League of Legends
League of Legends.
Words can describe this game much better than any trailers out there will let on. If you're not familiar with League, it's from the same creators as DOTA. If you're not familiar with DOTA, it's similar to the old school arcade game Gauntlet. If you're not familiar with that either... here we go:
It's a free game, but you can pay to build yourself to maximum faster. I can't iterate enough that money... does not turn the tides. There is nothing that money can grant you in this game, that you can't earn through victories, aside from cosmetic hero skins. Heroes... you currently have about 120 to choose from.
Like MTG, you are a summoner. Each round you summon... a champion... to enter the arena for you to do your will. You will be competing 5v5. There are 3 lanes in this overhead arcade style game. Each lane has towers. Your team's job is to bust the towers and crush the enemy's nexus. You gain gold for kills, and killing creeps (or minions, little creatures). You take that gold, build items with over a hundred items in the shop. Once the game is done, it resets. You don't keep any of the items you bought in shop. Those were just for that round. Your summoner however, goes up in level... and can unlock more perks to boost the in game champions you use to win.
Approximately 12 Million players world-wide. Very competitive online play.
[video=youtube;IzMnCv_lPxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzMnCv_lPxI[/video]
Any average Joe has the ability to put together a team, and climb the ladder from Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Challenger. Once you make it to the last rank, you can take your team to competition for cash prize. Last Season's prize pool was $5 million dollars. Just to give an idea
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Here's a link to some live streams. Sports Commentators are very likely.
EUW Challenger Series #3 - Hosted by KaosTV - Brackets
If you go create an account to join us, would be nice if fellas used my referral link:
http://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4dceedc07c98a132632251