How Games (League of Legends) Works

What I know about the topic:

League of Legends is a strategy game that matches players from all around the globe to specific matches depending on their skill level, and their "Summoner" level overall. In playing the game itself...there is something called matchmaking in which these "Summoners" are paired with other people depending on something called "Elo" which basically translates to how good you are at the game. All of this match making isn't a very simple thing as there are many people who have a low "Elo," and a high "Elo," which can make a very big difference in choosing which people are paired with which people. Sometimes in the game, when all of the low "Elo," and the high "Elo," players are put together, there might still be some players left that have a high "Elo," that are paired with people with a low "Elo," which makes it very unfair for the players that are less skilled to be matched with someone that has played the game for a long time.

2 questions I have about the topic:

• When there are no people with the same about of skill left, what happens to those people?
• Can the match making system sometimes be corrupted and cause bad playing experience for some people?

Links for Useful information on the topic:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Legends: This link gives an overall explanation on the game itself and also talks about the matchmaking system and the "Elo," which makes it easier for people to understand the system behind this pairing.
• http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends: This link is the League of Legends Wikipedia itself, and it also explains the different types of games that one player can play, and it also give a very brief explanation on matchmaking just the link above.

Bullet list of things I learned about the topic:

• Sometimes it is possible that a person by himself who is unskilled can face a team of highly skilled players. These events sometimes occur because the matchmaking system thinks that when there is a team that is full and made up of 5 players, that the players aren't so skilled and are friends with each other that want to play together; but actually these 5 players can be very skilled players with a high "Elo," that makes it unfair for some low "Elo" players.
• There are sometimes people who make accounts called "Smurfs." These Smurf accounts are basically accounts that are restarted from level 1 by players who are actually a very high level to just have fun and win against new players. The fact that these very skilled players create new accounts can have a negative effect on the play style and how new players view the game.
• Players with a host who is a level 30, and when they are level 1 or 5 can be matched against a group full of level 30 players. The fact that the match making system only looks at the level of the host can make it unfair for other players that are in the same group as the host himself.
• There are some players that only play OP champions. OP means overpowered in how the company made the champion to be superior throughout other champions. Champions themselves are the types of characters that a player can choose to play, and some champions are harder to get than other characters which makes it unfair for some people who don't have certain champions yet, to fight against others with champions that they have already which are very expensive.
• League of Legends is actually inspired by a game called DOTA: Defender Of The Ancients in which that game has no real matchmaking system because it is a LAN party game. With the fact that DOTA had no matchmaking system, League of Legends had to come up with a system all by themselves which could have been a reason the matchmaking system hasn't been so well made.

How this connects to my life:

I personally do play League of Legends, and I've been playing it for over a good 2 years now. I have reached the maximum level of being level 30, and even have a "Smurf," account myself. I sometimes play with my friends and they are a very low level such as 5 or 10, and I am a level 30 player. With the fact that the matchmaking system looks at the level of the host instead of the level of the general team, the matchmaking system sometimes matches a group like me and my friends, to groups that are all level 30 which makes it very unfair for my friends. Overall, I would personally like to go even more on this whole system of matchmaking and try to come up with solutions on how we can get to make the matchmaking system to become fair.

Questions I still have:

• Will League of Legends (Riot) ever truly fix this matchmaking system?

College Exploration on Naviance

Two Colleges that I'm interested in now:

• University of Rochester
• Princeton University

Two Colleges that I'm interested after the Supermatch:

• University of Washington Seattle
• Washington State University

	University of Rochester	Princeton University	University of Washington Seattle	Washington State University
Location	Rochester, NY	Princeton, New Jersey	Seattle, Washington	Pullman, Washington
Majors	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
SAT Score	1977	2240	1795	1587
GPA	3.8	3.86	3.75	3.4
Ethnicity	Typical	Typical	Typical	Typical
School Size	10,111 students	7,724 students	42,451 students	26,308 students
Tuition and Fees	$41,826	$37,865	$10,574	$10,799

My GPA:

My average GPA was 3.56 on the first quarter. The GPA needed to get into the following universities are University of Rochester (3.8), Princeton University (3.86), University of Washington Seattle(3.75), Washington State University(3.4). With my GPA of a 3.56 I am able to get into the University of Washington Seattle, thus the remaining 3 universities might be quite challenging to get into. To get into the remaining 3 universities of the GPA of 3.8, 3.85, 3.75, I must improve in trying hard to get good grades and attempt to always try the best in everything and end up with good grades. Overall, I must improve my state of mind and focus on trying to be the best I can, and do the best I can.

Summary:

Today I learned how to look up universities that are related to my majors, SAT scores, and my average GPA. From the facts that I researched and learned about today, I realized that getting into colleges weren't such an easy thing, and how you need a specific score for certain scores that are needed to get into a certain college. Now, knowing the scores and expectations I need to get into the colleges that I want, I must work hard and improve my GPA to get a higher than a 3.8, and also try my best to do everything as hard as I can.

Google Day 4

3 Goals for the Day:

• Revise all Pivot animations and correct tiny mistakes, etc.
• Show how a Pivot character can be made.
• Make a figure on Pivot (Upload pictures of the Steps to making a figure).

Useful Links:

• http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-a-Stickman-in-Pivot-Stickfigure-Animat/#step1: Shows how to create a figure on the Pivot animation program.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1H3ATJat8k: This link directs to a video on Youtube that gives a very good explanation and example on creating your own figure on the Pivot animation program.
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-FREE-Flash-Animation-Pivot-Animation/step3/Make-a-Stickman/: This website goes into a lot of detail into making a simple character on Pivot, it also explains what each of the modifying buttons do on the "Create Figure Type" tab in the Pivot animation program.

What I learned:

Today I made my own Pivot figure on the program that had a proper set of legs, arms, and a normal head alongside a regular body. Making the Pivot figure wasn't that hard as it was contained regular (basic) stick figure making options, if the figure was to be realistic it would have to be consisted of about 100 sticks for each bone of the human body. The pictures above show some basic steps of how the figure was made and a signature move from Usain Bolt. The signature move was able to be made as when editing the stick figure, you can always move the limbs of the figure to make it do anything.

What I'll be doing during the Presentation:

When I conduct my presentation to show my fellow classmates of what I have made, I will first start off by showing them how to make a simple Pivot figure (for about 3 minutes into the presentation). After creating a Pivot figure on the animation program, I will show them a few examples of the animations (taking up about 2 minutes or so) I have created using different figures that I have made such as the animation of the man falling of a horse, a man walking down an alley to pick up a newspaper, etc. Overall, I will show my classmates that making an animation takes a lot of time when the animation has a very realistic figure and a realistic background, as every frame, the limbs of the figures and the background has to be changed to remain a realistic animation of constant movement.

Google Day 3

What I did Today:

Today I worked on a very detailed Pivot animation in which I used my own created character and even an amazing "alley" background. The animation shows a paper falling down on to the street as a man comes out and attempts to read the paper, however on the way to the paper a ball falls down right in front of him, and he dribbles the ball to soon throw it away. Once he is done with the ball, the man walks towards the piece of paper and picks it up realizing that it is a newspaper, he reads it for a few seconds and carries it with him. The animation took about 40 minutes to make, and required the knowing of how a ball would drop, and how a paper would fall down against the wind to show the animation as a realistic one. The walking movements of the man don't seem so realistic, thus when the man reaches for the paper, dribbles the ball, it indeed does look very realistic. Here are some pictures to show some parts of the animation.

Man reaching towards the ball.

Man reaching for the piece of paper.