User blog:CCoville/Wallowing in Smurfitude

So, once again, it's been a while since I've checked in to the site and did some blogging. Life has been busy lately with work and the fact that the wife and I have a baby on the way. I can only imagine what the kid is going to do to affect my video game time. I still have Fallout New Vegas to beat, Portal 2 to start playing, and a couple of other games to get serious with. Not to mention my obsession with this silly game.

So lately I've been spending a lot of time smurfing. When I came to the realization that there are so many champs that I've never played and that I don't find playing against bots too fulfilling, I decided to get down and dirty and grind out as many previously un-played champs as I can. Because I over-structure everything I do I came up with the system of playing each champ 5 times on my lowest level account, TheChet (or thechet79 as it is displayed in-game). Once I get 5 games under my belt it's easy to determine whether or not I absolutely hate a champ or willing to give it a few more tests. So far my hate list is limited to Renekton, Pantheon, LeBlanc, Mordekaiser, and Veigar. I'm also getting the feeling that Vlad, Shaco and Corki might be joining, but we'll see. There's a good chance that I'll never be playing them again. After that I give them all another 5 games on my other smurf account, Spacecowboy79. At that point I start to get an idea of who I'm going to enjoy playing on my main, Ashtray79.

First of all, after finally adjusting to life in Level 30, it's almost difficult to go back. Considering that I am starting to realize my favored role is Tank or Fighter, the difference is that much more apparent. There's way more leavers, way more feeders, way more people who troll their own team, and way more people who just don't know what they're doing. On the other hand there's also the oppurtunity to completely steamroll an overmatched opponent, which I never feel good about.

I like to think that I'm not taking advantage of newbies by smurfing in that I'm just trying to learn the basics of each champ. The encounters of fellow level 30 folks who snag Yi and just try to beat up on everyone have been frequent. However, it's incredibly satisfying to get your team on the same page and turn that fed 8/0/0 Yi during the laning phase in to a 10/10/0 punching bag by mid-game.

The other thing I've learned is that the instincts I have for what champs I like to play has remained the same. I am definitely tank/fighter/support guy. Where I once complained about always having to tank I've come to realize that I love it. Rammus, Amumu, Shen, Galio and fighters like Nasus, Nunu, Malphite, and Blitzcrank are all dudes I enjoy. But smurfing has also allowed me to find some carries and mages that are fun too like Kogmaw, Jax, Nidalee, Ryze, Cass, Malz, Cait, Teemo, and Ashe. And of course there's the supports that Ive liked since the beginning. Pretty much all of them.

So there's that. Eventually I'll get tired of this and go back to my main account and eventually get in to some ranked. But now when that happens I'll have more than a handful of champs that I'll know how to play and avoid any messy situations should my mains get taken or banned. Time to get back to work. That's it, that's all.