Level at the beginning of day 40: 28

This weekend was quite exciting because two new champions were released!

They both look really cool, and Riot is also allowing players to gift them to other players using IP for the first week, which honestly just makes me want to tell my boyfriend all this right now so that he can use some of his 75million IP on me. BUT ALAS. I saw so many people commenting that they’re going to play these two with their husband or wife for date nights and I just think that’s SO CUTE, so I guess there’s that to look forward to.

That said, though, they basically appeared in every single game I played, which was a bit annoying, even though they weren’t usually in my lane anyway.

At the very least, there was a ‘double IP’ weekend, so I was able to save up enough to buy Lux. I kind of wanted Sona, but I know I need to get better at landing kills, and also Lux’s Elementalist skin is going on sale sometime in May. Sona can be next.

This week brought me the opportunity to finally play Gnar, AKA “kitty”, among others.

I have to say, playing Gnar was a bit of a disappointment. I didn’t like him as much as I thought he would. He’s cute AF, but I didn’t actually enjoy the experience that much and he doesn’t really suit my play style. I was also a bit disappointed that you can’t control when he transforms into Mega Gnar – I ended up transforming at moments where I really didn’t need to, like when I was just killing some minions, but not when I did need to, like in team fights.

I got another chance to play Nami – she was on the free rotation a couple months ago, when I didn’t have a chance to play because my boyfriend was sick/opening every day. I like her lots! It’s too bad she’s so expensive.

The other champion I was really excited for was Camille, and she is so much better than I ever imagined. She’s so funny. She literally always has her hand on her hip, and her hips are gigantic. She’s basically just a walking sass machine. She’s also kind of a bitch, but on her I don’t mind it. She is very difficult to play, but unlike some other champions (*cough*Kalista*cough*) I actually think she would be worth the work. Most of that effort comes from her E ability – aiming that well is tough. And also the fact that she’s not ranged, which is a problem in and of itself for players like me.

Sejuani was on the free rotation – I didn’t know anything about her until this week. She is Ashe’s nemesis, the leader of the third Freljord clan. She basically sounds like Olivier Armstrong from Full Metal Alchemist, which my boyfriend and I have been watching. In my head, I was pronouncing her name “Sedge-oo-awn-ee” but I thought that had to be wrong because, if you ask me, it sounds very much like an Anglo-Saxon butchering. So then I started thinking of it as “Seh-Juan-ee”. But according to the official champion spotlight video, I was right the first time! -_-

While reading about her, I also learned that apparently you can literally be crowned Queen of the Freljord if you play as Ashe, Lissandra or Sejuani and kill one of the others, although you have to already have 20 kills/assists. Sounds hard, but still cool that it’s even possible.

I liked her, but she is clearly not really meant to be played in lane and I struggled accordingly. I can see her Q and W being amazing in the jungle though and I liked her ultimate. She is apparently going to be reworked “soon” so I’m exciting to see what happens there.

I also played Cho’Gath, who I was disappointed in – he (??) appears in a lot of games I play and I absolutely hate his silencing ability, but I didn’t find it to be very useful when I was actually playing him. I had wondered if maybe I should buy him, because he was in my price range and I don’t have a Void Creature yet, but I decided against it.

And I played Nautilus, who I hated.

After I tried out everyone I was interested in, I played a few PvP games with Soraka and Lux.

Before I get into those – I wrote a more specific set of goals for this project, rather than just “be good enough to get through a game only dying a couple of times”, because having played LOL for a while now, what does that even mean:

• Reach Level 30 (the highest level)
• Be good enough to get through the majority of PvP games dying no more than 5 times and with a ratio of higher kills/assists than deaths
• Become highly competent in the support role
• Be able to play every role if needed

I’m not too worried about any of them except for the second one. That is a tall, tall order. But I think that’s what I would need to achieve in order to consider myself a “good” player, so I’m going to aim for that, even if I don’t achieve it. To track progress, I’m going to be measuring what percentage of my games each week meet that criteria once I hit level 30 (in addition, I will place a higher focus on playing PvP rather than playing bot games to try new champions in order to maximize my time). For now, I decided to take that number out of all the PvP games I’ve played so far…..and the number is so low it’s not even funny. Like, it doesn’t even deserve to be written down.

BUT, I actually had a game with Lux that fit that criteria! 2-1-10. I only got a C+ (I’m assuming Lux is expected to get way more kills than that), but still. Our team lost, but in my opinion that doesn’t really matter and is out of any one single player’s hands. I was having struggles with her, but I watched a couple videos that I think helped a bit. I’m still struggling, but I’m a bit more confident now.

Level at the end of day 41: 29

Games played: 9

Hours: 6

Champions played: Nami, Gnar, Sejuani, Cho’Gath, Camille, Nautilus, Soraka, Lux

Death snack of the day: Mini-eggs