Still In It

I thought 2020 would be the year that my play would get rusty, but I'm still IN IT!

This new league of legends rewards flow for the season is very clear and satisfying.

Losing Streaks and Winning Streaks

Sometimes you get stuck in a rut and perform poorly for a long while.  Last week my 8-game lose streak in league of legends was difficult to get through.

But situations like these come in waves.  Losing can put you in a poor mentality that is difficult to come back from.  

The momentum can go both ways!

Once you get over that hump and change your mentality, you can find the start of a winning streak.  That first win can give you the push for you to outperform your own expectations, and maintain it consistently afterwards.

Losing!

And then winning!

First time in First place

 

For this season of TFT, I hit my first winning game here with a team of Ninjas and Duelists.  It's a game that rewards very sparingly but just getting that one in twenty(? maybe even rarer) win is memorable and a great moment.

My Experience with 3 Riot Battle Passes

I've played through a battle pass each for Valorant, League of Legends, and Legends of Runeterra.  Back in Season 1 I grabbed Fortnite's pass to learn from their practices.  I completed some and left others unfinished.  Sometimes it was a roller coaster of emotion between the elation of achieving a reward versus the futile realization that I would not have enough time to grind it out.  Today, I'm also in the midst of active passes in Dota 2 and Brawl Stars. 

Here are my experiences with Riot's passes:

League of Legends - The must have content (Prestige Riven) drew me to playing and earning it.  I had to dedicate myself to the game, playing a few games a day to complete missions and getting the points to purchase the skin.  My goal was super clear from the onset and even though I don't play riven that much anymore, I felt I had to complete my collection.  I might play another one of these League events if another of my favorite characters gets a skin.

Valorant - I nearly finished this pass by grinding alone, but in the end I shelled out an extra 600 VP to reach the last tier.  Towards the middle of the pass timer, I was getting burnt out on Valorant having to play everyday to keep up.  The spike rush mode became more attractive over time and I stopped enjoying the game. 

This pass didn't have a wow factor to the skins, which made me set a goal of grinding to the end (a detrimental goal given the effort required).  I think this pass burned me out on the game instead of allowing me to enjoy it at a reasonable pace. 

Legends of Runeterra  - The first reward in the Runeterra Spirit Blossom event was a cute fox.  This was a great entry point into the pass, as I was able to quickly discern if I wanted that fox or not.  The highest tier reward was a prettier, dressed up variation of the fox.  Great thing there was that even though I did not get the ultimate fox at the end, I had the basic version of him.  I didn't end up getting to the end of the pass-- there was no option to purchase progression--but I completed all the event quests and got fairly far.  I missed out on 2 premium cosmetic rewards but don't feel bad about it.

2013 Roundup

Here's the 2013 year in review meme, with a select piece that I've done in each month last year.  With the progress I've made in the last year, I think 2014 will bring a lot of improvement, too.

And an Ahri piece.  She's really fun to draw, though I don't player her often.  The fixed width brushes in Drawr remove the worry about controlling line thickness.