In Memoriam - Joe

We are on a brink of golden progress for the game of League of Legends - The 101st champion releases, a long awaited rework on stealth is upcoming, Xin Zhao is becoming manlier, and League has been recognized as the most played PC game in history. Unfortunately, I bring news that is a cold wave to the warm celebration that grips the community today. A fellow summoner has passed away - Joe died June 5th, at 5 p.m. to Ewings Sarcoma.

A few months ago, Riot Games held a skin sale for the Make-a-wish foundation in support of Joe. Starting May 4th, and lasting until May 18th the Jaximus skin was put on sale, and 100% of the revenue was pledged to charity in the name of making wishes come true. This was a huge contribution by Riot, and all in the name of giving back to the community that supported them with their play.

Now who was Joe? Joe was a 17 year-old League of Legends player from Westchester, Pa. With his Father he visited the Riot HQ and got to meet with creators and developers from his favorite gaming company. Joe would play League of Legends as he underwent many forms of treatment for his disease. Not only was it something to pass the time, but it kept Joe close to his friends, and their relationships strong as his will.

At the end of the charity event Riot and its community had raised over 480,000 + dollars. Not only did the generous donation by Riot and the community of League of Legends help Joe, but it now supports thousands of other people just like Joe who suffer from Ewings Sarcoma and other types of cancer. Riot had given Joe one of his semifinal wishes, and their community backed their fellow summoner with thousands of dollars in aiding his treatment and supporting him in the battle against cancer.

Joe's favorite champion in the League of Legends was Jax, the Grandmaster. Riot's tribute to him through the Jaximus sale was a demonstration of kindness and compassion that sets the standard for the definition of a community focused gaming company. But now, in honor of his battle against cancer they have given Jax a unique line on his Jaximus skin - "Here's to you, kid" will be heard as Jax makes his way down lane, and using sheer might, his opposition will fall before him as Joe - with supportive positivity, and brute determination faced his disease with indistinguishable hope that he would prevail.

Though Joe has left us now, he will forever live on in the League of Legends community as a symbol of unwavering hope, and relentless positivity. Through his passing a new bar has been raised on compassion, kindness, generosity, and caring in a gaming comapny and community. Not only did Riot Games initiate the charity to aid Joe, but we summoners raised almost 500,000 dollars in hopes of a total strangers recovery. The selflessness of this community has shown, and it shines bright.

There are genuine people who against all odds can still hold a smile - a bulwark of immovable hope that will live on forever in our hearts. "Here's to you, kid". Rest in peace.

The Yordles Band Release New Song: The Legend!

The Yordles Band is a small group of League of Legends players who positively contribute to the community through their musical talents. In their newest update, "The Legend", Miles "Uberguitardude" and Sonny "Sonny Psydup" bring interesting sound and storytelling through Graves to an audience of Veigar and Teemo about the mysterious and mystical Blind Monk.

"The Legend" is the fifth musical installment by The Yordles Band. Though the group has only released four other pieces of content, I do recommend everyone go to their youtube channel here and listen to their other wonderful works that do justice for the champions they parody. Plus, they totally sound like yordles in "The Yordle Ballad".

Why Support Mundo Works

As I said in the podcast (Low Elo Episode 28 - Questions Answered) I finally found out where our beloved Dr. Mundo should go. He does everything that many other non-healing supports can do, and he can actually be relatively powerful without much gold. Here's the skinny on what I've been testing for my now-famous support Mundo. 

What's something that supports need to have to be successful? One word- crowd control. Okay, maybe that's two words, but every support in the game has some form of it. Taric has a stun, Janna has a knock up and a slow, Soraka even has a silence, Alistar is a giant cow full of it. One big way a support supports the team in the current League of Legends meta is to apply CC to the enemy champions. Now, if you've ever gone against a support Nunu (which is pretty popular right now, and acceptable in high-level and championship play) then you know what a detriment his spammable ice ball can be to your farming AD-Carry needs. 

Now take the annoyance factor from Nunu's ice ball, and multiply it by, let's say (to be conservative) ten million billion. Mundo's cleaver is the very definition of spammable. Much moreso than Nunu's iceball. Also, it does more damage (with a percentage of the enemy's health tacked on) and has a 2 second cooldown. 

If you're experienced enough to understand what 'zoning' means during the laning phase, then you know what this one skill is capable of doing IF you can hit it. Heck, even if you CAN'T hit them with it, you still can force them back and zone them out. Hitting it consistently means you are about to feed your AD carry kills. 

One skill does not a support make, however, so look at his others. Reduced crowd control from Burning Agony, his W (plus a token amount of damage - unless you go magic pen Mundo, but I have yet to test that as support) and the biggest flat attack damage steriod in the game with Masochism, his E. At level 5, Masochism gives a flat 100 boost to attack damage + .85 per 1% of your health that is missing. At 1% health, Mundo gets a bonus of 184.15 AD. 

That amount of damage coming from a support can catch an enemy by surprise. You will get kills. Even though it is not optimal to get "kills" on a support, in almost every game I find myself in a kill or be killed situation, and if I were playing any other support, even tanky ones like Taric, Leona, or Nunu, I have no hope but to run away. With Mundo, you can just murder their face (your results may very, use with caution :) 

Last but not-at-all least is the ultimate. Sadism. This is what makes Mundo a sponge, and the ultimate champion to screw with your enemies' minds. With the movespeed buff and heal you can erase all the damage that was done to you. You can make enemy Karthuses rage when their ult fails to kill you, you can get away from four man ganks bottom. It's fabulous. 

Here are some tips for using Mundo's ultimate successfully.

1) NEVER FORGET - it costs 20% of your max health to cast - too many Mundo's use the Ulti as an "oh crap" button right after they've taken a bunch of burst damage. Don't do this! You're just helping them kill you! 

2) USE it while running away/avoiding damage 

3) Use it preemptively as a gank is coming in from your team, then go balls to the wall. 

The perfect ganking situation is this- Jungler comes to bot lane (via bushes or through lane) you use your ultimate out of the enemies' vision, then charge in super fast and begin spamming your cleaver. AD carry and jungler catch up and secure the kill. 

Of course this can go wrong in a thousand ways, but that's the idea. 

Anyway. I am becoming a bigger and bigger believer in the power of support Mundo. If you're tired of the same old support, give him a try. I'm still experimenting with runes, masteries, and builds, but I will be back next week with a few build options, and I would love to hear any feedback you may have.