When Riot Games invited members of the press to San Francisco for a League of Legends "world premiere" announcement, I'll admit that I went into it thinking that I knew exactly what was up. After all, with the game's huge success over the past year and thousands of new players coming in every day, what better time than now to announce the release of everything that's been on the "coming soon" itinerary? I don't think there would have been a single disappointed journalist at the event if Riot had rolled out a graphical overhaul and a new map in the highly anticipated Magma Chamber; throw in the introduction of a bunch of new champions, some small surprises for the commencement of Season Two, and there you have it! In fact, I was so confident in this prediction that when Andrew Beegle, Riot's lead community manager, asked me to venture a guess, I actually felt bad for ruining the surprise.

Oh how wrong I was.

"What makes a good MMORPG?"

I've decided to devote a bit of my time and a few articles to exploring this. In my last few pieces, I wrote about character progression, followed by gameplay mechanics and combat, and in the one before I spoke of story and premise. Today I'll talk about my favorite aspect of any MMORPG: PvP!

I have a confession to make. As a self-described PvP enthusiast in all things MMORPG, I've never played what many consider to be the holy grail of world PvP: Dark Age of Camelot. Even worse, the reason I missed out on those golden days was that I was firmly entrenched in two very distinctly PvE heavy MMORPGs: Ragnarok Online (before War of Emperium) and then Final Fantasy XI. Still, in spite of my transgressions, I'd like to think that I've acquitted myself quite well by delving deep into almost every PvP-oriented game since: Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Bloodline Champions, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, the short-lived Fury, Atlantica Online, Champions Online, Aion, Rift and World of Warcraft. In other words, I've seen most of what MMORPGs have to offer, so let's just get down to talking about what makes for a thriving PvP system.

Riot Games has released a localized version of League of Legends in Poland, complete with dedicated services and a new website.

"We have seen a lot of momentum for League of Legends in Europe," said Brandon Beck, CEO of Riot Games. “"The popularity of our game in Poland, as well as the flexibility of our business model has made us excited to further improve players experience through a localized service and communication with the Polish community."

Riot Games announced this week that League of Legends has surpassed 15 million registered players. The company has grown more than five times in size since it released League of Legends less than two years ago in October 2009.

According to the latest figures released by Riot Games, League of Legends is undeniably a popular game, boasting 15 million registered players. Here's the rundown from President and Executive Producer Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill:

"As of today, 15 million people have registered to become League of Legends players. Each month, over 4 million people log in to play. And on each day, 1.4 million summoners play League of Legends together.

When we're at our busiest, over 500,000 people in North America and Europe are in game at the same time. On average, more than 10 games of League of Legends start every second of every day. As we expand into Asia and abroad, the possibilities around live, global events makes the game enthusiast in all of us shake with excitement."

As for the company itself, Riot Games has grown more than five times in size since it released League of Legends less than two years ago in October 2009.

Riot Games has released a new patch preview video for League of Legends (patch 1.0.0.122 if you're keeping track), and this one covers the various buffs and nerfs that are planned. Here's an overview from Riot:

"While we are nerfing some of the deadliest champions like Gangplank and Corki in the coming update, we wanted to shed some light into our targeted changes, with big buffs to Galio and significant updates to Tryndamere, Kayle, and more!"

Want more details? Watch the video below!

As a League of Legends player who usually gravitates toward female champions, I'd like to be the first to say that Riot Games has done a great job balancing the genders. In my ranked matches these days, I've been able to easily round out my teams in the categories of support (Janna, Sona), mage (Orianna, Annie), bruiser (Irelia) and ranged carry (Vayne, Ashe and Caitlynn). As far as fair and balanced female coverage goes, however, there has always been one role sorely lacking attention: the tank. Well, now fans of female champions in League of Legends can finally rejoice because, with the introduction of Leona, the Radiant Dawn, the job of tanking is now open to both genders.

When Riot Games first announced Yorick the Gravedigger and I heard about what his intended role would be within the game, I'll admit that I was very hesitant. Introducing a new champion in the melee DPS slot that competitive players would actually want to use is a significant challenge considering the stringent requirements that League of Legends' current metagame imposes. Ranged DPS carries considered to be "top tier" are usually judged by their ability to deal a lot of damage at all times, while the best "mages" are those with high, on-demand, burst, combined with a light splash of utility (stuns, crowd control, slows).

For the role of a "bruiser," however, which Yorick is, the requirements can get pretty high: top tier bruisers often have a few crowd control abilities to protect their squishy teammates (and catch their targets), enough damage (or utility) to be considered a major threat in a fight, the survivability to be on the front-lines at all times and good sustainability to participate in multiple team fights without needing to constantly return to base.

So does Yorick fit this long list of demands? Let's find out!

The League of Legends Season One champions have been crowned! Team FnaticMSI emerged victorious over aAa to take home the $50,000 grand prize check and the prestigious title!

If you missed any of the action, head over to Riot Games' Season One Championship site to watch replays of any of the matches. It will also give you the opportunity to see the prototype of the upcoming Spectator Mode in action.

The League of Legends Season One Championship Finals will take place this weekend at the Dreamhack festival in Jönköping, Sweden, which means we're very close to finding out which team will take home the $50,000 grand prize! Live coverage begins tomorrow, June 18, on Riot Games' championship site, so keep an eye on it for live matches, updated brackets, interview with competitors and more.

Here are the details on the Season One Championship Finals:

Welcome to the thrilling conclusion of League of Legends Season One! For the past nine months, League of Legends teams all across the globe have been fighting furiously to establish themselves as championship contenders. Now, the Season One Circuit has come to a close, and the top eight teams from North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe have gathered together to compete for their share of a $100,000 prize purse and the right to call themselves the greatest League of Legends team in the world. Here at Dreamhack in Jönköping, Sweden, the League of Legends Season One Champions will be crowned, taking home a grand prize of $50,000!

Following denial of service attacks attributed to hacker group LulzSec, CCP restored EVE Online's Tranquility server and then took it offline again to protect its customers and investigate the situation. The server is currently back up, but CCP is prepared to take it offline again if warranted.

When Tranquility was first restored about an hour ago, Chief Operating Officer Jón Hörðdal wrote a letter to the community explaining why Tranquility was taken offline in response to the attacks. "It is always our approach to err on the side of caution in order to ensure the best possible service for our players and the security of their personal, billing and account information," he said, confirming that players' personal information and credit cards are safe.

Shortly following the restoration of Tranquility, CCP took the server offline again once the team "became aware of ongoing traffic flooding." As mentioned, the game is back up and is being closely monitored.

LulzSec took credit for the EVE Online attack on its Twitter page, along with similar attacks that occurred today against League of Legends, Minecraft and The Escapist magazine.