February 23: An urgent dispatch from the League!
See the Storyline page for an overview of the story to date.
Zed’s ninja assassins have paralyzed the Ionian military with a series of lightning raids against key targets. Multiple Ionian military and civilian leaders are dead and the population is in panic. Feeling her hand has been forced, Karma has ordered the Ionian military to mobilize to destroy the Noxian refugee settlement and forcibly remove the Noxians, claiming she has evidence that Noxus is behind these attacks and has thus forfeited its refugees’ humanitarian immunity under the laws of the Council.
Rather than dispute the accusations, Noxus has bypassed the naval blockade with Zaunite war-zeppelins and airdropped several of its elite legions behind enemy lines. Their engineers have swiftly converted the refugee settlement into a military encampment.
In a last bid to avoid full-scale war, Karma has convened the League of Legends for a second tournament. An Ionian victory will force Noxus to withdraw under threat of Council intervention. A Noxian victory will mean open warfare.
March 1–2 Tournament thread: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4291529
Roleplay thread: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=4309914
Come post your in-character reactions to this news!
Caitlyn, you monster.
FACTIONS 
[…] Noxus was on the brink of defeat after Ionia’s victory in the first Shon-Xan tournament, it struck back with a ruthless sneak attack. Zed’s assassins killed key Ionian civilian and military […]
So, since your community got pretty lynch mobby… another facet to be investigated is the allocation of slots to particular tiers of summoner. 14 of 34 slots for Ionia were designated for Gold players (41.18%). 56 of 338 (I eliminated 9 because they appeared to multiple registrations) Ionian summoners registered were rated as Gold (16.57%). I think a considerably more fact based and history minded approach to your organization of these desirable events would lead to far less fracture among the community you are attempting to create. As is, people swear by your word to the point that they expressly ignore statistical evidence. I hope this small insight to the actual demographics represented will not be ignored by you and will have some kind of impact on how you do things… or not, it really couldn’t matter to me less as the sycophantic nature of the community has soured me on it.
You are absolutely right that the “first-come” tournament sign-up model is problematic, and you’re not alone in saying so. As has already been said, this March 1–2 tournament will be the last one operating under the first-come rules. We’ll talk with the community and decide how to make some more fair rules.
You seem to be saying here that there’s a disconnect between tournament slot distribution and sign-up distribution. I have no doubt that this is so. With tournaments, although we do want opportunities for Summoners of various levels to participate, we’re trying to showcase some of the best from each faction. In fact, going forward, I might skew it even more in that direction, while simultaneously making more low-level slots for Featured Matches, which happen much more frequently.
Perhaps a little more diversity in the starting line ups for the tournament is in order. The priority starters are all the same people over and over.
Yes, this is an issue we need to work on for the next tournament. As it is, I would not feel it appropriate to force anyone to step aside: the rules said it was first-come-first-serve with no limit on how many matches someone could play, and I think I am obligated to honor that. However, I plan to get in touch with the sign-ups soon to help them organize into teams, and part of that conversation will involve asking people to consider trading off a little. If nothing else, it’ll give players a break so they don’t get worn out.