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In this engaging podcast, a dad and his two sons explore their personal interests while rating a variety of alcoholic beverages. They dive into discussions about nerd and geek culture, travel experiences, and an array of intriguing topics that pique their curiosity. Join them for a fun and lighthearted conversation filled with laughter, insights, and, of course, plenty of drink reviews!
Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the three hamster boys. It's us, the three hamster boys here to, drink a little bit and talk a lot. I, of course, am Alexander. To the right, it's Nick. And to the left is Jeff.
Jeff:The old man. Yeah. Oh, the old man.
Alexander:Oh, gosh. The old man in the sea. Feeling feeling a little old
Jeff:right now? Old today.
Nick:Yeah. Okay.
Jeff:Mainly because so the topic we're talking about Alright.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. Good. I like the the translate transition.
Jeff:The the topic we're talking about today is because I feel old.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:Over the weekend, we were watching the League of Legends World Championship game.
Nick:So good.
Jeff:Yeah. And, it is so extremely different than when I was in high school. You know, with where computers were just starting to take hold and and everything. So the idea of and we were looking up this number, 7,000,000 people plus those in China watching a arcade game online is such a weird thing to think.
Alexander:Yeah. Like, you you had pong, pinball.
Jeff:I mean, at at the time when I was in high school, you had you had something beyond Pong, but it but it was like Atari was getting out
Alexander:of games. Yeah. Yeah. Atari.
Jeff:And the co op or multi multi multiple player thing didn't exist. It was it wasn't even imagined.
Nick:Yeah.
Jeff:And so for us to see a five against five live on the Internet is just crazy.
Nick:So, anyways And then to clarify, Worlds 2024
Alexander:Yes. Depending on when this episode comes out.
Nick:To to just date it and to know how good it was. Because in the previous years, finals have been three o's recently.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:But before we really get into the bracket, it is my little duty, along with I always get support, what we're drinking. So, we have a eclectic collection of, beers, Today Ales, a variety. It is from the Bold Mariner. Bold Mariner. Brewery.
Nick:Which, was very close to, the,
Alexander:check what it was the the distillery last week.
Jeff:Yeah. It's very close to Chesapeake Bay distillery.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:So so You had
Alexander:it there. You're
Nick:right there.
Jeff:It's on my So so basically, the Bold Mariner is in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Chesapeake Bay One is in Virginia Beach. And they literally are right down the street from each other, a couple miles apart.
Nick:So our our spy not only acquired the, tequila and other fun things for the future, but she also pit stopped here, and and picked up, an interesting variety that we will, enjoy today. Starting with the frog man.
Jeff:So to to get some background
Nick:Which is a logger.
Jeff:Yeah. Which is a logger. So the so the the background of this is that when we were talking about, doing the submarine episode where I talked about the navy, this was a place that we really wanted to get some, beer from, but we we we just couldn't get down there in time. It's it's a couple hours away from us, and we just couldn't get down there. So this person that started this is is an old seal or frogman in World War two, and then they converted to seals.
Jeff:And they started this brewery. And so there's all these clever names with it related to it. The brewery works with the Navy Seal Foundation for families and and stuff like that. The the seals from if you don't know, in the navy are the special operations guys. It's like the Rangers or, the, army equivalent to special ops or whatever.
Jeff:So these
Alexander:these are these are the guys that go in
Jeff:for these missions. And on my second submarine that I was on, we carried two platoons of SEALs, and and we did some special stuff. And so I I had a real connection to to these these guys. They're crazy. But they you know, I really wanted to get this beer.
Jeff:So we're we're a couple episodes late, but I I still think it's it's a great thing to do.
Nick:Just perfectly timed for our really nerdy episode.
Alexander:That's right. Yeah. Yeah. We did wanna have this, for the submarine episode for the submarine talk, and just didn't quite line it up in the way that we wanted to. We actually originally thought that we were gonna take a quick, like, family trip down there to to go visit, but the stars did not align for that.
Alexander:And, therefore, we had to send someone else to to go go take care of it.
Nick:Well, we shall nonetheless partake in and enjoy. Yep.
Alexander:Yeah. So you said this is a lager.
Nick:It is a lager. Not too much other description. There are other things that are a little more, interesting.
Jeff:Yep. Oh,
Alexander:may maybe it'll taste like frog. It does not taste like frog.
Nick:It's just a really good logger, to be honest. It's really clean.
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, two drinks and that's Oh
Alexander:my gosh. Oh, yeah.
Jeff:Look at
Nick:a big gulp. Yeah.
Jeff:It just went down by itself. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. It's like a frog. How did that happen?
Alexander:Where'd it go?
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, that is
Nick:that is It's really smooth.
Jeff:That is really good.
Nick:Really refreshing.
Alexander:It it's good too, especially, like, out of a can. I feel like a lot of times, all three of us prefer the draft. Yeah.
Nick:And then bottle. Yeah. And then rarely can.
Alexander:Yeah. So I feel like a lot of times when we're talking about, like, drinks, especially when they're coming out of can, we're giving, like, a little bit of grace to them just because we're like, we know it's probably better if we went and got it on tap. Yeah. But this is good. Yeah.
Alexander:This is good. I like it.
Jeff:We're gonna have to stop by there next time we're doing it.
Nick:I was already planning on it. I was already planning on going back to the distillery and getting another bottle of that tequila.
Jeff:Tequila's good.
Alexander:Oh my gosh. Yeah. The tequila from last week Wow. Was, very popular. Nick's been taking requests now.
Nick:Yeah. I made a cocktail for our mother the night after
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:To make the the bloody Maria.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:Alright. So what do you wanna do? Let's get into it.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. Let's get into it. So we we kinda started this episode talking about, League of Legends and, our father feeling old. Mhmm.
Alexander:And I think that's kind of the direction of this show. It sparked a a big conversation for us where we were kinda talking about what League of Legends is, like, how people get into it, why people get into it. And it was kind of this, like, round table discussion that we had over dinner. And I thought that it would be really interesting for us to talk about it on the podcast, maybe go in a little bit more detail. And also, like, if there are people at home who are also wondering, like, why the heck heck are people playing this game?
Jeff:Why why why are so many people playing it, but, also, how many why are so many people
Alexander:watching it? Yeah.
Jeff:And so my question was a simple question that has that has a lot of information about it. Like, my question was, how do you get into the game? Mhmm. Yeah. And I think part of that is the complexity of the pieces and parts of the game.
Nick:Yeah. All all the aspects combined make it a game with a lot of depth, but also, like, a pick up and play aspect to it as well.
Jeff:Yeah. I'm not sure about
Alexander:that, but Well Anyways Yeah. Well, yeah. Let let's before we even start of, like, how do we get into it, let's, like, tackle, like, what is League of Legends. If you're unfamiliar, maybe you've never heard of it, or you've heard of it but you don't really know what it is, this is, of course, a video game that we're talking about. It's a five v five MOBA, game which just stands for multiplayer online battle arena, which seems a little too broad, if you think about it a little too long.
Alexander:But really, that just means that there are dedicated roles, there are lanes with little guys that walk up and down them, there are towers, and your goals are to destroy the towers and eventually destroy your opponent's base while piloting one champion of potentially many.
Nick:For sure. Man, where to begin? Yeah.
Alexander:I know. Where do we
Nick:where do we, you know, start at this? Well, I mean, I think the the clear is, like, just background on League of Legends itself. Yeah. At the time of recording, it it's had its fifteen year anniversary Yeah. And the game officially released.
Nick:It had alphas and betas before, but it officially released in 02/2009, with a very, I would say, fascinating, like start. Riot Games, the creators of it, are sort of known for taking aspects of other games and making it their own and, at this point, almost improving the the formula. Yeah. So League of Legends
Alexander:It's almost the standard now, actually.
Nick:Yeah. Was stemmed from another game called DOTA or Defenders of the Ancients, two because Defenders of the Ancients one was a mod in Warcraft three. Yep. I said a lot of things. A lot of it doesn't matter.
Nick:Doesn't matter. That's just the history of of how this little little baby game was formed a long time ago.
Alexander:I think it's important to note that a lot of these games, specifically, like, League of Legends and MOBAs that come after it, are, like, based off of, like, classic RTSs, real time strategy games. Yeah. And those are typically more like war games where you are, like, an amorphous general commanding various troops and building and gathering resources. Mhmm. And so that's kind of the basis where these games have kind of evolved and changed course to create their own kind of subsection of game.
Nick:Yeah. Because
Jeff:you're still building and getting resources, but you're
Nick:doing it real time. Also, or on a more, like, specified level.
Alexander:Yeah. More like localized level.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:Instead of, like, I'm building buildings. I'm building an army. You just have one character to focus on. Right. Yeah.
Nick:To really cultivate and and honestly connect with a little bit.
Jeff:You take another persona.
Nick:I don't know about the well, some players do. But the game boasts a lot of characters right now.
Alexander:Yeah. This this was one of
Jeff:the things that is really when I see people play and I they and you guys go, oh, they're this character or that character, that's a bit overwhelming because, you know, you think of 20 or 30 characters as a lot of characters, but there are 68?
Nick:I think so. 69. That's the
Alexander:newest release. The
Nick:newest champion today.
Jeff:Yeah. So a 69 different characters with different attributes and play different roles and stuff like that. That that is really an overwhelming number.
Nick:It feels monumentous. I would say when when I first began playing, I was overwhelmed. I was like, I'm not gonna know all of these characters. I'm not gonna I'm not
Jeff:I don't believe that because you remembered all three sets of Pokemon.
Nick:Three generations of Pokemon. That's true. It's true. And and I think that, like, little part of your brain does it it it serves the same purpose of that. Yeah.
Alexander:My Pokemon knowledge is decreasing as we speak and, because
Jeff:you replace it with other knowledge.
Alexander:I was about to say, yeah, it's getting replaced with other random knowledge.
Nick:It feels a little bad because I'm, like, I would
Alexander:I know that Pokemon, but but now I don't know
Nick:you and it it hurts a little bit in my soul. But now it's like, oh, yeah. They're it's Renekton. You know, like, oh, we're we're you know, it's it's being replaced.
Alexander:Renekton, Renata, Rakan, all those
Nick:r names. There's there's a lot of champions, but it's it's also alluring because of that. Mhmm. Because you can really find characters that fit exactly how you want to play the game, or you aesthetically enjoy a character a lot. Like, in any sort of, like, fictional or or storytelling role, at this point, you can you can find a a character in League of Legends that fits that one specified act, you know, like Yeah.
Nick:We aspect.
Jeff:We were watching that one video and this guy was talking about how he picked his characters. He like, I picked the ones that looked interesting.
Alexander:Exactly.
Nick:Yeah. I I think, when I was getting into it, the person that I was playing with, and introduced me, he said, whatever sounds interesting, I'll get you that character. You you you play them. You you see how you like it. And I I think that's the best way to do it.
Nick:Yeah. Because you I think for how intense and and, complex League of Legends is, you gotta find something to hold on to fast. Because Yeah. It's moving fast. And if you find a character that you're like, ah, they're kinda cool, that might be it to to hold on to this, like, nonstop engine that is League of Legends.
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, yeah. I I it's always whenever we were watching the championships, it was like, oh, this person is playing this character. Well, they've got a 75% win rate when they're playing that character.
Nick:Yeah. That gets into statistics. Like sports, I think I think you can Yeah. You can understand that aspect.
Jeff:Yeah. No. No. Like, for me, if if you're a baseball fan, you live for the statistics of it.
Nick:Yeah. Exactly.
Jeff:You know? And I think that it's funny when you look at these, at these games, there's all all these statistics. Like, this character does really well, and this player does really well with this character and all that stuff.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I
Alexander:I think even in in a casual kind of setting for League of Legends, there is still because there are so many characters, there is that mind game that happens here. But I think maybe we're getting a little too deep here. Yeah, we're delving. We're delving and it's hard not to because like we said, this game is like incredibly complex. Not only are you in control of your character and trying to fight in whatever role or lane that you're assigned to, you also need to worry about leveling up abilities.
Alexander:Most characters have four abilities with their fourth ability being an ultimate or that kind of, like, fight starter, fight ender. Sort of like
Nick:a signature superpower. Yeah. Exactly. That's, like, really grand or flashy. Yep.
Nick:That really sort of encompasses their character and and really has that impact that you always want in a game.
Alexander:Yeah. So via existing, you're getting XP like you would in any sort of, like, RPG or just any game really.
Nick:Yeah.
Alexander:And killing minions, killing your opponents, it gets you more XP, and that will allow you to level up. And as you level up, you get points to, distribute into these abilities, making them stronger.
Jeff:What I was what what is amazing to me because I've played other games. We were talking about Smite as another
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:That's similar to it. The creativity and imagination necessary to come up with different characters and their different abilities and how they build, it's pretty remarkable when you think about it from a creativity standpoint.
Alexander:For sure. Absolutely.
Jeff:You know, not only is it the design and the look of the character, but also their abilities and how they're fighting and how they, you know, cool down and and recoup and all that stuff. It's just it's remarkable to see.
Alexander:Yeah. So you are contesting with that. You need to worry about leveling up your character, how to level them up, And then you also need to build items, like an adventure going off, to delve into a cave or into a dungeon. You need to equip yourself with the best items. And League of Legend has a plethora of items to choose from, each doing something slightly different and the final form.
Alexander:So if I build two daggers and a book or a cloak, that might build into something bigger that has special abilities within itself as well. And Nick can talk a little bit more about that.
Nick:Yeah. I think depending on what you wanna do, there there are special equipment, you know? It you're picking up a tool for whatever occasion you deem it necessary. I think it's it's how to
Jeff:You're having a party. Right?
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. Or you're having a party or you're like, I'm going to go build a house.
Alexander:What
Nick:do I need? I'm not gonna bring a piece of paper. I'm gonna bring some power tools.
Alexander:Right? Yeah.
Nick:Oh, I'm going hunting. I'm not going to bring a book. I'm going to bring a weapon or crossbow.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Nick:And in that aspect, it really leads to adding to the depth of the game as well. Yeah.
Jeff:And so one of the things that that we had talked about is that there are five specific roles that are kind of flexible, but you build items to help you with those roles? See, I I asked a dumb question.
Nick:No. No. No. It's it's it's not dumb. I think you're very close.
Nick:I think you're you're you're very right in that regard. There are special roles, and some of those roles have items only for those roles. And I think this goes into what was known as starter items, things that you begin the game with. Imagine, it's a survival test. You don't have a lot of money, but you go, I need to grab one thing before I go out into the woods.
Jeff:Pack of matches.
Alexander:Basically. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. A knife, you know, water, like, all these sort of aspects and a weird blue egg. Egg.
Alexander:Are they not eggs? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're I'm I'm still adjusting. They change the jungle item every every year.
Nick:But in in that regard, we I think I think we can begin I I think this transitions to the the the the state of play.
Jeff:Right.
Nick:And and how we how you play a game of League of Legends. Mhmm. And I think that'll be a good time to get a new drink.
Alexander:To get a new drink? Yeah. We're
Nick:empty. We restart it, and then we talk about just a a completely standard game, you know, in its most bare bones aspect, and that'll probably be a lot anyway. Yeah.
Alexander:Alright. Alright. Let's get it. And we are back.
Nick:Welcome. Welcome.
Alexander:We've got a new beer in front of us.
Jeff:And I'm excited. It's dark.
Nick:It's a dark beer. Yes. So it's gonna be smooth and flavorful and chocolatey sometimes. And caramel y. This is the Noser, which is, it's a stout.
Nick:Pretty sure.
Alexander:Yeah. Okay.
Nick:Or let me I can double check.
Alexander:I love a good stout.
Nick:It is a brown ale.
Alexander:Oh. Okay.
Nick:It's a brown ale. Looks like a stout.
Alexander:It does look like a stout.
Nick:But it has aspects of pecans and vanilla bean. Yep. So Yum. It's a brown ale. It'll probably taste taste like a stout.
Nick:It looks
Alexander:it looks like a stout. It's very dark.
Jeff:It's syrupy.
Alexander:Oh, well, actually, if we hold it
Nick:up to the light, it's Brown.
Alexander:Yeah. It looks it looks brown more like a almost like a dark
Nick:red eye. Himself. He needs it.
Jeff:That is really sweet
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:And ale.
Alexander:I was about to say, it's really sweet. Again, this goes down very easily.
Jeff:And I love kind of the the hate to say coating, but the the creaminess that hits the end of it. Mhmm.
Nick:You can you can taste the vanilla bean. And and in the very middle, you can taste the pecans Yep. Just a little bit.
Jeff:But, it's got the this is gonna sound really bad. It's got the cream or the, cream soda ending on it. It's very creamy vanilla bean.
Nick:I see what you mean.
Jeff:Yep. I love it because
Nick:Well, like a tail end of, like, you just have the vanilla.
Alexander:Yeah. Man, you just I was about to say this man is just for those audio viewers, this man has downed it in two gulps.
Nick:Basically, like the first one. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:I I mean, I I like it a lot.
Nick:Alright. Yeah. Cool.
Alexander:Oh, love love to hear that. I think this is good. This is really yummy, really kinda sweet. Not not what I was expecting.
Nick:Yeah. Let's let's jump back into it.
Alexander:Yeah. Back to League of Legends.
Jeff:So you you're talking about game play. So because of what we saw over the weekend, I decided to download
Alexander:it Yeah.
Jeff:Yes. And install it.
Nick:You know what? What's your experience at this point?
Alexander:So at this point so it took a
Jeff:lot longer than I thought it would take to download it because there was two parts to it. You you you downloaded, the installer.
Nick:The launcher?
Alexander:The The
Nick:launcher. Like, where the client Yeah.
Alexander:The client itself.
Jeff:Then you installed something that was, like, to prevent foul play or something like that.
Nick:Oh. They have an anti cheat software called Vanguard.
Jeff:Yeah. The Vanguard. I had download that one, and then I had to reboot.
Nick:Yep. Yep. Yep.
Jeff:And then
Alexander:I will say we probably should have told you this before you downloaded it. You will not be able to get it off your computer.
Jeff:Oh, okay.
Alexander:It is ingrained now. Yes. It is really difficult to get rid of this, Whatever. This anti cheat software.
Jeff:Anyways, and then I downloaded the actual game
Nick:Yep.
Jeff:To play. And then when I got done with that, which was a little while later, I went to go to the tutorial and instead got in a game.
Nick:Yeah.
Jeff:And I did not know the mechanics. And so it was horrible. I figured out how to move, but that was the extent. I figured out how to move. I was trying to hit things.
Jeff:I was pressing all buttons on my mouse. Dang. Every button. On the keyboard, all of a sudden, I'd see circles and squares and everything shooting around. I had no idea who my character was.
Alexander:He's about to say, do you know who you were playing?
Jeff:I did not know who I was playing. I I was just trying to figure out so initially, there's five of us, and we started this the back end. The four guys run off, and I'm trying to go, k. How do I move moving the mouse? It was horrible.
Jeff:Yeah. So I finally learned how to move. So I was moving, but I was moving, but the screen wasn't. So I was trying to figure out how to make the screen move with me. Oh.
Jeff:And so it was it was horrible. I did not kill anybody. I did not, destroy any towers, which is part of the thing you're doing. I did, go in the middle area, which we'll talk about what that area was, and kill some of those beasts in there.
Alexander:Are you were jungling is what you're telling us?
Nick:Yeah. I was jungling,
Jeff:but I didn't know I was.
Alexander:I didn't I didn't know how I was doing that. I don't know if you were jungling.
Jeff:No. I was killing whatever was in the middle there.
Nick:Okay. So okay. It's a little different.
Jeff:So I I got in the middle of these three things, and I'm like, what am I doing? And I was like and so it was, it was dumb. Anyways, I kept getting killed. I think I was, zero kills and got killed, 20 times or something like that. But the four people that so this was, so there's different levels of gaming, which I found out is a tutorial, then you have, five co op players against bots, and then you can do five on five Yeah.
Jeff:At that point once you once you get enough experience. So the the four of the people playing it, understood that this was just fun, and so they just ran in against the bots, got to the end, and and the game only lasted ten or twelve minutes.
Nick:Yeah.
Jeff:Because they were just having fun killing everything. And I kept running up in the middle of it, not really doing anything, except for getting killed. And so so I finally figured out where the tutorial was because it wasn't an not an obvious place. Mhmm. Because if you hit play, you're gonna go play a game.
Jeff:You have to go That's true. You have to go to something called learning
Nick:Or training.
Jeff:Or training. And then you get down into the tutorial.
Alexander:It's true.
Jeff:So I did the first two tutorials, which is, amazingly incredible because now I know how to move.
Alexander:Yeah. Woo.
Nick:Very important.
Jeff:And I know how to hit things now.
Nick:So important.
Jeff:Yeah. This is important for a fighting game, a battle
Nick:game. Yeah.
Jeff:How to do things. So, and, in the tutorial, you get to the first one, you get to switch out different characters. Still have no idea who their names are.
Nick:Totally fine.
Jeff:Yep. But the second game you saw me playing, it was, Miss Fortune. Miss Fortune.
Alexander:Oh, he's playing MF? Yeah.
Jeff:Oh, okay. Like Miss Fortune and, going through there. And, of course, I went through and I killed everything and killed towers, got killed a couple times, and then, got to the end of Monday game. But, yeah, it was, I I am it is you have to have a certain amount of coordination in order to do it. And because I don't know the shortcuts and don't know when to press when just to let it go because, like, if you attack something, you just have to press the right mouse key once.
Jeff:Initially, I just kept pressing it over and over.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:And so it kept moving my my target all over the place because I was moving my hand at the same time. Mhmm. And so, I think that the tutorial is fantastic to get you understanding how it's working, but it's also showing me how complex the game is to play.
Nick:I think this experience encapsulates anyone who's listening and wants to try it. Yeah. I think this this is like your it's it's okay to be confused.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:I think it is it is totally okay to really not sure not be sure and sometimes struggle. And I I think in a game as we we talk about, you know, it's it's from different perspectives of levels, that we have at this table, which I I think is great to have.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:But I enjoyed it. I I mean, I enjoyed trying to kill things and getting killed. I I I I I have a a laissez faire attitude about playing games. Yeah. I know I'm going to die.
Jeff:I know other people are going to die. And it's just it's just a matter of me. I am the the melee specialist. I go in the middle of things. I push too hard.
Jeff:You know, it's a horrible thing.
Nick:And now I now I know what characters to recommend. Yeah.
Alexander:Not as MF. Not as misfortune. There are
Nick:other characters that do that incredibly well.
Jeff:So but yeah.
Nick:Doctor Boone.
Jeff:Anyways so anyway, so
Alexander:so Any top laner actually? Wait.
Jeff:Yeah. So so I played I think I played every role. Okay. I was in different places. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah. So explain what the roles are.
Nick:So in order to fully describe the roles, I think I we want I wanna try and paint a picture Right. Of what you are going to be greeted with when you open the game. So I'm going to everyone close your eyes. If you're driving, don't do that. Yeah.
Nick:But close your eyes. Picture a beautiful square. Oh, my gosh. That's an incredible square. Good job.
Nick:Now picture on the bottom left corner and the top right corner are your little bases, your little homes. Those are the two teams' homes, and you have to protect it with your life. You you don't wanna see it hurt, and you're there for it. Now picture wrapping around the top left and the bottom right are are roads, Roads that will lead you to the enemy's base into your base. And then crossing diagonally through the square, another road.
Nick:In between all these two roads or three roads, a forest. And that is roughly what the Summoner's Rift or the map of League of Legends is. Now we talk about what you gotta do, and we will I think top top to bottom makes the most sense.
Alexander:Yeah. I agree.
Nick:So I the simplest role. Yes. I would say in theory, the the the the top lane follows the the what you need to do to win the game the clearest. Mhmm. You pick a character.
Nick:You go into the top lane. There there are lists that recommend what top laners, but you go into the top lane.
Alexander:When when we say top lane, we're talking about that road that Nick was just describing at the very top of the map. Two people, one on either side, will meet on that road and will fight for control of soldiers to push down further into that road and closer and closer to their opponent's base.
Nick:Yes. Thank you. I I will need Yeah. The the addendums and the the clarifications as as I'm trying to piece together this. The the top lane, their their main job, it is it is referred to as the island.
Nick:Yes. The these the top laners rarely interact with the rest of the players. And when they do, it's usually later, and for large, battles between all both teams altogether. Because most of how the game begins is everyone's usually really, separated in their own roles trying to, balance and get money and XP as what was described earlier. But the top lane, they only wanna they are
Alexander:there to destroy the base. That is
Nick:that is their their main prerogative for the most part. Their main prerogative for the most part.
Jeff:Now a lot along this top lane, in case you're you're wondering, is there towers Yep. From both sides. So once you get to that corner, it flips to the other color, the other team's towers. And on the one side of the the corner of the square, it's the other team's towers. Right?
Jeff:So you have that corner where it divides the towers up.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. And your your job is just to kill the soldiers of your enemies, absorb their money and experience, get stronger, and then, try to win by defeating your opponent, destroying their towers, and eventually leading yourself to their base and destroying their base. Top laner, extremely easy and and, clear on what your what your job is. It gets complicated later, but that's that's the top laners job.
Alexander:It it is it is both a very easy role to understand, but it gets difficult because you need to be, I think, be like very technically skilled because it's a constant one v one all the time.
Nick:Yeah. And you can't always you can't expect support. Yeah. Like other lanes might. Yeah.
Alexander:You are literally on an island. You're you might get someone coming to help you, but for the most part, you're by yourself, which means your mistakes are your own and you will live in them.
Nick:Drifting down to the middle road, or the mid lane as as it's referred to. These lane this lane is typically, for spell casters and mages. If you like that sort of feel Yep. It is the very center of the map. It is the shortest lane because it is a straight line from corner to corner.
Nick:It is the most valuable one whenever people are like, we need to
Alexander:push
Nick:for a win, they're going down the mid lane. It is the shortest path. The mid laner's job is to be aware of the map, to
Alexander:see what's going on in the top
Nick:lane and the bottom lane and adjust appropriately. And, excuse me, the mid lane is there to be a extremely powerful being that is typically very good in in team fights.
Alexander:Mhmm.
Nick:Something that is is seen, in a lot of common mid laners is someone that sets up, and develops, your team for a large impactful play or is always there to pick up and clean up the pieces, after a a large scale team fight.
Jeff:But they so they flex because there's other things you need to pick up in order to get extra value for your team. Right?
Nick:So a lot of mid laners do go either up to the top lane or to the bottom lane and adjust. They can, terminology will will say, is rotate. Yeah. If they don't actually spin Yeah. The the
Alexander:They're rotating. They're rotating.
Nick:We might say some terminology that's for gamer, purposes, but rotating just means I'm moving from one area to another significant area Yeah. To usually assist or help. Mhmm. And that's the mid lane. It's it's very, similar to the top lane where it's usually a one v one, and you are just there to, withstand your landing opponent, and try to succeed.
Nick:They they also wanna push down towers, but they they have a little bit more activity that they're relied on when when dealing with, the rest of the the game.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, sometimes they get some visits, but that is really the the mid lane encapsulated perfectly, I think. Absolutely.
Nick:And then we'll move down to the bottom road or the bot lane. This one is a little special because there's two people from your team down there. It is a bot laner and then what is referred to as the support. The bot laner is typically a a marksman, an archer is is their sort of archetype that they pick up. And they're they're usually, a little more dangerous to play.
Nick:They might have less movement or they can, be captured really fast which is why they have their support with them, to protect them, to aid them in many aspects, and also just, guide them to to winning and securing. Everyone has the job of destroying towers and pushing into the base.
Alexander:Some people are just better at it than others.
Nick:Some people are just more successful at it. Yeah. And with with that, the support can can also, move and and rotate, that fun word, to other lanes to also assist them. The support is usually, think of of healers or, another, gamer terminology is is it's referred to as a tank. Basically, just a a large, person that can withstand a lot of damage and protect those around them.
Jeff:So what is to say, okay, I'm gonna just do five mages.
Alexander:Yeah. You're saying, like, what what is the problem with that? Like, why would why do people not do that is what what you're saying? Okay. There k.
Alexander:Let's do the last position. Well, no.
Nick:No. No. I'm I'm gonna answer your question really quickly. It it comes to damage types.
Alexander:Mhmm.
Nick:So the items that we talked about previously, they're your your special sword, your special dagger. With that comes armor, obviously. You need to protect yourself if you're going into a dungeon or something. But physical armor doesn't always protect you from a fireball.
Alexander:Right. Yeah.
Nick:So you need to, get maybe like a holy charm
Jeff:Right.
Nick:Or maybe like, a special magical armor that stops magic.
Jeff:Right.
Nick:If you only have mages, well, then the enemy team just has to build that magical armor. They don't have to worry about physical things.
Alexander:They're not gonna build a steel breastplate if the enemy's just throwing fireballs at them because they're like, wait a second. I'm just gonna get cooked with this.
Nick:They're they're gonna equip magical barriers, and they're going to overwhelm that just by by preventing you from dealing a lot of of a mixture.
Jeff:So the variety of characters allows you to attack each person in very different ways. Exactly.
Nick:And that's what the makings of these teams is so important is team composition.
Alexander:It's actually my favorite part of the game.
Nick:It is is very fun when you're alone or with people, you can communicate and figure out exactly how to find this balance. I think balance is the right word for it.
Alexander:Yeah. Because you always have to be, like,
Nick:okay. Well, we need a tank somewhere as as referred because otherwise, we won't have anyone protecting us and and we'll die or get captured really quickly.
Alexander:I think it's really interesting. Other MOBAs, we've mentioned games like DOTA or Smite. Smite in particular is a game that we're really familiar with. In Smite, when you're looking for a, quote, unquote, tank, it is that support role unconditionally almost. And I think League of Legends does a really interesting job in the fact that your support might be really easy to kill, Might not actually be a tank at all, and instead might be like a magic caster that like buffs, like makes you and your team stronger or faster or bigger even or your enemies smaller or polymorphs them into chickens, you know?
Nick:Yeah. Or
Jeff:do they they also do healing or Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. Or healing. Yeah. Like, they're healers. But they might not be the person that wants to take, an arrow to the face.
Alexander:Right. Right.
Nick:They might they might even stand behind their bot laner. Yeah. Thinking that, well, I'll heal the bot laner. I can't heal myself. Yeah.
Nick:So the bot laner, they're easy to kill, but I'll make them slightly slightly harder to kill while protecting myself. Yeah. Yeah. And and that shows the depth of it. Right.
Nick:So that that's I I think that sort of answers your question.
Jeff:It does answer my question because, you know, you do five tanks and you just bulldoze everyone out.
Alexander:Yeah. Well, if you do five tanks, you just don't have damage because you're you're building so tanky. You're you're building, like, health and shields and stuff. So when you're hitting your opponent, neither of you are doing damage to each other.
Nick:And usually, the the damage dealers went out because they have more utility than just I'm going to look at you while you hit me with your sword.
Alexander:You know?
Nick:But we go into the very final, role of it, and it is, the exception. The it it feels like the most special one. At least it's the odd man out. It is referred to as the jungler. So, I briefly mentioned that there's a forest between all of these lanes.
Nick:Oh, it's so lush. Oh, and there's wildlife there. Your job is to kill the wildlife in there, take their essence, and, get gold from them. Your job is to run around the entirety of the map. The the world is your oyster and you are prepared to cover it in hot sauce and throw it back.
Alexander:The world is your oyster to kill. You're like a monster hunter looking for any sort of creature moving in the jungle.
Nick:You can picture every, other lane as maybe like a a cordial knife fight Yeah. Or like a duel between, like, fencers where you're, like, seeing weak points and and aspects of your opponent to take advantage of. And then you can imagine the jungler as, like, Rambo just, like, crawling through the jungle with, like, a knife in his mouth and, like, desperate to, like, kill anything he sees. That that's the jungler, and his his job is to to surprise and to, assist all lanes to to be there and and make it an unfair fight in your to your advantage.
Alexander:Something that we haven't mentioned, but I do wanna talk about it especially when we're talking about junklers, is the game is, again, if you are familiar with war games in particular and when we're talking about, like, like military counterintelligence that sort of things, this game kind of focuses on something very similar in the fact that there is a fog of war over the map at all times, meaning that you can only see as far as your allies can see. So, everything else is fogged out.
Nick:Coated in darkness.
Alexander:Coated in darkness. You don't know where anyone is until you or your ally sees them with their own eyes. Right. And this makes the jungler's job even more kind of Rambo like where they're crawling through the forest, they're walking through the forest. The enemy team has no idea what that where that person is.
Alexander:So if the jungler kind of makes his way up top, he can jump out and surprise your opponent's top laner and potentially help your top laner get a kill in that area because they've surprised now it's a two on one instead of that one v one that your normal user that are like, hey, wait. I thought this was a fair duel. Wait a second. Where'd that guy come from? Yeah.
Alexander:Did he just pop out of a bush? What the heck?
Nick:And then the other very important aspect of the jungler I'll briefly go over this, it's it's not necessary to learn. It's it's very important in the overarching game, but if you're just getting into it, you just go, ah, this is my objective. And that the jungler is to hunt bosses. Yeah. You you are the ones to hunt giant monsters in the forest known as neutral objectives, which are in the the very center of it.
Nick:If you imagine the mid lane crossing one diagonal way, the other diagonal way is known as the river, and it is just a river. You can walk on it, and in the river on the top and bottoms, junglers, there are pits. And inside these pits are are large scale monsters that you either need to carefully, kill on your own or work with your team to take over. And they provide extremely strong boons and powers for your team.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:So let's talk about gameplay with the next version.
Alexander:Yeah. We can. Really quickly though, I wanna talk about my favorite, jungler because we've just talked about describing junglers as like Rambo. There is a character in the game, and this is part of the reason why I really wanted to download League of Legends and play. This is a character in the in the game who plays as a jungler and he is the friendly tree man.
Alexander:His name is Ivern and instead of killing the jungle minions, he makes them his friend. It's true. It's it's such a unique and interesting concept that I'm not used to.
Nick:Yeah. I would as as side tangent Yeah. When I when I refer to, like, there's a character out there at this point that'll probably call to you, there will be a character. There's a character. No matter how specific or unorthodox you might think Yeah.
Nick:There will be someone for you either in one of the lanes I described or in just the game as a whole that you can figure out and really really grab on to.
Alexander:The fun thing about League of Legends too is that a lot of these roles are very or a lot of these positions are not really locked down to being a one character specific sort of thing. Like, if I really wanted to, I could probably play Ivar in support. It wouldn't be phenomenal. It's good. But if or maybe it is good.
Alexander:Good. But it it it means that a lot of the characters, if you really like a character, you can probably play them in multiple different ways.
Nick:Wherever you want to. Yeah. If you're aware of the game, or you just have that calling where you're like, I'm gonna go here with this character. Great. See how it goes.
Alexander:I think that's so cool and adds a lot of creativity to how people build teams. And again, that's my favorite part of the game is how to build your team. Absolutely.
Jeff:Alright. Frank?
Alexander:We'll take a quick break. We're out of alcohol once more. We're gonna get some more and we'll be right back. We'll solve that. Yeah.
Alexander:And we're back with a much lighter alcohol in front of us. If you think about the last one being more of like a chocolatey brown, this, looks closer to like apple juice at this point. It's very light, kind of this yellow color. It has a nice foamy head to it.
Jeff:That's bad pouring on my part.
Alexander:Well, yeah.
Nick:We'll we'll see. Yeah. But What are you drinking? Yeah. This is the coffee cake blonde by the Bold Mariner brewing again.
Nick:They're they're highlighting this whole episode.
Alexander:Spoiler alert, it's all the bold merit. Yeah. Well, we
Nick:just gotta clarify every time, you know
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:We bring out a new one. But this one is coffee cake blonde. Sounds crazy.
Jeff:Yes.
Alexander:I think Yeah. We don't really have any more information on it besides coffee cake blonde. The can
Nick:the can is covered in coffee cake and coffee beans. Yeah.
Alexander:Alright. We'll see.
Jeff:Those Take Does it have a smell? Oh.
Alexander:Interesting.
Jeff:It's almost like a a coffee smell.
Alexander:I wonder why. Yeah. Well, they've I don't know. It's like coffee, but there's something else that kinda, like, dilutes it.
Nick:It's like a coffee cake. It's sweet, but then you have, like, a decent coffee flavor. He doesn't like it.
Alexander:It's
Nick:He doesn't like coffee.
Alexander:I don't like coffee.
Jeff:You don't like coffee? I like coffee, and this definitely it has, like, a coffee and cream taste with a little bit of sugar.
Nick:Very odd. It's very odd.
Jeff:It is very odd.
Alexander:Fun background about our childhood, our parents, said that we couldn't drink coffee until we liked it black and bitter.
Nick:And that never came. And that never happened.
Jeff:And and the the there was a good reason for this parenting technique because we saw other kids that were drinking these milkshakes from Starbucks.
Alexander:He's talking about, like, frappuccinos and things
Jeff:like that. Even, you know, you you get a white chocolate double mocha frappe Yeah. Latte. Yeah. Which isn't really coffee.
Nick:Okay. Well
Alexander:You understand that. You understand the perspective. Been made.
Jeff:Where my wife and I drink our coffee black. Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. From, like, a three hour old bottle.
Alexander:That's him specifically. Specifically.
Jeff:Yeah. Mom likes it.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. It's like she likes it warm at least. Yeah. So but yeah.
Alexander:Very different. Yeah.
Jeff:You know what? I'm getting at the end a little bit of cinnamon.
Nick:Yeah. Mhmm. Just a sweet hint.
Jeff:Yeah. It's, it's it's different. I like it. It's not my favorite so far.
Alexander:I I will say, yeah, don't let my face, if you're watching the video, dissuade you. I think it's still good. The flavor just kinda caught me off guard.
Nick:It's very surprising and unique.
Alexander:Yeah. It is very unique.
Jeff:It's unique like that creamsicle one.
Alexander:Oh, man. I knew you were gonna mention the creamsicle one.
Jeff:Because that was that was so different. It was so different.
Nick:I was hoping you'd mention, like, any of these. Like, unique ones that we had, and I would be like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Creamsicle one was something.
Jeff:It was
Alexander:it was unique. I will say I liked a lot of the other Decipher, alcohols, and I just had their, their East Coast IPA, because we have bought it and we didn't use it for the shoot. And I was just had had it in my room and I was drinking it. I like that a lot. It was actually very nice.
Alexander:So I know we're always talking about this creamsicle from Decipher. They make good things.
Nick:They make really good things.
Alexander:It's just such a weird flavor.
Jeff:The the cask It's right
Alexander:over there.
Jeff:Is over there was just fantastic. It was that was
Nick:So good.
Jeff:That probably one of the best we can taste.
Alexander:I just felt like I needed to defend decipher's honor for a second.
Nick:I I think every time we
Alexander:we praised a lot of their Yeah.
Nick:Their their dreams. Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. But I'd every time we're like, oh, we they were like Creamsicle.
Jeff:You know, I end up finishing it, and I thought it was okay.
Alexander:I I we all it aged well.
Nick:It aged better than that fresh out of a can.
Alexander:So anyways Alright. Back to league of legends. I feel like we've kind of gotten the basis down for what League of Legends is, how it's played.
Nick:Roughly. Yeah. Roughly. The bare bones.
Alexander:There's a lot of strategy that goes in into these games. And
Jeff:and what I'll tell you from the tutorial is just jump in.
Nick:Yep. Yeah. Yep. That that's how I did it?
Alexander:It's how you have to do it.
Jeff:Because you you there's no way you can know all the characters.
Nick:No. You shouldn't. You shouldn't know all the
Alexander:You shouldn't. But but please don't do homework and, like, alright. I've gotta research a 69 characters to figure out.
Nick:Don't study Yeah. I think is the main thing.
Jeff:Yeah. Just just go in there. I mean, I've only played five or six characters, and I and I'm already getting tendencies. You know? Yeah.
Jeff:I can say, oh, that's pretty cool that that does that or that does this.
Alexander:So I think this is kind of getting us to a point here where we're talking about, like, why do people play League of Legends? I think right now, as of, I think September was the last one, there are about a 50,000,000 players, monthly for League of Legends. That's a lot of people. And I think in the same way, if you've heard anyone talk about League of Legends, it's normally not super positive.
Nick:Not the most well viewed experience
Alexander:for
Nick:a lot of people.
Alexander:But I I I think that might be one that's just like a popular thing and, like, people like to hate on popular things. Yeah. But, like, why do people play League of Legends, and is it more than just a video game?
Nick:Yes. Yeah. The short answer, yes. I think Riot, the company that has cultivated League of Legends at this point, has done maybe one of the most phenomenal jobs at creating an entire universe around this fairly simple game.
Jeff:It it and it's an entertainment universe. It's not a gaming universe around it. Yeah.
Nick:It's a mixture.
Jeff:Yeah. It is a mixture, but I think the thing that sets it apart is that it's accepted that in order for the gaming side to be very successful, there has to be an entertainment side that is also as compelling.
Nick:I think they've made I've I they've set a standard that has reinforced that ideology.
Alexander:Right.
Nick:Because I would say other games don't do that. Right. And, like, just straight up.
Jeff:Well, we were talking about it at the, the world championship, the steps they took to highlight the players. Yeah. You know? Because this this last championship, it was in, Germany, France, and in England.
Nick:Yep.
Jeff:And every time two teams met together, they filmed them walking around the city in which they were playing in.
Nick:They had extremely high production, one on one interviews, team interviews. They they set, like, an an impressive narrative that they weave together weekly, biweekly to really highlight and hype up the audience to make them excited for any game that would be happening. Yeah. So that's that's one aspect. I think we we we talked about this a lot.
Nick:A one way or why to get into League of Legends, you like the competitive scene. I think that's the most obvious one for any sport or game. The competitive scene is so fascinating to watch. They put so much effort, and they have incredibly talented and fun, personalities that run the show. And I think that is one of the easiest ways to fall in love with it.
Nick:Mhmm. Along with they have incredible marketing. Yep. It is it is renowned. Their their their finals show, their preshow, before the games begin, they have set the standard that they are the Super Bowl of competitive gaming.
Alexander:It it basically is. Like, if you are gonna watch any sort of e sports event, and I really do wanna have, like, a whole episode dedicated to e sports in the future. But if you ever wanted to watch any sort of e sports event, I think worlds has kind of become the gold standard and really is that entertainment, competitive, just awesomeness. They even have their own halftime show. Oh my god.
Alexander:I just spilled all over myself. In the form I'm getting so excited. Of in the form of, like, musical artists coming and performing.
Nick:They put on a concert. This year was so exciting. They had Ashnikko, Forts, and Linkin Park as their headliners for the show. So much production. Yep.
Nick:They all had backup dancers. They had an incredible show. They put on a concert to begin the game. Yep. In the past, they've had Imagine Dragons.
Nick:They've, they've had a lot of, like, NewJeans. They've had a variety of artists and, genres take over their main stage, which is also so alluring for for for us who Yeah. Always, enjoy a variety of music. We like a good variety of music and it's like k pop, rock, pop. They do hip hop.
Nick:They had Denzel Curry. Oh, they had Denzel Curry. I think it was two years ago or last year. He was at Worlds, which was such a fun, show. They they really exemplify a way to bring an audience and really show the how invested they are in making this such a a highlight.
Jeff:And and one of the things that I would say is and we've talked about this before is that it's not just that world where they're putting that entertainment piece. The cinematics related to characters Yeah. Is something very unique to League of Legends.
Nick:Absolutely.
Alexander:It it's not entirely unique to League of Legends but I do think when we're talking about having so many characters in a game, it becomes very difficult for you to connect to one of them. And so League of Legends is building a cinematic universe for you to connect to characters Yeah. And for you to know who they are.
Jeff:Kind of explain what the cinematics are for.
Nick:So throughout the year, they release a variety of animated, high quality either music videos or storytelling, shorts. They're usually three to four minutes long with, showing off and presenting their characters. It's usually six or seven, maybe less, sometimes more, characters from the game. And you get to see them in in high quality form, in their in their environment, usually doing something really cool, and that is so rewarding to see.
Alexander:Mhmm.
Nick:And it also has, their own music. They have, a variety of scenarios where you finally get to see characters interact with each other
Alexander:Yep.
Nick:Which is so exciting. They have it for whenever they're releasing a new character, they'll do that. Or when or a character you haven't seen before, like, you're like, oh, they've never been in a cinematic and you see them and you get so excited because, frankly, League of Legends doesn't isn't the best looking game. But when you see them in a cinematic with their high quality intended form, it's so compelling to to see that character in that form. And bouncing off of their cinematic universe they're creating, we can't neglect their hit show on Netflix, Arcane.
Alexander:Yep. I think Yeah. I mean, I
Jeff:think that the idea that that they were able to extend that into was an eight part series on Netflix.
Alexander:Six six parts. Yeah. I knew
Jeff:I was nervous about it.
Nick:Three when they were young and three when they were older.
Jeff:Oh, right.
Alexander:Wow. Dang. I didn't even think about that.
Nick:Yeah. Oh.
Jeff:Yep. And the the the good thing about it was, a lot of times why the while while a lot of different games may come out with content that's outside of the game, Riot did not feel tied to the characters in the game. They or the the character story within the game. It looks like they they created new stories around characters.
Alexander:And and created new characters is really what
Nick:you Some aspects.
Alexander:Right.
Nick:Yeah. The the main roster, their at least their fates were already foretold. Right. We all knew where James, Fi, Caitlyn, Victor, and Jace would end up.
Jeff:Right. Okay.
Nick:We knew And Heimerdinger. And Heimerdinger. Echo, Sin. I'm not a friend by Echo. Vander.
Nick:Yeah. Vander. We knew how they ended up, and we knew roughly their stories. But seeing it and in such a, I would say, intimate depth, where you get to see the layers and the dynamics really have the space to breathe and these characters interact in these calm moments show shows, like, such a a whole new layer to their interactions.
Alexander:I think when we talk about a game like League of Legends and when we talk about a lot of multiplayer games that are like PVP where you're playing against other people, the world is static. Yeah. Like, when you load into a game of League of Legends, you are not witnessing a narrative story. Like, if our dad is playing Miss Fortune and she's fighting against, I don't know, an ash in the in the bot lane. This is not like a canonical event that's happening.
Nick:Yeah.
Alexander:Right? But there is a narrative that Riot Games has tapped into in that, like, these characters have backstories, they have things they have, like, stories in their own that they're building off of or that they're telling. And I think Overwatch has done something similar
Nick:Yeah.
Alexander:In the fact that they have they also have, like, high quality cinematics for their characters where they're telling a story about these characters because when you load into an Overwatch game, you're not canonically having Reinhardt fight Reinhardt in, like, this, like, weird multiverse kind of way.
Nick:Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that just adds to the why. I I think just to even get to the the door of League of Legends. Right?
Nick:Like, the production, the scale, the effort that Riot has pushed, the marketing, I think, is so smart. And then when you get
Alexander:to the
Nick:door, you are presented I I keep saying it and I think I think this is what really sold me. Any aesthetic that you want to capture in a character, you can find it.
Jeff:Yeah. That's when I was looking at it and just, like, browsing through the thing, I was, like, looking at all the different characters and
Alexander:There's so many. And I
Jeff:was, like, looking at them and I'm, like, you know, I can see easily where I would say, well, that character looks really interesting.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:I have no idea. I don't know anything about that character. But if I wanted to, I could try and find a cinematic with that character.
Alexander:Yep.
Jeff:I could find his backstory. That that's a really powerful tool in order to become engaged in the game before you even play the game.
Alexander:My friend who played for my college League of Legends team loves pirates. He plays pirates whenever he is playing any game. So when he was on the Smash team as well, he played King K. Rool.
Nick:The pirate crocodile.
Alexander:The pirate crocodile. Yeah. And when he plays League of Legends, he plays Gangplank top. Captain gang. Captain gang gangplank, which is a pirate that, like, throws out, like, ale barrels or, like, the Exploding cats.
Alexander:Powder kegs. Powder kegs that he, like, shoots and explodes. Yeah. But also I sat through him talking about the, the, like, the story and the backstory of Gangplank and how he died, but he didn't actually die and he made a deal with, Davy Jones, I think.
Nick:It's it's something of to that effect. Yeah. Yeah. It it it goes back to Riot, really creating a narrative. They have the the world that this takes place in where all these characters live in, it is referred to as Runeterra, that is the name of the world and all of them have different regions and aspects that you can connect with.
Nick:If you like pirates there's a bunch of pirates all hailing from Bilgewater, and you can and Bilgewater is a entirely port region, heavy sea and ocean and and a little grimy vibes. It's it's very, like, sort of like dark and and crime heavy.
Alexander:I mean, we keep mentioning it, but Miss Fortune is also from that area because she is also a pirate.
Nick:And her lore is that she's trying to kill Gangplank. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. And and you you see all these characters and how their webs and their
Alexander:Yeah. They they all connect. It's it's so interesting.
Nick:If you like a more, like, nightly vibe, there is the Kingdom Of Damascia, which, is very Oh,
Alexander:the Damascia.
Nick:Which is very, like, prim and proper. It has, like, French English vibes and very, like, knightly and holy almost. If you like a more rugged, dictatorial,
Alexander:warlike Like Spartan kind of
Nick:vibe. Spartan, regimenting, there is the the Empire Of Noxus, which,
Jeff:is that the the mom? Yes.
Alexander:It is. We're in
Nick:the newest character, Mvesa, hails from. She's a general.
Jeff:So yeah. So
Alexander:She's also the newest character in the game. I don't know if you know that. She came
Nick:out today.
Alexander:Yeah. Oh, did she?
Jeff:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? We're talking about Arcane.
Jeff:Arcane is about to come out also.
Alexander:Yeah. Arcane season two. Yeah.
Nick:Coming out this weekend.
Jeff:Yeah. This weekend. Holy cow. Yeah. The night.
Jeff:Yeah.
Nick:Three episodes.
Alexander:Yep. The
Nick:other party's announced.
Alexander:Okay. Good. Good.
Nick:Good. We're watching it when all of them are out.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good. I'll be back then.
Jeff:This is great. Yeah. So, I mean, I think that that that is such an incredible thing when you think about it is that the entertainment is driving the character
Nick:now. It's true. Yeah. It it is it's fascinating because there's another character called Renata Glasc. She was originally supposed to be Silco.
Nick:Oh,
Alexander:interesting. Silco was
Nick:supposed to be put in the game, but Renata was replaced. But he he was the intended.
Jeff:Woah.
Nick:I don't know what happened, but that that's what happened. Interesting. So it's very fascinating.
Alexander:And Silco hasn't made it to League of Legends, has he? He's made it to TFT. But he's made it to TFT. Yeah. He had when Arcane released, there was a whole set around Arcane specifically, and Silco was a character added to TFT.
Jeff:Alright. So before we go that down that road Yeah.
Alexander:I know. It's two two fight tactics is a totally different, like
Jeff:But I think we can talk about when you get on that screen that you're gonna see a couple of different things on there.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:You see TFT. You see Land of Rentora.
Nick:Oh, yeah.
Alexander:Oh, yeah. Oh, god. Yeah. So League of Legends has done a good job of finding an IP that works, like an intellectual property that works that people really like and connect to and they've added it to a bunch of other things. And so they've been branching out to other types of games.
Alexander:So League of Legends is the base we've talked about. It's MOBA. It has this sort of very strategy aspect. For those of you who want to be more into the strategy, and less into more of the sort of tactile or very technical abilities that come with League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics or TFT is that answer in the fact that it's an auto battler which means the characters will fight for you. You don't need to fight like as them and it's more about building teams and getting lucky with draws basically.
Alexander:Yeah.
Nick:You basically create your team onto a board. Think of it almost like you're you're creating a a chess board and you're positioning them and then once you your opponent arrives, then you get to see how these chess pieces all move together. But it it's heavy strategy. Yep. There's like so many aspects that you that are, manipulated by your, you know, mind and and it's a little slower, you don't have to worry about like reacting as quickly.
Nick:It's it's more methodical and slow.
Alexander:And it's it really is when we talk about auto battlers, they're the kind of things where you set the board up and then you cannot do anything while the game is happening. Yeah. So you wait for it to randomly choose an opponent for each round. And once the game has chosen this opponent, you just watch.
Nick:You're locked in.
Alexander:You just watch the fight happen and then the round ends and you have a little period of time to build, upgrade, give them items, and reset them on the board and then it goes back into that round and you just watch.
Nick:But that's that's a different game.
Alexander:Yeah, it's a totally different game.
Jeff:But it but it was it caught me by surprise when I was on the the launch page.
Alexander:Yeah. Yes. Legends of Runeterra, is their turn based game.
Nick:It's their card game.
Alexander:Oh, it's their card game. You're right. It's a card game. Legends of Runeterra is a card game, which is turn based, but yeah. And then it's, The Ruined King.
Alexander:I cannot remember the full name of that game. Oh. It's like Legends of the Ruined King or something.
Nick:Yes. They have a a turn based action narrative game to introduce you to, a new character that came out around that time. Yep. Wow.
Alexander:So again, and it sounds like they're working on an MMO. They're really like working on this IP of characters. So they have TV shows, they have cinematics. We haven't even talked about the fact that, Riot Games also has music groups that they've built
Nick:Built. With actual music groups and bands and artists. Yeah. And then put them into a more a a League of Legends one to one character creator, you know. There there's a k pop group made from a variety of artists called KDA.
Nick:Yeah. There is a boy band called Heartsteel. Yeah. Their hip hop group is called True Damage. They have a metal band called Pentakill.
Nick:Yeah. And they they they work so well. So this this all of these are is to say, it's easy to understand how you get drawn to this entire world and just end up clicking that play button and hopping on to summoner's rift.
Alexander:Yeah. It it really is the MCU of the gaming world Yeah. Because there's just so much for you to like and get into even if you aren't a big fan of, like, League of Legends.
Jeff:It's the touch point. You you you Yeah. You do as many touch points as possible to get sticking.
Nick:I think Riot has done that magnificently in these fifteen years. Yeah.
Alexander:I mean, it it goes back to I really like talking about SMITE because the three of us, went to like the SMITE worlds, we've played a lot of SMITE.
Nick:A lot of SMITE.
Alexander:And when you compare kind of what Hi Rez or Titan Studios has done with SMITE and that property and their attempt to do things very similar to League of Legends, it just has not worked.
Nick:It hasn't had the intended impact.
Alexander:It hasn't had the same impact. Yeah. Versus like League of Legends who or versus Riot Games who is not only built off of the League of Legends IP, but they've also created an entirely new IP in the form of Valorant that has completely taken the world by storm and has had its own unique success. And so if you don't want the League of Legends IP, there is another option for you out there in the form of a, a character tactical shooter like Overwatch and Counter Strike together.
Nick:Yeah. Alright. But that's why. That's why.
Alexander:That's why. Yeah. That's why. There's there's
Nick:so much. It's it's easy to understand how compelling it is. It is it is made for anyone that has an interest in any of the things. Anything. Yeah.
Nick:Music, shows, media, storytelling, character archetypes. Anime. I'm gonna start an argument.
Alexander:Oh my gosh. Anyway. Yeah. Anyway. But yeah.
Alexander:I I think the thing is you might be affected by League of Legends or by Riot Games, and you might not even know it. And that's the crazy part at at this point.
Nick:Yeah. You're like, I love this song. And then you're like,
Alexander:it's got
Nick:a weird band name. Yeah.
Alexander:And you're
Jeff:like, wait a minute. Yeah. Alright. Let's take a look.
Alexander:Or or like, I cannot think of Linkin Park without thinking about Heavy is the Crown, their their song that League of Legends has just been using.
Jeff:Oh, it's like enemy from Imagine.
Alexander:Yeah. Warriors. Warriors. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
Nick:That one of their most popular songs was originally made for League of Legends.
Alexander:Every year League of Legends chooses one song to be their world song. They have like an awesome cinematic with it Yeah. And it becomes the earworm for that year.
Nick:They whatever they put in it, they may they it is the song that you have ingrained in your mind.
Alexander:Yeah. Alright. We're gonna get our final drink. I know we have four drinks now. It's crazy.
Nick:Long episode. Yeah.
Alexander:We're having a long episode. Thank you for for sticking. But we're gonna get some new drinks and then we'll finish this off. Alright. We'll see you in a second, Aaron.
Alexander:Welcome back. We are on our fourth and final drink. I know it's a little unorthodox. It's a little different than what we normally do. Normally, we just have three drinks.
Jeff:Thank you for sticking around.
Nick:Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. And, we do appreciate it. Hopefully, we're not boring you too much. I assume half
Nick:of the people listening have fallen asleep, and that's why the video is still running. Thank you.
Jeff:Or they're they're drinking beers with us.
Alexander:Obviously, if you're here, you're either drinking with us and having a good time, or maybe you are interested in what we're saying.
Nick:Or maybe you're downloading League of Legends.
Alexander:Yeah. Maybe you're downloading League of Legends right now or watching Arcane, which I would definitely recommend. Yeah.
Nick:But anyway, our last drink, it is called the dog zebra. Our informant, what sorry. Our spies
Alexander:Our informant. Alright. Whatever
Nick:our Secret agent. Secret agent. I was looking for another terminology.
Alexander:It's getting worse.
Nick:Who went to acquire the alcohol, got this for free on top of, her purchase which is incredibly generous from the, Bold Mariner, and it is an old school IPA called Dog Zebra. We are looking forward to it.
Alexander:I will say the other two do not really like IPAs that much. It's not
Jeff:that we don't like IPAs. I think that we prefer a stronger, like a stout kind of beer that has a little bit more Me, I do. That's what I do. What do you
Nick:feel? Well, I think you just have an aftertaste that I'm not a fan of. Yeah. The the it's like overwhelming hoppiness
Alexander:Right.
Nick:That just lingers on the tongue. Mhmm. Yeah. Because I think the impact of an IPA to start, I think is fine. It just
Jeff:Happiness at the end.
Nick:It just lingers.
Alexander:I will say some IPAs are are too much for me as well, and I feel like they're more of like a once in a while kinda drink for me.
Jeff:I mean, I've tasted some double hop IPAs that are just
Nick:I couldn't do that.
Jeff:That are just really
Alexander:They're hopped up. Yep. Alright. Do we have any more information about this? Or Nope.
Alexander:Just dog zebra IPA.
Jeff:And we're gonna give them as much credit and love as we possibly can.
Alexander:Heck yeah. I
Nick:don't really know what else.
Alexander:Alright. Tink.
Nick:The last drink of the night.
Jeff:Beautiful smell.
Nick:They always do. Well, I think if you were worried about
Alexander:this as an IPA, you should not worry about this. Yeah.
Nick:No. This. It's very clean. It does still have the the slight aspect of the hoppy, but it's really not as strong as a lot of others.
Jeff:Mhmm. Yeah.
Alexander:It it doesn't really, oh my gosh. You were drinking these so fast. The cups are small.
Jeff:Yeah. Yeah.
Alexander:The the cups are just getting smaller.
Nick:He's used to taking sips of the strong alcohol.
Alexander:Yeah. He's he's used to taking sips of cocktails that have like, three different hard liquors in them.
Jeff:This is just water.
Nick:Yeah. The percentage would argue, to be honest. We we've drank some fairly decent.
Jeff:That is that's really good. That's drinkable too.
Alexander:I love to hear that.
Jeff:I think all four of them have been very drinkable.
Nick:I agree. I think all four have been really great. Yeah.
Alexander:What? You're telling me we haven't spat out a single one of these drinks? I don't
Nick:think we've ever spat
Alexander:out a drink. I don't think we've yeah.
Nick:Yet?
Alexander:I
Jeff:think we've tried our bet. I will tell you one that was close. Oh. Woah. The Bloody Maria.
Jeff:I'm not a believer.
Alexander:Woah. Wait. Will you finish yours?
Jeff:No. I did not.
Alexander:No. He he didn't. He didn't
Nick:finish that one.
Jeff:That's the only one I have not finished yet.
Alexander:Oh, man.
Nick:I drink that one so fast.
Alexander:Oh my
Jeff:And that's the one that you made for mom.
Nick:Yeah. It's true. Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. And and she liked it.
Alexander:She liked it.
Jeff:Yeah. She did.
Alexander:So But she also was the one that recommended using v eight instead of just straight up tomato juice. Yeah.
Jeff:Hey, that's good.
Alexander:Yeah. I like it. It's good. It's not really as strong, of an IPA as you probably would normally expect, but I think that's kind of nice. I don't
Nick:it makes it easier to drink for me.
Alexander:Yeah. This is like a good like entry level IPA, I think. If you wanna drink IPAs or you wanna you're like, I wish that I liked the taste of IPAs, this is like a a good one that's like, it's good.
Nick:Sip on this. They all go really well with some fries or chips.
Jeff:Oh my gosh. Get something that's very salty or very fatty. Yeah.
Alexander:I want that so bad right now.
Jeff:Who if we had nachos for dinner?
Alexander:I know.
Nick:I would say some like loaded fries would kinda go nuts.
Jeff:Stop talking. Oh my god.
Nick:Oh, my gosh. I'm craving loaded fries now. But, yeah. Anyway, to round it off, we are
Alexander:I wish we lived in DC because there's no way we could order anything here. No.
Nick:I've that is the one thing I miss. I I've ordered food at 2AM. Yeah. We you cannot do that around
Alexander:Charlottesville area. Well, you
Jeff:you can you can in Charlottesville to a certain point where we live
Alexander:Yeah. Not us.
Nick:No one delivers. No one delivers.
Jeff:The cows just don't take you don't
Nick:bring stuff too. Come on. You have to hop on a horse and go somewhere. Yeah.
Alexander:Alright. So we we've talked a lot about League of Legends today. Actually, we've talked a lot about, like, all of Riot productions at this point. It's sort of, like, encompassing. Interchangeable, a little encompassing.
Alexander:I think if you are watching this and you are kind of like our father here, interested in getting into League of Legends, mainly League of Legends or kind of like a related property. I think there are some expectations specifically for, like, getting into League of Legends that you should be aware of. Yeah. We wanna throw down.
Nick:Almost a cautionary, but also, like, encouraging.
Alexander:Yeah. And and also kind of like as a how do you even get into this thing? Because we've talked about so much, and we're just scratching the tip of the iceberg.
Jeff:I think one thing from an expectation standpoint, which is very specific to me. Yeah. I'm not gonna be able to do a 10PM to 4AM marathon
Alexander:plane. That's like me do.
Nick:That's more of the gaming gamer culture. Right. I it there will always be players online.
Jeff:Yeah. I know. But I think that I have a very short specific time that I have availability to play games.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff:And I think that, I think that, one of the things that when I see these championship things from an expectation standpoint, that is always kind of scary to me
Alexander:Yeah. What?
Jeff:Is that they go, okay. At minute twenty two, these are gonna spawn.
Nick:Okay.
Alexander:Yes.
Jeff:And I'm thinking, okay. Well, then I might be playing this game for an hour.
Alexander:Yeah. So I will say MOBAs, typically, the game time is a bit longer than what you might expect or see from other games. Right. They could last anywhere from, like, fifteen to twenty minutes to, like, over an hour.
Nick:You can get over an hour. Yeah. I I yeah. I I would say that I think you do need to have some level of commitment. I think if you're used to watching, like, an hour long Netflix show Yep.
Nick:Or a few episodes of other series, I think you should go into that sort of mindset if you are allocating time for League of Legends. It's not an in and out, like, oh, we're playing checkers and, you know, we're we're done in, like, five minutes. Right. Yep.
Alexander:There is, like, a a time commitment to it. That is true. But I think especially with the game having, like, a surrender system
Jeff:Yep.
Alexander:Some of the games might end faster, especially if the team thinks that it's not going to win. So there are games like this where they think that if the game looks insurmountable, your team can like vote as a unit, to surrender and just move on to the next game.
Nick:Endgame, not wait not spend any more time on on what feels like either it's it's such a a task to do Yeah. Or it's just, like, impossible at this point.
Alexander:Yeah. So, like, if if you're trying to sit down and play a couple games of Call of Duty, those are, like, really, really quick. League of Legends might take a little bit longer, but also if you have a really one-sided game, it might surrender and be really quick as well. Yeah. Or it might be a really close game and then super long.
Jeff:Yeah. I think that's part of the that's part of the unknown that may stop someone from playing is that Mhmm. They they don't understand what the time commitment is because when you read about it, it's I've played 3,000 games of this. I'm at ten thousand hours, and you're thinking, I just wanna be a casual player. And what I found from the tutorial is that you can pick up to be a casual player.
Alexander:Yes. Easily.
Jeff:So one
Alexander:of the things
Jeff:that we talked about is that I'm doing a tutorial right now. The next level so you don't you don't go directly into five v five. Right? Mhmm. You you do the tutorial and then you do these, five co op players against bots or AI kind of
Alexander:Yeah. What when he says co op players, he's he means that that he will have five real people on his team playing against computers on the other team.
Nick:Yeah. To get you used to the game a little bit more. And the inklings of of communication as well as team composition. Because usually when you're just in the tutorial area, they'll give you the character. They will present you with the team that works well with you.
Nick:And then when you start working with other people, you gotta be like, what do I what should I do to make sure that this team looks good?
Jeff:Yeah. And I think that that just takes time. It it It does.
Nick:I yes. I would say for a for a lot of consider league a hobby almost.
Alexander:Yeah. You
Nick:can be a casual player. You can just hop in, play a little bit. Easy. You have a good time. You know, you do your own time.
Alexander:You don't need to worry about match ups. You don't need to worry about learning characters. You find the one or two one or two, three characters that you think are great, are interesting, look cool aesthetically.
Nick:That's it. You do that maybe one or two games a night. That's perfect. There's no issue with that.
Jeff:And and one thing you told me which is which I thought was very helpful is that it does recommend what to buy next, what to do next, what to how to build your character.
Alexander:The the game has gotten a lot better in that it not only will recommend what items you should build, it'll give you like, oh you're going against this person, you should build this item. Or your team has this person, you should build this item. It'll tell you what you should level up. And if you're in the jungle, it'll tell you where
Nick:where to go. Which hunt which monster to hunt next.
Jeff:Which is which is great because I I know that that's not always been the case over the years.
Nick:It is not. It is brand new.
Alexander:It it is a constant battle with games like League of Legends, like MOBAs because there is a bit of a barrier to entry. Because if I wanna load up Call of Duty, man, you just need to tell me how to run and shoot. Yeah. Like, that's it. There's like way more nuance to the game.
Alexander:Run,
Nick:look, shoot.
Alexander:Yeah. There's way more nuance to the game if you wanna get really good and get competitive. But like, if I'm just loading up the game to have fun, play casually, it's super simple. League of Legends, there's a little more to it. There's more strategy to it and the game needs to figure out a way to hand hold you at least a little bit so that it can take some of that thinking away, that processing power that you have away from one thing that you can focus on something else.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't think
Jeff:it's the thinking side so much. It's because it's such a huge volume of information. Making it easy, making it more consolidated, making, because you don't have to follow what they say.
Nick:Yeah. Right.
Jeff:You know? But it allows you the ability to learn as you're building because I think that when I played Smite Yeah. I always find it found it difficult to figure out what I was gonna buy, what I was gonna do, and, you know, how I was gonna build the next one every time I got killed and had to go back.
Alexander:SMITE did it slightly differently when you were playing where you could check a box and the game would just build items for you.
Nick:Yeah. They would just be like, oh, what are the top six items that, this character would would build? And then it just built it for you in in its static order.
Alexander:Yeah. It's done a little bit better of a job now where it recommends what is popular for the game mode for your character. So if you're in assault, which is a very different game mode than conquest, and this is getting like way too specific about smite, but you don't want to build conquest items for assault because it's a very different game mode and you wanna build more like sustain items for assault because you can't go back to base to heal.
Jeff:So that that's a that's another thing that's that is, kind of different than than what we see in our there there really is only the one kind of game mode.
Nick:Basically. I there you have to get comfortable with the one map of League of Legends. There is another map and that's seen as like sort of the fun house. It's, like, very, very loose. If if that's the casual, like, that's, it is known as ARAM.
Nick:You get assigned a random character and then it's five v five. You're pushing one lane. There's no jungle. There's nothing to worry about. It's just five people beating each other up and then the game ends.
Nick:And those games never last longer than thirty minutes.
Jeff:Because you're just beating up each other. Yeah.
Alexander:You're just beating up each other.
Nick:At the end, the game will end inevitably quickly.
Alexander:It's literally like team wipe into you team wiping them into them team wiping you and It's like
Nick:a just imagine a tug of war.
Alexander:Yeah. No.
Nick:No. Yeah. It it has to end with someone, you know, falling. Yep. But but back back to getting in, how to get in, what to worry about, I would say if you have there's there's two things that I recommend.
Nick:One, we're we're doing this from the perspective that you have a working PC, laptop, whatever. Yeah. Almost anything. Anything. It runs on anything.
Nick:But if you don't have that, if you, you know, just have like a gaming console, you can download another version of League of Legends on your phone. Yep. If if and that is even more casual and more friendly and and open. I recommend both of those.
Alexander:The the mobile game is called Wild Rift. League of Legends Wild Rift. Yeah. In case you're looking for it. But, yeah.
Alexander:If you just type in League of Legends in the whatever store, it will come up.
Nick:Yeah. I I think the the barrier to entry is is very low in terms of, hardware requirements.
Alexander:Dang, I bet you don't even need to see yes in Wild Rift.
Nick:I'm not sure. Yeah. But there there is a lot of things to be aware of. As we're talking, we you've said it, we've we've barely scraped
Alexander:the the top of the iceberg. Oh my god. There's so much.
Nick:Which is why it's so alluring but so daunting in many aspects. And I don't think that you should that should be, like dissuade you from even trying. I think
Jeff:I I think your recommendation of picking a couple of characters that seem interesting to you
Nick:Every time.
Jeff:And then just pick those no matter what, you know, initially, that's what you're gonna do.
Alexander:Yeah. I will say in games like League of Legends, part of the monetization strategy is to put characters behind paywalls. Yeah. So if you're starting out and you're like, I thought these guys said there are a 69 characters. Why do I have access to 30 of them Or less.
Alexander:Or less. That's because a lot of the characters are not available. But in a good way, League of Legends and games like it have what's called a rotating, like, free pool of characters. So there are characters that are available to you that you can play even if you don't technically own them.
Nick:And they will, you can try them out, you can test them. It's a great way Yep. To get a feel for variety because they always make sure that there's always a top laner, a jungler, a mid laner, an ADC, and a support always in rotation.
Alexander:Yep. So whatever role you wanna play, you'll have options there. And also, as someone who's has a very low level account, as you level up, they give you the means to purchase at least a couple characters very easily. Yeah. So you can just look around and find like, this guy looks fun.
Alexander:I'm gonna choose him. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. That was the thing was I went in and I'm like, oh, that character looks interesting. You do not have enough experience. Yeah.
Nick:There it we haven't even talked about this. It is a free to play game. Yeah. A lot of games are like, oh, $30 to get in, $40 to get in, 60, 70 dollars to to even touch the game. League of Legends is free to play.
Nick:It is free. And it it it is obvious that it is based on how heavy they push microtransactions Yeah. As well as wanting you to spend money, but you don't have to spend a cent.
Jeff:And and spend anything. As as a person that doesn't play us a lot, I don't think the push has been that hard.
Nick:No. No. I don't I
Alexander:don't think so either. I think especially as you like going in there, a lot of what these micro transactions are playing on is feelings of like missing out, like the feeling of FOMO, the fear of missing out. Or like, oh man, I really love Trundle. Oh, League of Legends just released a Trundle skin. I have to get this skin.
Nick:Trundle is my mane.
Alexander:Yeah. His Trundle is my mane. I think
Jeff:the skin thing is probably the one that is most alluring to me.
Alexander:When when we talk about skins, I feel like if you're not really in in the know about games, we're talking about, like, costumes for your characters.
Nick:Yeah. They're known as skins. It sounds odd. Yeah.
Alexander:It sounds weird. In in looking
Nick:at it from an outside perspective, we're like, oh, this person's skin is really good. Yeah. Like They're what?
Jeff:They're green rather than
Nick:Yeah. But it it did it does base off of that. It it does stem from, oh, they have a different skin because, yeah, it it did start off a bare bones, like, instead of having a a blue aesthetic, oh, they're now red. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. Or I know that there's Smite used to do this. They used to pick, like, the Hobbit skin or or Yeah. Things like that which
Alexander:Here's what I'll say. League of Legends looks like a fifteen year old game.
Nick:Yep.
Alexander:And that's unfortunate because I think they have such good lore, they have interesting and cool characters, and so I think the skins are fine. They look okay. If you look at other MOBAs like Smite, I think Smite in particular is like the biggest
Nick:The game looks so good.
Alexander:It looks so much better. The skins are unique and interesting. Yep. And Smite has done kind of what Fortnite has done, not to the same extent, but has done kind of what Fortnite has done in the fact that like they have Avatar the Last Airbender skins.
Nick:They have Nickelodeon. They have
Alexander:Nickelodeon skins. They have Magic the Gathering skins.
Nick:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There are Slipknot skins. Slipknot skins. League of Legends have been so protective not to let anything Yeah. I'm pretty sure they could if they wanted to easily.
Nick:Absolutely. But they have kept their IP and image exclusively for themselves. They they wanna
Jeff:It's like a Nintendo.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. Like the Riot Games wants to control everything. So they may have a KDA skin line, but they're not gonna have like a Slipknot or like a BlueJeans. They're not gonna have a NewJeans.
Alexander:Yeah. But, yeah, that
Nick:the barrier to entry is is basically, do you have a phone or a computer?
Alexander:It is free to play.
Nick:It is the depth of the game, I think, is the the most daunting part of it to truly get into it and understand the, like, complexities that it, it offers. And then the one that it is renowned for, and
Alexander:I think we have to Yeah. We have to mention it.
Nick:We have to mention it, and we we will probably end on it. Yeah. League of Legends has a culture attached to it. And specifically, League of Legends when playing the game of a very negative and almost bullying to, to the degree of potential harassment. Yeah.
Nick:Okay.
Jeff:I'm not see, that does not impact me as much because if you play Call of Duty, that's about as toxic as it gets.
Nick:Yeah. Well, but it's the issue where you're instead stuck for ten minutes, you're now in there for forty minutes. Correct.
Jeff:Yeah. I I I get that. And I I think that gamers in general, I think there is a
Nick:It's true. And I think any negative perspective that a gamer can have, it is highlighted in League of Legends. Yeah. To such a degree. That's that's yeah.
Nick:That's really well put. When I have played a lot of games of League of Legends. I have basically seen every word under the sun.
Alexander:Oh, God.
Nick:I have seen any combination of words under the sun. It is it is not fun to see. Yeah. Riot has cracked down on it, especially recently, but it is still there. It is still prevalent.
Nick:And I would say the the one thing to to always keep in mind if you truly want to at least attempt League of Legends, ignore them. Yeah. It it is all I can say.
Alexander:I think there's an option to turn off like, right now, I have, like, a level 14 or 15 account. My all chat is disabled. Yeah.
Nick:All chat means the enemy can talk to you.
Alexander:Yeah. You can talk to them. They can talk to you. Everyone sees it. Normally, you can just talk to your team.
Alexander:That's what I have. I think I need to enable all chat. You
Nick:need to enable it.
Alexander:I would, right now, don't enable it.
Nick:Don't do it.
Alexander:If you're starting out. I would also recommend, if you can, find someone to play with.
Nick:Oh my gosh. Play with people.
Alexander:It makes it makes the experience so much better.
Nick:I've played thousands of games. I haven't I've played maybe 10 alone. And that's pushing it.
Jeff:Yeah. Well, and and the way you communicate with them is through usually Discord. Right? Yeah.
Nick:Yeah. You find find someone I I don't I don't care what service you use. There's usually like a hierarchy, like, oh, do I use this? Yeah. Do whatever is comfortable.
Nick:I in the past, I've I've had my phone on Yeah. And I'm just on a call with someone with, like, my ear open talking to them. But, like, find just find a way to communicate. If you are in the same room as them, maybe you bring a laptop over to their house and you play together and you're just chilling. Right?
Nick:I Yeah. That is a way to connect because you're playing with them, and I I highly recommend always being with someone. I think it adds to a way to enjoy it more and to actually, like, appreciate the experience because if you just trudge through League of Legends alone, there's no reason to stay. Yeah. Unless you're so invested in a character, in the gameplay, in the the ranked climb, which we didn't even talk about We didn't
Alexander:even talk about our ranks.
Nick:But that's perfect. But we're talking about the game, and if there is a moment where you can share a positive experience with someone that you know in it, it just makes makes the experience all the more magical.
Jeff:Yeah. I mean, I think that for me, these are escapes for me. So me being alone is not as daunting to me.
Alexander:Yeah.
Jeff:I mean, I think I think I look at these differently. I'm not vested in it. This is me getting away from what I do day to day and escaping into it. I think it'd be cool to have other people. Because when we played Smite together Yeah.
Jeff:I really enjoyed that.
Alexander:Dude, we're trying to trying to play with you. We're trying
Nick:to get into your body.
Alexander:But I I will say by virtue of a PVP game, a player versus player game, you're getting into this for the competitiveness at least a little bit.
Jeff:Right.
Alexander:Because, I mean, if not, you could just play Stardew Valley together.
Nick:Yeah.
Alexander:Right? There is that competitiveness and there is that, like, wanting to win, that that wanting to be good.
Jeff:Plus, you know, killing someone is is kind of
Nick:a Yeah.
Alexander:Yeah. Yeah. There's that there's that rush. There's that adrenaline. I think playing with someone else really helps ground you into being like, oh, we're still playing a game.
Alexander:Like, we're supposed to be having fun and we can still be a little competitive and still be laughing and enjoying our time here. And I think a lot of people, because League of Legends has so many people, it's the outspoken people who are very loud, very noisy, who are not having fun and want other people to not have fun, that really becomes that main focus. Yeah. And at the end of the day, if you're queuing with a bunch of people, or you're queuing with one, two, even a whole team, it just makes the experience more enjoyable because you all can just have fun, be silly. Yeah.
Jeff:Yeah. It's like whenever we watch these guys when they they play that game with the orange space
Alexander:Oh, Lethal Company. Lethal
Jeff:when they play Lethal Company and they're all talking to each other Yeah. That is that to me seems like half the fun of it.
Nick:Yeah. Talking back to each other. There's a sense of camaraderie I will also add.
Alexander:Are we about to get you to download Lethal Company too?
Nick:There's a sense of camaraderie when playing a team game against other players. When you are able to communicate and coordinate with the with the people you're with Yeah. And successfully win or pull off
Alexander:a
Nick:full maneuver, that's like a a little bit of, like, excitement. It adds to the depth of of the moment as well.
Jeff:I think it also it allows you to say, man, that was the dumbest thing I've ever done.
Alexander:Yeah. Exactly. And be like The other guy going, yeah. I do that all the time. Why did you
Nick:why did you do that? The other guy going,
Alexander:I don't know what you're talking about. You didn't see anything. You didn't see that.
Nick:Yeah. Yeah. We're just about out of time.
Jeff:Yeah. We are about out of time. Number one, if you've stuck to the very end, we're gonna say that the normal things with YouTube is thank you so much for sticking with us. Please, subscribe. Please give us comments.
Jeff:What do you want us to say? What would you like for us to talk about? We are always up for a good topic, you know.
Alexander:Yeah. I'm I mean, we are just three guys sitting here talking.
Nick:Between the three of us, we've we've interacted with many, many aspects of the world. Yeah. We'll find something that we could talk about or or honestly, one of us tries something new and then comes back to the group and relays information.
Jeff:Like like this one was basically an off the cuff comment that I made. So
Alexander:Yeah. Alright. Really quickly though before we run out of time. Thanks. What was everyone's favorite?
Alexander:We'll start with dad. And if it helps, we'll we'll throw them out here. We've got the frog man. We've got the noser. We've, of course, got the IPA.
Alexander:And then we've got the coffee cake blonde.
Jeff:Definitely the noser. The dark beer was just my favorite.
Alexander:The brown ale, really good one. Nick, what about you?
Nick:I'm gonna go with the frog man.
Alexander:The frog man. It
Nick:was so refreshing.
Alexander:The lager, really refreshing, very good. Oh, man. Yeah. Honestly, I really did like those. I think I I like the nose or the most, if I'm gonna be honest.
Alexander:It it was really good.
Jeff:Can you imagine tasting it on a draft?
Alexander:Very good. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, we'll have to go down there at some point.
Nick:So true.
Alexander:And I think we will. Thank you all so much for watching. We'll catch you next time. We've been the three hamster boys, and, peace out.