The fourth installment of the League of Legends Patch Preview video series is here! Tamat and Phreak of the community team sit down with Lead Champion Designer Ryan "Morello" Scott to talk about more systemic changes to minions, turrets, and even death timers.

Plus, will Riot Games be nerfing Urgot? Watch the full video after the jump to find out!

Riot Games has been working on a new patcher for PVP.net that will resolve patching issues and help implement a polished replay system. The patcher is ready for beta testing, and the team is looking for some brave League of Legends players to try it out.

I you'd like to act as a beta tester for the new patcher, check out the announcement for instructions on how to get started. As for an official release date, here is the team's response: "When we think it's up to Riot Games standards, we will release it to everyone."

A few weeks ago, Riot Games announced plans for a system that will allow League of Legends players to test their skills against challenging computer-controlled enemies. If you're interested to see this augmented AI in action, members of the Riot team will be putting on a live demonstration today, Feb. 9, at 2 p.m. PST on the Riot Games Own3d.tv channel.

So what can you expect to see in the demonstration? Riot Games' Hephestopheles, Nikasaur, Praeco, Old Man Cheung and Brolaf will be taking on computer-controlled enemies in an epic battle of man vs. machine. Who will win? Tune in today at 2 p.m. and find out!

Riot games has announced that they will be in attendance at PAX East in Boston, MA this year.

"Riot Games will be exhibiting League of Legends in conjunction with our partner Alienware at the Alienware Arena booth. You will also be able to find us in the Freeplay area, where we’ll be hosting a tournament, or be able to attend panels held by Riot Games employees RiotChris and Morello. Oh, and if the mood should strike you to cosplay one of our epic champions, here’s your early heads up that there will be a contest for that! Stay tuned for the full schedule as we draw closer to the event!"

Are you going to PAX East this year? If so, will you be stopping by the Riot booth?

Riot Games' latest League of Legends Patch Preview series video is out and has been creating a lot of buzz. Tamat and Phreak of the community team are joined by Designer Steve "Guinsoo" Feek of the design team to talk about Renekton, Rammus, and many upcoming changes.

Some of the changes that were discussed have been met with negative feedback in the League of Legends community. To further explain the upcoming changes, Guinsoo has also posted a letter detailing what will be taking place and why these changes are being made.

Watch the full video after the jump and read Guinsoo's letter over on the League of Legends forum.

For the past few champion releases, Riot Games has been fairly good with producing characters that I've been genuinely interested in. Out of the most recent half-dozen new champs, I've picked three new 'mains' in the form of Lux (for support), LeBlanc (for caster damage), and Caitlyn (for attack damage). In addition to this, I've actually enjoyed the other new champions, like Irelia or Trundle, even if they weren't quite suited to my play style. Of course, all good things must come to an end, and such is the case with Riot's latest animal champion, the crocodile-headed Renekton, The Butcher of the Sands.

It's been a busy few days for Ryan Winzen, the 25-year-old who's creating a Starcraft MMO using Starcraft II's editing tools. Last week he posted a video of his World of Starcraft mod on YouTube. It quickly went viral, which led to the video being pulled due to a copyright claim by Activision Games Inc. Well, it turns out that's not the end of the story.

In a letter posted this morning on the World of Starcraft forums, Winzen says he was contacted by Riot Games for a potential position in game design. Lead Designer Tod "Zileas" Cadwell confirmed the offer on the League of Legends forums and made the following comment:

"When I see a modder with a lot of drive that has done something cool, I tend to contact them. I shot him an email recently asking if he was interested in exploring an opportunity here. As to what comes of that, who knows -- that depends on the mutual fit and his own goals."

Winzen also states that he spoke with the deputy general counsel from Blizzard last night, and it's clear they want the name of the project to be changed. Winzen is currently leaning toward Starcraft Universe (currently in holding by Mille25) or Starcraft Chronicles. He also says that he is fully respectful of Blizzard's Intellectual property and they had every right to pull the video from YouTube.

You can read Winzen's full letter after the jump. Also, head over to Pixelated Geek to read e-mails from Winzen regarding this entire process.

Moderation  and rule enforcement within the world of online gaming has largely been a dictatorship, with GMs or administrators handing out bans and jail-time to whomever they deem fit. Typically, these punishments are not completely arbitrary but, given that the decision rests entirely in the hands of one individual who must dig through piles and piles of chat logs and server records, you can bet that moderating and enforcing a code of conduct within any online game can a nightmare at best.

This doesn’t even begin to cover the problems that can come even if you do follow through with what you feel is an appropriate punishment, as many players are more than willing to rally their troops and to bend the truth to get the ban overturned. Looking at a system like this, where only a few individuals must act on the judicial needs of the public, it’s obvious that something like this might be due for an overhaul. But how? 

A couple weeks ago, Riot Games has kicked off a new patch notes preview series for League of Legends. The second episode was just released, and it features Tamat and Phreak of the community team talking with Lead Champion Designer Ryan "Morello" Scott about patch 1.0.0.109.

Scott talks about Caitlyn, Evelynn, Heimerdinger, Pantheon and Rammus in the video. He also mentions that crit streaks should even out a bit so they won't be so random. You will see fewer streaks of extreme luck or no luck, but crit and dodge chance should ultimately remain the same.

The entire video can be found after the jump.

I have a confession to make: while I originally believed that I would be getting in some prime League of Legends (LoL) games during the holidays, I actually got burned out with LoL quite early on in December, owing partially to the excellent games I picked up on the Steam Holiday Sales (Battlefield Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 1 & 2 and Super Meat Boy) and partially to the terrible teams I kept getting put into while I queued up for my ranked games. The truth is, sometimes League of Legends can get a bit tedious if you already have hundreds of games under your belt (all on the same map, mind you) and when you start to consistently run into teammates in ranked games who have to go AFK to clean their rooms, needing a break from League of Legends is pretty understandable.