The much anticipated League of Legends Season 3 is fast approaching and with it the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS); it is set to rival the biggest eSports tournaments in history boasting a "multi-million dollar prize pool" and contracted players. Except those who tossed it all away. 

Months after banning Team Dignitas player IwillDominate for bad behaviour, Riot have again dished out punishment to two more “toxic” professional players who have scuffed their shot at an LCS contract. The players in question are team mousesports' Ilyas Hartsema, in-game name mouz enVision and team Against All Authority's Damien Lorthios, in-game name aAa Linak. 

League of Legends's ranked system has been...disliked, shall we say? It's all based on psychology, really. You play games and you watch a number go up or down, and the decrease feels like lost time. But, now that's all changing, with the new League system. Instead of elo points going up or down, you add points and work towards playing a game that will determine you elevating or staying in your division.It works very similarly to StarCraft II, which is appreciated since the elo system is pretty demoralizing.

And, in case you hadn't noticed this either, the new patch has landed, with all sorts of goodies, and Annie, the Dark Child, is slated for a new visual upgrade. 

Our pals over at Gamebreaker TV have been doing a bit of dot-com sleuthing and have dug up some dirt on a new domain showing up on the Riot radar - project425.com.

League of Legends has come a long way in just a year. Riot's little bundle has shot up in popularity especially during the boost Penny Arcade gave them back in 2011, and cruising the wave has done well for them. And I don't just mean becoming the biggest online game in the world – they've gotten their champion kits tighter. Each update has gone over better they've listened to player complaints and their server issues (like the horrible week-long outage from days far gone) have almost vanished. Memory lane, let me walk along you.

The newest Punch O Matic lady to enter the League of Legends is completely awesome.

Meet Vi (pronounced Vie), the Piltover Enforcer. She specializes in beating your face in with giant hextech fists.

Inspired by Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, Captain Falcon, and just a dab of the sci-fi trope of power fists, Vi is probably the coolest champion in a long time. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

Holiday festivities aren't limited just to MMORPGs you know -- MOBAs are people too!

LolKing's guides feature still has that new car smell but the response from the LoL community has already been overwhelmingly positive.

To celebrate the launch of the tremendous new guide feature, the LolKing team is giving you the chance at a ton of amazing prizes.

League of Legends newest support champion, Nami, is on her way, and her spotlight is out. She looks to be a harass-heavy, CC-loaded support, with lots of team speed boosting and disrupting, and a mean harass auto-attack booster. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams

League of Legends has been in the news a lot as of late, sometimes for the wrong reasons. Earlier this week, Riot took a bold and celebrated step to ban a pro player from competition due to his toxic behavior. This trend isn't sitting well with the game's creators so they're proactively doing something about it.

There's always been a bit of a question hung in the air about Riot and their eSports teams. Some players are very close to the developers, and it always asks the question, "What if they break the rules?" Riot made a statement about that with their decision yesterday - Dignitas jungler IWillDominate has had his account permanently banned, and the eSports team have banned him from all Season 3 competitions. 

The decision was not made lightly, RedBeard and bitingpig have said on the forums. "The decision to impact someone’s career is not one we make lightly, which is why this is tough news to deliver," Redbeard said. "Unfortunately, our Tribunal recently was forced to permanently ban a pro player as a response to his persistent toxic behavior, and after closely reviewing the individual’s case and history, the Riot eSports team has issued a ruling [below]."

Riot has long been making efforts to improve player behavior, from the commendation system, The Honor Initiative, to the player-judged Tribunal. If you want to know more about that, Gamasutra has an interview with Travis George, aka Volibar, where he talks about behavioral psychologist Veigar and cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Lyte, and how Riot has tried to curb player behavior that could easily poison their game. 

Julian "Mirai" Williams