The rhythm-based roguelike Crypt of the Necrodancer is a very groovy game, and today developer Brace Yourself Games announced that more is on the way in the form of a DLC prequel called Crypt of the Necrodancer: Amplified. The expansion is set to release in Early Access on Steam on January 24, bringing with it a brand new zone with new enemies, weapons, pet-like "familiars," and more than 20 new musical tracks. 

As an Early Access release, Amplified won't come with the complete story mode for the new protagonist, Nocturna, and it will also be lacking at least one new playable character, plus modes, items and other features. Even so, "it will be a great experience right from the start," the studio said, and the Early Access period is only expected to last for a couple of months. It also clarified that the price of the expansion will not change when it goes from from Early Access to full release. 

"Crypt of the NecroDancer is a MUCH better game because of all the great feedback we received from our community during Early Access, and we know that the same will be true of Early Access for Crypt of the NecroDancer: Amplified," the studio said. "Also, Early Access permits us to get the DLC into your hands more quickly, and we know that there are many of you who are anxious to start playing." 

In case you hadn't heard, there's a Steam Winter Sale on, and Crypt of the Necrodancer is part of that: It's currently 75 percent off the regular price, dropping it to $4/£3 for the regular release, or $9/£7 for the collector's edition, which comes with three bonus soundtracks and "extras."

Our Large Pixel Collider wouldn't be much of a gaming supercomputer if we didn't throw the most demanding games at it. As we completed work on our holy artifact, we made a shortlist of games that would challenge its power. Among The Witcher 3, Elite Dangerous VR, and Total War: Warhammer we add Arma 3, a high-fidelity, sandbox military sim that's infamously CPU-demanding.

See how the LPC handles Arma 3's landscapes, firearms, and systems in the video above. Want to know what other hardware we're running on the LPC? Check our specs at pcgamer.com/LPC. 

The Codemasters racing sim Grid is an older game (it came out in 2008), but a very good one, too. And for the next couple of days, it's also free on the Humble Store. The price, you will notice, is now $0.00, and in case there was any doubt the big green button beside it says plainly, "Get it free!" 

Click that, follow the instructions, and in short order you'll be presented with a Steam code. Nip over to Steam, activate it, and faster than you can say, "The Humble Store is also having a Codemasters sale, and god bless us, everyone" you've got Grid in your library. 

Two points to be aware of: First, the free offer is only good for the next slightly-less-than-two-days, which by my estimate puts the deadline at 1 pm ET on December 24. And second, the code itself must be redeemed by the end of the month, so when you get it, be sure to use it. Enjoy!

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

Summer 2017 is when Crowbar Collective hopes to launch the Xen portion of its Black Mesa Half-Life remake—an area which won't feature in the original mod variation. In October, the developer said this decision was made due to its desire to "to do Xen the justice it deserves, and have it be the definitive climax to the Half-Life 1 story." Crowbar has now teased a Xen-flavoured image alongside a new update post.

"The team remains, as always, hard at work on Xen! Currently our specific focus is on gameplay: crafting a fun and cohesive experience from start to finish," reads the post. "We want our version of Xen to feel like it really belongs with the rest of the game in terms of mechanics, cohesion and progression. But we also want to push the boundaries and explore this unique and varied setting; to build an experience that feels both fresh and familiar to players from all walks of Half-Life veterancy."

The post continues: "While our Xen is certainly going to be gorgeous, we are first and foremost really committed to making sure that the gameplay works on every level. To give a bit of an exciting tease into what we’re doing at the moment, and as our own little holiday gift to you lot, please enjoy our first ever publicly released screenshot of Xen."

Crowbar goes on to say more Xen-related media will be teased in the "coming months", as well as detailed progress updates ahead of summertime next year.  

For more on Crowbar Collective's Black Mesa, check out Chris' Early Access review.  

Playing mid in professional Dota 2 is like being the frontman of a band. When you’re the midlaner, you’re the guy your team looks to for the big plays. The player that can completely turn a Dota game on its head. There’s a reason why, when you join a game of solo queue, mid is the first position anyone on your team calls. It’s easy to be inspired by any of the names on this list.

Midlane is probably the most difficult position to master, but often offers the most bountiful rewards. The names of professional mid players are always on an audience’s lips. From hyper aggressive players like QO to straight up lane dominators like SumaiL, the variation in both player and hero matchups in this lane always makes for a great show.

SumaiL

Team: Evil Geniuses Country: Pakistan

SumaiL is one of Dota’s biggest success stories. Born and raised in Pakistan, a country that isn’t well known for producing esports pros, SumaiL started playing Dota at the age of eight. Since then he’s moved to the USA, become a key member of team EG and won an International. All impressive feats. Even more impressive when you find out he was born in 1999. SumaiL joined EG (one of the biggest names in esports, let alone Dota) when he was 15. Then, seven months later, he won TI5.

What makes SumaiL such a great mid is that his team know that, no matter what, he will win that lane. If the enemy team pick to specifically counter the hero SumaiL is taking mid, chances are he’ll beat them too. His laning mechanics are exemplary. If you want to become a better midlaner, watch SumaiL replays. And if you’re going to watch one in particular, watch this one. Game one of the TI5 grand finals, 16 years old, feeds three deaths early in the game, finishes the game 7k net worth ahead of the opposing midlaner. Magical.

Miracle-

Team: TeamLiquid Country: Jordan

Yes, Miracle- didn’t attend the Boston Major as a player. Yes, Team Liquid have been diabolical in recent months. However, he still has the skill to quite literally render two of the best casters in the Dota community completely speechless.He started out as a relatively unknown, but extremely high MMR mid player. Miracle- joined team monkey business (who went on to become OG) in 2015, and the rest is history. During 2015/16 he established himself as one of the greatest, maybe even the greatest, player that Dota has ever seen. He became the first player ever to reach 9,000 MMR during his time with OG. Miracle- has the ability to take over an entire game on his own, dictating the speed of play to suit his team’s needs. With two major titles under his belt, all that’s left for him to win is an International, something that his sights will be firmly set on for next year.

Ana

Team: OG Country: Australia

Miracle’s replacement in OG, at first Ana struggled to find his place in the new team. For some time, he was the scapegoat when anything went wrong. Fast forward to the present day, and Ana has become a crucial member of the OG team that just won the Boston Major.

In 2015 Ana moved to Shanghai from Melbourne with the dream of becoming a professional Dota player. He took part in a tournament where young, high-skilled Dota players were given a chance to show what they could do in a competitive environment. His performance led to him being picked up by team Invictus Gaming (IG), with whom he won NEA 2016. Now a member of OG, and the only Australian player to ever win a Valve event, Ana’s aggressive but calculated playstyle has won over fans and players alike. To step into Miracle’s shoes and do just as well, or even better, would certainly have been daunting. Ana has proved to everyone that he’s up to the task.

ThuG

Team: Ad Finem Country: Greece

After Ad Finem’s exceptional showing at the Boston Major, it would be almost criminal not to include this name on the list. The second-place finish at the Major is both ThuG and Ad Finem’s only real standout achievement. They came into the tournament as massive underdogs, but thanks to some incredible performances, punched way above their weight.

I don’t remember any game at the Major where ThuG didn’t win his lane. If there were any, there were very few. This tournament has really highlighted what this player can do. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more accomplished performance on Puck than in game two of Ad Finem vs Newbee. It’s not only Puck where he excels, though, as ThuG appears to have one of the most diverse hero pools in pro Dota. He seems to be able to dominate the midlaneon almost any hero, a trait that’s incredibly important if you want to be successful. For ThuG to truly establish himself now he can’t be content with a second-place Major finish. He's done it once in Boston, now he needs to do it again, and again, and again.

No[o]ne

Team: Virtus Pro Country: Ukraine

Shadow Fiend was not a strong hero in 6.88 Dota. I’d go as far as saying he was probably one of the weakest midlaners in the game. Made of paper, and hurt beyond repair by nerfs to Raze and buffs to the jungle, he wasn’t in a good place. Then No[o]ne came along. In the first game of the Boston Major he not only crushed EternaLEnVy in the midlanebut he got a rampage. No[o]ne killed all five heroes on the enemy team in a single team fight. You’d think he’d probably be content with that, you know: one rampage is pretty nice. Over the rest of the first day he got another four.

His play style reminds me of fellow Ukrainian and Dota 2 legend Dendi. No[o]ne will regularly dominate his lane. Against weaker players, if left in a one-on-one, he can beat them to a point where they have so little farm that they are no longer relevant to the game. Nerves can get the best of him occasionally, but that gets easier with experience. Remove the nerves from the equation, and No[o]ne has the potential to elevate himself to legendary status.

w33

Team: Digital Chaos Country: Romania

Once ridiculed for claiming “all I want is TI, I’m going to go there whether people like me or not”, look at w33 now. Not only did he go to TI, he finished second. A super high MMR midlaner with an affinity for Meepo, w33 is one of a handful of players who can stun an audience with displays of superhuman skill.His Invoker is a sight to behold, and was the shining star in an otherwise poor Shanghai Major. Despite winning the Major in Shanghai and coming second at Frankfurt, w33 was kicked from Team Secret just before the Manilla Major. Along with former team mate Misery, he joined DC and since then has proved himself to be invaluable. Finishing Second at TI6, and third/fourth at the recent Boston Major. Some people label him as the best mid Windranger in the world, which I consider to be entirely fair.

bLink

Team: Wings Gaming Country: China

It would be really silly not to include bLink in this list. The only member of TI6 winners Wings Gaming over the age of 20, bLink is an experienced midlaner and has been a part of Wings for over two years now. He may not be the flashiest player in Dota 2, but he’s certainly proved himself to be one of the best.Consistency in the midlane is just as important as having the ability to go out and completely dominate a game. bLink very much fits this mould. His Invoker and Shadow Fiend are both impressive, but not quite at the level as some of the other names on this list. But when you’re part of one of the best teams Dota has ever seen, and you’re as stable a player as bLink, that doesn’t really matter.

QO

Team: MVP Phoenix Country: South Korea

MVP Phoenix didn’t do too well at the Major, but there is no denying QO’s skill as a midlaner. He plays Dota differently to most other players, let alone other midlaners. Typing QO on a Korean keyboard means “don’t back”: two words that perfectly describe MVP’s (and QO’s) playstyle.

He’s a very aggressive player. He may not get more last hits than his opposing midlaner, but he almost certainly will kill them. A lot. QO is well known for playing heroes that can commit way behind the mid tier one tower to get kills. His Phantom Assassin is one of the best (as shown at TI6), and he’s one of a few players who regularly take Slark mid lane. This Phantom Assassin game, recorded from QO’s perspective, shows just how talented he is as a midlaner. Scoring kill after kill, it’s a truly dominant performance. MVP will usually build their entire drafts around QO. On a team full of amazing individual players, that's a testament to how great he is.

Honourable mention: Dendi

Team: Na'Vi Country: Ukraine

Dendi is a legend. He’s the reason I, and many others, got into Dota. Between TI1 and TI3 Navi absolutely dominated. They were easily the best team, and Dendi was the best mid player. While he may have fallen from the top in recent years, there’s no denying how much he’s done for pro Dota. So many of the things we take for granted in midlane were started by him. He was one of the first players who really put an emphasis on denying creeps from the enemy midlaner. This alone was enough for him to be able to dominate his lane in most games, on occasions being an entire two or three levels above his opposite number. Dendi is still one of the best at this, and his technique has inspired many other midlaners, including a few on this list (SumaiL probably most of all).

During his time at the top he was also known for making crazy, unorthodox plays that no one expected. This is one of the factors that made Navi so thrilling to watch. Most games would turn into the Dendi show—especially when he got to play Pudge. This game where Dendi played Pudge at TI3 is still my favourite game of pro Dota to date. There’s an in-game set for Pudge that includes a Dendi doll hanging from his belt, that’s how influential this guy’s Pudge is. As well as being a wonderful player Dendi has a great personality. Always interesting and funny, his interviews are usually a treat. Dendi may not be the best midlaner anymore, but he’s still one of my favourites.

Look, I feel bad about this. I thought Devil Daggers came out late last year—November, maybe—and not in February. Had I remembered that it came out in 2016, I'd have argued strongly for it in almost all of our Game of the Year categories, including Best Racing Game, Best Overwatch, and Darkest Dungeon.

In my defence the period from December to February is dark, oppressive, life-sapping and haunted by tentacle-skull-spider-monsters and so is Devil Daggers. One run, one hour, one day tends to blur into every other run, hour, and day. Time both passes and doesn't pass, when you're down there in Skull Hell, but time is paramount: all that matters is surviving just that little bit longer. You internalise the patterns and learn to cope. You start firing before the spider-creature appears, because it got you last time but it won't get you again.

Devil Daggers is a very good game.

It's Pure Quake, basically. It is to Quake what the blue meth in Breaking Bad is to regular meth, except it's real. You spawn on a circular platform in Skull Hell surrounded by darkness. Laughing skulls spew from skull pillars and you fell them by spraying hot daggers from your extended palm. Distant chittering presages the arrival of the skull spider, which you slay by spraying its chest-skull.

More skulls follow, and more skull pillars, and then the skull worm, and then several skull spiders at once, and then... I don't know what happens after that. That takes us up to about 180 seconds, which is as long as Devil Daggers has ever lasted for me in hours upon hours of play.

I'm also not sure if they're really called skull pillars or skull spiders or skull worms: I've never had to write their names down before. Instead I've picked up an instinctive knowledge of that one arena and its denizens, what they sound like, where they come from, the specific combinations of strafe and jump and shoot that kills them before they kill me. This game gets under your skin and you don't forget. It's like learning to ride a bike. In Skull Hell.

(Case in point: I just loaded the game for the first time in a couple of months and clocked 153 seconds on my first run. It's like no time has passed at all. It might as well still be February. Shit.) 

It is flawlessly designed, in that it achieves all of its ambitions. It looks perfect—like running an old-school FPS on a too-large, busted monitor—and sounds better. You can play it by ear. The initial panic of survival gives way to mastery as you learn to pause between shots, rocket-jump, hop, shotgun, collect shards, etc.

It's the successor to similarly punishing time trial games like Super Hexagon, but a little stranger, a little subtler, a little less brutally digital in the way it doles out failure. You can enjoy it for its feel even if you're terrible at it, and I've felt strangely compelled to avoid videos of five-minute-plus runs because one day I want to see those things for myself. I want to earn every inch of territory I've claimed in Skull Hell.

Devil Daggers feels timeless, which is the best excuse I've got for forgetting that it came out this year. It's one of those games that is always a good idea, that should always have a place on your hard drive. It costs $5, for heaven's sake. This is your reminder, and mine, that it exists. Go play Devil Daggers.

Dark Souls 3 recently pulled me back in for a second playthrough, within which I've now sunk 30 hours and have just reached the final showdown with the Soul of Cinder. I've not fought optional bosses Champion Gundyr, the Nameless King, the Ancient Wyvern, and I've not visited Ariandel. Oh, and the less said about my death tally the better. 

In time for Christmas, Dark Souls speedrunner Qtt Six has however managed all of the above in an All Bosses (Ashes of Ariandel) world record-breaking time of 1.09.35. In short: it's taken me 1800+ minutes to achieve a fraction of what Qtt Six has in less than 70 minutes. 

Okay, it's probably unfair to mention us both in the same breath so here's the run in full: 

Impressive, eh? Besides immense skill, a combination of quitting out, favourable RNG boss fighting, and the use of the Vilhelm Skip and Crow Quills Glitch within the Ariandel DLC make this possible—a feat which has shaved close to an entire second off the previous record. 

This handy timeline of Dark Souls 3 speedruns—which also includes data for DS, DS 2 and Scholar of the First Sin, and Bloodborne—shows how far speedrunning has come since its April release. For more Dark Souls 3-related reading, here's James' review of the base game, Shaun's verdict on the DLC, and a collection of the series' best/most hideous enemies.   

Doom is back with a vengeance. GOTY gongs are chosen by PC Gamer staff through voting and debate. We'll be posting an award a day leading to Christmas, along with personal picks from the PCG team. Keep up with all the awards so far here.  

Samuel Roberts: I didn't expect Doom to be as surprising or inventive as it was. The exotic weapons mods managed to make the traditional Doom arsenal somehow feel pedestrian, and the way melee combat was woven into the pace of this brilliant campaign created tons of thrilling, tight encounters with enemies. The machine gun that you can mod into an automatic micromissile launcher is my favourite FPS weapon in years—by the end of the game you've essentially accumulated Tony Stark's armoury, and then some. The week off I spent playing this while drinking bottles of red wine was genuinely a highlight of 2016. 

Tony Ellis: It took me a little while to warm to this. I was in a massively detailed, modern FPS environment, but I was whizzing around on 1993’s rollerskates. It was the UAC research facility, but it was also the generic iron-foundry-made-out-of-nuclear-submarines setting of every id Tech game ever. Then I hit my first Gore Nest and nothing else mattered. Doom is a game about moving forwards very fast through a continuous spray of meat fragments and bestial roars, and Doom 2016 delivers that brilliantly.

Chris Thursten: The singleplayer is a triumph because, unlike id's last attempt, they didn't try to extract Doom from the 90s: this formula dies when exposed to concepts like 'slowing down a bit' and 'irony'. This is an absurd power metal knee-slide of a thing, gloriously content to be metal as fuck when nobody else is even trying.

Phil Savage: I remember nu-Doom as brief bursts of frenetic, explosive combat, followed by long periods of wandering down seemingly innocuous corridors in the hope of uncovering a secret. It's become de rigeur to mock the linearity of 2010s-era FPS level design—a criticism that only really works if you pretend that all shooters are Call of Duty—but Doom's levels do have that nicely labyrinthine feel about them. For all the speed and fury of a arena fight against an army of demon pricks, Doom is also great at encouraging a more steady pace through exploration.

James Davenport: Reducing a room of demon spawn to mist in Doom has more in common with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater than most modern shooters. Expression and style is as important as survival, and blowing the head off a Baron of Hell just before zipping up a dozen yards to rip a Cacodemon’s eye out is as satisfying as pulling off a 900 to a Darkslide. What I’m saying is that hell is for skateboarders, I think. And that Doom marks a return to shooters prioritizing movement, precision, and style over big expensive set pieces. Coupled with a score that works as a companion for pumping iron and chainsawing and Imps into bite size slices, Doom is distilled, sincere joy that excels because of the focus on its most essential systems—and a healthy dose of self-awareness in place of superficial, flashy theatrics.

Wes Fenlon: The most striking thing about the new Doom, to me, is how refreshing it is to play a game so rooted in the design sensibilities of 1994. These ideas don't feel old.  As trends in games go, popular ideas and mechanics accumulate as the common wisdom of the day. Wouldn't it be more immersive and create tension if you had to reload your weapons? Wouldn't it be smoother if your health regenerated so you didn't have to find healing items? Wouldn't it be cooler if scripted setpieces triggered when you walked into a room? Wouldn't you have more control if you slowed down your movement? From the moment your character throws an exposition-delivering monitor into the wall, Doom signals that this is a game of pure adrenaline, and that the new ways aren't necessarily the best ways. And it's absolutely right. Nobody makes games like the original Doom anymore, but after Doom 2016 it's hard to remember why.

Shaun Prescott: For the first handful of levels in Doom, you can’t doublejump. It sucks. Then, in mission five, you gain the ability to do so. From that point onwards, Doom becomes the best singleplayer shooter of 2016 for me. If other studios learn anything from Doom (and indeed, Titanfall 2, or Shadow Warrior 2) it’s that doublejump is virtually indispensable in 2016. Work your lore around it: I don’t care if it’s WW1, WW5 or otherwise. Include a diabolical, historically dubious scientist who invented it. Doom’s doublejump is the twist to this old formula’s flow that makes it feel perfect, and the FPS’s newfound freedom to experiment with speed and traversal is what will ensure we don’t stop playing them.  

For more words on why Doom is ace, read our Doom review. Also, Andy built a Doom level and we got id to critique it.

Smissmas, the magical time of year when men with big guns, questionable morality, and an unusual commitment to a two-tone color scheme are given all-new, all-festive ways to inflict violence upon one another, has once again come to Team Fortress 2!. This year's magical event features a slew of new Festivizer weapons, 17 winter-themed community cosmetics, and—just in time for the holiday season—three new taunts. 

Apart from the new stuff, the holiday update will also make some improvements to Casual matches and autobalancing. At the end of Casual matches, players will now automatically be formed up into a new match with the same players and teams, and will be given the opportunity to vote on which map is played. A new autobalancing system will encourage players to switch sides when necessary by offering bonus XP to volunteer turncoats. 

And of course there will be stuff to buy in the Mann Co. Store, much of it on sale. It doesn't look to be the biggest Smissmas update of all time, but then again, as Valve says, giving people gifts can bite you in the ass. Maybe you should just be thankful for what you get. Speaking of which, you can get the details at teamfortress.com.

League of Legends has achieved a lot over its tenure as a game. Riot have successfully turned their indie effort with server issues and clunky models into a global phenomenon. There are still a few problems to address, some of which have Riot’s attention (lack of replays, sandbox mode), and others which are yet to be addressed. One issue is massive enough to have gained Riot’s attention, but it hasn’t been answered in any real form yet.

That issue is the hurdle new players face in starting the game. While there have been minor adjustments over the years, such as the IP cost for older champions dropping upon new releases or the new and in-depth champion classification system, these small tweaks aren’t enough to lower the massive hurdle that new players face. While this issue comes up again and again on Reddit, the official forums and Twitter, it still doesn’t seem to have registered with Riot just how vital finding a solution is. 

Burden of knowledge

There are 134 champions in League of Legends, as of Camille. Each champion has five abilities (four actives and a passive), base stats and an arc of growth, potential item builds, and more that determine their ‘best-case’ role. For instance, Ekko was originally released as a mid lane assassin, but his kit and stats made him a top lane bruiser.

New players are expected to learn all of this. Sure, there’s the free rotation that makes it slightly less intimidating, as they can only pick up ten champions at a time... but there’s still a massive pool of knowledge that players need to pick up, and playing doesn’t teach them enough, fast enough. Players are thrown into the deep end after a brief tutorial. Who’s this knifecat? Why did he just one shot me? Add in the snowball nature of League, and what should be a fun game turns into a nightmare track as a 20/0/4 Yasuo rips through a new player’s team again and again.

Learning curve

The tutorial is meant to be the answer to many of the above complaints, but when faced with the massive task of helping players grapple with the task of understanding League of Legends, it falls short. The tutorial goes over the basics of the game: controlling your champion, killing minions, levelling skills, returning to base, spending gold, turrets, and more. Battle Training, the new tutorial, is significantly better and aimed at allowing a player to jump into a game of League. No longer are players forced to deal with a simple tutorial with Thornmail Ashe being their only option. 

Even though the tutorial is vastly improved, it still doesn’t cover huge parts of League. The jungle is completely untouched, for instance, and the player only has access to a few champions in the game. There is nothing to learn about dragons, barons, buffs, active items, plants...

Add in the fact that the average passive has changed from one or two lines to massive tomes, and it’s easy to see how a new player can get lost and confused. Confused players don’t have fun, and players who aren’t having fun don’t want to play League of Legends.

The task falls to friends

The above might be forgivable, as it’s a long road from 1-30. Presumably, a new player can slog through vs. AI games, get their bearings, graduate to playing against real people, and eventually find their footing. The problem is that very few people have the gumption to submit to such a long and arduous learning process, especially when smurfs plague lower levels. Even when they stick to it, there’s no in-game way to learn about what red buff is, or when you should take it. No one explain when a bad baron call is, or what junglers can apply lane pressure.

Well, someone often does step up and explain this—the friends of the new player. Eager to have a new buddy to queue up, new players join a game. They explain jungle positioning, lane matchups, warding, dragons and barons, and more. That’s the problem: low level games become a classroom. Other players have to deal with the smurf in the game playing tutor, and the veteran has to teach their friend. It isn’t an ideal situation for anyone.

Potential solutions

When a game is as vast and enormous as League, it’s hard to have an encompassing tutorial that covers every scenario. It becomes clear that there has to be some kind of ongoing solution for training new players. There are a few angles League could take, each with their own pros and cons.

Quests: Heroes of the Storm offers a quest system. When you log in, you get daily quests that offer bonuses for goals like completing three games as a ‘Warrior’ or a Starcraft hero. Players are incentivized to try new heroes. A League quest system could offer bonuses for players who constantly test themselves.

Mentors: What if players could volunteer to help a new player, and were granted in-game rewards for every game they played with a newbie?

Tiered tutorials: The current battle tutorial works for the basics, but what about a jungle tutorial? A top tutorial? A zoning tutorial? There are plenty of bite sized chunks of the game that could be explained in-game, as opposed to having the player desperately search for YouTube videos.

The reason why Riot has yet to feel any real, noticeable ramifications of their lacking tutorial system is often because existing players step up to shoulder that burden. There’s a better way. Now that there’s a new, spruced up client, hopefully we’ll see ways for new players to understand League following in its tracks. After all, there should be room for complex, layered games. There just needs to be a way to figure them out without plunging yourself into the deep end.