League of Legends: My Leap into the PVP Deep End and never looking back!

My original plan was to play on CO-OP vs AI till I reached level 20 then to jump into PVP so that I would only be 10 levels away from level 30 for Ranked. However the lure of PVP got me after I hit level 12. I realized that at level 12 I got all the summoner spells that were available so why not now. Plus after watching almost every single LCS NA and EU Summer Splits and talking with my friend GeneralFoamy08, that I realized the bots in CO-OP don't play like real people. Now a lot of you would already know this or think "no kidding".  But I am writing this for people like me who don't know or are just beginning to enjoy this most addictive game that is League of Legends.

So in watching the LCS for the past month or so, you start to see how the game is played by the best in the world. Go into lane, farm farm farm, harass the other champion in your lane, jungler sets up a gank then back to farming, buy and build, then teamfight, oh did I mention farm, then win or lose ROTFLMAO. Now when you play in CO-OP vs AI this is what happens, go into lane, other champion places himself between your minions and their minions, the try and kill you every time they get a chance, you trade shots at each other, you try to farm, no ganks from the bots, then you either snowball or get snowballed. So I knew from watching and talking that I had built my play-style to match what was going on in the LCS, that gave me the confidence to go ahead and make the plunge into PVP.

I can admit that I was nervous about going into PVP for the first time. I realize that I would be playing with people that I have never or will never meet in person. With the sheer number of people playing on League of Legends, I would probably never play with them ever again. But you still don't want to be the one to cause a loss, to get yelled at or raged on. Some people play just to have fun, while others play to get better and be as competitive as possible. I am the later but I want it to be fun. I replay every match that I play in to find out where I can be better and improve my game play. I watch a ton of videos that people have put up on YouTube in order to learn any little trick or tip that will improve my play. I read build guides from Mobafire, LOLpro and others as an example. I think about new champions that I can play later on as I level up. I can say that it lets me use my mind and think about a ton of strategies that I can come up with. 

Like the title says once you go into PVP, you won't ever want to go back and play CO-OP unless if you don't get your First Win of the Day bonus ROTFLMAO. I played my first couple of games and instantly knew that all the work that I have put in (which I know is not even a tenth of what other people have put in) has helped. My last hit skill was good not great yet, but was above average. I had to fine tune my build order and ability level up order which would take time. I got to experience my first team surrender that I voted against. I experienced my first champion in my lane feeding me and I experienced at least twice a horrible match up for me in lane. I saw what would happen if I was left unchecked and I snowballed. I saw what happens when the other team snowballs. I would always look at the champions on the other side that I went up against or that had snowballed and see what spells they had and why they did what they did. 

This game is such a great way for you to be able to think on the fly, to use strategy and build hand and eye coordination. I will say that I can't wait to people up a team of 5 that we can just play together and build our own strategy and tactics. Like with any of the eSport games right now, I feel like you can take a group of people and put them on a team (regardless of age) and they would be able to compete on an upper level with the right training and tactics. The whole idea that these type of athletes have a special type of skill or some genetic ability to me is not true. I am look to see if I can prove that with in the next year or so. They will have to be dedicated to wanting to excel at improving their game-play and compete at the highest level. 

Follow along with me as I set out to get to level 30 then move into ranked play. What would the LOL world come to if they saw a 40 yr old playing on the main stage at LCS???

Lionheart IndyCar Series: The Indianapolis "The Half Quart" 250 Race Recap

Coming off of my iRacing Indy 500, gave me plenty of time to no how the car would handle on the track, what type of gas mileage I would get and real good data that I feel like will make a difference. We were going to use the exact same setup that I used in the Indy 500 for our Fixed Setup so I already had 4 hours and 500+ miles on it. This will be a perfect time to use the mistakes I had in the Indy 500 race to my advantage. Oh but 2 cars before the race on Wednesday, iRacing releases the new build with the Official fixed setups and that is what we will use as we are a fixed series. So time to start all over LOL. Now from what I have heard that the official setup is almost just like the one we were going to use that we all worked on and built from CCM. So I still had hope.

Race day was here. I knew that it would be about 2 hours of racing, so I was prepared with my water, already ate (cause it starts at 11:50pm my time) and restroom break. Qualifying went okay not great. Started in 12th. Now in the Indy 500, I didn't get a chance to qualify so they started me in 14th which I then decided to start from the pits cause I didn't know anyone that I was racing with. This is where this great league comes into play. I felt very comfortable driving against the drivers in the top split, so I was very comfortable to be starting in 12th and on the track. Great start worked my way up 1 spot to 11th then the first caution came out which with a couple of drivers pitted put me into 9th. Just to give you an idea what great racers we had, in a 250 miles 100 lap race, we had only 2 cautions in a normal race in iRacing that would not have happened. Just lets you know the class of drivers that are racing in the top split of the league. So again not to do a lap by lap detail of my race (that will come later). I had it set up to pit twice to make it with just enough gas to finish according to Dashmeter Pro. Now speaking of Dashmeter Pro, if the race you are going to do is a rolling start put in 1 lap more than what is scheduled LOL. As an example this race was 100 laps with one pace lap so actually 101. So if you enter 100 laps, Dashmeter Pro will calculate your remaining fuel and fuel needed to finish based on just the 100 laps not including the pace lap. Why am I making a point about this CAUSE I RAN OUT OF GAS ON THE BACK STRAIGHTWAY!! Now when you are going 226 mph it allows you the ability to coast a mile to the finish line. However being mindful of me slowly down and having to coast to the finish line, I dropped down to the access road at turn 3. The downside is you can't take the access road at 225 mph so I had to slow down, so I had to use my brakes which slowed down my coasting ability. When did I realize this? When I got in between turn 3 and turn 4 and thought to myself I might not make it to the finish. I could feel myself starting t raise up out of the seat and kind of scoot my chair forward thinking that would help. As soon as my nose touched the start finsh line the car shut off, I just made it and stayed on the lead lap LOL.

Again another great race, ran with the professionalism and sportsmanship of the Lionheart Racing Series league. If you get a chance, please look us up on iRacing, on our website at http://www.lionheartracingseries.com/ and now on our YouTube channel at Lionheart Racing Series YouTube .

League of Legends: it a heck of a drug!/LOLesports.com

I think this should just be the start of every post I do about League. Cause that is the only way I can describe the hold this games get over you if you are a competitive person and always strive to be in the top tier of everything you do. I have had some really good runs with both Ryze and Kayle. Now I have been concentrating more on Ryze just cause you see more Kayle bans than you do Ryze. However you are starting to see Ryze bans on the LOL pro level but hat is more for a certain player on the opposite team that plays Ryze and plays him well ie VoyBoy, Balls, and Pobelter. Also again after hours and hours of YouTube videos and watching competition play on LOLesports.com, I have been able to increase my play drastically. Now again as I have said many times before, Yes it is still CO-op vs AI. But it is up to you to play the game the way you want to do better. Most people play AI to either get their First Win of the Day bonus or to just go HAM and feel better about their play. I however have been playing it with the way that I plan on playing in PvP. Yes I know the bots don't ward and they will not play the way a human will, however they will react to your movement faster than any human and also it really is for me to tune movements. Plus and this has helped my hugely has been that since I stream my matches on Twitch.tv, I go back and look at how I did whether it was a win or lost and see mistakes that I made and take notes. One of the biggest mistake that I did was to click Attack click move instead of right click chasing a enemy champion toward their tower. As soon as I get past the minions then press Attack Click Move, I would spin around and attack the closest minion instead of continuing to run after the champion that always needed just one more hit to kill it. Plus I found many other things that I needed to work on, so before logging in and starting to game, I go over the 2 sided piece of paper where I wrote down everything that I needed to improve on so that it is in my head. Another thing that I saw a lot of the pros do is, hang around in the lane building up gold instead of running back every time you got enough to buy what you needed to start a recipe for an item. What I use to do is, if I was building lets say Guardian Angel, as soon as I got enough money to buy just 1 piece of the recipe I would run back without any regard to what was going on in my lane. Now I stay in till I push up to their first tower or kill the bot in lane or I die, then get what I need and more. Now this works best for early game, but mid to late game I will go back earlier time cause what you build later in the match the items that make up what you are trying to build has more of an impact on your strength in the match. There are a ton of other things that I did wrong that I am currently working on and I think I will post a blog as what I have learned so far and what I have done to help me with advancing my skill (but I am no way ready or the best at all)

So because of my hectic stressful last week getting ready for the Miami Homestead 150 race with Lionheart Indycar series and getting ready for the ATC 40k Tournament, I didn't get hardly any play in. However the last game I played I went 6/0/9 on bot. I had read or saw a video about how with this game being so muscle memory and tactical, that you should really try not to go more than a full day between playing. So I was a little worried that it had been days since I got on last, when I got on last night. In a video that I watch regarding CDR (cooldown reduction), I found out that you can only have a CDR of 40% and I wondered how much I was using. So we I go to the Rift with just my Masteries, I am at 5% CDR. So I added to my item set last night to bring in more CDR and added The Spirit of the Ancient Golem and Ionian Boots of Lucidity. So game 1, I get an invite from a friend of mine to get in a game. And the weirdest thing happens, I can see the Platform but no one else, no gold..nothing. So I tried everything I could think of till I finally had to exit game then reconnect. And it worked, however everyone was at least level 8, while I was level 1. So this was going to be fun. But I slowly and cautiously I fought my way up to level 13 before we got the Nexus. One thing that I had to work on what my Last Hit timing, and let me tell you by joining the game finally so many levels down compared to everyone else, you make sure you get every last hit you can so you can level up quickly. I think I finished 2/3/9 the first game and the 3 deaths came from just being at a 7 level deficit starting out. Then the second match I did to me real well. That is the match I went 8/0/6 mid against Annie. I stayed in lane, farmed like crazy, poked and harassed, waited to get multiple items instead of running all the time, constantly moved instead of just attacking standing in one place. I also did another item build order which included Spirit Visage and Spirit of the Ancient Golem as the new adds to my list. Now I know it is bots, but I was the first to level 18 had 13.5k gold (which is the highest I have ever gotten) finished with 179 minion kills and I was taking damage and the HP was barely if at all moving. So even if it was bots, I know that my play is getting better just by I increased all of these stats. 179 minions and the 13.5k Gold means my late hit has improved. The more Gold means building better items quicker which means dealing our damage and taking damage. After watching Scarra play Ryze, I paid very close attention to his ability order which I tried to copy. I just need to focus on knowing by feel when the cooldown is over.

PLEASE CHECK OUT AND FOLLOW MY TWITCH.TV/BCUTLER2003. Just stop in see what is going on. I will be setting up more about it here in the future including overlays,voice and graphics.

Thank you again for taking the time out of your day and reading this.

League of Legends: First experience of AFKers and first loss!

Help me! Help me! It is always on my mind the more and more I get into it! Now to the subject of the title. So if you read my last post regarding LOL, you would know that I am playing CO-OP vs AI Beginner till I reach level 10 then going to Intermediate till level 15 from then it will be PVP to level 30 then Ranked from there on out. Now with everything I do when it comes to getting better by learning, I take every scenario as if it is the real thing. So before I get people saying to me I am spending too much time in AI battles, I am looking at these as ways that I can approve. And I have heard the horror stories of people playing in PVP games or Ranked games and there teammates either sitting at platform or just disconnecting. I never thought I would experience both of these things in a Bot match. Oh how wrong was I! I have been streaming every game that I can (if it doesn't mess up like it did last night for 1 game). And here is the recording address http://www.twitch.tv/bcutler2003/b/545522459. Please if you want to look at it and see what happened feel free to do it. Plus if you have any advice, also let me know. I have started writing down what happens in the game and I just went back and looked at a Kayle match and a Ryze Match of mine and took notes of what I did wrong. The most common thing which I knew as soon as I did it in the match what I did wrong. Is when chasing down a champion that I can take out with one more hit, DO NOT HIT ATTACK CLICK MOVE!!! 5 times in 2 games, I hit that button (which I have as A) and my champion turned around from from the champion and attacked a minion instead. 5 Fricking Times!! There was more than half of a page each side of notes so I have lots to work on. As in this game, we had 1 guy that kept disconnecting and another 2 that just did nothing at all until half way in. I had to run sacrifice on our base once they got into to it. Why would people do that in a Bot game? It makes no sense to me to go through the process of picking a champion and waiting for it to load just to not play. My 7 winning streak broken cause of nothing that I could do myself. I am not going to give up and surrender just do what I can. So needless to say from that game I took away don't give up. I have absolutely embraced this game and hope to make it to Challenger Tier. And for the first time I had 3 players honor me and 2 added to my friend list. So I am growing. Yes I know that I should probably be in PVP right away but this is how I am doing it. If you want please follow me on twitch.tv @ www.twitch.tv/bcutler2003.

League of Legends: You Addictive SOB!!!

So I suggest that on the League of Legends website there should be a disclaimer;"This game is addictive and it will consume your every waking hour!" ROTFL! When you take a game that  incorporates a steep learning curve with a game that can be played a million different ways and you want to be very good at it, it consumes every minute of the day. At least for me it does. This is a game that is so much fun but also so easy to make mistakes. I would ask anyone playing the game if they feel like they have learned everything that can be learned. To me, I feel like there is no way to learn everything there is to learn because the items that can be built and the spells that can be used and the combination of these plus the number of different champions, throw in with that playing solo with a group of people the game joined you with or getting to a point where you start playing with friends and then team tactics come into play. You can tell how complex the game is just by the long run on sentence I just typed ROTFL. When I started playing I had no idea how to play the champion that I picked Ryze. I would go down a lane, run into the minions, skip over them and try and kill the other champion from the other team. Oh wait the other champion is running away chase after them, killed by turret. Okay the turrets will kill you quickly, so back in the lane, chase down the champion, oh he is running at the turret, stop and kill some of the minions just for fun. Oh wait I just leveled up by killing the minions. Okay so I will just kill the minions. Wait a minute how come my teammate is leveling up and getting gold by hitting the same minions I am attacking. Etc., Etc., Etc., ROTHFL. So I could write a novel as to all the things I learned in just my first game or so I thought. So as my typical way of learning games rather it be how I improved my COD: Ghost, Black Ops 2 or Titanfall game, I go to good old reliable YouTube. So have you ever typed in League of Legends on Youtube?? 1,400,000 videos that have League of Legends in the tag words. So where to begin? I found LOLesports.com on Twitter. So like I did with Ghost and watching the pros on MLG or Twitch (in the case of Evil Geniuses), I watch almost every game that was going on in the EU League Championship Series and the NA League Championship Series (LCS for short). As first it was like the commentators were speaking a different language and when all of the champions got into a huge fight I had no idea who was were and what was going on. But I saw how they started out the game at least. I saw what the minions were actually there for. I saw how they "farmed" then made a "poke attack" or "ganked" the other team. So I was starting to get an idea of how the dynamics of the game is played. I started to understand what the Dragon was for and the Baron was for. Then I found www.mobafire.com and subscribed to the websites. Found a Ryze build and a Kayle build. These were the two champions that I decided to use. The funny thing was I had Ryze for the whole first week I started playing. And the whole time he had an exclamation mark on his icon which I had no idea what that was for. So last night I wanted to play Ryze instead of Kayle (which has a mark on his icon now), but he was gone!! So the first game I played with someone that picked him so I thought that was it. Then the next game he was still gone. I had no idea that I had to buy him and that the mark meant he was free ROTFL. So I got him and built him up using a guide from www.mobafire.com. I also have a Kayle build up that I got from that website as well. Now the question is which item to build first. That is what I am dealing with right now. So I am using a notebook to keep track with my KDA, what my item build order is, what mistakes I do or what I do that works. And it is so fricking addictive. I am now thinking about what items to build and in what order. I don't know the exact recipes of the items that I decide to use so my item set is huge ROTHFL. I like the builds I have right now. I am either going even with a huge assist or I am going positive so I feel like I am progressing in the game. From reading I am staying in the CO-OP vs AI beginner till about level 10 then doing CO-OP vs AI till level 15 on Intermediate. I want to have all of the Summoner spells available to me before I go into PVP then on to ranked games after hitting level 30 of course. I am so competitive that I hope I will be finding people to play with on a regular basis to form a team and rank up. You can check out my Twitch feed at www.twitch.tv/bcutler2003 to see my climb up the levels into PVP and then Ranked.

See you on the LOL Addictive Anonymous ROTFL Rift!!

League of Legends: The most fun frustrating game ever/Learn the League

I don't even know where to start or even what to say. I have never wanted to be more invested and never have wanted to research so I can learn as much as I can before for a game till now. I also have never wanted to throw, shoot, destroy or burn my computer as much as I wanted to last night playing LOL for only the 3rd Co-op vs AI game in my life.

The starts out by giving you the oppurtunity to learn in the Basic Tutorial then the Battle Tutorial. In the Basic Tutorial, it teaches how to move and how to attack.....sort of. Left click attacks and right click moves to where the cursor is. Pretty simple right? BUT THAT IS ONLY THE SMALLEST PART OF ATTACK AND MOVEMENT!! Once you get into CO-op vs AI, left click doesn't really work well. Attack is really right click on someone but also move is right click on the ground. So if you miss clicking on the target, you will move to that spot. Also if you click on an Ability then click on the target, you will follow that target unless you click somewhere after you fire your Ability. Which means if you don't pay attention you will be behind all the minions and right in the middle of the enemy champions getting your butt handed to you. What they don't teach you is the different move functions that you can really do. Move toward your target firing everytime you are in range and stopping to fire when you do. You can stop and hold your champion while moving. Or you can click one movement toward or away from your target and shoot and run away at the same time with only one click or move forward and attack with one click instead of clicking away from what is chasing you then clicking on the target chasing you then clicking away. Even typing that out takes more time and doesn't make clear sense than just clicking one movement that allows you to walk and fire at the same time.

I made sure to do what I thought would be the best thing to learn and also not to hinder my human teammates when playing in CO-op. I did the Basic Tutorial, the Battle Tutorial then started the CO-op. NO!! I feel like now that I have read that there is all these other movement and attack controls that you have to stay in Battle Tutorial to try them out. Also I went from using Ryze to using Kayla. It takes time to learn a new champion. I did okay in my opinion with Ryze, but when I used Kayla in my 3rd game I got slaughtered! The learning curve on this is so high it make one want to flip over there computer desk.....which I almost did lol.

After a Google Search, I came across the website http://learntheleague.com. I read a some of the website and some of the comments about the e-book Learn the League 13th edition. So being someone that needs to have whatever I can find to help I purchased it and started reading it last night. I am going to read it all the way through first then go back and apply one thing at a time to help my gaming. So if you are starting out playing LOL or are an advance player, this e-book is very helpful to me. So thanks to Patrick O'Callahan (@ciderhelm) for taking the time out and making and updating this guide for lost players like me.

Check out my Twitch Channel www.Twitch.tv/bcutler2003 if you want a good laugh right now watching someone getting dominated in LOL....ie ME ROTFL.  Again thank you for reading this and look for many more to come.

Clarification of Last Lionheart Series Post

First off let me say that I have completely enjoyed the racing in the iRacing Verizon Lionheart Series. Whether some non admin or non member racers kind of rubbed me a little wrong or I was just not in a great mood when I wrote it, after rereading it I realize I left out the whole purpose of the title. What the title meant was that the reason that we have practice races is to work out the kinks and issues that would come up during a official race. That way the Admin Team can get the kinks worked out and procedure protocals in place. Also to be able to work on the setup to get it so that it is not only stable but also competitive. So as far as any setup issues I said, I of course knew that this time is just a research and develop phase for the setup and its setting before the official race on July 2nd. I was just giving my personal opinion because that is what blogs are for. It is my blog so it is my personal opinion. I don't have to take anyone elses feelings or opinions in to account. I am going to be honest not brutal but honest. If my blog post came across as negative to the race series, that is not the case at all and far from it. I understand that all of the issues that I experience where: 1. it is practice and practice only. No championship points at stake, wins or loses matter. So people are going to be trying and testing what and where they can place the car. I completely understand and I understand that during the official racing series it won't or I am going to say hopefully isn't going to be like that. And the reason I say hopefully is cause we won't know who can and can't drive well. That is not a slam or bust on anyone, just a fact of any skill level sport. 2: the chatter during the practice races is not going to be what it will be during a race (again I hope). I have been in official races on iRacing and have had 2 people talk about other races and series the whole race. So I am guessing that it won't happen during the race. One thing I know for sure because of the great admin team that they have on hand, if there is unnecessary chatter during the race they will not allow it at all. However that being said, if what I said in the previous blog post hit close to home, you might need to reevaluate your use of the radio.

So I am ending this one by saying a couple of things again. This is a great group of admins that have a huge undertaking on their hands. Like I said in the previous post, I know on hand how big of an undertaking it is. Again just with real life, not everyone is going to get along with everyone. So far almost all the people that have joined the practice servers have been great. Now the ones that I have had an issue with or just their personallity did not mesh with mine could have not even been a member of the league so I can't say if they are or are not. But we are adults (or I sure say hopefully we are all older and not kids) and we will be able to race cleanly regardless. Once the season gets started the races will be password protected so that will keep non members out of the races. And let me say again and again, the previous post had somewhat of a negative feeling to it and that was not my intention at all. I am very happy with the admin, the series and the racers that are in the practice races so far.

HOWEVER AGAIN THIS IS MY PERSONAL BLOG WHICH I TALK ABOUT A LOT OF THINGS THAT I AM DOING AND ENJOY. EVERY POST IS FROM MY PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE AND THAT WILL NOT CHANGE. CAUSE THAT IS WHAT BLOGS ARE ALL ABOUT!!

Lionheart Series: And this is why we practice races first/www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23

Almost everyone who has decided to take iRacing seriously has thought to themselves, Hey I wish they had this kind of series so I will just run one myself. Before the Road Warrior series I was going to run a League series myself that would mimic at the time ALMS, WEC and Grand Am series. I researched tracks so that I would have the same track that was begin raced in real life, running that weekend in the series on iRacing. I started working on sponsors, points system, rules, qualifying setup, everything you can imagine to make it as fun and exciting. Over 40 people said on the forums that they were going to race. Even going as far as picking their own numbers. I was so excited! This is going to become the most popular league series in iRacing. Now come the day of the first practice race to test out the setup of the hosted session, the qualifying session and race. I was already to just look at 40 people in 3 different classes ready to take on the first ever Endurance iRacing Series. 5 yes I didn't make a mistake 5 people showed up. I was devastated! I even went as far as purchase a domain name and setup up a crude website just to get something up then would work on it before the first race from GoDaddy.com. And that was just me by myself. So I can definitely understand what the group of admins for the Verizon iRacing Lionheart Series are going thru right now.

When you have a series with so many different people at different levels of experience of racing, you can not make everyone happy. But it is up to the individual to understand that there is many different factors that the admins have to take into account. I have been looking at the profiles of many if not all of the racers from last nights dual practice, qualify and single race. It was such a wide range of experience of drivers. Now I am using just iRating as a standard to base this part of off. And trust you me that iRating isn't always nor is Safety Rating a telltale sign of a persons driving ability, however it gives you an idea. (Trust me after lasts nights race, my SR would have taken a beating and like in my other post I will take responsibility for any accident but last night not one of the accidents that I was involved in was my fault). In the series, you have one person that raced last night that is in the 4000 IR and someone who was 900 IR. From a Safety Rating of 4.99 to right at 2.00. Then there is me right in the middle LOL. With such a diverse group of members in the League, how do you appease everyone. The easy answer is you don't. You will have the racers with the high IR that builds their own setups that will want to either be able to build their setups or have a fixed setup that is very loose. Which if you decide to do that then what you will have is the same as the official Open Series. Which means you will have 3 to 4 people fighting for the win and everyone else seconds off of them fighting for the also ran positions. Which will kill the series after just a couple of races cause there won't be a chance of anyone from 5th on back fighting to win the series. On the flip side, you have make a setup that is fixed for the lower IR racers (which is the safest but has it's drawbacks which I will get into) which means you make it with a ton of down force, you have kind of where we are now. And here is where it gets tricky, safe and stable is always going to be the best for the majority of the racers on iRacing. It will drive away the high IR racers cause they will say, "the car has to much down force, it is boring, you can't pass" etc. Now that is a minority of the racers on iRacing. What it will do is it will get the word out to the mid to lower IR racers that there is a series where you can race, fight for a win and get some great seat time. Now the drawback which is where I feel like is where we are right now.  The setup is so stable and safe that you can run it anywhere you want which is what most racers you want but they also want to be close to the edge. So last night I realized very quickly, that if you go to the bottom of the track which is the shortest way around the track, you ALMOST can not be passed. Some people can pass on the outside but it takes the perfect scenario. And the admins can't spend all their time building a setup so you have to be understanding and just use what they give you to the best ability.

Now here are some things that I just observed. There is no malice toward anyone or the series just my observation of certain things that I saw. Somethings I say people could say I am sensitive others I think would agree with me. If you sign up for a series and it says "single file restarts" Don't bitch and complain about the single file restarts!! You signed up for the series already knowing there would be there. Which means that lapped cars could be mixed in with lead lap cars. Also lapped cars that are faster than the leaders are NOT going to slow down for the leader. They are fighting to get there lap back and since now the lucky dog is gone even more so. Also it is fun to talk about the race and small talk during the caution laps, but no one really wants to here if you have some much towing time, how much damage or if you are going to go away from the keyboard because of  you tow time left or damage or anything like that. As you race with the same people over and over, you start getting an idea of how people race. Now that can be a good thing or a bad thing. What I have noticed is who is safe to race around or who I have to be worried about. And I have started seeing the same people cause the same wrecks over and over. Some give a sorry, some don't say anything at all. But they are the same ones that can't hold their line, still can't understand the draft or try and put the car into a spot that they shouldn't be trying to. Now I am not saying I am a perfect drivers, I make mistakes and will cause an accident from time to time, however I will tell you that even to a fault I will get out of the gas so I don't slam into anyone, I will give up a position to someone who is faster than me non draft. I would rather finish 4th than cause a wreck to finish 2nd. I have seen some people that are high up in the league come down so quick that if I didn't lift they would have just slammed into me. Hey that is racing and you have to be on the ball. However most people are not like that! They will try and pass under the white line, on the grass, bump you, intimidated you by acting like they are coming down on you to make you lift. Again that is racing but it isn't skilled racing to me. But many people have expressed that they can't wait till the season start so that the quality of racing improves as people don't have unlimited rests.

Last nights race was a little hard to stomach to me. I want to say I was in the wrong place at the wrong time but I think it is more like people where racing in the wrong place given their skill level. I have witnessed the same person cause 3 wrecks and not get a bit of damage and not say a word. I have seen another person cause 4 wrecks but each time say sorry, which doesn't really overcome that they are a cause of the wrecks. You see this in any racing in iRacing however you might race with that person once a week in the series but in a league race you know you will always see the same person every week in a very small group of people.

Again these are just observation that I have seen. I am not unhappy with the league, the admin or the series. It is a new car that we are learning right now. I have felt very welcome from almost every admin and member in the league. You will always have some people who just don't take a new person coming into their world of friends which you have to understand and just be yourself.

I hope you take a look at this great League with some great people running it. I can't wait till the season starts on July 2nd. Also the race will be streamed live each race by Zach Trull his twitch channel is www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23! Also look out for a race streaming site doing reports Sportcenter style in the future.

New DW12 League Series iRacing Verizon Lionheart Series has begun!

If you have read some of my previous posts, you know that I will be racing only the new DW12 next season. I will be racing this car in both Oval and Road. This is a car that just came out before the iRacing Indy 500 (which we all know was cancelled: more on that later). So I need to get as much time in the car as possible before the next season. I was going thru the Dallara forum and came across his league. And decided to do more investigation into this series.

This league is mostly an Oval strong league with only 4 road courses, however it would give me valuable seat time with no hit to my IR or SR. One thing that drew me to the league is that they will be having a setup that is designed with input from everyone. Which is good cause from what I have heard the baseline setups are terrible and if they let one person do the setup then if that person driving style, iRating and experience will come into play. So for someone like me who has just practice for the Indy 500 as his experience, that kind of setup would be WAY to loose for me. So I got a chance to jump in to the practice race (which they will be running till the first race on July 2nd), I joined the TeamSpeak Server and the fun began!!

I was instantly greeted by Jorge Anzaldo. He thanked me for joining the TeamServer and said enjoy. Told me to download the the setup and gave me the times that the race would start. Now I am use to being on my teams TeamServer with one only other person my teammate Jon Carrigan on there. So it was interesting to have at least 3 conversations going on at the same time plus the race chatter going on. I got about 20 or so laps under my belt. They did a setup change that everyone had to download and use. Then back out for some more practice.

So next was qualifying. Just you on a track for 4 laps. I dropped the fuel to only about 9.5 gallons, cause I didn't get any fuel runs in I didn't know what my fuel burn was so I was being very safe. Any way did my 4 laps had no idea where I was till I got out. I QUALIFIED 4TH!! I was shocked!! I felt great. But there was 1 guy who was a .5 second faster than anyone. And everyone was saying over TS, there is no way that is the same setup. Anyway we started and everyone was calm and curious. The guy in first place after about 7 laps had a 5 sec lead then they told him he was out for not using the same setup. Which just showed what a great race control they had planned to have in place.

I unfortunately was the cause of the first accident LOL. With the TS chatter, race talk and my spotter saying clear, I thought it meant that I was clear below since I could see the car to my right. NOPE! Came right down on someone inside me. Instantly felt bad about it and apologized for it. Unlimited resets and after the tow, I was back out.

Not going to do a lap by lap of the first race, but after running only Time Trials on the Road side for the past 3 weeks trying to build my SR back up after the Skippy debacle. It was great to get the competitive racing spirit back after just one race. They were so friendly and made me feel comfortable about being there.

Unfortunately the second race last night, I couldn't get in cause the way iRacing is once you fill up the pit slots no one can get in afterward even if people get out and don't race. It was very disappointing not to be able to get in and also due to the fact that we have 26 members in the league so my slot was not only taken up by someone not in the league but also didn't even race the race. But it was my fault as well as my triathlon training had me at the gym till about 9:30 plus eating dinner I couldn't get on till almost at Qualifying anyway. Jorge was very very apologetic and it wasn't even his fault. So I just watched the race and helped out watching the wrecks for race control.

They are a great group of racers. I am very looking forward to racing tonight since I don't have any triathlon training tonight. However I will make sure I am the first one signed in to get my slot LOL. Please check them out on the league page.

Final part 3: COD GHOST at XGames/Why Evil Geniuses is still the team to beat.

The last part of the weekend was glued to my phone watching MLG.tv stream of the COD Ghost invitational at the XGames. I am not going to cover each team just the ones that stuck with me or struck a nerve with me.

It was great seeing Team Kailber make it to the final medal round. Like they said you don't see them much up at the very top.  They played well together and really celebrated as a team when there was a victory and when there was a defeat. It was the first time I have watched them play and I will be looking to watch them again to play again on MLG.tv.

Team Envy was very calm and collected and played some very good plays in the tournament.  It shows why they are always in the top tier of the major tournaments.  I will watch them as well when I see them on MLG.tv.

My boys of Evil Geniuses! Did they win, no. Did everyone think they would?  People thought they would be in the finals but here is where it gets crazy. Who people thought would win came down to just popularity not skill but more on that later. @EGCrimsix @EGDKarma @EGTeep @EGAchespp still are the destiny that they have created.  You don't win one tournament and you become the best.....oh wait you do if it is the COD Championship which Evil Geniuses did. They should not hang their heads in shame or defeat. They will still be the ones to beat at Anaheim. I think that when you are on the top for so long that it takes a little coming down to earth to get the fire going to take your game to an even higher level. I will still support EVIL GENIUSES!

And finally Team Optic, The Green wall or wall of unwarranted arrogance. Yeah they were predicted to win cause they are the favorite team cause they are always on MLG.tv playing some COD, Mine craft, Mario kart etc. They have figured out how to make the world of eSport into a popularity contest overlooking skill for likes. If it took you 4 yrs to win a tournament there is a reason.  Everyone will have a bad tournament,  if the planets align and you have your best tournament while everyone else had bad tournaments then you will leave. Now let's see if they back it up with another win this year. I am hoping and predict they won't. 

For me it is back to the grind. Drop Zone,  increasing my K/D ratio but playing for the objective. I still feel like if you take 4 people and come up with sound tactics that you practice and practice over and over you can compete competitively against the top teams. I am just looking for that group of people willing to take on the challenge.  Thinking of maybe incorporating some Blitz into my gaming. I think with the way I play Base Defense would be best. So I will be trying out different load outs while playing Blitz and only play cover for my base.