Boo Hoo

So here I am, all stoked to play for the first time in a while, and here’s what greets me post patch and log in:

Long Queue 03.28.13

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What Gives?

Can someone help me understand why the Dominion PvP queue is always sooo long? Is there that little interest in Dominion? I guess the answer is yes, given that the queues are often 20-30 minutes long. Dropped out of blind pick after 15 minutes and hopped into draft pick to see if there would be any difference and finally gave that up as well.

Makes me awful sad as I adore Dominion!. Champions that might struggle in Classic can rock in Dominion because of the smaller map and more frequent recalls. As noted in the last post, there is far less bitching and whining and sniping among players. And for me, the shorter matches are perfect as I often don’t have 45 minutes or more to devote to Classic. That being said, the queue wait time makes the overall length a wash as I can get into a Classic game almost immediately at pretty much any time of the day.

Darn…I really wanted to play Vi. Just bought her with IP after playing a match with her on my son’s account.

Ranked or Normal?

Per previous posts, I had set off on a humble mission to reach Bronze in Ranked but after about 4 or 5 games I am reconsidering. For one, I could use some more Normal games under my belt in certain roles, particularly solo top and jungle. I am really weak on both as was evidenced by my miserable showing on Irelia as solo top and my to date wildly unsuccessful jungle attempts against bots.

The second reason is that folks take Ranked way, way too seriously IMHO. It would be one thing if I were in a higher tier but I’m down at the bottom with all the other ranked noobs. I expected there to be some slack within that group but there is always, it seems, at least one person who will moan and gripe the entire game. What is unfortunate is that Normal isn’t all that much better, so a part of me wonders if I shouldn’t just go for Ranked anyway as it’s not like I avoid the trash talk in Normal.

I am pretty good at ignoring idiots but there are those days when it gets under my skin as much as I try not to let it. League player behavior is definitely the topic du jour. It isn’t hard to find long discussions on the problem (a good one is here) and PAX East is even devoting a panel discussion to the topic.

I love the game too much to stop playing for sure, but am curious to see how I weather the griping in Normal and Ranked. Bots at least keep their mouths shut (oh wait, no they don’t anymore! ;)). And on a side note, one thing I actually really, really love about Dominion is that there is hardly ever any serious complaining, even in PvP. I think part of this is the extremely fast pace of the gameplay…you bitch, you die, and in short order.

Really, One More?

As I have repeatedly posted, I have been on a mini quest for silver badges in Dominion. Last night I scored what I thought was my last PvP win on Shyvana, bringing my wins total to 25. I immediately went to check my stats overview and whaaaa? It’s still bronze. So either I am misinformed on the number needed, which is totally possible, or I need to 26 wins, rather than 25, for the badge to update. Boo hoo!

On the bright side, it just means playing more Dominion PvP. That I don’t mind at all!!

Dominion Stats Overview 02.18.13

Hopes Dashed

What is it with the last person not accepting a match? Can I report the last person? “Dear Riot, please ban every last person who fails to accept a match. It would make me very happy.”

And the timing would have been so perfect. The 3.02 patch preview had just ended. I had only been in the queue a minute or two and the dong of a match beginning went off. I thought “oh wow, I got a short queue!” and that gol’ darn last person didn’t accept. Dreams shattered. Hopes dashed. I’ve now waited 15+ minutes. Sigh.

Kill Me Now

Say it isn’t so? Oh bleepity bleep argh!! How is it that I didn’t realize that the cool silver and gold and jewel-encrusted summoner frames were only Season 2 rewards? I sure hope that forum post was malarcky (how DO you spell that word?) but it rings true. Now don’t get me wrong, I still want to go silver in Dominion but I really, really, really, really wanted that pretty silver frame *big pout*. I think I’ll cry now.