League-of-Legends posts

Last September, developer Riot Games announced plans to add a new 5v5 map, Magma Chamber, to its popular online action-RTS game League of Legends. Since then, however, the developer hasn't mentioned the status of the new map. In a new article at PC Gamer's web site, the game's producer Travis George admits that announcing the new map at that time may have been premature.

He states, "We learned a couple things from [designing] Magma Chamber. [For one,] we have a really high internal standard for quality." Riot Games' president Marc Merrill added, "We probably feel the pain [of Magma Chamber still being unreleased] far more than anybody else does. We're our [own] harshest critics." However there's still no word on when, or even if, this new map will be released.

A few days ago developer Riot Games revealed a new upcoming champion called Rumble for its free-to-plau action-RTS game League of Legends. However details about the champion beyond its visual look were not revealed. Now Riot Games has given that info out for Rumble: The Mechanized Menace.

In addition to its back story, we now know that Rumble's powers and abilities include a "flamespitter" that deals damage to all units with Rumble's mech powered flamethrower. Another ability is the electro-harpoon which fires a projectile that does magic damage to its target. Its ultimate power is the Equalizer, which has the mech firing a line of rockets to its intended target.

League of Legends continues to give its players access to more champions and recently the free-to-play action-RTS game's official web site revealed plans for not one but two upcoming additions to its champions lineup. One you can see above. The character is called Rumble and its a mouse-like creature that controls a mini-mech with weapons like flamethrowers and a big mace.

Yet another upcoming champion is revealed in the video which you can check out after the jump. We know even less about this character except that he's called The Monkey King and apparently he's very good with the staff. We will certainly learn more about this champion in the coming weeks.

Razer announced its Switchblade mobile gaming PC concept design a few months ago at CES to huge acclaim. Now the company has announced a deal with China-based Tencent to have the Switchblade be optimized to run the games from the publisher, including Tencent's recently acquired game League of Legends.

Just a reminder: The Switchblade design has a 7-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor and a keyboard that can adjust to work specifically with games designed to work with the Switchblade. Razer has already said the design is just a concept and that it will be made by other companies. There's no word on when the first products with the Switchblade design will be released.

[Via email press release]

League of Legends will be offering a new champion to its ranks very soon. The free-to-play action-RTS game from developer Riot Games will offer Brand as a new addition as part of the game's latest update.

The game's official web site has more info on this new champion who uses flame as its attack motif. It can generate a ball of fire in one attack that does magic damage to its opponents. It can also create a pillar of flame that will also do magic damage to enemies in its area of attack. Its Ultimate attack is called Pyroclasm that can bounce off targets and do damage to each target.

With over one million players, Riot Games' action-RTS title League of Legends has become extremely popular among fans of the genre. Now Riot Games has announced that it will be holding a huge championship for the top eight teams of the genre.

The Season One Championship will be held at the Dreamhack LAN event in Sweden on June 18-21. The eight teams that make it through the tournament will compete for a $100,000 prize purse. The above video gives more info about the Season One Championship including word that Riot Games will send two other players to the event in a contest to be announced later.

Download the League of Leagues Season One Championship Trailer at Big Download

League of Legends continues to give its large community of players new content to check out. This week developer Riot Games announced its newest summoner hero addition, Lee Sin, a character that's basically a revival of the Blink Monk which was first announced for the game about two years ago.

Lee Sin's abilities include creating a sonic wave to take out opponents which can also be used in tandem with his Resonating Strike which makes him dash to his foe after the Sonic Wave hits it. Other abilities include the Tempest that creates magic damage by striking the ground hard and the roundhouse kick called the Dragon's Rage.

The earthquake that hit Japan 10 days ago will continue to affect its citizens for years to come. Today two more PC gaming related companies announced their own efforts for Japan disaster relief. One of them is SteelSeries, the PC gaming mouse company. It announced today that it will donate 25 percent of the proceeds from four of its PC gaming mice products to the Japanese Red Cross from now until April 15. Those same mice will also have a 25 percent discount in order to get more people to purchase them.

Meanwhile, developer Riot Games announced its own relief efforts for players of its free-to-play action-RTS game League of Legends. From now until March 27 all proceeds from the purchase of the game's Champion Akali and its Nurse Akali skin will go to the Red Cross. Both the Champion and the nurse skin are on sale for 50 percent off during that period.

As promised last January, the free-to-play multiplayer action-RTS game League of Legends has now launched a new gameplay mode that allows online players to team up against AI bots. The game's official message board have posted a new FAQ that goes into more detail about this new gameplay mode which is designed to help new players get accustomed to online matches against real opponents along with experienced players who want to test out new champions.

Speaking of new champions, PC Gamer's web site has some info about the next major Champion that will be added to League of Legends, the Nocturne. This new bruiser has a lot of interesting abilities including being able to reduce a player's line of sight while also taking away the ability to see his or her allies. You can check out a trailer showing how Nocturne's look was designed after the jump:

League of Legends didn't get a ton of hype when the fantasy-themed online action-RTS game was first announced by a then unknown game developer named Riot Games. But the game, inspired by the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients (and made with some former team members of the mod) has grown into a hugely successful free-to-play game title. Riot Games says League of Legends now has over one million registered players, is constantly updating the game with new Champions and other content and is currently hiring a ton of new people to join the developer.

The importance of both Riot Games and League of Legends came to a head earlier this month when it was announced that China-based Tencent had agreed to buy a majority stake of Riot Games. While the company has not announced how much the acquisition was worth, other online reports have estimated the deal to be close to $400 million.

Big Download got a chance to ask some questions to Riot Games' co-founder and president Marc Merrill to find out more about the Tencent deal and its plans for the future of League of Legends.