Line #71 Headscratchers/LeagueOfLegends


1	!!Gameplay
2	* Silences, stuns, "suppression", etc. blocking ''Summoner spells''. Based on the {{Excuse Plot}}/{{Metagame}}, shouldn't the Summoner -- the player -- be able to use his/her own powers regardless of a particular Champion's status? Or, if the Summoner is somehow "silenced" by Silence, shouldn't the Champion be effectively stunned by that effect as well, since the Summoner wouldn't be able to communicate? Come to think of it, the "global" spells (Clairvoyance, Fortify) shouldn't depend on the Champion being alive, but they do (the obvious exception being Revive). Obviously, the answer is {{Gameplay And Story Segregation}}, justified with {{Competitive Balance}}. But...[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Headscratchers/LeagueOfLegends scratches head]].
3	** You answered your own question.
4	*** The HandWave given is that the Champion acts as a physical anchor for the summoner's spells, so they can't be cast while the champion respawns, and the reason some status effects block them is that the close link between summoner and Champion ensures that the summoner feels some of the Champion's pain.
5	** Wait, what? Fortify ''can'' be cast when the champion in question is dead, as it doesn't affect the champ. Also, crowd controls do '''not''' block summoner spells except Flash (which can be handwaved by the champ needing to be alert) - the one crowd control which does that is suppression, which is the suppression of the link between summoner and champion.
6	** Even in the lore the League has rules. I think it's safe to assume that one of those rules contains summoner spells which can't be used when your champion is dead or incapacitated.
7	* I've seen some players reach level 20 with 10 wins. I'm level 18, yet I have about 70 wins / 70 losses. How the HELL can you do so badly? It boggles my mind.
8	** You were BornLucky. Because ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is a free game, it's fully possible for people to have only two wins at level 10 because every other match they get into is full of [[SockPuppet Saboteur accounts]] as I call them. I don't know if this is happening in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' now that it's free or not, but you're not free from dummy accounts that are dumped at level 20 or so for people to just go in and troll, intentionally feed, and make newbies' lives a living hell by wrecking their games. If they get reported, then who cares? You're not losing anything - it's just a ''dummy account'' that's banned. That and they probably are playing more bot games. I play bot games mostly because I don't have the time to get into a game that can drag on for over an hour and people rarely let bot games drag on that long.
9	*** Also, bot games don't appear on win/losses, but do give experience.
10	*** Co-op vs AI games don't count as wins (or as "Normal" wins), but grant experience, and given that many players generally stick with Co-op vs AI matches while they're new and learning the game and its various champions, it's very possible for someone to only play a couple PVP matches but rank up to level 20 through PVE.
11	* Has Riot ever played ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' or ''VideoGame/GuildWars''? Shouldn't they have known that nobody defends in capture and hold games and added something to encourage defensive play? Just about every game, there's a big fight for top...and then everyone disperses and leaves only one person to defend it. Or the sole defender asks someone to take their place because they need to heal or buy only for the other person to abandon it.
12	** Actually, In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the general strategy is actually Capture and hold, Grab 2/3 flags in gilneas/basin and defend them. What works works.
13	* How does wearing a pair of shoes increase the running speed of Champions that don't touch the ground, but rather fly/levitate around the field?
14	** The answer is in the item description: various shoes increase ''movement'' speed, not just running speed.
15	* There are certain things in game that make little to no sense at all aside from a [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Gameplay and Story Segregation]] point of view.
16	** Why does Cassiopeia's petrifying ultimate have the same effects on Malphite, a sentient stone, as it does an organic champion? Why does an enemy's Sunfire Cape hurt Leona, the representation of the Sun? How does Teemo's blinding dart do anything to Lee Sin, the already blind monk? Why do silences do anything to Sona, an already mute champion? Why does Ignite hurt Brand, a being of fire, at all? Why does Ahri's Charm work on Taric, a homosexual champion? How do champions without blood get affected by bleeding damage? And so on.
17	*** Cass petrifies the supernatural whatsit that allows Malphite's parts to move, "sunfire" is just a dramatic title, Teemo's dart is both loud and possibly has other toxic side effects, Brand is hurt by fire the way we're hurt by the fists of other humans, Silence spells prevent the enemy from acting, having little to do with actual sound, Taric could very well be CampStraight, and champions without blood still have inner workings to be damaged.
18	*** ALL of Malphite is turned to stone, most (if not all) items have meaningful names, Teemo's dart inflicts blindness which somehow causes Lee Sin to miss attacks despite being blind already, Brand summoned fire on his vessel body during his Judgment and was unaffected, the silenced indicator shows an ellipsis to show the enemy has been silenced vocally and magically, the developers confirmed Taric is gay and you need blood to lose blood, or else Vladimir can one up the "water from stone" saying by pulling blood out of stone around Malphite.
19	*** It has been confirmed the Teemo's blinding dart is also incredibly loud.
20	!!Current Champions
21	* Why does Twisted Fate, a character described as a gypsy gambler, have a thick ''Texas'' accent?
22	** Because it suits him as a suave Las Vegas gambler kind of person. That's as far as the meta and character style aspect go. If you want a story answer, he was born to Gypsy parents, but gambled his way to prosperity in Noxus. Hell knows what Noxian accents are like. Maybe all upper-rich criminals speak Texan?
23	** There is no Texas in Runeterra. Therefore, he doesn't have a Texan accent within his universe. So!...it doesn't really matter. At least he doesn't sound like [[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Commander]] [[YMMV/DawnOfWar Boreale]]. Then, I'd complain about his accent.
24	** You'd probably not wanna think too hard about it - how does Caitlyn have a british accent yet Ezreal doesn't?
25	** He was born in the [[VideoGame/StarCraft Terran Confederacy]].
26	** Because his character design is a combination of Gypsy card sharks and Ol' West gamblers like Doc Holliday and Wild Bill Hickok.
27	*** Perhaps unintentional on the developers' part but studies in the Las Vegas area show card dealers with a Southern accent have the most appeal to tourists. The most common reason has been chalked up to the accent being rare around Las Vegas, [[FridgeBrilliance which gives the image of the dealer being foreign much like the tourist]].
28	* Another TF one - I'm sure that I read somewhere that magic-users who were given powers later in life instead of being born with them, like Janna, had pointed ears. But TF fits this description and has normal ears.
29	** It's not universal. Besides, TF would look like a moron with elf-ears and Riot wouldn't want that.
30	** {{Handwave}}: [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman His powers are based on magic cards, not innate mystic ability]].
31	** He also received his powers via a type of experiment, while the more non-human magical looking champions like Janna and Ryze developed their powers over their own will or magical exposure.
32	** His post-retcon lore makes the handwave explicit; the magic is in the cards, learned when TF was a boy.
33	* How come Vlad's normal skin depicts his hair as reddish, yet his ingame model shows his hair as white? I'd assume probably the glow of his blood makes it look reddish...
34	** That would be correct. If you look close enough, you can see the silveryness of his hair showing up. It's just reflecting the blood.
35	* How come Sion and Fiddle's death sound so...calm. Well at least Sion dies calmly and Fiddles doesn't exactly explode into a pile of malevolent rune energies and straw. And for the record, Draven should have an even more dramatic death involving a blade impalement.
36	** Sion is already dead. And if Urgot's selection quote ("Eternal life, endless torment") is any indication, those who undergo the process Sion and Urgot went through exist in pain, so death might be a release of sorts. For Draven, his death is supposed to be a shoutout to either [[VideoGame/MetalGear Liquid Ocelot]] or [[Anime/CowboyBebop Cowboy Bebop]]'s death ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oujWuLFx7Ug video comparison]]), and having it be more 'dramatic' would null the shoutout.
37	** Well at least they rectified Eternum Nocturne's fear of death. His current death sound is much more calm.
38	** Ahri's death sounds to those who don't know her lore or understand her character can be a huge head scratcher to people who have met her for the first time.
39	!!Fanbase
40	* How come whenever I use the Tibbers-Incinerate-Ignite-Disintegrate combo, people are ''surprised'' when I do it? annie's been in this game for awhile.
41	** Newbies. There's a lot of them. Learning 70+ champions and their quirks is going to be hard enough especially when you don't own him/her, not to mention their opponents may be just as new... they maybe playing against someone who don't know the above combo, and you're basically throwing them for a loop.
42	*** To be fair, that combo is pretty much her bread and butter and it relies heavily on her passive stun. So once you start the combo, you're going to finish it. Swearing will ensue immediately after.
43	** More importantly, not only is Annie a burst mage but she is one of the strongest in the game, especially late game. Leading the aforementioned combination with the active of the Deathfire Grasp makes Annie capable of destroying just about anything in seconds. Couple all that power with her passive ability to stun a champion and new or inexperienced players might react with shock.
44	* How come people are complaining about having waited forever for Leona when she was delayed, and that it was so unfair that people wait to make sure she wasn't like [[ObviousBeta Yorick the Gravedigger]]? Sides...we've waited longer for champions: Lee Sin The Blind Monk was intended to be ''in the beta'', and the Monkey King is for all intents and purposes canceled. (He was announced ''before Yorick, Leona, and Skarner''. The latter is in development, and the other two have been released.
45	** The Monkey King was never supposed to be released soon after his preview, so it's not a surprise that he hasn't been released yet... until now.
46	** Considering Leona, I was more pissed off about the fact the day she was originally released the servers were shut down for nearly 10 hours. I figured the reason was she was so bugged and broken that they took the servers down until they could iron all her bugs out.
47	* I know that this [[OlderThanTheyThink certainly didn't come from THIS game]], but what on earth is it about MOBA games and their ability to bring out the absolute ''worst'' in people?
48	** I don't even think this problem comes from MOBA games at all. All the bad aspects existed before, but were allowed to magnify by video games' competitive spirit and the Internet's ability to spew it everywhere.
49	*** But for some reason, it's ''especially'' bad in MOBA games, especially ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'', ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'', and this game.
50	** Losing is not fun in a MOBA. Any other multiplayer online game a round is 20 minutes at max, plenty of time to dust off and try to get another win if you lose your current game. A MOBA usually takes 45 minutes minimum. Like Tycho of ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' said, the fact that you have to spend fifteen minutes farming stretches out the length and emotional investment of a multiplayer game far longer than it should, which makes losing worse, which in turn makes the community more resentful and angry. It essentially means that at any given time, half of the player base feels like they just wasted an hour of their life. That brings out the worst in people for obvious reasons, to a higher degree than any other genre.
51	*** Even worse, when you're having a bad time in most other games, like an FPS for example, you can just drop out with no real consequences. Hell, most FPS games will even auto-balance teams if a lot of players from the losing team startv ragequitting. In [=LoL=] and other [=MOBAs=] when your team is wasting your time you're ''stuck with them'' since leaving is ''penalised'' (since the impact of a single player leaving in a 5v5 contest with no substitutions or balances possible that it pretty much immediately decides the game, so Riot ''have'' to penalise it harshly). So basically, the perception is that you're being ''forced'' to spend time on an activity which is no longer fun thanks to the ineptitude of your teammates. It's no surprise this can make people a bit testy.
52	** When there's a bad player in most games, the worst they can do is not help their team mates or increase their opponents score, making them more likely to lose. In MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena, when someone does badly, they're actively increasing the strength of their opponents, making every competitive aspect outright harder for their team mates. Not only does this make them frustrated, but, the resulting drop in the entire team scores makes everyone assume it must be someone else's fault.
53	*** The last two points would imply people behaved better in Dominion. This doesn't seem to be the case; [[ForumSpeak G.I.F.T]] still applies.
54	*** That's a given, especially if you consider that no matter where you are, no matter which game are you playing, the {{Stop Having Fun Guys}} control most, if not all, of the metagame with their beliefs.
55	*** Which is why you should ''never'' play ranked or ''any'' games that are "pro" environment like [=DotA=] or VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth - If you're having fun, ''you WILL be chased out'' and kicked from games, blacklisted, trash-talked, etc. StopHavingFunGuys cannot be removed - they can only be quarantined by "pro" environments that stroke their egos.
56	*** Although for some reason, I have actually noticed that since around January, people started to behave better in Dominion. I don't know if it's because it's more fast-paced (and therefore people have less time to type insulting comments in /all ) or if all the StopHavingFunGuys are busy playing ranked or have moved onto ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}. If it keeps the StopHavingFunGuys out...Go right ahead. Seriously - I don't care if you consider your game the best. Games are all about having fun, and you guys take all the fun out of these games.
57	*** They're still around, even in normal unranked games. It's only a few from my experience, but a few is ''far'' more than enough.
58	*** I recently started playing, and I haven't found any jerkass players yet. Hell, most of the ones I met help teach me how to play, and I did pretty good cause of them. Guess I'm just lucky
59	*** You are, lucky that is. Please find someone knowledgeable to help/train you a bit before you attempt ranked games. You'll thank me, trust me on this...
60	*** This is kind of an unfair calling for VideoGame/{{Dota 2}} and this is coming from someone who ''loves'' both DOTA and League. Basically is, due to it being a free to play game, even little kids that hasn't developed the mental fortitude to keep their cool will be a LOT more abundant in these kinds of games. It doesn't matter if it's ranked or normal, if it's DOTA or League, they WILL think they're the best player ever, they demand honor/commend when finishing the game well, or start flaming when things don't go their way, not realizing that games like this are supposed to be a fun experience. Not everyone who play this game are demanded to become professional champions, they were too intoxicated with the thought of losing is just showing how bad they are rather than experience for them to get better. DOTA is thought to be a lot more punishing than League and it is true, but in fact, here and now, there are ALWAYS people who are casual in DOTA, makes playing and learning there just as fun as it is in League. And vice versa, as stated, there's even League players that are just extremely toxic and pissy it makes DOTA fandom look like angels. You can throw the same thing to VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth... or even VideoGame/{{Smite}}, but one truth remains: It's the stigma of MOBA games, especially free to play ones that you will find these kind of brats if you play online, so you need to be prepared mentally for this. You can also find yourself some IRL friends that share interest so you can form a team and won't have to deal with these guys anymore, in fact, usually college dudes or working people who like playing these games certainly came off more affable and less toxic because of their developed mentalities. Bottom line: Toxic guys, StopHavingFunGuys and pissy guys are the bread and butter of online games. You need to deal with them daily.
61	* Perhaps one of the worst aspects of the game is when a player KS's (kill steals) another player. Depending on how the person who nearly got the kill is, s/he may not care at all or care that they went from getting a kill to only an assist. This gives birth to numerous issues if the KS'd player is not okay with having their kill taken. Taking kills can be intentional but can also be unintentional, as many a support likely discovered early in their time with League.
62	** Do note that there are strategic reasons a person should consider when thinking about taking or leaving a kill.
63	*** If someone is underfed and you are not then it might be wise to let them take the kill. Should their score resemble 1/4/2 at 15 minutes in then it might be best to let them get the kill so he can win his lane easier and not be a weak link for the team.
64	*** A fed jungler is a risky investment. Doing so deprives lanes of their max gold immediately but the jungler may gank again and net said lane a kill or two later on, making it more than worthwhile. Strong junglers can quickly turn a match since they roam the map and assist the entire team.
65	*** As a rule, supports should rarely get kills and allow other teammates to grow stronger from getting fed. And if your carry lacks the health or gumption to tower dive to hit a Leona under it with 5 health and you have 75% of your health or more, get that auto-attack in. Assist gold for your carry is better than no gold. Just be mindful of your surroundings...
66	*** Carries should only greed a kill if they are underfed or 200ish gold short of an important item. While carries do require kill gold to maintain a strong presence throughout the game, 4 strong teammates are better than 1 really strong teammate and 3 not so strong teammates.
67
68	!!Misc
69	* How is it possible that Caitlyn's hat NEVER left her head? Even some hat-user like Miss Fortune had her hat fell off when she died, but Caitlyn? Her hat sticks in her head even as she fell down and die. How??
70	** [[AWizardDidIt The power of science.]]
71	* Why are Ahri's eyes blue in A New Dawn? They're yellow. They've always been yellow. I can't find a single piece of official artwork, and only a very small handful of unofficial pieces, where her eyes ''aren't'' yellow. So why did they turn blue for the cinematic? Is it really that hard to glance at the splash art of one of your most popular and beloved characters before you start making a 3D model of her?
72	** I was actually excited to see that her eyes had turned blue. Give Ahri's backstory/lore a read: she's a gumiho ''trying to become more human/moral.'' The legend of the gumiho states that if the (naturally pretty ChaoticNeutral) gumiho can go 1000 days without eating a human, it will turn into a pure-hearted creature (or even become human itself). This December 11th, 2014 will mark Ahri's 3-year anniversary of joining the league. 3 years = 1095 days. It's hounestly FridgeBrilliance when you realize that Riot ''acknowledged'' this passage of time in A New Dawn. TL;DR her eyes were yellow when she joined the league, now they're blue, to show that she's become a good person (or is very close to being one).
73	* Hey, I've been thinking about starting LOL. Will there be any *ContinuityLockout? Just wondering.
74	** I would say no. At this point a Champion is just a cipher to represent you on the battlefield, with some personality flavor to make it more interesting. If you take an interest in him or her and want to learn more, the information is there. The real barrier to League is learning the game mechanics, builds, and how to shrug off the occasionally-toxic community.
75	** There's also the fact that League's lore is currently going under some ''major'' overhauls, so no issue with being behind in lore.
76	* So after watching [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGCictw_TgM this vid]], I got wondering. Why ''hasn't'' Riot taken a shot at making a spinoff game? League's big enough to be called the video game super bowl so there should be an audience to sell to. I get that MOBA is a very different style from other games, but there's always the option to collab with other developers (like when Nintendo and Koei made ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors''). I'm just curious is all.
77	** Riot has been working on other games for years, but they put their bar EXTREMELY high.
78	*** It isn't exactly what you would think of when you hear "spinoff game", but [[http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/featured/mechs-vs-minions Mechs Vs. Minions]] (a tabletop board game based on a team of Yordles fighting off basic lane creeps) is coming out in October 2016. Maybe Riot does have plans for spinoffs of League characters and ideas, just in a different form.

Context Headscratchers / LeagueOfLegends