RIP PDT again.  Haven't played a game with him in a bit.  Fired one up w/ him last night.  He(mid) and our top lane had a bad game and PDT tilted off the planet.  Sample of a time I didn't gank for him.  Anyway, unfriended by the PDT, I skip away. - http://plays.tv/r/eyJ0eXBlIjoiZW1haWwiLCJkYXRhIjoiZW1haWxfdG9fd2Vic2l0ZSIsInVpZCI6IjkzZThjZmE3M2RkNWZhMWE5MGNmMzBlNDk0ZmIyNmEyIiwibXNnX3R5cGUiOiIiLCJ1dG1fc291cmNlIjoiZW1haWxfdmlkZW9fdXBsb2FkZWQiLCJ1dG1fbWVkaXVtIjoiZW1haWwiLCJ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ24iOiJwcm9kdWN0ZW1haWxzdjEiLCJ1dG1fYiI6IjM3Mzc3IiwiZXhwZXJpbWVudF9pZCI6IkQiLCJsaW5rX2lkIjoidmlkZW8tdGh1bWIiLCJ0aW1lc3RhbXAiOiIwLjQ5MDc1MjAwIDE0NTI2NTkxODAiLCJyYW5kIjoxNDEzOTIzNTQ2fQ%3D%3D/video/5695d14c395e6519f7

Anyway, I'm starting to feel back at home in the jungle again.  Loving playing shy.  Exhaust/challenging smite are pretty freaking awesome to have on a jungler in this meta.  Those fed guys that could kite ya?  No.  Late game vayne with full build even considered clearing a wave alone, no.  Dead.  Even that pisser kindred.  You have to alter your play style to accommodate the lack of flash, but its really not that big a deal in my experience so far anyway.  

The downside is that you generally shouldn't initiate, so its best if you have someone on the team able to do that.  I felt really good about how I was handling objective control and counter jungling.  Last game I had a pink every single time I was going for any objective and was tossing them out like candy.  I tracked the jungler extremely well and felt like i had a pretty good handle on things.  Anyway, when new champ select goes live I feel very comfortable support/jungle now - which is great as I've been trying really hard to settle into a second role for ranked.

Oo - shen champion update news - http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/page/champion-update-shen

Jan 20th announced as the start date for the new ranked season

@Pacov

Sorry, didn't get your first message.  Yeah, a Leagueconnect guy.  Support main, old like me.

IS THAT A FIRST PICK SUPPORT POPPY BY FNATIC?  WHY WOULD YOU PLAY ANYTHING ELSE?

poppy's and trundles anyway

New champselect feels like it takes 10 minutes... And then when some one drops its really cancer.

Assuming that timing will get better as folks get used to it

Not a huge fan of the new queue. Getting first or second pick is literally the worst slot. Not to mention this game mode should've replaced draft pick instead of teambuilder. The whole point of teambuilder was to play a role you wanted without the hassle of a ban/pick phase. Getting first pick as top or mid and you may as well accept you are going to be counterpicked with 0 way to stop it, considering you don't get a single ban anymore, gl playing counterable champs unless you manage to convince your teammates to use their bans for your sake.

I love the new animations for the game mode, but for me all they did was take out the features that made teambuilder my main queue and bring in the good stuff from draft, but manage to make it backwards...

On another note, I am glad they decided to take the buff route instead of the nerf route for the capstones. I have heard good things about stormraider's since the buffs. 

I also finally got a new mouse, my old one was a wireless $20~ dollar logitech from walmart, while the new one is an actual gaming mouse. The dpi change and cord are going to take some getting used to though. 

In the hundreds of games I played teambuilder, at least I never got matched up against an enemy master 1 tier player. Dynamic queue made sure to remedy that though, and it hasn't even been a day since it came out.

I hate blind pick more than draft, so instead of moving to a different queue type I am probably just going to stop playing as much, I have other things I should do anyway, like studying.

Dynamic queue matchmaking is screwed up right now.  Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

Blind Pick isn't going to be around in it's current form.  They're going to have a version of New Champion Select that doesn't have bans and the games should get started pretty quickly since roles won't be decided by who instalocks first.  No mirror matches too!  Should be the perfect setup for someone who wants to get a game in quick and doesn't want to have his desired champion banned.

So, apparently we are also getting a brand new queue - true solo queue.  No duos, no dynamic queue stuff, just 1 guy queues up.  I'm assuming it will be using the new champ select. Anyway, I think that's great and I'm curious how that will impact the dynamic queue stuff.  If you are alone, wouldn't you generally prefer to play the true solo queue instead of the dynamic queue?  I tend to think that's what I'd do anyway.  Wondering if that will slam queue time for dynamic ranked.  Anyway, that is due to come out 2 weeks or so after the ranked season starts - so approx 3 weeks.  

I think Riot is betting on WAY more people playing Ranked because of the changes.

There will be Solo Ranked where you have your own LP that doesn't get affected by playing Dynamic Ranked with friends.  So casual groups like ours will probably play Dynamic Ranked instead of Normal Draft.  That's assuming the group doesn't have one of those friends in the mix that likes to troll his own team.  My IRL buddies might even come back to the game now that all three of us can play Dynamic Ranked together and get the roles we want.  That sort of influx should increase the Ranked population considerably.

And people like you will spend more time playing Solo Ranked because you won't have to deal with the Duo's that you hate so much. You're not the only one that hates Duo's so that should help the Solo Ranked population too.

If any Queue is going to become a ghost town, I'd think it would be Normal Draft.