First time with LeBlanc

LeBlanc was on sale, so I bought her. I'm always hesitant to buy a champ who has an ability that requires controlling more than one unit (Mordekaiser, Shaco), but I decided to try it.

So I did what I always do with a new champ: go play a game of Dominion. I know the mode well from over 300 games, and my win ratio is approaching 50% after coming to terms with its peculiarities. Also, I have figured out that Twitch really kicks ass in it.

At the start, I warned my teammates that I would be a bit on the noob side, as I was trying LeBlanc for the first time, and they said they didn't mind. During about the first 5-10 minutes, the complaints came out. "LeBlanc, do something!" "You're useless." So I just muted the losers, and continued playing.

I soon came to like her abilities, which allow some serious sneakiness and big AP damage. She can warp to a location nearby, dealing damage to everyone near, then start moving. If she re-triggers the ability soon after, she pops back to the original location. The ult just re-triggers the last-used ability, and adds damage to it. So you have some good flexibility. Need to double up on damage? Do the damage ball twice in a row. Need to pop somewhere again? Do the warp again.

Well, what do you know. We won, I had 2nd most points on my team, and capped 11 towers, while the person with the next most had 7. I also had the same kill/death score as the first guy to complain at me (4/7), while he came in last or second last in points on our team. Heh.

Jungling with Warwick

Warwick was on free rotation this week, and he was served up to me in an ARAM game, and I didn't have a reroll available. I had never played him before, though I'd been mashed by his ult on many occasions.

I had a good time, and we won. So I went and tried him out in a Dominion game. Did very well. Enough for an opponent to say I was playing "a noob champion". So if Warwick is a noob champion, and I was beating that guy, what does that make him? Heh.

Anyway, after those two games I forked the 450 IP for the champ.

Just now, I was forced to play Jungle in a ranked Summoner's Rift 5v5 game. Jungle is my weakest role, so I was worried about it. I thought I'd try Warwick since I'd had such good luck with him in those previous games.

I didn't go with the later recommended build items, heading for stacked Bloodthirsters for massive life steal.

I got in several ganks, and was always able to pop into a fight and use the ult to suppress one enemy. We won all or most of the team fights, and I like to think it was partially because I was helping!

So I can thank ARAM for a champ I would probably never have gotten.

The story of my name change

I just changed my summoner name. It was on sale for 650, and I wasn't happy with my old one.

Way back in the day, I played DotA RoC 1.6. My favorite character was one of the early carries, Lina Inverse. At the time, she threw flaming rocks at her opponents, and had very high attack speed. With the sound of it, this character had a great feeling to play. Plus her nuke (ults are called nukes in DotA) dealt a lot of damage at decent range.

So when I chose my summoner name in LoL, I chose "Ms Lina Inverse". This was to mark myself as someone who likes playing carries, and had been playing this style of game for a long time.

Then, I found this:



Lina is the main character in an anime show called "Slayers"; this is where the DotA character got her name. So I watched the first two episodes to see if I would mind being named after her. I did mind. She's got the right kind of attitude, but the show is just (in my opinion) too dumb for me to be named after its main character.

Right about then, Riot announced that they would clean up some old unused names and put summoner names on sale for a week after the 3.7 patch. So I spent some time trying to come up with a new name. Their name cleaning script messed up, so they prolonged the sale beyond the 3.8 patch. So I spent some more time working on names.

Here's the list I came up with:


Blue Ice Dragon
Mizuki Takahama
Justice Almo
Justicar Almo
Master Almo
Sneak Master
Norjia Greystone
Slate Monster
Slate Golem
Type 2 Supernova
Norjia Mistvale
NorjiaWinterwind
Reginald the Sly (Sir Reginald was taken!)
Arctic Sapphire
Mystic Opal
Angela Blaze
Eiko Magami
Frozen Sapphire
Krystal Blue
Angela Starr
Damij Master
Damij Tsunami
Deep Indigo
Azure Hamster
Dean Corso
Alonzo Mosley
Jack Walsh
Grt Stone Dragon

I'm usually "Almo" in games, but with millions of people playing, that was already taken. I didn't want to take my usual adjustment to Almo by adding a number, so I tried to come up with something new.

Some explanations for the names:

"Justice Almo" and "Justicar Almo": I'm ranked in the top 400 Justices in the Tribunal, the League's player-based toxic-player punishment system.

A Type 2 Supernova is one of the most powerful events in the known universe. I studied physics in college, and always liked stellar mechanics.

The "Norjia"s are variations on my original Diablo II Ice Bowazon's name. Norjia Blacksteel is my EVE-Online name.

"Sir Reginald the Sly" was my Thief in Wizard's Crown on the C64.

"Eiko Magami" is the main character in Project A-ko, an anime movie I did like.

"Dean Corso" was the main character in one of my favorite movies, The Ninth Gate.
"Alonzo Mosley" and "Jack Walsh" are characters from another favorite film, Midnight Run.
"Grt Stone Dragon" refers to Eddie Murphy's great line in Mulan: "Uh... did I mention I was the Great Stone Dragon?"

You'll also see references to blue and ice, because my favorite color is blue, and I like cold weather.

Still unable to choose, I asked my wife which she liked. She picked the "Damij" ones, and "Azure Hamster". So my name is now Azure Hamster. :)