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League of Legends

League of Legends, released October 27, 2009, is developed and published by Riot Games. It is a multiplayer online battle arena game, a genre Riot claims to have pioneered, combining elements of role-playing and strategy games. Originally inspired by the "Defense of the Ancients" map in Warfcraft III, League of Legends is constantly evolving with new content and features. The game, which can be downloaded and played for free, reached 32 million monthly active players by mid-2012 and has been the number 1 most-played game on Xfire for over a year and counting.

Matches in League of Legends are either 3v3 or 5v5. There are two teams, one blue and one purple, each consisting of minions (NPCs that attack the other team) and players controlling champions. A champion is a character that only one player can choose. Two people can't choose the same champion. This is to avoid having super over-powered teams. That's why the game offers 110 champions for people to buy with Influence Points (IP, in-game currency) or Riot Points (RP, real money). Each week, about 8 champions are given to everybody to use for free to test out or help new players decide what champions they would like to buy later.

After every player has fully loaded, each player will spawn in the spawning pool, which is also where players respawn whenever they die. The spawning pool is directly next to the shop where players can buy items, such as potions, armor, or items that give their champion more attack power, attack damage, etc. Also next to the spawning pool is your nexus, your opponent's target.

The objective of the game is to destroy the other team's nexus before they destroy yours. Sounds easy, right? Well, there are a few things that will impede your objective. First, you have the minions that spawn every 30 seconds from each nexus. And every three minutes, the minion waves get stronger. Next, you have the other team trying to destroy your own nexus or kill you. Finally, you have turrets in each path, or lane. The turrets will attack you when none of your minions are in the vicinity or if you attack an enemy champion.

The game matches players against each other from their Elo ratings. An Elo rating is basically a player's skill level. In League of Legends, there are five different modes: Tutorial, Custom, Co-Op vs AI, Normal, and Ranked. Tutorial match is pretty straightforward. A Custom match allows the host of the custom game to choose the bots and invite whomever he/she wants. Co-Op vs AI is all real players against bots. A Normal game is strictly player-versus-player, or PvP. A Ranked game is mostly the same as a Normal game, but with a few twists. To play Ranked games, a player must be level 30, have at least 16 champions (not including free champions), and be on a ranked team.

Dominion is the latest game mode released by Riot Games. Dominion has the same modes as Classic, the difference is Dominion is basically a capture-the-flag game and takes about 15-25 minutes, while Classic takes 30-45 minutes.

Players in League of Legends take on the roles of summoners, spell casters with the ability to summon champions. Summoners can choose two spells that can have a substantial effect, though with a high cooldown. Further, summoners are given masteries, perks that automatically activate during games, and rune pages. Rune pages have a limited number of slots for that specific page, but they can still help out immensely. Runes are grouped into Marks (offense), Seals (defense), Glyphs (magic), and Quintessences (utility). The shop allows summoners to buy more rune pages with Influence Points or Riot Points.

League of Legends has an honor system with four categories: Friendly, Helpful, Teamwork, and Honorable Opponent. The Friendly category is used when a summoner meets another summoner who displayed a personality or attitude that you liked and has good sportsmanship qualities. The Helpful category is whenever you feel another summoner has taught you more about League of Legends, champions, items or item builds, abilities, or strategies in the "Field of Justice" (in-game map). The Teamwork category is anybody that communicated and worked well with the team. The Honorable Opponent category is whenever you feel that you faced an opponent that was tough to defeat and pretty nice about losing, like they won't rage at you or at the team for losing.

The report system is something that should not be taken lightly. Summoners can be reported for anything from rage-quitting to feeding the other team (letting them kill you), harassing people, or using offensive language. If a summoner is reported several times, his/her offenses may be reviewed by The Tribunal, where other players of level 20 or higher can vote on whether the offending summoner should be punished or pardoned. Participants receive Influence Points when their votes align with the majority. If the votes for punish win out, the offending summoner may be suspended or banned. The Riot Games staff may also review the reports, and can supersede The Tribunal.

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