourage everyone to watch as it should be a close match.
CLG.eu has Taric, Sivir, Trynd, Alistar, and Morgana; M5 has Yi, Brand, Sona, Miss Fortune, and Vlad
Soon you will be able to follow The LoL Dojo's progress on the ladder upon the launch of our new own3d.tv stream! We are currently in the process of setting up and organizing our live stream, which will broadcast daily and include special events, such as community games and viewer requests.
Another interesting bonus of our new stream will be your ability to track our progress on the ladder, starting at 1400 elo and (hopefully) climbing all the way to 2k! It will surely be a long and arduous journey, so be sure to tune in for our regular ranked game broadcasts.
A link to our stream will be coming shortly. In the meantime, be sure to enjoy our continued updates and coverage of the LoL scene!
The devs over at Riot Games have just teased a new champion on the main site. And it's a yordle. "Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert" will be the newest champion gracing the fields of Summoner's Rift starting next week.
While little information has been released thus far, I'm assuming we have some sort of AP champion on our hands. Riot describes Ziggs as a "turbulent technician with a propensity for pyrotechnics". I'm hoping this means we get a new full AP carry heavy on technical play, sort of like Orianna without the support utility. We should find out later in the week when the champion's mechanics preview is released.
Moscow FiveTSM
Sona Lee Sin
Mordekaiser Karthus
Kennen Alistar
Shyvana Sivir
Skarner Irelia
Irelia vs. Shyvana in top lane again, as it was in game one. We have some interesting differences from that game however, with Ali able to keep Shyvana off of TSM's carries and Karthus always godlike if it gets to late game and he gets farmed.
Both teams have shown impeccable play thus far in the tournament. Neither team has lost a map. That's about to change.
Moscow Five's strongest point is their teamplay and execution, never missing a beat in a gank or teamfight. TSM is notorious for their aggressive play centered around Reginald's mid lane. If TSM is to defeat the Russian team, they will need to be careful not to overextend and get stuck in traps and uncomfortable situations.
Reginald's also been hinting at a new AP champion he'll pull pull out against M5. I'm really hoping to see what he has planned.
Game 1 Picks
TSMMoscow Five
Sona Shyvana
Irelia Taric
Graves Kog'Maw
Skarner Lee Sin
Cassiopeia Galio
Here we are on the final day of IEM Kiev, up bright and early for the 3rd place match between SK and Dignitas. 4th place is never remembered in tournaments, so both these teams are vying both for money and pride.
SK was looking like the stronger of the two teams yesterday, with Dignitas' laning being completely shut down against TSM in both games. SK was at least able to have a respectable showing in the first game against M5.
I'll be updating this post with picks as we get closer to starting (in about 15 minutes), and we'll be live blogging the games all throughout the day.
Game 1 Picks
DignitasSK
Lee Sin Sona
Tristana Morgana
Leona Caitlyn
Pantheon Maokai
Jarvan Tryndamere
The final match of the day is an all-American affair between Team SoloMid and Team Dignitas. TSM is the favorite going into this one at a higher bracket seed. The winner will move on to play Moscow Five in the finals tomorrow.
Here are the picks for Game 1
Team SoloMidTeam Dignitas
Sona Nunu
Lee Sin Sivir
Graves Skarner
Irelia Rumble
Cassiopeia Veigar
So we get to see some high-level Veigar play. Nunu-Sivir is also a great combo for bottom. I'd say picks are pretty close.
Sadly I overslept and managed to miss most of game 1, but I can say that I did see a Mordekaiser and 60k gold on one team, so the game must have been pretty epic.
M5 took game 1, meaning SK will be playing for their tournament lives in this next game. Here are the picks for game 2:
SKMoscow Five
Morgana Ryze
Sivir Taric
Soraka Miss Fortune
Renekton Shyvana
Udyr Gangplank
By most measures, one would say SK outpicked M5. M5 is incredibly strong however, so this should be a great game.
We're down to the (tentatively) last two games of the day. I say tentatively, because there is a great likelihood we may see a 3-way tie for either first or second place after these games.
If Moscow Five and Sypher both win, M5 will advance with a 3-way 1-2 tie for second place.
If aAa and Dignitas both win, we will have a 3-way 2-1 tie for first and second place.
Here's to hoping one of those two situations plays out. Here are the picks for aAa vs. M5:
aAaMoscow Five
Graves Sona
Skarner Galio
Cassiopeia Lee Sin
Riven Kog'Maw
Taric Irelia
Dignitas currently stands at 0-1, aAa 1-0. Personally, I'm hoping Dignitas can pull this one off because it would keep a bizarre 1-2 tie scenario alive, so we could possibly see more games today.
Here are the picks
DignitasaAa
Nunu Shaco
Sivir Swain
Maokai Vayne
Rumble Lee Sin
Karthus Taric
The picks look pretty even to me. Click "Read more" for live blogging updates
We'll be live blogging today's remaining matches as they begin. Sypher and Moscow Five are doing player interviews now, so stay tuned for coverage. Match estimated to begin in 5 minutes.
Moscow Five has already won their first game vs. Dignitas, meaning a win here against Sypher would guarantee them passage to the elimination stage of the tournament.
Update (2:00): Curse pulls out to an early lead, as they ambush an attempted jungle invasion by SK, scoring two kills to one including first blood.
Update (13:00): First team fight breaks out around second dragon spawn. SK manages to catch Galio out of position, picking up 2 kills to none. SK picks up dragon as well and pulls out to a small lead.
Update (23:00): SK continues to pull steadily ahead, taking 4 kills to none at dragon, despite having dragon stolen by Lee Sin's smite. SK has now killed 6 turrets to Curse's 1.
Update (27:00): SK takes the first baron of the game after picking up a few more kills. SK now ahead by 7.5k gold. Hard to see Curse coming back at this point.
Update (30:00): SK wins in a pretty methodical, one-sided game. Although both teams have qualified for the IEM Grand Finals in Germany, SK will join TSM in advancing to the elimination stage of IEM Kiev.
TSM just advanced from the group stages following a surprisingly one-sided match against SK gaming. Reginald's Sion was able to shut down LeBlanc's farm in the middle, with the bottom lane being equally successful in favor of TSM. We also got to see TheRainMan's Teemo and a jungle Rammus on the side of TSM.
TSM managed to get a fast baron, and snowballed from there, taking another baron after sniping a few SK champions. Irelia managed to farm enough for SK to snag a few champion kills at the end, but it wasn't enough to stop the constant push of TSM.
SK will now play against Curse in a game that will decide who will advance and who will fall out in the group stage. This is an especially crucial game for Curse, since they still need the ranking points to qualify for the IEM grand finals.
I'll be live blogging SK v. Curse, so stay tuned over the next hour or so
Tomorrow marks the start of the Intel Extreme Masters Challenge circuit stop in Kiev. Eight teams will meet to vie for critical ranking points in the last opportunity to qualify for the IEM world championships. The Eight teams are:
Group A
SK Gaming
White Lotus
Team SoloMid
Curse
Group B
Against All Authority
Moscow Five
Sypher
Team Dignitas
I personally would predict SK and TSM to move on from group A, with AAA and Dignitas moving on from group B. Coverage of the event will begin tomorrow, as well as a link to the stream. Be sure to stay tuned!
For our first ever Champion Review, we look at Sejuani, The Winter's Wrath.
Class: Solo Top / Jungle Role: Tank, Disruption, Crowd Control Abilities
Frost (Passive): Basic attacks slow enemy movement speed by 10% for 3 seconds
Arctic Assault (Q): Charges forward, damaging and applying frost to enemies in your path. The charge will halt upon contact with the first enemy champion.
Northern Winds (W): Aoe storm surrounds Sejuani, dealing damage every second. Deals increased damage to enemies effect by Frost or Permafrost
Permafrost (E): Sejuani converts Frost on nearby enemies to Permafrost, dealing magic damage and reducing movement speed dramatically
Glacial Prison (R): Ranged skillshot, stunning the first enemy champion hit. Nearby enemies are also stunned for a shorter duration.
Sejuani is a very durable champion, capable of handling enemy carries in teamfights without fear of dieing. Frozen Mallet is a must, as in addition to it's added survivability, the slow stacks with Frost and Permafrost. As may be obvious, Sejuani's main goal is to keep vital enemy targets slowed. This also allows Sejuani to function as a gank-reliant jungle champion. With charge and permafrost, Sejuani retains exceptional power to single out an overextended champion and keep it from reaching the nearest tower. However, a jungle Sejuani relies heavily on ganks, as her abilities are not optimal for clearing jungle minions. Her ability to gank and durability combine to make her an exceptional counter-jungle choice.
In the right hands, Sejuani is a very powerful choice. Her greatest strength is her ability to initiate, and remain locked on enemy carries to keep the focus off higher priority targets on your team. Her aoe stun serves as great cc, and combined with her tankineness, it makes Sejuani an exceptional counter to champions such as Katarina and Tryndamere.
Welcome to Kunfo's Dojo! We plan on building this site into a one-stop destination for everything LoL, from news and guides to eSports coverage.
In addition to our general coverage, you will be able to witness the ranked career of myself, Kunfo, first hand. I'll be starting at 1400 (my ranking today) and end up, well, hopefully higher than that.
So be sure to follow us, bookmark this page, and stay tuned for champion reviews and guides, tournament reporting, and any other type of content you might request. You can follow us on twitter @KunfoLoL. Stay tuned, our stream will come soon.
