Ionia vs. Noxus Grudge Match

Alright guys, hold on to your hats and get ready for a wild ride, because on December 10 there is going to be an official live match in League of Legends between one team of summoners allowed to summon various Ionian champions, and another team allowed to summon certain Noxian champions. The match is going to be commentated by none other than LoL's legendary Phreak. It should be an awesome event, and you're not going to want to miss it. (More after the break)

Ionia vs. Noxus Grudge Match

For those of you who haven't ever watched something like this before and you're perhaps wondering about the reasons behind watching other people play LoL when you could just be playing it yourself instead, let me talk about a few of the reasons why you'd want to watch this event. First of all, one of the best ways of getting better is by watching other people who are better than you. There's a reason these guys are being picked to play - they're some of the best. Pay close attention to how they play and what they do, and learn to apply that to your own gaming. Second, it's going to be commentated by Phreak. Now, if you haven't ever watched Phreak commentate before, you're going to need to know two things. The first is that he often talks incredibly quickly, so you're going to really have to pay attention in order to catch everything that he says, or, like I do, get your hands on a recorded version and replay sections over and over. On top of that, though, he's actually part of Riot Games, which means he knows the ins and outs of the game like the back of his hand, so when he talks you can learn a lot. And the third reason to watch the match: when watching ridiculously high-ranked players play, you'll see them pull of moves that will have you rewinding the clip five times over just to figure out who did what. Which is basically my way of saying it's really fun to watch people pull some really sick moves for a whole game, and better yet you're not on the receiving end! Yay!

Alright so now you're possibly wondering, "Ok so we've got this whole 'match' concept happening... but what's the deal with this Ionia vs. Noxus crap?" Well now Sonny Jim, you jus' pull yerself up a chair nexta the fire here boy, and let ol' man Moony tell ye a story o' grand proportions! It was a warm summer's night back when I was about your age, m'boy, and-- ok you just want me to cut the crap and give you the TL;DR version, don't you? *sigh* Kids have no appreciation for lore these days...

Ok so take a look at the map below. Ionia is that island on the right. They're generally all-round good-guys; a pacifistic, peaceful nation. Asides from their powerful warriors of course, but that's not the point. Apparently they don't actually use said warriors. Anyway the short version of the story is that there were a tons of wars going down on the big island and whatnot, but Ionia stayed out of it. Then Noxus (right side of the big island) came running on in like a bull in a china shop and took over the southern part of Ionia (see the map below the map - aka the second map). Now Ionia is all like, "Aw crap man you guys are oppressing our people, how 'bout you stop, mmkay?" So Noxus responds with, "Ok if you beat us in the League of Legends, we'll peace back out. But if we beat you, we get to keep these little monkey islands, plus we get to have someone in your high council thingermajiggy that makes like, ruling decisions and all that high-uppy schmuck-schmuck stuff you guys do over there. Buh-zing!" Oh and there was something in there about some burning monk, too, but if a fictional monk burns in the middle of the forest, does it really matter?

So the real TL;DR version - there's this match going down between a bunch of really high ranked players and depending on the side that wins it will affect the lore of the game which could result in changes in-game as well, such as different champions and whatnot. And if it doesn't affect in-game stuff, then at least it's an epic match that will be broadcasted live and commentated by Phreak. So watch it. It'll be fun.