Happy winter season everyone! Between a new competitive season and a new patch, there’s a lot to talk about. Here it goes!

VGL Opening Weekend

Opening weekend of VGL Winter season is jam packed with exciting matches and a couple surprise upsets (Team Smurf Vainguard sweeps Liberation X!). FameGlory has recently partnered with Vainglory League to provide comprehensive stats, head over to the website to catch up on what you’ve missed. For a charming and informational review of the the tournament so far, stop by VertigoTeamTv as a couple of really handsome guys discuss the details. You can also watch the replays from streamed matches on the VaingloryLeague Twitch channel.

CullTheMeek Leaves GankStars Sirius

As news that happened moments ago, CullTheMeek has left GankStars Sirius to join Alliance (formerly Ardent Alliance). Since roster changes for VGL cannot take place in mid-qualifier, he will play out the remainder of this current VGL qualifier with GankStars Sirius. In the meanwhile, GankStars is hiring a new jungler on their world championship team. Yes, this is a paid position. If you or a friend thinks they have what it takes, sign up.

Undisclosed Patch Notes

While we recommend you read the official patch notes, there are actually several items undisclosed from patch 1.13 that you should know before fighting. Ardan’s Vanguard is showing a 25% barrier of health, SEMC has come out to say that this was the original nerf from last patch when it was brought down from 50% but an error displayed the value as 35% until now. Blackfeather had a reported health nerf in the patch notes but in a bit of a whoopsie, the change wasn’t made in game, that’s probably why you aren’t seeing any less of him in ranked games.

Update to Calculator for Vainglory

Calculator for Vainglory has been updated for patch 1.13, including the addition of Reim. If you haven’t used Calculator for Vainglory before, it’s an iOS app that empowers you to create builds and see how it affects your damage output. It’s the best (and prettiest) app of its kind, so check it out.

Reim Lore: Cold Reception

Thrown in with the patch notes was the second piece of the Reim puzzle. Much like the story of a plucky young hero seeking training from a recluse Kung Fu master, we are introduced to mage born Samuel as he wishes to learn from Reim. We don’t know yet what happened to Reim’s son or why he is searching for Samuel in the first part of the lore (these are being released reverse chronological order) but we do get a hint that something stinks in the Gythian Mage Discipline. Rumors are already abound as to whether Samuel may one day step into the Fold. A popular argument against this possibility is there wouldn’t be two ice mages, but who said anything about Samuel having ice power? I give it 6 out of 6 frozen snot rockets.

Hop on The Petal Rollercoaster

As a big Petal fan, I empathize hard with SEMC’s struggle to balance her properly. The new patch changed her Munion health from “ticks” to a health and defense structure similar to lane minions. The goal was to increase their sustain against AOE intense heroes like Skye. On the reverse, the Munions are much more fragile now. I can testify this with a few tough games the last few days and here’s a Reddit thread of other frustrated Meeko mains.

Visual Skill Tier Bump

As was mentioned in Keldegar’s undisclosed notes, it was noted that the Just Begining skill tier is a little harder to climb out of than those that follow. However, many of us woke the other day to find a significant bump in our Visual Skill Tier, sky rocketing us out of Just Begining and some as far Getting There. It appears SEMC may have adjusted the first tier to equalize with the rest so progress evened out across the board, but no confirmation yet.

That about does it for this week, next time we will undoubtably have plenty of VGL news and a couple more Dev streams with possible delights. Good luck in the Fold all you Blackfeather kiters and Krul Smiters.