Perhaps you have heard of the popular, free to play, online game called League of Legends. Perhaps not. Maybe you have played its progenitor Defense of the Ancients; maybe not. Or you might be acquainted with Storm of the Imperial Sanctum, though, if you said no to the above, probably not. Whether you have or haven't, hopefully you will enjoy the interesting parallels we might draw between these Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games and our beloved sport of soccer.

First, a primer. MOBAs are team-based games where each player controls a "hero" and attempts to destroy the other team's base first. Each team has a set of areas to defend and little computer-controlled minions who will help them in the process of defense and attack. But where these games shine is in the structure of the competition between the teams of player-controlled heroes. The heroes fight each other, neutral monsters, and the enemy's minions and towers while they gain experience to level up and money to purchase upgrades. They are incredibly diverse, though at the same time there are a few basic roles and types they follow. There are mages, hand-to-hand fighters, stealthy assassins, damage absorbers, and ranged damage dealers. More importantly, they each fill vital roles.

The three main roles in any MOBA are "support," "tank," and "carry." Supports do what their name suggests: they use their tools and skills to empower their team or hinder their enemy while avoiding being the focus of a battle (or attempting to, at least). They might do this by harassing the enemy, shielding an ally, or providing the team with a tactical advantage (see Lulu). A tank is what you might imagine it would be: a big target that is meant to soak up damage and, to a lesser extent, deal it out in kind. A good tank can take a lot of damage and can resist some damage, but can also cause the other team enough havoc that they must be dealt with (see Volibear). A carry is the person who "carries" your team to victory later in the game. When properly used, a carry can decimate the other team at will, meaning each team will protect their own or kill the other carry at all costs (seeAshe). There are, of course, many subtleties to each game, with plenty of ways to build your hero as a hybrid or to end up having your tank win it all alone, but these roles define the game at a basic level.

These roles also roughly translate onto the soccer pitch.

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Right now, The Emerald City is more than rich in Rave Green baubles. Jeremiah said it well: "There really isn't much reason to complain when your team is pulling out results and playing basically every three days." The Sounders have a pair of shutout victories to show for last week's games, having won the two games prior as well. Having recently watched and read a good deal about the Sonics' departure, I wanted to reflect about just how awesome soccer in The Emerald City is right now and how we should treasure it.

May is one of the most jam-packed months of the season. We have already had 6 home games, plus a CCL game at home and another preseason game at home against Mexican competition. The Sounders still have 6 more games to go this month, one of which is the first match of this year's Cascadia Cup. We get to see our team match up against the likes of Landon Donovan, Fredy Adu, Brek Shea, Javier Morales, Sebastien Le Toux, Chad Marshall and Dan Kennedy, all in one month. The schedule is absolutely stuffed, and, as an MLS fan, that is excellent news.

But it's not just the number of games that we can cherish.

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Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III were selected 1-2 in the NFL Draft Thursday night. They are the prototype of the new era NFL quarterbacks, as Chris Brown of Grantland writes. They are the product of a system that identifies young athletes and instills in them, from an early age, the type of mentality and intelligence that will be required of an NFL quarterback. Brown writes that anyone from the future looking back will laugh at Tebowmania, because why would anyone want an athlete as a quarterback when every quarterback is an athletic quarterback? The new techniques used to develop young players make this possible in the NFL. But the NFL is not the only place where this happens.

Look at this matchup: 19-year-old left back David Alaba takes the first PK for Bayern Munich, while international superstar Christiano Ronaldo takes the first for Real Madrid. We all know how it worked out in the end. Perhaps Alaba's youth worked for him, as there was far less to know about how he would take the PK, but the pressure to perform in that situation is intense and can make any player wither (See: Ramos, Sergio). Alaba's calm and calculated PK evidences a confidence beyond his years. A 19-year-old hardly has any business being the deciding factor in a Champions League semi-final, and yet his success where Ronaldo failed may just have been the upset that tipped the scales in Bayern's favor.

The NBA is also familiar with young superstars. Just look at King James' coronation upon joining the league. The "1 year" rule has cut back on this a bit, but it is still significant. The NBA has been in the game of developing young players for years--the elite leagues, traveling AAU teams, expert youth coaches, etc. The NFL does not have these young superstars, but there is no question that the college game has been elevated to a level previously unimaginable. And it is partially due to the sea change in how youth quarterbacks are developed.

Expert young players like Alaba are not new to soccer. Christiano has been a sensation for a long time. If you felt like Rooney has been playing for a decade, you'd almost be right. But he's just 26, only 3 weeks older than Osvaldo Alonso. Messi is just 24 -- David Estrada is older.

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There has been some confusion in the Sounders community on how many internationals the Sounders must protect.  While the general consensus is that Rosales will be protected, and many believe that Flaco will also be protected, there is much disagreement over whether a third, most likely Friberg, must also be protected to satisfy the MLS expansion draft rules or if Tetteh actually satisfies that requirement.  Here is my analysis, in which I conclude that Friberg does not have to be protected.

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It does, however, accurately sum up my feelings after last night: bruised.

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After being reminded of the head-to-head tiebreaking implications of tomorrow's match, I got interested in what would decide the home field advantage for FCD v. SSFC after we win tomorrow.  Turns out it is Goal Differential, so as long as we win, it doesn't matter how we win besides the obvious advantage of helping our GD and hurting theirs.  If we lose or tie though, total GD becomes irrelevant.

For easy reference, I've posted the whole tiebreaking procedure from the league's website:

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