What’s up, players? This is a huge week in the Fold as SEMC really rang in the new year with a spectacular dev stream this past Friday, full of special guests that helped test out all the new winter season features. Broadcast from their brand-spanking-new office, SuperEvil really put coal on the fire and pulled the 1.13 hype train out of the station. Between those fantastic reveals and all the excitement of the esports scene, let’s dive right in!

VIPL Championship

Congratulations to Ardent Alliance, who took home the VIPL Season 2 championship after an incredible series with Invincible Armada this past weekend. Special congratulations to GankStars Sirius as well for taking third place in a decisive meeting with WEV. Read our official review of the championship by Gadianton. You can also watch the entire replay here.

Autumn Season Ending

This is officially the last warning you’ll get from us about the end of the Auntumn Season. As you’re probably well aware, Winter Season starts on January 13th and all guild pay outs will happen right around there. Get that fame for your guild!

VGL Winter Season

As we mentioned last week, VGL Winter Schedule starts soon with top teams for NA and EU participating in the First Regional Qualifiers beginning this Friday January 16th. The brackets were announced during the stream for all Regions. Check out NA here, and EU here. The bracket contest is also back; you can with 20K ICE if you guess every match perfectly. Good luck to you gamblers and may the Fold bless the teams!

Rank Compression for Winter Season

Interesting details came out about skill tier compression for the new season. For the start of Season One we all experienced a cramped Decentish-Hotness for the first few weeks as everyone was lowered from their Season Zero rank. This time around the process is going to be handled differently.

When Season Two starts, your ending Season One rank will be used as your MMR (match maker rank) but your displayed rank will begin at Unranked. What we understand from here is over the course of the beginning of the season, ranked games will impact your MMR through a series of placement matches and then your starting Season Two rank will be revealed. This should keep everyone competing within their appropriate skill tier and allow for less congestion in middle to lower tiers.

Reim

During stream we got the kit breakdown and official gameplay for the Fold’s newest hero, Reim. He’s classified as a jungle carry but it was mentioned he can also go lane. Here are a few screen shots of his kit.

Based on Internet buzz I know I’m not alone in being stoked for Reim both aesthically and mechanically. Nothing makes you feel more powerful than changing the shape of a fight with your crowd control, and I mean nothing, Taka.

Reim Lore

Last Tuesday, SugarVenom dropped the first part of the lore “Everything is Gone” for Reim. As a huge fan of lore, I was enthralled with where this story took us. The world surrounding the Fold is cloaked in mystery, but every now and then we get a hint as to a region or faction of citizens that adds another piece of the puzzle. This seemingly took us way back before many of the events of “today” and gave insight into the culture of the Grangor (Glaive) and how the world has been shaped. I give it a four out of five minions feet.

Glaive Tier 3

The Winter Season is going to be cold. We’ve gotten the frosty magic of Reim, the frozen form of Skaarf tier 3, and now the icy grip of Glaive’s axe in this stellar skin.

Supplementing the Reim lore rather nicely is an exciting look into the world of Glaive. An intriguing format on behalf of the lore maven channels the spirits of Glaive past. The idea that Glaive is not a name, but a title gives even more depth to the Fold’s own “anthropomorphic snow leopard with a rocket axe”. Check it out here. Then when you’re done with that, look at this eerily similar piece done by some other genius a couple months ago.

Winter War Catherine Skin



I think I first heard it mentioned by Brad of Shatter the Vain Podcast, but what makes these limited edition skins so fantastic is that they have all the bells and whistles of a tier 3 skin. Winter War Catherine is sizzling with a battle skirt and teal colored effects dancing off her shield.

Also, even more lore to read! Banner week for us literary nerds. In a surprising reveal by SugarVenom this exciting rendezvous between members of the Stormguard is the first canon skin lore. It’s full of juicy details and has a cliff hanger ending, so read it now before the battle continues!

Bug Alert

This video shows a supposed Vox bug that allows him to slide and move quickly in ways he by all account shouldn’t. As is explained in the comments section on Reddit, by using Sonic Zoom and tapping a turret, minion, hero etc outside your target range, you can move trigger this bug. It appears exploitable as it can give Vox additional gap closing or escape.

ShinKaigan AMA

If you haven’t been over to Reddit in the last couple days, here’s your reason to log in. ShinKaigan of Ardent Alliance did a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) that brought to light some fantastic details about Ardent’s run in the VIPL and how Shin approaches the game. Shin has always been known for being one to help players grow in Vainglory so your Elo might go up just reading his responses to the well thought out questions posed by the community.

Helpful Guide

Reddit user Fedmattisgg posted a really well-written guide in response to community inquiry about how the top-level players farm so efficiently. I really recommend you read it.

That does it for the week. We’ll be back next time with all the juicy details of patch 1.13 and hopefully so more insight into the mysterious world of Reim! Thumbs up to all you Catherine peels and Kestrels with Heavy Steel!