The third day of League of Legends' World Playoffs were a bit of a disaster, and that's putting it lightly. After a successful first and second day, the second game of the day - pitting Counter Logic Gaming Europe against Asian Team World Elite - went completely wrong. The game disconnected multiple times, most notably ending a hour-long, drawn-out stalemate between the two teams with no victor and forcing yet another game remake. Then, after Riot called it a day, players watching the videos noticed a lot of suspicious activities from an earlier Team Solo Mid and Azubu Frost game. Several players looked at the overhead map, giving them full vision of the enemy team. 

Riot has finally issued a statement about the event, brought forward by RedBeard, the eSports VP. Primarily, he said the disconnects were due to two internet connectivity issues and one power failure, and that Riot is going to be making preparations for Season 3 to deal with these better. Among these, a LAN option for tournament games (which it currently lacks, which is why a lost internet connection disconnected the game from Riot's servers, rendering it unplayable). 

Furthermore, Riot had referees on stage at the time of the cheating incidents, and the early pause was due to a headset issue from Team Azubu Frost. During that time, both teams were looking around, and were issued warnings, but the game was restarted anyway. No comment yet on the other controversial TSM/AZF game where pings at TSM's top lane for almost no reason, but RedBeard has said they are investigating it. And, lastly, they said they had made the decision to not include booths because they felt they could catch any full 90 degree turns to the teams. But he added "even the possibility of unfair play was simply unacceptable. We're taking steps to ensure the minimap screens are not visible to players." Lastly, the conclusion of Day 3 is going to take place tomorrow, Wednesday the 10th, and CLG.eu has confirmed that date. 

I feel like Riot made a lot of mistakes here, but many of them - including the cheating - were things they had plans for. Sometimes things happen. I'm sure Riot will not make this mistake twice. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

The Season 2 World Championship for League of Legends went through its first round of playoffs yesterday, with teams from all around the world duking it out to qualify for the semifinals. And only in the first game of Azubu versus iG, the total of both Own3d and Twitch.tv easily broke 500k concurrent viewers.

That's factoring only the English stream in - there are alternate streams from Riot that broadcast in Russian, German, Portuguese, and Spanish that did not go accounted. 

Incidentally, the games have been amazing, with constant changes of lanes and meta and sweeping victories from Azubu Frost, CLG Europe, and NaJin Sword. There's two more days of game ahead, and the World Finals this coming Saturday.

You can keep up with all the action on the new LolStage at Lolking.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Every time someone comes out for League of Legends, you wonder - are they overpowered? Are they underpowered? Darius' release was probably the best for this, as they did only a few small tweaks, and people found out he's not overpowered all on their own. And now, thanks to Stolas at Lolking, we have stats to analyse on Syndra, Rengar, Kha'Zix, and Diana.

The results are kind of surprising - Syndra's buffs have brought her up, but her win rate has only hit below 40%. Rengar has been smoothed out a bit with his recent nerfs, and he's back down to an even 53%. Diana has cruised at an even 50%. And Kha'Zix, despite being the brand new guy, has almost entirely plateaued at 40%. 

Now, the question is, will Riot do anything about it? Or will Kha and Syndra just hang until Season 3's promised big changes take effect? 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

LolKing again earns its name by releasing another superb feature to keep you fully honed and informed for League of Legends gaming.

Already you can get the best elo stats, champion lists and links to streams at your fingertips under one slickly designed roof.

Now your information can be broken down to keep you on the cutting edge of current LoL trends.

As you may or may not know, we have a love of League of Legends at ZAM that runs a mile wide -- want proof? We made LolKing!

Although I have the mid lane skills of a turnip, I still have a great appreciation for the real talents of the game which is why the MLG Prizefights series is so enticing.

Dignitas has been tight lipped about the disqualification they received at MLG Summer. Odee, the manager for the team, has broken his silence and reported on what he and the team have decided.

"This weekend our League of Legends team were disqualified from MLG Summer Championship, as a result, the teams were punished by MLG by losing their placement, prize money and circuit points.

We have investigated this matter further and after talking to several parties we have concluded that our team did indeed co-operate with Curse by agreeing to play ARAM in the Grand Final. We have found no solid evidence confirming any other allegations. This was of course a disappointing end to a tournament for Team Dignitas and we can confirm that we have fined our players for their actions plus the entire cost of the MLG Raleigh trip on top of that.

Also dignitas/Scarra has made this short statement: "On behalf of the dignitas league of legends team, we apologize to our fans, sponsors, and to MLG for playing the ARAM this weekend. We realize that our actions were not and are not justifiable especially if we are looking to positively promote the future of esports and league of legends. We agree to the punishment stated by both MLG and Team Dignitas. Additionally, we promise to never let a disappointing event like this happen again.""

Oddly, it seems that now the ARAM is the reason Dignitas were fined and punished. But didn't MLG say that the collusion was about pot-splitting? And now Dignitas and Curse NA have confirmed there was no pot-splitting collusion? This is getting murkier all the time. We will keep you updated.

Julian "Mirai" Williams

So here's an odd situation.

If you were in a tournament, and you entered a match that didn't matter, what would you do? Would you goof off? Would you play your hardest?

At the end of a tournament, only one can win, and this time it's recurring champs Team Solo Mid. IPL was a fantastic set of games, featuring dominating dragon control from Asian team SGS and some unconventional tournament picks like Draven and Darius from Orbit Gaming. Most notably, Legion's own WildTortise made enough stunning plays as Gragas and Twisted Fate to beat the highly skilled World Elite, earning him MVP of IPL 2012. But TSM's superior positioning, map control, and mobility fast overtook all, and they swept the grand finals against Curse in a 3-0 victory, netting the grand prize. Congrats to the team and their $20,000 takehome! 

Riot Games' CEO Brandon Beck spoke to Forbes recently and the second part of that conversation is online now.

Beck talked of the huge changes coming to the League of Legends Championship Series Tournament in Season Three.

Riot Games has released a Champion Spotlight video for their new League of Legends addition Diana, Scorn of the Moon.

The video is meant to give an introduction to players eager to get their hands on the latest entry to LoL's stable of champions.