The Summoner is basically the player itself. What kinds of things can the Summoner do to influence a game match?

The Summoner is a unique avatar that is tied to the player account and represents the players in-game. The look, style, and abilities of a Summoner are highly customizable, leaving it up to the player to craft their own in-game identity. As players progress in the game, Summoners accumulate more influence and experience allowing access to additional Champions, options, abilities, items and more.

The Champions are called forth to battle by the Summoner. What can you tell us about the Champions in terms of their basic forms and abilities?

Each Champion is individually designed with unique abilities and traits that players use in competitive team-oriented sessions. Some Champions rely on brute strength to smite their foes, others use grace to be deadly and swift, while still others wage war through arcane magical abilities. There will be dozens of Champions available for play upon release, providing countless permutations of teams and Champion combos.
Each Champion has been painstakingly designed to provide a highly differentiated game experience. Part of what makes League of Legends so compelling is how many Champions there are, how diverse their play experiences are and how many different ways there are to play each of them.

The game looks like it's going to be a multiplayer action-RPG-strategy game but some in the press have called it an MMO. Can you clairify what the gameplay will be like?

League of Legends is a fast-paced, session based action-RPG requiring tactical maneuvers, cunning strategy, and intense teamwork – we call it a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). The intention is to distill the best elements of PVP in RPG games into easily accessible bite-sized sessions.

What will the actual matches be like? Are they fast based or more tactical and strategic?

League of Legends will incorporate both fast-paced and tactical/strategic elements in its core gameplay. Swift tactical maneuvers coordinated and executed through strategic teamwork can quickly change the tide of the battle, and League of Legends will reward strategic collaboration and quick thinking when working to outsmart opponents. Every session runs fairly quickly and players will have the opportunity to level up and purchase from countless item combinations throughout the course of the game.

How do the Summoner and Champions improve as the game goes on?

At the start of every session, Summoners select and call forth a level 1 Champion onto the Field of Justice. Throughout the course of a game, Champions will level up and gain gold by engaging enemy minions, Champions, defensive structures, monsters and level objectives. As they level up, their abilities and attributes increase, offering greater diversity and power. As Champions gain gold, they can spend it on a wide variety of items and item combinations augmenting their base stats and providing diverse and interesting ways to play each Champion. At the end of every session Champion levels and gold reset.

The Summoner system is the persistent element in League of Legends that provides players with rewards and achievements for actions taken within a game. As Summoners continue to engage their Champions in the Fields of Justice, they will gain experience and influence which can unlock additional abilities, achievement bonuses, customization slots, and Champion selection. Summoner abilities improve as the Summoner levels up and can be used in addition to abilities of a Champion.