League of Legends

League of Legends (often abbreviated as LoL, and sometimes as LofL) is an action RTS game developed and published by Riot Games for Windows, inspired by the Defense of the Ancients (DotA) map for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It was first announced on October 7, 2008, and released on October 27, 2009. The game was in a closed beta from April 10, 2009, to October 22, 2009. It then transitioned to open beta until release.

Players are formed into two even teams of Champions, 3v3 or 5v5. As of August 2011, there are 81 different released champions. Each team starts at opposing sides of a map in an area called the "fountain", near what is called a "Nexus". A match is won when either the opposing team's Nexus is destroyed or the other team surrenders. To destroy a Nexus, each team must work through a series of towers called "Turrets". Turrets are often placed along a path to each base referred to as a "Lane". Along the way, each player gains levels from killing the opposing team's champions and "Minions" (small NPCs that constantly spawn and attack the other team) and defeating neutral monsters (some of which grant buffs known as crests upon death). Completing objectives rewards players with gold which is used to purchase items. In League of Legends, each player starts at level 1 at the beginning of the match and can obtain the maximum of level 18 with their champion, leveling 4 different champion-specific abilities.