IEM Hanover Live Coverage - Day 1

The Intel Extreme Masters World Championship has begun, and we're already well on our way to determining which teams will advance out of group A!

Updated Standings, Group A:
aAa - 3-0
Dignitas - 3-1
Fnatic - 2-2
CLG - 2-1
Alternate - 1-3
Millenium - 0-4
Spoiler - For Final Group A Standings, click "Read More" and scroll to the end of this post

Group A, Game 7: Dignitas vs. Millenium


18:00: Dignitas has a significant lead at the moment, taking first dragon and leading in kills 7-3. As far as map control is concerned, each team has a tower. Dignitas leads gold 28k to 22k.

28:00: Dignitas wins a fairly straightforward, one-sided game over Millenium, putting them at 3-1 in their group.  We'll get new group standings in the next update, so stay tuned!

IP Price reductions on LoL Champions

While League of Legends players such as ourselves are used to RP sale promotions from time to time, IP price reductions are more of a rarity.

Today, however, Riot Games announced that not just one but two champions are having their IP prices reduced. These changes will allow for significant savings, as they are both from 6300 to 4800. All of us League of Legends players just got an added incentive to check out Irelia and Miss Fortune.

Champion 1: Irelia

Previous price: 6300 IP
Current permanent price: 4800 IP

• Irelia is a great champion that sees high-level play frequently. This reduction provides a great opportunity for any solo-top fans to finally grab her as part of their arsenal. 

Fiora Champion Spotlight and Updated Patch Notes!

With the brand new Fiora patch rolled out on the League of Legends client, Riot was quick to post the new champion spotlight on their main site. Check out the Fiora Champion Spotlight below:

A couple of thoughts on the video:

• Blade Waltz benefits from lifesteal and hits its initial target last. I take this to mean that Fiora, with her additional survivability from Riposte, will be able to re-join teamfights to help her team even if focused early. It also seems very effective at targeting and sticking to squishy champions.
• Fiora is a great duelist. Although she was featured against Nasus, who she obviously hard-counters with Riposte, it's easy to see how effective her abilities synergize to make her a great 1v1 champion. Riposte is great for melee poking without risking damage by opposing physical damage.

In addition to our shiny new champion spotlight, we also get finalized patch notes! Changes from the original PBE patch notes are highlighted in red: 

Riot Announces New free Champions

Beware free Veigar week!

As we near the release of the Fiora patch tonight, Riot has given us a fresh list of free champions for us all to dabble with this week.

Season 2, Week 14:

There isn't much that stands out this week. As usual, we get to try out the last new champion (Nautilus) as well as a mix of champions in all different roles. The champions, from top right to bottom left:

• Ashe - AD Carry
• Cho'Gath - Solo Tank
• Corki - AD Carry
• Fiddlesticks - Jungler/AP Carry
• Morgana - AP Carry
• Veigar - AP Carry
• Garen - Solo Tank
• Jarvan - Solo Tank/Jungle
• Riven - Solo Tank
• Nautilus - Jungle

Source: League of Legends Forums

New LoL Art: Fiora spotlight & More

Today is shaping up to be a great day for lovers of League of Legends artwork.

First up, we have the new Fiora Art Spotlight, fresh from the main page:

"There comes a time when every artist must step up and meet a challenge. So when Katie De Sousa told us that she had the perfect idea for the splash art for Fiora, the Grand Duelist, we had to consider her gauntlet thrown. We think you’ll agree that she really was ready to rise to the occasion!

Please enjoy this high-speed rendition of Katie deftly rendering the artwork for Fiora, the Grand Duelist!"

Latest PBE Patch Notes Available

RiotLykaeus recently graced us with the most recent patch notes on the beta forums. Without further ado:


Alistar
Triumphant Roar mana cost increased to 28/41/54/67/80 from 20/35/50/65/80
Unbreakable Will mana cost reduced to 100 from 150
Trample damage increased to 10-27 per second from 10-23

Fizz
Base damage increased to 56 from 54
Armor per level increased to 3.4 from 3.1
Churn the Waters mana cost reduced to 100 from 150

Galio
Idol of Durand damage range increased to 600 from 575

Jax
Fixed a bug where Grandmaster's Might passive attack canceled if the buff ran out during the attack animation