Being a Professional Gamer: the consequences.

About four to five hours ago I was scouting through Snoopehs facebook and something interested me. It was a reddit post on Locodoco and a youtube vlog clip. 

"My thoughts on Locodoco situation is one which I think all pro players or aspiring to be ones should consider" Snoopeh.  

 Watch this clip and take a few moments to think about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiV2LGIrbOk&feature=youtu.be

Now when I first watched this, I felt bad for him. Since his 'professional' gaming career has gone lop sided he seems to be at a loss with no qualifications to do something else. If anyone chooses to become a professional gamer you need to think about the consequences and this includes missing out on gaining valuable education for the future. 

I being a medical professional, I dislike the misuse of the word depression. The general rule of the public is that when someone says they are depressed, it means they are sad or unhappy. Depression is a very horrible thing when it affects someone and it looks nothing like that YouTube clip. 

The more I watched this, and the more I read Locodoco's Twitter about it the more I stopped feeling sorry for him. I am really old fashioned to an extent where I cringe at anyone giving out such personal information on the net. posting pictures with the heading 'Alive but dead inside'. Not only did I stop feeling sorry for him, I became annoyed.  Here is this 'professional player' that has had a once in lifetime chance to do what he is doing and in the end he is upset because he isn't the best and his parents are shouting at him.

If anyone decides to post something in any form of the internet you need to be prepared for the good and bad reviews that come with it. So many people unleash something on the internet and when it has reviews they don't like they reply with something like "you don't understand what I'm going through"...then why post anything on the internet? what are you looking for? someone to feel sorry for you? 

For once it would be nice to see someone who is grateful for the things they do have rather than moan about the thing's they don't. Locodoco you have a roof over your head, a family and food on the table. You have more than what a lot of people will ever experience in their lives.


Pad. 

Annie Support: Pad's Guide

                      

                                    

Here is an over look of Annie and her base stats and spell descriptions.  http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/annie/

Annie is what I would call an Intimidator; she can be a very scary support due to her stun and long-range auto attack.  If someone comes in to trade you can simply stun them, do some burst damage and win your trade.  It is important to note when you might be forced to use your stun in order for the opposing bottom lane to initiate with a jungler gank.  It takes up to 4 spells for Annie's passive to activate again so you need to be careful regarding when you decide to use it.  Her main strengths are her intimidation using her passive and high burst damage.  Her weakness is that she is relatively squishy and can be poked down easily if you're not careful.

In team fights she can be a great initiator with Flash and Tibbers supported by her passive ability. Here is a few examples I found of professional players using Annie to give you an idea of her kit and how strong she can be in team fighting.

Gambit Gaming Edward : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOFRSdnzeiA

Xpecial and Wildturtle bottom lane first blood (3:20) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRF1SghmNFQ

Krepo and Yellowpete wombo combo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im-7dXYtc_A
Doublelift and Aphroomoo (6:30): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH24bgAhXzg

Summoner spells: 99% of the time, I take Ignite. It's Annie; you want to be able to burst someone once you reach level 6, or if someone underestimates your damage you can easily grab a kill for your AD Carry even earlier.

My Rune Page for Annie

Ability Power Glyphs - +11
Gold per 5 Quintessences - +3.0
Armor Seals -  +13
Hybrid Penetration Marks: +8.1 armor pen/ +5.5 armor pen

With my rune page on Annie I start with 11AP and 26 Armor.  I would usually recommend stacking at least 30 armor in bottom lane, but Annie's auto attack range is fairly long, which enables you to auto-attack at a safe distance. 



What are the professionals using? 

Krepo: His support rune pages contain quite a lot of +26 health Quintessences in replace of the Gold per 5 I am using currently. He also has a page that is very similar to my own but again, he replaces the Gold per 5 Quintessences, this time with Ability Power, giving him an additional +14.9 AP.

Xpecial: He runs the Ability Power Quintessences, giving him + 14.9, hybrid Penetration Marks, Armor Seals and Magic Resist Glyphs.  I would consider the option of running Magic Resist Glyphs depending on whether you are facing another Ability Power Support Champion, or you feel you might need it for the mid laner.

Mithy: Armor Seals (+12.7 Armor), 1 Ability Power Quintessence (+4.95 AP) and 2 Health Quintessences (+52 Health), 4 Ability Power Glyphs (+4.76 AP), 5 Magic Resist Glyphs (+6.7 MR) and 9 Attack Damage Marks (+8.5 att). The attack damage would work for auto attacks; as I've said, Annie's auto-attack range is quite high, which presents safer opportunities to trade and deal damage.

These are just some of the Supports Rune Pages for Annie, to give you an idea of what others are using.  I prefer to experiment with my own Runes to find out what works for my play-style; if you want to copy the professional Rune Pages, you can check them out on www.lolking.com, but I strongly recommend you try your own ideas first.

                                                         Gold Per 5 Items

Spellthief's Edge
If I take Spellthief's Edge as my GP5 it gives me an additional 21 AP and 26 Armor.  Everyone is different and it's important to find out what Runes you prefer on your Support, but I don't think it's wise to take tanky Runes or Masteries on Annie, as she is intended to operate as a prime intimidator in the bottom lane.  To me, half the battle in League of Legends is a mind game; if you stun your target and do a good amount of damage, then they will think twice about trying to trade with you and your AD Carry, giving you a lot more freedom to operate.  Spellthief's final upgrade (Frost Queens Claim) gives you 50 Magic Damage to a target which then slows them and surrounding enemies for 50% for a 2 second duration; I have used this a few times in order to halt an initiation or if an ally gets caught in a bad place.  It can be a great escape tool, or a great way to catch an enemy group.

Ancient Coin
Gives you less Ability Power to begin with than the Spellthief's Edge, but its final upgrade (Talisman of Ascension) operates essentially as the new Shureyla's Reverie; it gives you a 40% movement speed increase for 3 seconds, which is a great way to initiate a fight, and equally useful as an escape tool.  It is currently the most popular GP5 amongst professional players. 

Items

Since the preseason 4 patch has been unleashed, you have a lot more variety when it comes to items. My starting items are trinket ward, GP5 (depending), and pots/biscuits.  I want to be able to play aggressively, and I can do that better having stocked up on pots/biscuits.  My usual late-game items are Deathfire Grasp, Liandry's Torment and a Void Staff.  I want to be able to burst down the opposing teams AD Carry alone, so that my team can concentrate their damage and focus on another target.  Liandry's ability (deals 5% of their HP over 3 seconds as Magic Damage) stacks with Tibbers, which is an incredible amount of damage.  My latest game with these items on Annie I was 7/4/22 against a Varus/Taric bottom lane.

I hope this helps you a little bit, sorry it might not be as good as the professionals but I hope you enjoyed it to read anyway :3

Pad.