League of Legends Champion Guide: Aphelios’ Weapons & Abilities

Imagine an esports equivalent of ESPN. ESPN works because coverage of most traditional sports is basically the same. You point a camera at the field and watch what happens while two “experts” talk about what’s going on. Esports won’t and can’t work like this. Every game is drastically different from the next, with its own graphics, mechanics, and strategies to be emplo

Crescendum (Chakram): Can’t auto attack again until the projectile bounces back, but when returned, it resets his basic attack. Casting abilities creates copies of the chakram which then strengthens his basic attacks based on the amount he’s hol

Today, few companies are looking to create a new MOBA. Dota2 ‘s player count has been on a slow, steady decline while League of Legends’ has mostly plateaued. Riot Games still reports LoL ’s player count as an ever-growing number , one can only assume that’s due to greater international penetration as well as longtime players creating secondary or “smurf” accou

With Aphelios’ 5 weapons, two teamfights will never play out the same. The way he wants to approach a full 5v5 or a small skirmish will depend on his current main and off-hand weapons. The Calibrum, Infernum, and Crescendum Moonlight Vigils are very strong during developing teamfights, especially in small areas. The AOE damage and healing can win fights single-handedly. He can also use the AOE crowd control from his Gravitum Moonlight Vigil to initiate or disengage a fi

MOBAs arrived as a popular genre back in 2011, but their origins can be traced back to the late ‘90s. A popular StarCraft map called Aeon of Strife is often quoted as the original MOBA. Instead of players controlling multiple units and the structures with which to build more, players controlled just a single hero unit and fought alongside a number of lesser AI-controlled units. The map is just three lanes, with the AI-controlled units battling in each one to a standstill (usually). It’s up to the player-controlled heroes to turn the tide and ultimately destroy the enemy’s b

The obvious answer is because they want a new experience. That’s why new games keep getting made and why pretty much every game has a limited lifespan. Once their player has had their fill, they move on to the next big th

While in League the simple objective is to push to the enemy Nexus and destroy it, DOTA2 is much more strategic and cerebral in the sense that it has tons of micro-mechanisms that count towards you winning the ro

Pokemon GO is, as usual, a little more family-friendly with its Halloween 2019 event. Players can catch versions of the four starter pokemon in cute Halloween costumes , including Pikachu dressing up as Mimikyu. There are also lots of goodies for trainers, special Field Research assignments, and the chance to battle against Darkrai in a five-star r

Aphelios casts a lunar spotlight that stops when it hits an enemy champion. Centered around the hit enemy, Aphelios deals damage and locks on to each enemy hit. A volley of basic attacks rain from the sky on top of each locked on enemy with global range based on Aphelios’s main wea

It’s more than a semantic concern, however. Unlike traditional sports, it’s nearly impossible to tune in to games that you don’t play personally. For instance, I’ve never been into Overwatch , and although I understand how the gameplay works, Overwatch League is completely unenjoyable to watch. You can’t appreciate the level of difficulty that certain moves take to execute unless you’ve attempted them yourself. This rule is almost universally applied across all of esports. Unlike traditional sports, where pure athleticism can be appreciated void of any tactical or technical knowledge, esports requires a higher degree of familiarity. At best, this means that viewership rarely crosses between games. At worst, this means esports isn’t viewer-friendly and may never have what it takes to reach wider audien

With success comes imitation. Many game developers saw the incredible financial success of both LoL and Dota2 and thought they could change the classic MOBA formula just enough to stand out. Titan Forge Games released Smite , a mythologically-themed third-person battle arena, in March of 2014. Although certainly popular by most standards and also featuring a world championship with a $1 million top prize, Smite never quite gained the rampant popularity of either LoL or Dot

For instance, coverage of a battle royale is going to be drastically more complex than a game like Mortal Kombat and completely different than moba Advanced tactics coverage. Asking one entity to develop the infrastructure to cover all games is quite a reach. This leaves developers in charge of covering their own events and lets them dictate how they set up tournaments, pay athletes, and cover the events. Could there ever really be a unified esports community under this system? Probably not. This means a lack of regulation, consistency, and viewership will always be an industry-wide conc