Update week! Notes are already out and the hype train has opened the dining cart for us to feast with our greasy fingers akimbo. There’s plenty going on in the professional world as well. What did you miss?
Samsung E3 Tournament
Four of the best teams from around the world came to Los Angeles last week to compete in a special Invitiational at E3. Hunters (China), G2 (Europe), Invincible Armada (Korea) and Team SoloMid (North America) went head to head to head to noggin in an exciting series of match ups. Over the course of two days the teams fought, mixed with community Battle Royale matches, leaving IA and TSM in the finals. Invincible Armada won the final series definitively, looking very comfortable against their old VIPL 2 rivals.
During the second match, as things weren’t looking good for Team SoloMid, CullTheMeek marked out a smiley face in his base with scout traps. This has been called trolling and disrespectful by some portions of the community. There have also been reports that the players were told to “have fun” during the tournament, and that can be interpreted many ways. I think what it comes down to in the end is making decisions that always reflect positively on you and those you represent. Even in moments of frustration, it’s important to remember why you’re here.
Vainglory Invitational Series Finals
Saturday was a marathon affair with the top four teams for VIS competing in Best of Three series with true double elimination to determine the winner. Nemesis, Team Phoenix, Team SoloMid and Liberation all showed up and you best believe they brought it. Over the course of 6 series, we saw some spectacular play coming out of all sides. Old Skool rocking his Vox, MICSHE running circles with Skye and so many players drafting Kestrel with brutal results.
Number 1 seeded Nemesis was actually the first to fall as they lost to Team SoloMid and Liberation. VONC wasn’t present for the first series against TSM, but even when he did arrive to take on Lib, his over-aggressive play on Kestrel turned out to be his downfall. The entire squad of Nemesis had a fantastic season and certainly have the makings of champions.
Team SoloMid are in an odd place. While they seemed to come out from an experimental phase mid-season of VIS and back to their intellectually violent form, the Spring Season Championships and now VIS Championships saw a fractured group. Mike83 subbed in for CullTheMeek on Saturday and made a good show of it, comfortable in both lane and jungle on a variety of heroes. The issue seemed to be teamwork and overall coordination as they made haphazard decisions that often lead to senseless deaths. Hopefully they can work out the kinks, because even if Mike83 becomes a permanent fixture, they are one of the most talented teams in the world.
Liberation did my predictions proud. After falling to Team Phoenix in the opening round, they showed off some precision play in their series with Nemesis and TSM. The latter match had a dominant Lib in all three games, TSM able to pull off the win in one of them with their play from behind style. Liberation has been doing a lot right in switching off the “lead carry” position between PonTheOriginal and StatusBaked depending on what comp they chose for the situation.
Then we had Team Phoenix. These young guys were on a whole other level this weekend. They trounced Liberation, took TSM to three games but still looked good, and then swept Lib again in the finals. OldSkool on Vox and iLoveJoseph on Taka are two things that most teams should avoid letting happen. The Vox play has always been solid but the Taka play has been getting better and better, giving a type of depth to team fights that’s rarely seen as the true assassin is kind of a rare commodity in the Fold.
Congratulations to Team Phoenix for taking the first ever Vainglory Invitational Series! Check out the VOD here and be sure to follow @visleaguevg for updates on when Season two will be starting.
Tesseract Second Qualifier Finals
Infamous Legion done does it again with a finals win over TheFakeBosses. Coupled with their stupendous run through the First Qualifier, Infamous Legion had more than enough points to win the Spring Season. If that’s confusing, Tesseract bases their top place finishers on points earned through the tournaments, rather than granting seeding for a Championship bracket. What this means for NA and EU players is plan to see a lot more of Infamous if you happen to head out for VIPL 4 or the upcoming World Championships.
Bikini Krul Contest
Disappointing to some, the special summer skin for Krul does not wear a bikini. The Internet has been demanding that sexy skin and while I totally understand why SEMC wouldn’t want to do that (can you imagine coming into the game without any knowledge of it and see that?) they still found a way to honor the atrocity. This past weekend, another contest was held on Twitter to show off art depicting #BikiniKrul with a chance to win the Summer Party skin. I can’t believe how many morons tried to pass of LuniTheLunicorn’s original art as their own, complete with bs watermark, but fortunately SuperEvil saw through the ruse and chose worthy entries.
Lyra Lore: The Consequence and The Inception 
Okay, here’s your first narrative introduction to the new hero and BAM Samuel is there again. Who is this kid?? No time to speculate on that, we get a further glimpse into the world that was first introduced with Reim, known as Trostan, and the scope of Lyra’s protective powers. This was an intimate piece, despite its potential impact on the overarching, and gave a nice personal side to the Mage and her values.
Know Your OP History: Getting Skins
A little departure from past iterations of this piece, I want to talk this week about how difficult it used to be to get skins without paying and where we stand now. For the purpose of this, all my numbers and math are going to be centered around the idea of getting all three tiers of one skin. I hope you’ll see that this used to be a real pain in the ass, but now it’s incredibly doable and you’ll have it done before you’re old and gray.
When first introduced in Update 1.4, cards came along with them in post game drops as a means to purchase and craft the skins. Then starting in 1.6 there was an ICE box and Glory box available at all times.
When skins were new, you had to start from scratch on cards but may have had some Glory in the bank for opening boxes. At first the Glory Box cost 749 ICE per pull, but had only 53 commons and 9 Rares (as opposed to the 68 commons and 6 Rares now. Epic and Legendary remain the same). That was a bit of a drag, but box prices and quantities were later changed and now are reflected thusly:
Glory Box:
9,580 Glory- 68 commons 6 Rares 4 Epic 2 Legendary
552 Essence if dusted
Usually mixed between several heroes and not resulting in enough cards to craft any one skin outright.
ICE Box:
8,622 ICE (~$63)- 50 Rares 16 Epic 6 Legendary
1,500 Essence if dusted
Enough cards to craft all three tiers of a skin. (Lately ICE boxes focused on one skin each)
So you have these boxes full of cards, and are getting a card after games here and there, but how do you go about getting a skin and how long will it take?
To really figure out a timeline, we also need to break down Essence. For the sake of argument, let’s assume you don’t need to craft Common cards as those tend to flow fast and free with post game drops. Otherwise, crafting skins cost the following:
Tier 1- 480 Essence
Tier 2- 1,440 Essence
Tier 3- 3,600 Essence
The quickest way to get a lot of cards is through a Glory Box. Without going into too many facts, assume the Glory income is around 50 per win plus bonuses (50 First Win, 150 Third Win, 250 Sinister Seven) and averages out to around 375 a day if you factor in a loss here and there. If a box costs 9,580 Glory, you’re looking at 25 1/2 days to earn enough for one box. Chances are your Glory income would be higher, but don’t focus on that part of the story because it gets better from here.
Double, and Triple, Glory weekends are occasional holidays when you can really grind up some serious in-game cheddar, upwards of a 1,000 a day no problem. Lucky enough to take full advantage of a Double Glory weekend and your Glory box grind could be down 4 days at least.
Cards Crazy 8s came along soon after with a sweet opportunity to get 5 Rares, 2 Epics and a Legendary card if you won eight games in the 24 hour period. That’s 210 essence to put toward a skin of your choice. So now it’s getting easier to gain the cards and Glory you need to put toward a particular skin you like.
Next came Glory boosts you could purchase with ICE, but you don’t want to spend ICE in this scenario so forget that for a moment.
Then SEMC really dropped the love hammer and brought in Level and Quest chests. As you are probably aware these can contain Glory, ICE, cards, Essence and Boosts. Let’s get into the probabilities a little.
The Battle Royal chest is an interesting little helper. Renewable every four hours (maximum 6 times a day if you ain’t sleeping) the box will give an automatic prize for around 10 minutes of your time. I gathered results from many players and while most BR chests will give a small amount of Glory, ICE or Essence (10, 10, 3) as one of the two drops, there appears to be almost a 33% chance of getting a card. Of those cards, from my evidence, about half were Rare or better.
Goal Quests (Watch Video, Capture Minion Mines, Win with specific Hero) also have a variety of drops when opening. The good news right off the bat is the card rate is much higher than BR chests. From my results, there’s a better than 75% chance of getting cards in these chests and/or a minimum of 25 Glory (that’s an extra BR win or regular loss).
Conquests (often winning 5 public matches) seem to have an almost guaranteed chance of getting at least a common card. Results show about 40% for Rare or better and Glory a minimum of 50 (that’s a Regular game win!)
Assuming now you win three games a day with the benefit of Quests, (two BR, one Goal 1/2 Conquest Chest) your minimum daily income of Glory has risen to around 445. That’s about a 20% increase in profits and therefore your maximum time to get enough for a Glory Box is down to 20 days.
Finally those beautiful Level chests that we all gorged on when first arrived. The first 20 Level chests have some variation but, on average, grant a total of 16,525 Glory, 665 ICE, 145 Essence and another 816 Essence if you dust the cards (not counting Commons). That gives you almost enough Glory for two Glory boxes (1104 Essence) and more than enough Essence right away to craft your first tier of a skin.
Still not enough? Level 30 chest guarantees 1000 ICE and buying a Tier 1 skin for 900 ICE is still the best deal to get yourself toward completing a set as you don’t have to worry about Rares as much and can focus your Essence on Epics and Legendaries.
Counter argument, SEMC is releasing skins almost every week now and so collecting them them all is getting harder too. That is where you need to decide what your priorities are. If you need every skin, it’s going to take a while. But if you focus your energy on just getting one full set at a time, the task is no longer OP.
Starting tomorrow we will have even more chances to get prizes, further reducing the pains of collection. If it ever does frustrate you, remember it’s all aesthetic and SEMC doesn’t even have to give you a chance to get skins for free.
“Lore”: Tag Team
Down by the center jungle camp, Jeff waits alone, looking around anxiously for his compartriot. After a few moments, Marty approaches from the tri-bush with a relaxed swagger.
Jeff– Are you okay? You’re never late for work.
Marty– Today is different, old friend. We’re both knocking off early.
Jeff– What-
Marty presses a finger to Jeff’s lips with undue force.
Marty– Shhhh-shh-shh-shhhhhhhhh-shh-shh. You know what we need?
Jeff– Weapons?
Marty– No.
Jeff– Buffs? Infusions? Clothes? Are we getting clothes?
Marty– A vacation.
Jeff (scoffs)- Good luck with that, this place never takes a day off.
Marty– Of course, that wouldn’t be good for business. And update downtime is only good for a spa day at most. But really, no one said we can’t hire replacements.
Jeff– So we’re going to take a vacation and pay other creeps to cover for us? Where are you getting all this gold?
Marty– First, I know a guy that’s gonna let us crash at his condo. Second, check this out. (Raising voice) C’mere!
Two creeps shuffle out of the bush, they look exactly like Jeff and Marty, but that’s not really a challenge.
Jeff– Who’s this?
Marty– It’s us.
Jeff– Explain.
Marty (to look a likes)- I’m gonna kill you!
Marty makes a motion to hit them.
Fake Jeff– Our lives are meaningless.
Fake Marty– I want to get a pet hedgehog.
Fake Marty and Jeff swing their arms helplessly at their would-be attacker.
Jeff– Wait, are these-
Marty– Yep, Robits. I know a guy. They’re exactly like us in every way, have gold in their bellies and even say over twenty different things that we say.
Jeff– Those fools will never know the difference.
Marty– Plus, I already had them preloaded with any and all possible upgrades between now and 1.21. We can take off for the whole summer.
Jeff steps forward to inspect the Robits.
Jeff– Marty…let’s get out of here.
Marty– Yay!
Marty hands Jeff a pair of aviator sunglasses and a piña colada. They head off toward the beach.
Jeff– Where did you get these?
Marty– From my fanny pack.
Jeff– I didn’t know you wore a fanny pack.
Marty– I don’t.
Join these two useless creeps every week in the Round Up for Summer Season in “Jeff and Marty’s Summer Fling”
Have fun with the new update! Get that summer sun! Come back to BrokenMyth this week for more content on 1.19 full of things your solo queue teammates will definitely have not read. Later Lyra portals and oblivious roam chortles.