Day 5 - The day of "issues"
Okay what a day this has turned out to be. Upon reaching the day 5 mark I was quite confident going into league. I've started to rack up some hours and I am quickly improving my understanding of the game and what role I play as an ADC. For the purpose of learning a new game, I often pick one character or role and practice is as hard as I can. Focusing on one area at a time to begin to perfect my game.
Why do I prefer to learn one attribute to a high level before switching?
Because I am able to get a full outlook on the game. Whether it's playing as Ryu in Street Fighter or an AWPer (Sniper) in Counter Strike, I want to learn that character or role inside out. The benefits of this are that when you begin to learn other roles, you understand the game to a higher level and are just focusing on yourself improving. Much like anyone, it's always good to have a base or broad understanding of characters or work, but what makes you stand out is the time and effort put into one area first. The rest will be easier to pick up. This is genuinely how I feel is the most effective way to learn. Don't worry your brain with many things but instead focus on one and level yourself up to put you at a better knowledge footing later on. This could be personal tasks such as learning to swim, saving money, going to the gym - just focus on one area at a time and put your passion into that.
Right enough of the analogies let me get back to the main point. Day 5 - As I was saying, this turned out to be the day of problems... well not problems just "really annoying issues".
The first issue that happened was after work on day 4. I got to the end of my day gaming session, My APM was going crazy - wanting to be like a Korean pro I was clicking hard. So much so my beautiful SteelSeries Xai mouse, one I've used for years and brought with me to tournaments, decided to die (RIP) so the mission was to buy a new mouse. Now the thing is Kuwait isn't really known for it's "technology" sector to say the least. Our internet here is still behind most areas in the world and my gaming is often interrupted by lag spikes.
...Or so I thought. Low and behold I heard of an area called "Hawally", a little area in Kuwait where my friend knew a few computer shops where I could get a mouse as I needed one quick. eCommerce in this region isn't great for delivery (..yet) so getting a mouse ASAP was important for the grind. Sure I could have used a basic Microsoft mouse, but I want to get that competitive feeling you get from a cherry keyboard or a nice slick mouse.
Why do I prefer to learn one attribute to a high level before switching?
Because I am able to get a full outlook on the game. Whether it's playing as Ryu in Street Fighter or an AWPer (Sniper) in Counter Strike, I want to learn that character or role inside out. The benefits of this are that when you begin to learn other roles, you understand the game to a higher level and are just focusing on yourself improving. Much like anyone, it's always good to have a base or broad understanding of characters or work, but what makes you stand out is the time and effort put into one area first. The rest will be easier to pick up. This is genuinely how I feel is the most effective way to learn. Don't worry your brain with many things but instead focus on one and level yourself up to put you at a better knowledge footing later on. This could be personal tasks such as learning to swim, saving money, going to the gym - just focus on one area at a time and put your passion into that.
Right enough of the analogies let me get back to the main point. Day 5 - As I was saying, this turned out to be the day of problems... well not problems just "really annoying issues".
The first issue that happened was after work on day 4. I got to the end of my day gaming session, My APM was going crazy - wanting to be like a Korean pro I was clicking hard. So much so my beautiful SteelSeries Xai mouse, one I've used for years and brought with me to tournaments, decided to die (RIP) so the mission was to buy a new mouse. Now the thing is Kuwait isn't really known for it's "technology" sector to say the least. Our internet here is still behind most areas in the world and my gaming is often interrupted by lag spikes.
...Or so I thought. Low and behold I heard of an area called "Hawally", a little area in Kuwait where my friend knew a few computer shops where I could get a mouse as I needed one quick. eCommerce in this region isn't great for delivery (..yet) so getting a mouse ASAP was important for the grind. Sure I could have used a basic Microsoft mouse, but I want to get that competitive feeling you get from a cherry keyboard or a nice slick mouse.
[ A random shop in Hawally, showing off their "gaming" machines, displaying league of legends as their choice of game - Oh the signs/subliminal messagery! ]
Walking around Hawally for a while, we came across an actually really impressive shop called "Quadra" which was fully kitted out with the latest 144hz monitors, DXRacer chairs, pretty much all the gaming gear you could think of but not my blessed SteelSeries Xai mouse.
[ Impressive display, also a section to try out all their gaming mice ]
The ambience of the store was pretty awesome. It did remind me of a similar branding to Razer, dark black with green logo on the store. The cool thing which they did here, as obviously I come from a Usability standpoint is they had all the mice and mousepads on display to test, pick and chose what surface and size mouse is right for you. After a few tries I had found a perfect fit, similar shape and model to my Xai mouse, and after a quick google found it had an awesome refresh rate. I won't get into this completely but I am used to playing with 1000hz USB ports, even if I have a high dpi mouse I usually still play on 400 DPI due to my low sensitivity. I found a perfect fit in the Zowie (BenQ) FK1+ price at 23.50 KWD (49.99 GBP - 77 USD) which seems like a lot for a mouse, but using it every day I'm happy with my purchase. Let the grind continue!
[ The chosen weapon of choice - Zowie's FK1+ ]
Heading back home, I unwrapped my mouse, getting ready for the night ahead of gaming or what I had left. Unfortunately the issues of internet and lag struck me again.
So 5 days in, I've already racked up an impressive amount of games and hours, learning the game and playing vs. Bots originally but now slowly tackling PvP. This day seemed to be the day of issues. I needed to plan something and something fast. How can I maximise my remaining time wisely and minimise the amount of game time lost due to internet issues.
[ Though Riot's League of Legends actually does well compensating for lag, my internet connection at home was having difficulties for the time being... ]
So 5 days in, I've already racked up an impressive amount of games and hours, learning the game and playing vs. Bots originally but now slowly tackling PvP. This day seemed to be the day of issues. I needed to plan something and something fast. How can I maximise my remaining time wisely and minimise the amount of game time lost due to internet issues.
I planned to hit the local internet cafe tomorrow morning and play the remaining 10 levels (currently sitting at level 20). A lot to manage in the next 2 days, some serious hours will be needed.
Low and behold, Day 5 was really a reality check of the challenge. Find a way to make it work and by any means possible. After some googling, I found that I was probably in for a good 15-20 more hours of game play... I spent the rest of the evening reading up on guides how to play ADC / Ashe and tried to learn more about my champion getting ready for the next day. I don't want to waste any more time...
Usability Takeaways:
Today, not so many - Finding out champion information and how to play seemed to be quite hard to find (directly on the client not their website), a lot of videos which were hard to load due to my internet issues so I had to look elsewhere for text-based guides.