Enhance Your Gaming

There is a point in time in League of Legends where all hope seems to be lost and you're slowly but surely creeping into elo hell.  At one point or another, everyone seems to settle at a plateau in League of Legends where their rank isn't increasing.  I struggled with this for several seasons of League of Legends.  I felt like no matter what I could do to achieve Gold Tier, it was not working.  My goal was to try to at least reach Gold Tier, just for the season rewards.  I tried to play every single role available and still had no success of climbing the ladder.  Fortunately,  I found that playing champions like Morgana(mid-lane), Volibear(top-lane), and Pyke(jungle) were keys to my success.  Disclaimer, some of my choices (most of them probably) were not geared towards the current meta.  I played champions I knew how to play, and new how to be successful with them.  By familiarizing myself with optimal items, I was able to use champ...

This article will compare and contrast the different aspects that make up PC gaming and console gaming.  First off the PC gaming community contains many more gamers than that of the Console gaming community.  This may be due to the fact that there are a more variety of games available for PC gamers than what are available for console gamers.  Both platforms seem to rely on First Person Shooter (FPS) and Third Person Shooter (TPS) games.  Console games seem to do well on both types of shooters simply because the control layout for the consoles are meant for these types of games.  Nonetheless, PC gamers seem to exceed the skill level of console gamers within these types of shooters.  One advantage that PC gamers have over the console gamers is the utilization of a mouse.  By using a mouse to control your aim direction, it is easier to stabilize and control the amount of recoil allowed from guns found in FPS and TPS games.  Another advantage that ...

Destiny 2 is a game that is constantly increasing the level capacity with every expansion that is released for the game.  This may get irritating at times for gamers who have been grinding away to reach that capacity, just for Bungie to release an update to increase the level cap.  Although it may be frustrating there are ways to quickly close the gap between your current level and the max level available.  First and foremost, take advantage of the bounties.  Several across the world of destiny offer daily and weekly bounties that grant Legendary Powerful Items.  These items that are rewarded for the bounties typically are a higher level than the gear that you currently have equipped.  Taking advantage of these daily opportunities can quickly increase your current power level.  There are also daily/weekly challenges throughout the orbit system in Destiny 2 that are available to reward Legendary Powerful Items as well.  Events like heroic miss...

There have been numerous games adapting a game mode titled, Battle Royale.  The gist of the game is the last player standing wins.  In case you have been living under a rock for the last two years, or that you have somehow unintentionally avoided these games with these modes in it, Battle Royale games are game modes where one hundred players enter a playing field and have to scavenge the area for materials and weapons to fight against one another.  There have been a plethora of games that have adapted this game mode to the point where it is repetitive and old news.  Gamers had a high for playing these Battle Royale games, some probably still do, but the game mode is over done and old news.  Unfortunately, several developers have seen the success that Battle Royale modes have brought other games and have tried to create an iteration of their own.  My experience with these games is that they're not my play style of game.  I enjoy games that players a...

Video Games are more popular than ever.  If you have ever been on Twitch.tv or the Twitch App then you have a clear understanding that there are hundreds of thousands of players playing all types of video games.  The popularity is not with the newer modern games, some nostalgic content also emerges onto the streaming channels as well.  Along with the rise of gamers, a professional league of video games has been established as eSports.  ESports is like having ESPN for video game tournaments.  It is comparable to having a fan base of a professional football team, but for gamers.  Well this is exactly the atmosphere that has been generated for professional eSports athletes.  Imagine having an entire arena filled with crowds of people cheering on their favorite team as the go head to head with teams from all over the entire world.  This is a reality to the eSports leagues.  I personally enjoy watching the League of Legends eSports channel on T...

"Video games are ruining your life", is a phrase that I have heard over and over again by several of my close relationships.  There was a period of my life where I was spiraling out of control.  The relationship I was pursuing turned for the worst, my friend group was diminishing, my grades were slipping due to lack of motivation, and I entered a state of mind where I struggled to battle for many years.  I had hit a point in my life where I could not find happiness, there was only one thing that allowed me to find a sense of peace throughout the darkness that consumed me.  Whether it was obliterating opponents in League of Legends, squading up with fireteams in Destiny 2, or exploring the unforgettable dungeons in Legend of Zelda, I found that playing video games was my escape route.   There was peace and serenity when I stepped into a virtual world, it was like all my problems ceased to exist.  Video games saved my life.  In a way, I wa...

For years I have wished for the top console companies to merge together to manufacture the ultimate gaming console that allows for cross platform communities to collide.  Who else would rather have one console that can play multiple game platforms.  I personally enjoy playing League of Legends on PC, but enjoy raiding it out on Destiny 2 on PS4, and I always have an itch to smash some friends on Super Smash Bros on Nintendo Switch.  I, along with many other gamers, would utilize the possibilities and functionalities that could exist by having a console with the capabilities of hosting several gaming platforms. According to Luke Plunkett's post, a company called Origin has developed a box that has hardware for a personal computer, Xbox One X, PlayStation Pro , and a Nintendo Switch.  Unfortunately, this product is not for sale and was made for experimental purposes for the company's tenth birthday celebration.  The fact that a company was able to innovate suc...

The battle between gaming platforms has been an ongoing topic since gaming emerged.  Whether it is Playstation, Nintendo, Xbox, or PC, gamers have a particular preference for what platform they like to play on.  Some of these factors could be due to the variety of games offered on a platform, the fact that games tend to be more fluid on a particular platform, or simply that your friends play on a certain platform so you feel obligated to join them. For this individual, he was all about console gaming before he made the transition to join the PC realm.  Zachary Anderson used to be all in with console gaming before he made the switch to PC.  "I played console games for seven years before I switched to PC" says Zach, "PC gaming offers much more of a variety of games and the processors on a PC allow for higher frame rate optimization."  There are services such as Steam that allow users to purchase games directly to their PC hard drives.  Services like these...

This blog post is not geared towards your average samurai, or an app that causes users to slice up various fruits.  This blog is about the ever so talented gamer named Tyler Blevins, also known as Ninja.  Ninja started out his gaming career playing the Halo series on Xbox, being the immensely gifted gamer he was, he was able to sweep the competition in several tournaments.  Nowadays, Ninja is a public icon to many individuals.  His preference is mainly the popular battle royale game, Fortnite.  There is no doubt that Ninja will continue to improve his skill set to games on the horizon.  The mindset that he is able to apply to any games grants him an impeccable advantage over his competition.  Ninja has dedicated many days to reach the skill level of one of the best Fortnite players in the world as well as one of the best PC gamers in the world.  In a way Ninja is his own brand, the level of gaming content that he is capable of producing is exc...

There are many ways to step up your level of gaming, but these methods can be applied to any gamer playing games on any platform.  The following steps can be used to open perspectives on current games played by players, as well as introduce new strategies and tactics. 1. Watch a Professional The world has evolved around gaming allowing players to live stream and upload videos almost instantly of game footage to viewers all around the world.  Because of this, there are thousands of professional players that play different styles, roles, and games for gamers to learn from.  Find a professional who plays the game you are interested in, the role that best suites you, and watch/study their methods constantly to learn new ways to improve your skills. 2. Research Video games are no longer a single solution step by step process.  There are constant changes to games where players have to find new ways to itemize and build compositions.  Spend time on researching...

League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the gaming community right now.  It is an exclusive to PC gamers, and has had major success with its multiplayer online battle arena game style.  I would give this fantastic game a 10/10 recommendation to any gamer who enjoys a game that challenges strategy, teamwork, and an individual's skill level.  League of Legends is an intense, strategic, skillful, team-centered game that requires players to implement several levels of strategy to become victorious.  There are over one hundred characters called "champions" that each team of five players get to choose from.  Each of these champions have their own abilities that are unique to themselves, and based off of those abilities, teams are able to build team compositions that able to combine damage, crowd control, impaired movement, and healing abilities.  I have played this game for six years and have continued to find ways to be drawn to this spectacular...

Video games have tremendously adapted over the last few decades.  In just a short amount of time video games have evolved from simple eight bit arcade games to high resolution, extremely detailed, virtual phenomenons.  Video games are part of modern day culture, and they will continue to be as developers continue to break technological barriers. Developers such as Epic Games have used the function of cross platform gaming, this allows players from Xbox, Playstation, and PC to play against one another.  The famous game, Fortnite, has been a cultural boom in the last year and other game developers are following their trend.  It is no secret that the game mode of battle royale is among the popular game types to play right now.  Games such as Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and Player Unknown Battlegrounds have utilized this feature to create a battle mode where a single player, or a team of players, enter a large area and search for resources to fight against the rest ...

There are many gamers in the community who are trying to make a living as a professional gamer, however, many of those fail to reach the level of engagement that enables someone to be successful as a gamer.  Twitch.tv is an online streaming website that allows individuals to live stream through channels while viewers have the option to view, subscribe, and donate to the host.  Because of this, twitch has provided an opportunity for everyday gamers to put themselves out there to the community to try to make a living.  There are many individuals who give up their established jobs to become a full-time online streamer, and many of them are unsuccessful at doing so.  The biggest mistake individuals make while doing this is entering in a highly competitive market.  What I mean by that is think of a video game as its own market (ie. Fortnite, League of Legends, etc.), within these markets there are hundreds of streamers competing for viewers of that game.  By e...

My name is Drew Taphorn and this is my blog.  The intentions of this blog is to educate the video gaming community in ways that they are able to utilize these posts to improve their personal skill. Those who read this blog will be able to witness what it takes to get to the next level of gaming.  I will be posting a series of blogs in order for readers to have a further understanding of how to implement all of their available virtual assets in order to be a top tier gamer within the community. Throughout this blog you will discover resources that are presented by professional players that will provide strategy and knowledge to a variety of video games that are played today. The picture above is my family, I have a wife and two boys.  My wife and I just celebrated our one year anniversary this past April.  Between the two of us, we are both college students, I work a full-time job, my wife runs her own business, and we are raising this family together.  I am...