League Of Legends

League of Legends (usually abbreviated to LoL) is an RTS (real time strategy) styled game. The game consists of a map containing three lanes (Top, Middle, Bottom – often referred to as Top, Mid and Bot). Each base (yours and the enemies) contains a spawning pool (where your champion re-spawns after death, teleports to when recalling, reviving its health and mana, and also where you can buy items to help boost your champions power) a nexus, protected by two turrets, an inhibitor, and a turret at the end of each lane. This leads to turrets within the lanes, 2 from the enemy team and two in yours, and then leads to the enemy’s base. You level up within the game to the maximum level of 18, where at each level-up you can level up one of your champion’s skills at a time (Q W E R attack moves). Each player (known as summoners) picks a champion to play, either from the Free Rotation list (weekly free rotation) or you can pick a champion that you have purchased with IP or RP (IP – influence points, you get influence points after playing a game, the amount depends on your performance. IP is used to buy champions, so that you don’t have to wait for them to come out in the weekly rotation. RP – Riot points, named after the company Riot Games, only available from purchasing from the store, used to buy champions or skins).

Usually the game consists of a 5v5 map, where you play online with 4 others to fight forward and destroy turrets against another 5, who are trying to fight against you. Minions will spawn every now and then for each lane to fight against opposing minions and champions. Both teams have the same mission: to destroy the opposing nexus. This is achieved by pushing forward in each lane, destroying turrets, destroying the inhibitor, and eventually the nexus, which ends the game.

In game advantages are, not only to destroy turrets, but to kill off enemy champions. Especially later in game, this will be helpful as the re-spawning time will increase as the game proceeds. The more champions you kill off, the better the chance to push forward.

SPELLS - Q W E R – they can have different types of functions, like attacking, silencing (preventing the enemy from using their spells for a short period of time), stunning/slowing down champions, or more than 1 at a time. The R is known as the champions “ultimate” or “ult”, which is supposed to be the champion’s most powerful move. After using a move, cool-down is required before being able to cast another spell.

Champions are usually killed off through weakening them or “harassing”, meaning using a simple Q, W or E spell to weaken them gradually. Then, eventually (this needs good timing), you use a “combo” to finish them off, for example, W E Q R W. You will understand more about this when you actually start playing. Note that each spell has different cool-down levels, which can affect how you want to set out your combo.

MINIONS – assisting little creatures that help push the lanes, meaning they help you push forward. They are weak, but they help destroy turrets, and may distract the turrets and champions from targeting you.

TURRETS – a powerful tower which takes time to destroy. If you approach a nearby enemy turret, it will shoot beams of magic at your champion. Early game, this will do huge damage and can kill your champion. Turrets must be destroyed in order to push forward toward the enemy base. Minions can help distract the turret as targets, therefore giving you the green light to slowly destroy it.

INHIBITORS – Unlike turrets, these do not attack you. Destroying an inhibitor will give you a large advantage for winning the game, as after your team has destroyed an inhibitor, you will start spawning “super minions”, which are powerful tank minions that are very difficult to kill, and usually block the lane. These are located near the entrance of each base.

NEXUS – the goal of the game. When a team destroys a nexus, which is each teams spawning pool, the game ends. Destroy the nexus to win the game.

There are many other game styles, such as 3v3 and Dominion.

There are many different types of champions to play, such as ADC (Attack damage carry – ranges or melee), AP Carry (ability power carry – usually mages), supports, etc.

I hope to see you out on the fields of justice! :P