Saturday, August 24, 2013

You only have to click once, fool!

The Howling Abyss, the All Random All Mid (ARAM) map and game mode is, as of writing this, a fairly recent addition to League of Legends. Matches are usually pretty quick taking roughly 20 mins on average. If you like teamfighting and generating gold faster than a sloth picks its nose, then ARAM is the game mode for you. Having taken an extended break from LoL for just over a year and a half, I find myself mainly playing ARAM and little else these days.

Admittedly this return was spurred by a number of things, one of which was a desire to see what has changed in LoL, coming back to what honestly felt like a completely different game. Another was the fact that recent LANs demonstrated that it is still a fun game, provided you don't take it overly seriously and become obsessed (like I did for a time). Finally, and possibly most importantly, several friends of mine, both old and new, are playing it as well. These friends, one of which I have watched become incredibly competent at LoL in the last few months, are the real reason I bother to play LoL at all these days. If not for them LoL would still be sitting in a proverbially dusty closet even now. Which would be a shame because presently, LoL is a hell of a lot of fun.

Anyways, ARAM. This acronym based brunt of a terrible, repeated household mum joke is something that is bordering on being overplayed. I have made a frag video which, if anything, will give me reason to maybe ease off a little bit or even explore the other game modes I liked a bit more (Summoner's Rift, Dominion). Although, knowing me, this is probably an absurdly quixotic thing to expect.

As per normal with any video on this blog, I recommend watching it in 720p.


The video itself I am ... how should I say ... slightly disappointed with. I have been video editing a LOT lately due to my other work commitments so I maybe didn't quite find the energy to make this a serious production. While I am usually the first one to criticize my own work, I think maybe due to the nature of ARAM, the frequency of truly awesome, video worthy occurrences are incredibly rare. You are almost constantly teamfighting/poking, which while fun, is maybe not the best spectator sport for the average person with ocular sensory organs. For the most part, things that occur in ARAM are an absolute clusterfuck at best and discerning what is happening amidst the chaos is probably quite strenuous on first watch. The choice in music is a new experiment for me, but honestly something I have tired of having listened to 50+ times while editing. I also realise that most of the frags are performed by me which is probably a bit boring. Alas, that is the nature of the recorder also being the editor. Still, I hope the video portrays some of the amusing moments that have occured in ARAM and that will hopefully continue to.

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