The first big Overwatch Open is happening this weekend! 9/25 in Atlanta GA, this event is being presented by ELEAGUE, which was created via a partnership by Turner and WME, IMG and FACEIT. As a still fairly new game, this is something that I imagine anyone seriously interested in eSports, whether someone who wants to become a pro player, or simply loves watching, I think this is going to be an incredible show. Coverage will take place between the 25th-30th of September, and one of the most interesting things about it is that the finals will be aired live on TBS! 10pm on the Superstation, you heard that right. You won’t have to endure Twitch Trolls just to watch quality game play nor fear buffering or a low quality visual.
I don’t know who they have casting it just yet, but I’m very interested to see the production value of the tournament, what sorts of teams are there and whom they have calling the action. If this is a success, maybe we will see more eSports on TV other than on ESPN for EVO [though I did love it, don’t get me wrong]. I want to see more people embracing the amount of work it takes to get into eSports, the practice and dedication to ones craft. Just because it doesn’t involve throwing a stupid ball doesn’t make it any less amazing. I for one am very disappointed I won’t be in Atlanta this weekend to see it live, but I will be tuning in! Action starts 10am EST each day! North Carolina’s not far from Georgia, after all! But I will be watching and I hope you will be too!
North American Regional Finals: Sun/Mon, Sept 25-26th
European Regional Finals: Wed/Thurs, Sept 28-29th.
Grand Finals: Fri, Sept 30th, 10pm EST, live on TBS!
When Shards Online appeared to the public in 2014, it was surrounded with an air of mystery and excitement. Veteran MMO players who had long been yearning to re-experience the glory days of the sandbox MMO (ala Ultima Online) were thrilled at the idea, spearheaded by former lead team members of UO itself. Shards stood as a call back to the days of player autonomy while presenting a modern framework and the potential to give players the right to create their own worlds in a new massive universe.
Almost two years after its Kickstarter was funded, Shards Online today stands on the precipice of its future. This weekend marks the launch of the Alpha Preview build (0.3.5), the final Shards Online patch before alpha begins. During this weekend, all previous trial players will also be invited to test out the new build, giving Citadel Studios valuable feedback on the game’s growth. With the Kickstarter campaign only promising to get the game to a playable Alpha state, reception to this patch and the alpha to follow will predict Shards Online’s future success or failure. I spoke with Derek Brinkmann, Founder of Citadel Studios, to see what this new update will bring.
Two new areas since the Pre-Alpha Build 3 include the Catacombs Dungeon and the Outlands. The Outlands area is a free-for-all map with open world PvP, where the only guards to be found are at the entrance to the zone. This area is wide open to allow players to build their houses and form their own miniature communities.There is one exception, however, and that is dragon that dwells near the center of the map. Players that can best this dragon have a chance to hatch one of its eggs and, if their Animal Ken is high enough, tame themselves a pet dragonling.
One other key aspect of the Outlands is its support of the new two-faction PvP system. Guilds can now pledge allegiance to either the Water (Tethis, God of Water) or Fire (Piphos, God of Fire) faction. This allegiance places a special mark next to a player’s name, and allows these two factions to engage in PvP anywhere in the world. Guild allegiances also unlock faction-specific crafted items which only allied faction members can use.
The Catacombs, on the other hand, offer Shards Online’s first real dungeon. This labyrinthine area is full of all the classic nasty creeps you’d expect: skeletons, demons, wraiths, and more. It changes its configuration every few hours from several available maps, and players will be able to influence which configuration appears next with a special item. The top level is friendly to single players and small groups, but the newly opened second level is designed as a raid dungeon. In fact, a party system is added in the latest patch, making it a little easier for players thinking about challenging Death at the end of the Catacombs.
Another fresh new area arrives in this build. Called the Prizm Lounge, this area exists in a different dimension and is exclusively accessible by Founders. It’s a little shocking to enter at first, as it features a highly technological vibe that sings TRON: bright neon colors and magical light signs, sleek modern typography and architecture, and electronic background music. Designed primarily as an exclusive roleplay hangout for Founders, this bar and lounge also offers players cosmetic space suits, special quests, and exclusive drinks and potions to imbibe. There’s even a VIP area within the lounge only available to Founders who spent $100 or more to back the game.
Shards Online has also had a great layer of polish in the last few builds, greatly improving the user interface in both aesthetic and usability. The new interface is much more user friendly, making it easier to not only see what skills a character has, but also what they can unlock and when, making skill decisions easier for the player. Though it has its roots in older games, Shards has a more modern design and ‘feel.’
Another brand new feature in this build is Fishing. The staple of roleplaying MMOs, players can now take up a fishing rod and fish in open water or from schools of fish in the worlds. Currently there are six types of fish of varying rarities. Fish can be wall decorations or just pure bragging rights! Fish have also been integrated into cooking, and different fish will offer different benefits in cooked food.
Shards Online is celebrating this special Alpha Preview weekend now, with a ton of exciting events, double experience, naked runs, live streams, and more. All the details can be found in this post! If you haven’t got an alpha key yet, you can sign up for the newsletter for a chance to win a seven day trial.
Ivern, the Green Father, is here and ready to take on one of the most unique roles in League of Legends: the jungle support.
It’s actually incredible that after so many years of champion releases, this will be the first support jungler (go away Nunu, nobody likes you). One would think those two roles go hand in hand and have the diverse champion pool reflect that. After all, junglers these days are pretty much the secondary support. They build tank, bring ample crowd control, control vision, and generally are chained to their teammates. Jungler main scorn aside, big changes are coming to the rift: Ivern’s kit is a game changer.
Lore
Interestingly, Riot Games has fleshed out an entire short story for this champion’s bio. It’s exceptionally well written, albeit a tad long. Here’s a TL:DR: basically there was this evil dude that tried to murder an old tree in his quest for power, however nature was having none of that and transformed Ivern the Cruel into the very thing he despised, the embodiment of life and nature itself. Now, a God-Willow himself, the Green Father travels, observes, learns, mediates, and teaches harmony among all things.
Abilities
While his abilities are fairly reminiscent of other champions, his overall kit is far from traditional.
Passive: Friend of the Forest
Consume HP and Mana to create a grove upon clicking on a jungle camp. After a brief delay the animals are freed from their prison thereby bestowing the gold and XP. Smite immediately frees the camp. At level 5+, Ivern can take a jungle buff for himself, and give one to a nearby teammate.
‘Q’: Rootcaller
Send out a magic damage dealing skillshot that roots the first enemy champion struck. Allies can then dash to that target at the edge of their basic attack range (melee champs are placed close, ranged champs far away). Note: it’s not just one teammate per root, every nearby teammate can dash to the same target instantly.
‘W’: Brushmaker
When in brush, Ivern passively gains bonus magic damage and basic attack range. Upon ability activation, Ivern creates brush at target location. This skill works on an ammo system, meaning one could hold onto several brushes and spam them in a short amount of time.
‘E’: Triggerseed
Place a shield on an ally, after a brief delay the seed explodes dealing damage and slowing enemies.
‘R’: Daisy!
Summon a sentinel that attacks and knocks-up enemies. Daisy can be controlled and sticks around until either her timer or HP runs out.
Gameplay
Ivern’s a weird one, no doubt. Just the passive of not fighting jungle creeps is enough to completely turn jungling on it’s head. Effectively, there’s no need to itemize for farming camps freeing up a massive amount of gold investment. He breaks the mold in a way I didn’t think possible.
Although, the pacifism only goes so far, he still must kill Drake, Baron, Rift-Herald, and regular lane minions. To make up for this, Ivern can effectively double the amount of buffs in use. When he kills a buff camp, both he and an ally get the powerful bonus. So come mid game, Ivern has blue, midlaner has blue, and Ivern has red, ADC has red, all at the same time. This may seem minor, but it’s actually incredibly powerful – broken even. Difficult to pull off effectively in SoloQ, but will most certainly make waves among coordinated play.
The ‘Q’ ability, Rootcaller, is similar. It seems like a simple movement disabling skillshot, but the second part of the skill is of great interest. Allowing all teammates to dash to a target is a full blown team fight engagement all by itself. For example, Kalista, Sivir, Malphite – just to name a few – all have powerful ultimates that gets a single person ontop of the enemy team. Ivern does the same, but with the 5 people. It’s simple math really, 5 > 1.
Even the ‘W’ skill, Brushmaker is ridiculous – and man, this champion has a lot going on. The passive basically turns his basic attack to ranged, when in brush, while keeping all the great perks of melee. While indeed neat, the real draw is the in the activation which can create brush anywhere. Just like the two previous abilities, this seems docile at first, but think of the potential! First and foremost, the theft of vision can be used in an absurd amount of ways. From not being able to target someone, tricky mind games, to giving allies like Rengar and Nidalee additional bonuses.
Example scenario: when ganking, Ivern can plop a brush on himself, pseudo-range basic attack the enemy champion, apply red buff, ‘Q’ root, ally dash, and boom, guaranteed kill. Brushmaker is the ultimate easy to use, but incredibly difficult to master ability, albeit keep in mind the brush can be used against you and your allies. In fact, I think the skill can and will be used troll. Your ADC is about to get first blood? Nope, Brushmaker on top of the target and now they get away scot free. Yeah, that’s not pretty.
Well that wraps up his crazy set of- oh, wait, that’s right, he has ‘E’ Triggerseed and an ultimate. The ‘E’ is a shield, the ult is Annie’s Tibbers, but will knock people into the air… Ok then. Moving on…
Early Prediction
When I was first reading about Ivern, I was literally trembling in excitement about all the possibilities. The potential is absolutely incredible! Put Ivern in the hands of a pro and watch as they dictate and control the game with an iron fist. Low cooldown super engage and crowd control, high skill cap vision management, fast clears, quadruple buffs, even tankiness and peel, it’s astounding how overloaded his kit is without being broken. Er, maybe. One my fears is that he is far too extreme, he may very well be too feast or famine. Great when you’re ahead and have teammates to follow up, but awful when behind and have bad/low damage allies. Imagine a scenario when you’re behind, root an enemy, and then your whole team dashes over, well, now you’ve just made it easy for the powerful enemy team to clean house.
Another issue is that he simply unbalances current team compositions, not in an overpowered way, in the not enough damage and too much utility kind of way. As it stands, there are already two tanky ‘supports’ at top and bot, throw in another one and damage is severely lacking. However, what if he single handily brings back high DPS juggernaut tops? One of their biggest problems was closing the distance on a target, now, that problem is solved because Ivern has a free dash engage.
Schrodinger’s Champion
The road ahead for the Green Father is an interesting one. It’s possible he becomes 100% pick ban because of immense utility, or he just withers up and dies due to needing a meta overhaul to be effective. I guess, you can take it or leaf it.
Are you ready to backhack/double hack your way into causing some anarchy with the totally-not-Anonymyous group? You can do that and more in Watch Dogs 2!
The sequel to Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence is Ascension, and the series just keeps getting better and better. One of the definitive turn-based strategy games comes back in October!