The upcoming MMO shooter The Division relies on viral marketing – quite literally.
You innocently click on an email from Ubisoft, are asked to scan a banknote or enter identification details, and are presented with a virtual analysis: Where does the bill come from? How old is it? What distance has it traveled? What traces of marijuana and cocaine does it contain? What bacteria are on it, and how can they ruin the viewer’s health?
If you thought: That’s clever of Ubisoft, they want us to give them all our money – you are only partially right. The joke is: In The Division, the virus that causes all the trouble at launch spreads through the banknotes and what is on them.
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In the MMO shooter Destiny we are showing you for the first time in 2016 our videos of the week.
Bungie is taking a break. Normally, every Thursday a handful of videos from the community submissions are selected. We will have to do without that for the next few weeks. DeeJ has decided to become a lumberjack in Canada with his mighty beard. Well, that was nonsense. The community team is simply taking a break until the end of January. So we have to look for ourselves.
The video of the week comes, unbiased as we are, from our good friend Nexxoss Gaming. He showcases his sniper skills in this montage, proving that he doesn’t just talk about Destiny, he actually plays it.
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Yep, that’s it for this week. With all the New Year’s stuff, there were probably other things to blow up. For the next few weeks we need your help: If you have videos that we should feature here, send them to us through the contact form.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Who is to blame for the MMORPG The Repopulation not being able to continue development? The developers of the underlying Hero Engine and Above and Beyond Technologies are in dispute.
At the end of last year, the alpha servers of the promising sandbox MMORPG The Repopulation had to be shut down. It was said that there were financial problems with the developer of the underlying Hero Engine and that the engine could not be further developed, which also made the completion of the MMO impossible. After all, the Hero Engine also forms the backbone of the game.
An employee at Idea Fabrik, the team that programmed the Hero Engine, has now revealed that a company is to blame for stopping the royalty payments for the engine about two months ago. Therefore, the game’s servers had to be closed.
A complicated situation
The community immediately suspected that it was Above and Beyond Technologies, as the clues such as the timing and the server shutdown matched the situation with The Repopulation. However, Above and Beyond Technologies stated that the situation is much more complicated. A financing proposal was made, through which Above and Beyond Technologies was supposed to pay Idea Fabrik’s bills for the next five months. However, this proposal came from a person who had also withdrawn funding for the Hero Engine.
Above and Beyond Technologies felt pressured, as they would also have had to commit to remaining loyal to Idea Fabrik for two years. They rejected this proposal because they would not have received any guarantee of further support or servers after those two years. Additionally, they would have still had to continue paying the royalties during the five months. They are not pleased with the accusations and state clearly that they will likely only be able to settle this in court.
Above and Beyond Technologies even believes that Idea Fabrik owes them money, which they probably will never see. Idea Fabrik simply stopped the service, which caused significant damage to Above and Beyond Technologies. They do not owe the developers of the Hero Engine anything and are very surprised by how the situation is being handled now.
The situation seems to be getting more complicated, which of course affects the further development of the MMORPG The Repopulation. Whether an agreement can be reached is currently uncertain. It may be that The Repopulation will have no choice but to switch to a different engine.
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The upgrade of the legendary ring from World of Warcraft is now easier. Soon the Alpha of Legion will return…
Upgrades for Valor
With the last patch, the Valor Points in World of Warcraft have been reintroduced, allowing item upgrades. This enabled every player to improve their gear by up to 10 item levels. However, a single item could not be upgraded until now: the legendary ring. To upgrade this, players had to repeatedly defeat Archimonde, as he was the only one who dropped “Crystallized Fel Energy,” which can be used to upgrade the legendary ring by 3 item levels – up to 20 times.
To speed up the process a bit and give players a new source for their Valor Points, Crystallized Fel Energy can now be purchased in the Tanaan Jungle. In your faction’s camp, you just have to visit Dämmerungssucher Krisek and trade him 1250 Valor Points each. Alternatively, you can also head to Talador and visit Zooti Zappenduster in front of Khadgar’s tower; he also has the crystals available.
If you want to bring your legendary ring to maximum level 795 only through Valor Points, you must spend a proud 25,000 Valor Points – although these can be farmed, at least in theory, without too much trouble and without a fixed raid group.
When does the Alpha of Legion continue?
The next version of Legion is supposed to bring new content – perhaps finally all class specializations?
But there is also news from the Alpha version of the next expansion. It seems that the holiday season at Blizzard is now over, and many developers have returned to their workplaces. Although there is still no new date for the resumption of the Alpha, they aim to start directly with a new version that promises fresh content.
We will keep you updated and report as soon as there are reliable statements.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The military MMO World of Tanks continues with beta tests on the Playstation 4.
WoT is coming to PS4. The first test took place in early December, and the second beta test is coming this weekend.
From January 8 to January 10, the second open beta weekend will begin on the Playstation 4. You can step into some of the most famous tanks in history, such as those from the United States, Soviet tanks, or German ones.
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As with the first beta weekend, there are two exclusive rewards for logging in: a T1E6-PS and a chromed Locust-PS. The latter is designed to resemble the original Playstation in its paint job.
John Smedley has now taken to Twitter to give his blessing to the emulator folks. “Now that I’m no longer with Sony, I can say it: I have always respected the people who do this!“
Truth is I’ve always respected the hell out of the people that work on the emulator stuff. Good for them.
If he could have, he would have gladly given the source code for games to the people, as long as he was sure it was in good hands.
However, Smedley is not a fan of people charging money for their emulators. That opens up a huge can of licensing problems, as most developers were working with third-party tools. But fundamentally, anyone who brings a game to life with so much passion and “backwards engineering” deserves respect.
Anyone that has that kind of passion and backwards engineers a server is someone I respect highly.
But things are happening behind the scenes: As the community manager hinted, they are still on track to bring Patch 2.5 live at the end of January. This is the version that Korea is currently playing. However, one never quite knows how this will impact the West: Sometimes here in the West, major content patches are divided into subgroups. But there will definitely be new content coming at the end of January.
Surely, ArcheAge will introduce how exactly Patch 2.5 will affect things in the coming weeks. On January 8, Trion Worlds intends to go into more detail during a live stream. In Korea, Patch 2.5 brought among other things new houses (the tree houses) and dungeons. Here is the Korean trailer from the summer:
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By the way, one won’t fully catch up with Korea. Because there, the next Patch 2.9 will be released sometime in January. It will take care of the castles, bring new buildings, mounts, a new region, and more.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Which payment model will the shooter MMO Escape from Tarkov use? It has now been confirmed that it will be a Buy2Play title and that the game can be pre-ordered now.
Escape from Tarkov is becoming increasingly interesting. The action-packed shooter battles, combined with a highly interactive game world and plenty of RPG elements such as many skills that can improve your character, exert a great attraction. The now announced payment model also makes it enticing to dive into the adventures, as Escape from Tarkov will use a Buy2Play model.
This means you buy the game for a one-time price and don’t have to pay any subscription fees or fear any clowns ruining the atmosphere of the game if it were free to play.
Pre-order with bonuses
From now on, the game can also be pre-ordered through the official website. Several packages with different contents are available for selection. The prices for these range between 45 and 140 US dollars. Depending on the extent of the packages, they may include bonus items, safer or larger storage spaces, or you may be well-positioned with all traders in the game, allowing them to offer you better prices and more items.
New information in the FAQ
On the official website of the MMO, an FAQ can now be found, where interesting facts about the game can be read. The Steam launch is supposed to happen only shortly after the launch on the developers’ own platform. The alpha is still planned for the first quarter of 2016 and will not take place over Steam.
Additionally, the game is also supposed to be regularly released in stores, a Collector’s Edition is even planned. Those who wish to participate in the alpha and beta must expect regular wipes. However, those who pre-order and consider purchasing a larger storage space can expand their storage later in the game by meeting certain requirements.
The shooter MMO Escape from Tarkov is set to be released this year.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Activision Blizzard bought the struggling esports organization MLG primarily for the streaming opportunities it offers. And it was also cheap.
Analysts from various firms paint a clear picture to the business magazine Fortune: The MLG had overextended itself. A stadium was to be built in China, and then there was ESL, another competitor on their heels. Even though esports is a booming sector, MLG has likely found itself in financial trouble in recent months and was looking for a buyer. They had trouble capitalizing on their own success financially.
Analysts believe that the league has become unfocused. The loss of Call of Duty to ESL and the departure of one of its key figures were seen as contributing factors.
After negotiations with Yahoo ended fruitlessly in October, Activision Blizzard struck.
The loss of Call of Duty to ESL hit MLG hard
Activision Blizzard wants to leverage streaming opportunities and broadcasting experience
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture what Activision Blizzard plans to do with MLG.
Now that the deal is done, the heads of Activision are using flattering words. CEO Bobby Kotick speaks of MLG being able to produce “premium content” and having proven technology for broadcasting their shows – this includes live-streaming capabilities. All of this strengthens Activision’s strategic position.
According to Kotick, the plan is to establish the “ESPN” of esports. The acquisition of MLG helps with that. ESPN is the major U.S. sports network. Like Sport1 multiplied by a factor of 100. Activision believes, and supports itself with analysts, that the esports audience will grow to 300 million people by 2017. They clearly want to be a part of that.
The esports team of MLG will be taken over by Activision Blizzard. The CEO Sundance DiGiovanni will also be on board. Initially, there were reports that he would be completely out, but he is just switching to the new boss.
According to DiGiovanni, esports is currently at a turning point, the popularity of esports is rising and competing with many traditional sports. This acquisition will provide new opportunities for “competitive play” and help recognize players who achieve extraordinary feats.
They had already acquired the co-founder of MLG… now they got the rest
MLG is now supposed to continue as planned following the acquisition, working with partners and other publishers. As stated to the U.S. site Gamespot, Activision Blizzard did not step in to interfere with MLG’s existing activities, but rather wants to add things. It will largely continue as it has been – just better. This statement comes from Mike Sespo, a co-founder of MLG. Blizzard had already brought him on board a few months ago to lead the new, own esports division.
Now they have also snatched up the rest of MLG.
Somewhat concerning: Sepso’s partner in leading the esports division is Steve Bornstein. He actually used to run ESPN… the sports network they now want to emulate.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Blizzard’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm is easy to learn, but hard to master. We have 10 special tips, some of which you probably don’t know!
The Decisive Advantage
Blizzard has always emphasized the principle of “easy to learn and hard to master,” and this is clearly evident in Heroes of the Storm. While the benefits of many abilities may seem obvious at first glance, there are moments where a little more knowledge can give you the decisive advantage. The user gunleg has compiled some tricks on Reddit that we have translated into English for you.
Lunara – the Jump over the Trickster
Lunara is the newest character from Heroes of the Storm and is currently underestimated by many players. Her agility is fantastic, especially at level 20 when you can also apply her heroic ability “Spear Leap” to allies. How useful it is to be able to create your own ally! If the Trickster is placed against a wall, Lunara can jump over it with the Spear Leap and escape from tight situations – or surprise enemies.
Anub’arak – the Net of Theft
The Tomb Lord Anub’arak can not only incapacitate enemy players for 8 seconds with his cocoon, he can also perform some pretty nasty tricks with it. Anyone inside a cocoon is essentially “out of the game” and cannot capture control points – like at a boss or a mercenary camp. This is perfect for taking away a camp from enemies and then disappearing. A rather sneaky cockroach!
Zagara – The Swarm Catapults
Players of Zagara often dismiss the talent “Infect” because its effect is often minimal in the early stages of the game. However, once catapults are in play, this changes dramatically! If you manage to infect two catapults simultaneously and let them fire at the enemy core, each shot takes away about 10% of the core’s maximum HP. Just keep in mind that 2 catapults now have the effect of 10 catapults, as their damage is increased by 400%. Many opponents won’t have time to use a Hearthstone.
Sylvanas – the Quiver of Infinite Arrows
The specialist Sylvanas is excellent for tearing apart enemy fortifications. However, with a certain combination of talents, she can also achieve spontaneous damage output that makes even Nova or Kael’thas look outdated. Full quiver, Instable Poison, Death’s Breath, and Storm’s Wrath ensure that an enemy surrounded by their own minions simply explodes. Give it a try and let the Banshee Queen become the stealthy assassin!
Read on the next page for the second part – including tips for Abathur and Tychus!
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The first VR MMO is coming this year! What does “Wizard Online” have in store for fans of the new technology?
Weaving spells with hands
Basically, it was only a matter of time before the technology of virtual reality would also be used on a larger scale for gaming projects. 2016 marks the starting point for the first VR MMO, as Wizard Online is set to be released this year and will be available for users of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (Steam).
Waving hands in front of the screen to cast spells? That will be possible in Wizard Online.
On the official Facebook page of the game, screenshots have already been released. Users describe the atmosphere of the world as a mix of Harry Potter and World of Warcraft. But what really makes the game special are the possibilities of VR. Spells can truly be woven with hands, and a sword can be wielded. Mystical creatures like Satan and Baphomet will populate the game world and can be defeated by players to earn various mounts. Currently, everything looks quite minimalistic, but the images are also from an early version.
Although Wizard Online is primarily being developed for VR devices, it can also be played on PC and the two consoles Xbox One and PlayStation 4. There is no release date yet. However, a trailer is expected to be released in the coming days, which we will keep you updated on.
Wizard Online will use Unreal Engine 4 and support DirectX 12 – it would be the first game of this generation to hit the market, if it is released before Final Fantasy XV.
Mein-MMO says: At least in the screenshots, everything looks quite interesting; however, whether VR is suitable for an MMO remains to be seen. If it is a game with competitive components, the VR players will likely be at a significant disadvantage or will have to forgo VR for those content. The future will tell.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the MMO shooter Destiny a new week begins on Tuesday with a fresh Nightfall strike and a raid boss that calls for a challenge: Challenge Mode Oryx is active.
It was a stressful Monday evening: Especially since nothing stresses a gamer more than waiting idly and impatiently for something to work again. The PSN outage frustrated PlayStation players, ruining the entire Central European evening. For many players, little happened until the night. And then the Iron Banner ended already at 9:00 AM on Tuesday morning, an hour earlier than expected, and completely ruined the already bad mood for some.
Let’s see what the new week brings. Bungie is at least on vacation regarding communication until the end of January. Then they want to provide the community with information again via Weekly Updates. Maybe they should consider that. Tweeting a bit at night doesn’t really help …
Weekly Nightfall Strike on January 5th is the Dust Palace
For this week’s Nightfall Strike it’s into the Dust Palace, an earlier PlayStation-exclusive strike.
Modifiers are:
Embrace of Void – Void damage is significantly increased
Berserk – Enemies do not flinch
Specialist – Damage from special weapons is favored
Juggler – No ammunition drops for the currently equipped weapon
Grounded – Guardians take more damage when in the air
Strange: Instead of the usual 4 modifiers and the always same difficulty indicator “Epic”, this time there are 5 modifiers and Epic …
This week’s raid challenge comes from Father Oryx
This week, the final boss of the raid, Oryx, is issuing a challenge. If you defeat him in a specific way, there will be bonus loot for everyone. You can read about how the challenge works and what reward awaits you in our article on the raid challenge Oryx.
The Challenge Mode awaits.
The T3 boss in Oryx’s Courtyard is Thalnok
In Tier 3 in Oryx’s Courtyard, Thalnok awaits players this week. He is the mini-Crota.
Are there guides, tricks, videos for this week’s challenges?
At this point, we will present you with videos from groups that have tackled the Nightfall, Challenge Mode Oryx, and the T3 Boss throughout the day.
But in Destiny, it was the last day of the Iron Banner, and on that day, the “Hardened” bonus is at its peak, giving significantly high bonus points. Many are waiting until Monday evening to hand in their raids and collect reputation. Due to the PSN outage, that was not possible.
Many players on reddit or via Twitter urged Bungie to extend the Iron Banner to give players the opportunity to make up for the lost day. Bungie had done something like this at Christmas 2014, when they kept Xur in the Tower longer to account for the hacking attacks that made it impossible for many to play over Christmas.
But this time, Bungie seemed deaf to the pleas or could not comply for technical reasons. As mentioned on Twitter by Bungie during the night, the Iron Banner would end on Tuesday at 9:00 AM – even one hour earlier than expected. The Trials of Osiris will end at 10:00 AM.
Correction to this previous Tweet. Trials of Osiris will still end at 1AM PST, but Iron Banner will end at 12AM PST. https://t.co/je9wnedmfs
Ironically: On Monday evening at 6:25 PM our time, it was still tweeted that both events would end at 10:00 AM with the reset. So, until a few hours earlier, there was no reason to suspect anything else. No one really understands why such an important message comes “only” through Twitter and not through an in-game warning.
Destiny players are upset about the development. There are some reports of Guardians who were just about to hand in their raids – at the last minute – and were then surprised by the “premature ending.” They are far from pleased with this development.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Hearthstone and World of Warcraft are inextricably linked. But which card motifs can really be found in Azeroth?
A Great, Strange Journey
From a pure story perspective, Blizzard’s card game takes place in the taverns of Azeroth, thus in World of Warcraft. Numerous NPCs across all continents play the game, and with certain toys, you can also highlight that you like to let the cards fly across the board. So much for Hearthstone in WoW.
Conversely, WoW in Hearthstone, the characters and spells from WoW serve as templates for the cards. The player Jeppz has undertaken the long and arduous journey to find the various WoW characters of the legendary cards.
Paletress – A boss at the Argent Tournament.
For this, he had to visit numerous locations and also cheat a little, as not all characters are still present in World of Warcraft. Nevertheless, he has managed to create a quite respectable collection that covers most NPCs. A small selection of his screenshots is presented here.
You can view the complete list of all screenshots on Jeppz’s imgur page.
More information about the game, such as the 10 most popular decks of 2015, can be found on our Hearthstone theme page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In several interviews, senior personnel from Black Desert Online faced numerous questions – they believe that Buy2Play will be beneficial for the game.
Confident in Sales
The Marketing Manager, Rick van Beem, is absolutely convinced of the Buy2Play model in the West. The decision for this step was not easy, but it seemed to be the best method. On one hand, because the Free2Play MMO market is currently very saturated, and on the other hand, because Black Desert is “of such high quality” that it can reasonably demand direct payment.
Ultimately, it helps the balance of the game – as one does not have to deal with any Pay2Win items from the real money shop. While they still want to have a real money shop, it will only focus on cosmetics and quality of life. An increase in character power is excluded.
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Another question focused on the “sexy” content that can be found in Black Desert – such as lingerie and underwear. Here they want to be cautious and “westernize” the game to avoid certain issues that western players have with certain provocations that are perfectly normal in the Korean market.
In the future, they would not be opposed to a console version and would be pleased to see Black Desert on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 someday – but currently, they are completely focused on the PC version.
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Also, Daniel Loehr, the Project Manager, once again addresses the topic of the Buy2Play model. In his opinion, this model has a “premium” feel in the West, and Free2Play has failed in many places. He mentions that there have been many recent failures in adapting Free2Play games (though he doesn’t name it, he probably means WildStar). Black Desert Online is different because it would provide content for several months at launch and satisfy the fans.
In the fantasy MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, the new year is welcomed with a flying turtle.
Mastermind Naoki Yoshida addresses the fans for the new year. 2015 was also an exciting year for him. He traveled extensively across the world, attending conventions on three continents to meet as many players as possible. The highlight was Heavensward. The release of the expansion reinforced Yoshida’s impression that they were on the right track 5 years after 1.0.
Depending on how one counts, Final Fantasy XIV turned two or five years old in 2015 – either way, it is now an adult MMORPG, right in the middle of its lifespan. For 2016, Yoshida hopes everyone remembers what it was like when they themselves were new, so that the community can progress together.
There might be long-term plans behind the flying turtle to make every mount in Final Fantasy XIV a flying mount. Later reports suggested they want to make the turtle from the Golden Saucer flyable with 3.2. However, nothing seems set in stone yet.
Final Fantasy XIV plans to bring FF XIII items to the Mog Station
Nothing concerning the New Year’s greeting relates to the news that Square Enix plans to bring the items that were available at the “Lightning Strikes” event into the cash shop. The event was associated with FF XIII. The items will come in sets with a weapon, a hairstyle and one of two different equipment sets. Players can choose a weapon for their job. However, there are no weapons for the 3 “new” Heavensward classes.
These are statements from the Japanese forum. A specific date and details will be announced later.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The PSN network is currently down. There seem to be unscheduled maintenance works happening.
The PSN is crucial for players to play online on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. And since many games today, such as The Elder Scrolls Online or Destiny , require an online connection, a system outage is extremely inconvenient.
On the afternoon of January 4th, it is happening again: The PSN has been experiencing issues since around 5:00 PM and is down. There has been no warning or comment from Sony regarding this action. The service page states: Everything is great. It seems to be a case of unscheduled maintenance.
For players of Destiny, this is particularly disruptive today: It is the last day of the Iron Banner and also of the Trials of Osiris. Many players typically want to complete the last matches for their rewards. Especially in the Iron Banner, it pays off due to the increasing bonus.
Players of The Elder Scrolls Online are also doubly affected by the outage: Just a few hours ago, the scheduled maintenance for the game on the PS4 was completed.
Update:Sony has now changed the status page of the PSN and acknowledged the issues. There is the phrase that technicians are working on resolving the problems. The news is also available on Twitter: Some users are having trouble accessing the PSN. We are aware of it. Thank you for your patience while we address this issue.
We’re aware that some users are having trouble accessing PSN. Thanks for your patience as we investigate. https://t.co/8hMUSl2cCe
After nearly two months in the open beta, Armored Warfare proudly reflects on 2015 and has a vision for 2016.
The developers of Armored Warfare, a military MMO, seem to be shining like a child with a honey cake at Christmas. After only 2 months in the open beta, they look at their game with as much pride as a parent would. They are particularly pleased about:
and how much the players appreciate the balancing at mid-tier in PvP – they have spent a lot of time on the balancing here and want to transfer that to other tier levels
Armored Warfare wants to apply and polish
The plans for 2016 can be summarized with a Karate Kid quote: apply and polish. They want to bring new features while constantly refining and perfecting the game. The goal is to continue to hone the game during the open beta phase to fully exploit its potential upon release.
In 2016, new maps, game modes, traders and thus vehicles are expected to come. They also want to refine balancing and matchmaking and work on all the mechanics so that they can be meaningfully improved.
Fans of Star Wars: Battlefront are hungry for new DLCs and fresh content. But when will there finally be news?
A Proper Announcement
Since the release of Star Wars: Battlefront on PC and consoles, some time has passed. While players fight through various ranks, unlock weapons, emotes, and different factions, the first free DLC “The Battle of Jakku” has also been released. However, there are still at least 4 more DLCs waiting for players, which could already be purchased in advance with the Season Pass.
The site wccftech.com now reports various dialogues from the official forum between a player and the developer Guillaume Mroz. He confirmed that there are currently some technical difficulties with the implementation of the offline multiplayer, the resolution of which will take some time. In addition, he mentioned that there will soon be fresh information about the next DLC – but he could not spoil anything in advance; an “official” announcement was planned.
In a second dialogue with the same user and support, some additional information became known. Internally, there is still no release schedule available. Fans will have to be patient for a while longer.
In addition to the 4 paid DLCs, which include 4 new heroes, 4 new game modes, and 20 maps, there are expected to be more free DLCs modeled after “The Battle of Jakku”. However, reliable statements on this are still missing.
We will keep you updated as soon as there is news. In the meantime, it might be worth checking out our other posts, such as the commercial success of the game or the critique of the gameplay depth – which has been confirmed by the developers.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
It’s that time again and the first NA LCS Split for Season 6 starts at League of Legends (LoL). We are introducing the teams to you!
On 16.01.2016 it’s finally here and the first matches of the NA LCS begin. This is the interesting league of LoL for many here. With only a few days to go before the start, the teams had to announce their official lineups now. With this information, we can take a closer look at the teams and cautiously assess how well they will perform in the Spring section of the NA LCS.
Team Solomid has worked hard on their lineup last year. The former Top Laner “Dyrus” has retired from professional play and passed his place to Hauntzer. “Santorin” gave his position in the Jungle to Svenskeren and “Lustboy” also ended his role as a supporter and professional player, making way for Yellowstar, who left his old team fNatic for TSM.
As the second “star” on the bot lane for TSM plays now “Doublelift”. The transition of Doublelift from CLG to TSM was one of the most criticized transfers in the past year, as the two teams are actually arch-rivals in League of Legends. The only player who remained at TSM from last season is Bjergsen. The team now has a lot of talent, but so far they are strong only individually – it remains to be seen if they can also function as a team.
With the addition of Rush, C9 now has a talented jungler in their team who fits well with the other players in terms of play style. Although he had a relatively limited pool of jungle champions he mastered before, that might have changed during the long break.
Seeing the gifted shotcaller “Hai” in the support position is also something new. Since BunnyFuFu is the substitute player, it’s conceivable that Hai plays the support role at the beginning of the split to teach BunnyFuFu the shotcalling that is so important to Cloud 9.
Due to the changes in various items in the game and the fact that tanks are currently predominantly played on the top lane, this LoL season fits well with the champion pool of top laner Balls. Cloud 9 has also assembled a promising team.
This team’s lineup strongly resembles TSM as there are also strong individual LoL players here. With Impact, GBM, and Altec, there is a lot of potential for the team to perform well this season.
Especially GBM, who was considered one of the best mid-laners in Korea last season, will likely have a significant influence on the game outcomes. The question remains how the jungler Moon will perform. He is not very experienced and must now play directly with players who have already proven themselves.
Immortals
Lineup:
Top: Huni, Jungle: Reignover, Mid: Pobelter, ADC: Wildturte, Support: Adrian
When the team Immortals was announced, one of the biggest hype waves that a new team in LoL has ever triggered broke out on Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. Almost all players had previously ranked very high with their former teams, except for Adrian.
Huni and Reignover have already proven in the past that their synergy works more than “well”. Huni was considered the absolute best top laner of the EU-West teams last season. However, he does not have nerves of steel, which can lead him to easily squander his potential when things are not going well.
The question is whether Pobelter has worked on his champion pool and moves from passive mages like Orianna or Lulu to more aggressive champions. Wildturtle also did not particularly shine last season and faced many problems he had to work on. If everything goes well, the team Immortals could be easily placed in the top 3 rankings at the end of the season.
Especially during the time between the last and the new season, there was a lot of drama surrounding Counter Logic Gaming. Additionally, CLG lost 2 of their star players with Doublelift and Pobelter.
Stixxay and Huhi did not show their best performance at IEM San Jose, which is why many are curious how they will now fit into the new team.
What CLG still has are Darshan (who was formerly known as ZionSpartan) and Aphromoo. These two players are still responsible for shotcalling at CLG. Should games go into the “late game”, this team enjoys strong advantages. One thing is for sure: once Darshan gets ahead, nothing can stop him.
As you can see, there are still many question marks on the lineup. This is because Team Liquid has announced they want to play this season with a 10-man roster. This is already very popular in Korea, where different players are played against certain teams with different playstyles.
However, this also has its disadvantages, as it takes much longer to establish team synergy. It is not easy to replace the former top laner Quas, who was one of the strongest players at Team Liquid.
With Fenix, IWillDominate, and Piglet, the team still has reliable strong players. Whether the new coach Locodoco can now solve the shotcalling problems that the team had last season remains to be seen.
Similar to Team Immortals, there was also a lot of hype around the Renegades. The players Alex Ich, Freeze, and Crumbzz all have extensive experience in the LCS. With these players as a backbone, it should be relatively easy to build a strong team.
However, these expectations were not completely fulfilled in the qualification for the LCS. They barely managed to win against Coast and qualify.
The upgrade from Maplestreet to Freeze in the ADC role is very promising. A weak point in the team is the support role. Remilia’s strongest champions are Morgana and Thresh – which is why the team often has to secure one of these champions with the first pick and give up the “power” of the first pick for a supporter.
I suspect that the team will not perform poorly, but will ultimately be more in the midfield.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this team’s lineup. Clearly, Froggen is by far the best player here – he has proven this very often and for a very long time by playing in the LCS.
Keith has also shown that he plays at an LCS level as ADC, but he is ranked more towards the lower end. Hard & Baby are both good players at Challenger level (which is one level below the LCS). With kfo, it’s hard to know what will happen. He’s a rather unknown Korean ranked player who is good for surprises – but whether he can implement that in the LCS remains uncertain.
If the team wins games, you can almost be sure Froggen will be responsible for it.
At Dignitas, there is actually a lack of a player in every role who poses a significant threat to opponents. Shiphtur is known for playing passively. Apollo also plays rather average, and Kiwikid had strong problems performing at an LCS level last season.
Together with the two relatively unknown imports from EU-West, this team looks very weak on paper. However, Kirei has shown at IEM in Cologne that he can play well. Whether that’s enough for the team remains to be seen.
The problem with this team is that they couldn’t find a buyer for the slot in the LCS and now have to play with a sort of makeshift lineup. This includes 3 unknown players: Feng – ranked player from North America, Pirean – ranked player from Korea, and Proxcin, who only played a short time with a Japanese team.
DontMashMe and Gate are, more or less, the hope of the team. If I had to rank this team based on this information, it would probably be at the very bottom. However, surprises are always possible.
All in all, I am very curious about the new lineups and how the synergy of these teams in the NA LCS will work. Which team are you looking forward to the most? Have you gained a new favorite team for this season in LoL due to a specific player transfer?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
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