A Challenger Player's Guide to the League of Legends Room

By inactive and Jakee. Released: 2020/03/25.

Introduction

If you're the type of person that enjoys a strategic multiplayer game that's about killing, taking objectives, and outplaying your opponents with a wide and diverse pool of characters, then League of Legends room on Pokémon Showdown! is most definitely for you. Today I'm here to take you on a journey through the room and get you acquainted with some of the concepts and lingo you need to know in order to hop into chat and start discussing our own favorite MOBA, League of Legends. The League of Legends room is a great way to make some friends both playing and discussing the game. While Pokémon may have a tight grasp on all of our hearts, it's always fun to learn a new game and experience different things.

History

Created back in early 2014 under the name MOBA, it was the central hub for users wishing to rant about any game under the genre (such as Dota, Smite, and of course, League). Recently, the room dropped all the other MOBAs and rebranded to focus more solely on the most popular game discussed in the room, letting the room be more specific in scope and cater more towards that specific audience. This means that discussions will be focused on the League of Legends metagame, as well as the inclusion of the newly added Teamfight Tactics game mode, recently implemented by Riot!

The Room's Purpose

Now the obvious answer here would be that the League of Legends room talks about League of Legends!! While that may be the truth, the room offers so much more than that. League is recognized as a very competitive game, and PS! is a community based around the nature of competition. The room offers a community of individuals who all adore this style of gaming, want to share that passion with others, and can offer advice to help teach those less knowledgeable to become better players. The room is also filled with a lot of user banter and a lax style of looking at the gaming world, so if this interests you, you're also in luck.

Getting Involved

I know getting involved can be much easier said than done; jumping into the chat of a room you're not necessarily familiar with is something that most people find very intimidating. Luckily for us, the League of Legends room has plenty of opportunities to just hop into the discussion, regardless of how much you might know/not know about the game. Just think about it, you might just find another user who shares your passion for the game, which could lead to finding a cool new friend and someone new to game with. If you're brand new to the game, don't be afraid to ask the room for help understanding certain concepts or even to play a couple of games with you to allow you to get the feel! The room itself usually has players ranging from all different skill levels in League, from Iron to Challenger, so finding someone who has an ample amount of experience to help you out should be no problem! The room usually averages out at about 40 online users, which sets the pace of the room to be much slower and more welcoming to new users. Use this to your advantage whenever you can! Many of the users are very welcoming and more than happy to answer any of the questions you might have about the current topic or about the room itself.

Discord

When playing League of Legends, it's critical to have good communication between all members of the team. While PS! is great for having discussions about the games we all love to play, it does not help much in this category. PS Moba, the room's official Discord server, features unique text channels to continue to discuss these popular games as well as quite a few voice channels that users can access while in-game. These channels are all very lax, and users are encouraged to talk about the metagame and post their own replays. The Discord server is a great resource for getting to know a little bit more about the individual games played while also getting to know other users who frequent the room.

Terminology

One of the biggest barriers that stops players from getting involved in the League of Legends room would be the lack of knowledge of the specific lingo the room uses to talk about the game! No fear, however, because I'm going to simplify a few of the terms that the room uses on a frequent basis:

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA): A game where you play alongside other real players against a team of other players (in battle) to accomplish an objective.
LoL: League of Legends, sometimes also called League for short.
Objectives: These are almost self-explanatory! An objective would be a thing in the game your team wants to take from the other team! Great examples of this would be: Enemy towers, Baron, Drakes, Inhibitors, etc.
KDA: This stands for Kills/Deaths/Assists, and it usually is referring to the ratio of how many kills you had compared to deaths and assists.
Nerf/Buff: Game developers taking away some strength behind a character (nerf) or giving a character some strength (buff). (Example: Making an ability scale less/more with damage). A lot of times in the Pokémon community when a certain Pokémon gets too overpowered, we head for a suspect test, which could lead to a ban. However, in the League world, characters are fair game to use if you own them. In order to balance them out, the developers either nerf (weaken) or buff (power-up) a character to allow them to better fit into the metagame.
Griefing: Purposefully giving the enemy team kills, not fighting with your team, and throwing the game on purpose. In other words, trolling. No one likes to play with someone who doesn't play to win.

While I may have only given you a couple of new terms to add to your memory, it's surprising how much more you can contribute to the chat having known what these are.

Meet the Room Owners!

Why did you get involved in MOBA? When?

I got involved more or less around early 2014, right after the room went public. As for why, it was purely out of curiosity at first—"man, what the heck is a MOBA?" I asked myself before venturing into uncharted territory. Little did I know I was Dante, venturing into the dark forest known as MOBAs. I got into League of Legends and have enjoyed the game ever since. Memorable victories, frustrating losses, teammates that cast doubt on the theory of evolution, and realizing that sometimes you're the one who plays like a baboon. It is genuinely one of the games that has managed to draw out more emotional responses from me over a period of 5-6 years than any other game. What really made the game enjoyable for me was the community, though. Yes, we are a bunch of whiny jackasses in forums at times (more often than I wish), but ultimately the memes and the spirit of the community are what kept the game always enjoyable for me. MOBA is what makes League really enjoyable for me to date. Get your ass kicked or win a really close game and hit up your lads in MOBA, recounting your misadventures, discussing why Riot's balancing team needs to be fired (every single patch), advice on how to get better (or not), how much you fed with other users in a pre-made. Overall I simply just loved interacting with the room's users on a topic I could truly relate.

What has changed most about the room since its creation in 2014?

Nothing much really, mostly how active I am since I can't play as much.

What's your favorite part of the room?

Esports. Watching Esport events with MOBA is always awesome. The hype, the memes, the high moments. Sharing a good time with internet buddies feels good man. The World Championship and The International are when the room becomes a miniature Twitch chat (still subject to actual moderation, though, can't have you rascals use this as a pretext to spam) reaches peak hype. It really makes the whole watching experience 10x better.

What's your favorite MOBA? Favorite character?

League of Legends, as previously stated. My favorite character is Vladimir, the Hemomancer. Dude's a blood-bending mage who deals a truckload of damage and heals just as much as well. I tend to like playing in carry roles (damage oriented), and I like the character's theme (who doesn't like a little blood bending after all).

If you had to change one thing about the MOBA room, what would you change?

I wish I had enough time to organize more in-house games.

What's the best piece of advice you would give to a new user who wants to join the room?

As long as you respect the rules and you aren't an absolute jackass, everyone is welcome! People who want to pick up their first MOBA, veterans who have experienced enough internet to become Doomers; anyone is welcome! We'd love to get to know you and discuss our favorite games!

Anything you want to say to the people reading this?

Remember to stay hydrated, lads. Shoutouts to the EU premade lads Minearm, Whoopert, Failsal, Aladyyn, and fellow Garena player Galois LerAlts. As for all of you reading this, remember that winning isn't always important (just 90% of the times...), remember to have fun too or any competitive game eventually starts feeling miserable.

Why did you get involved in MOBA? When?

I was around for when it was first created in February/March 2014. It used to be a private room (as almost all rooms are when they first start out, at least back then). I didn't actually play any MOBAs; I just knew the person who founded the room, and they urged me to get into League of Legends, so I started playing and haven't stopped yet.

What has changed most about the room since its creation in 2014?

I think the most noticeable change is the general interests of the room—that is, what games people tend to play and discuss. For example, when Overwatch was fresh, people would talk about it all the time. It's died off now, and we've given the Overwatch discussion space over to another room (I think Video Games?). The Dota 2 crowd has also been slowly shrinking, especially over the past year or two.

What's your favorite part of the room?

I would say the community, but that's a pretty cheap copout :^). I like the atmosphere of the room 99.9% of the time. There's a lot of banter, as you'd expect of people who play MOBAs, but it's generally friendly and pretty funny. You get good at coming up with creative ways to insult your friends.

What's your favorite MOBA? Favorite character?

I pretty much only play League of Legends right now (although I very occasionally play others). The champ I can play the best is probably Thresh.

If you had to change one thing about the MOBA room, what would you change?

I think one of the major areas the room could improve in is the type of content in general. There's a bit too much complaining about recent in-game matches and whatnot in the chat. That's part of the MOBA life, but it happens more than I'd like.

What's the best piece of advice you would give to a new user who wants to join the room?

Don't be afraid to ask questions about whichever game you're into! People here like helping new players and are usually even willing to play a couple of games with you.

Anything you want to say to the people reading this?

Gen 3 is unarguably the best.

Conclusion

You've made it! You now have a working knowledge of the room, and I wholeheartedly believe that you're ready to jump into discussions about some of these great games. With the laid-back flow of the chat and the friendly members of the staff, not to mention the users, I'm sure you will have no problem getting adjusted to all the awesome aspects of the room. Just remember, keep it light and have fun! That's what it's all about in the end, and it's the main mission for the room itself. As said by the Lady of Luminosity herself, "The superior tactic is to never give up." This definitely rings true here... unless you're playing Janna Top Lane, then surrender.

Please surrender.

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