This weekend, we’ll have special Intermission Featured Matches between Shurima and Noxus (Saturday, March 7) and between Ionia and Zaun (Sunday, March 8). As these are Intermission matches, anyone is free to put their name in the hat for either or both factions on each day. We’ll be using the Intermission rosters. Each set of matches will have small story stakes. Montesque64 and the lore team are putting together a more detailed writeup; in short, Shurima (not yet a League member-state) has gathered enough of a coalition to put forward a demand that Noxus return a Shuriman artifact taken long ago, while Zaun is trying to build a techmaturgic ore extractor on the patch of land taken up by the Noxian settlement in Shon-Xan.
Sign-up links are posted below for each set of matches. We will be rank-balancing the teams as usual. Once we decide on which tiers to use for each match, we will randomly select Summoners to fill those spots. I’ve set up a discussion thread on GD, as well.
Matches will begin at 12:30 p.m. Pacific (1:30 Mountain, 2:30 Central, 3:30 Eastern) on each day, and there will be three matches per day. These matches will be held on the NA server.
Matches will be streamed at twitch.tv/LeagueFactions.
Matches will be conducted using Intermission rosters.
Saturday, 7 March, 25 CLE—Shurima v. Noxus
Azir gathers an ad hoc coalition of Summoners and Champions to demand the return of an ancient Shuriman artifact from Noxus.
For as long as anyone can remember, Shurima has been Council territory, and a virtual no-man’s-land. Other than the Floating Pyramids, there was little of interest to be found in Shurima. That certainly changed during the Hextech Revolution, but only inasmuch as the great powers of Valoran suddenly had a reason to fight over Shurima’s resources. When Emperor Azir joined the League of Legends on 16 September, 24CLE, rumors began to circulate that he would be seeking to rebuild his empire and seek the Council’s recognition of Shurima as a member-state to the League.
On 4 March, 25 CLE, Azir came forward with a petition to the Council, seeking a writ ordering Noxus to return at once a set of indecipherable stone tablets. These tablets were taken from Shurima by Noxian explorers almost two hundred years ago, when the Rune Wars sent one of the great Floating Pyramids crashing to the earth. Nasus has emerged from the League’s libraries to support the petition by citing an obscure clause in an old treaty from 3 CLE.
It is unknown what these tablets are, or why Azir seeks their return. The dominant theory is that this is Azir’s way of testing the waters with a token request, to see if the League’s bureaucracy can be made to move against a founding member at the behest of a small power like Shurima. Others believe there may be something more serious going on, and expect that if Azir fails to reclaim the tablets, Noxian mages will be scrutinizing them quite carefully in the near future.
Both Azir’s representatives and representatives of Noxus are making rounds at the Institute, soliciting Summoners to join their cause.
- Sign Up Here—All skill levels are welcome.
The stakes for this match will be Insight points.
Sunday, 8 March, 25 CLE—Ionia v. Zaun
Zaun seeks to install a techmaturgic ore extractor on the grounds of the Noxian settlement in Shon-Xan.
While Ionia repelled Noxus from its shores in the war for Shon-Xan, inflicting grievous casualties in the process, Noxus did retain control over a small patch of land on which the refugee settlement stood. The end of the dispute led to a tense standoff between the refugees and neighboring Ionians, until Karma intervened during the Nyroth dispute and chastised the local Ionians into more ordinary relations with the settlement’s inhabitants.
A new source of tension has arisen. A Zaunite megacorporation, DaiKro Inc., has secured an arrangement with Noxus authorizing it to begin construction of a techmaturgic ore extractor on the grounds of the settlement: apparently, the settlement was built on top of a previously undiscovered deposit of arcanically active ore, believed to be generated by a subterranean proto-nexus. DaiKro representatives insist that every precaution will be taken to ensure a safe and profitable operation; Ionia is not inclined to believe them. Karma has managed to delay the installation of the machinery by calling for a Council survey of the area and for the preparation of a League report on the likely consequences of this operation.
The local Ionians are quite literally up in arms. The clans who control Shon-Xan have distributed weapons among the townsfolk and declared that they will use force if necessary to prevent the installation of this extractor. (This has been a very significant embarrassment for Karma, who has been forced to publicly denounce the actions of her own countrymen; if Zaun prevails, she may well find herself having to deploy Ionian troops to disperse the mobs so that Zaun can install its extractor, a most distasteful prospect for her.) As for Zaunites, most of them see Ionia’s reaction as paranoid and anti-progress, stressing that whatever risks there may be, this operation could be extremely profitable and perhaps even lead to new breakthroughs in arcane science.
DaiKro representatives are offering very generous pay to any Summoners who will assist them in overcoming this “bureaucratic snafu” with the League. Meanwhile, Karma is pulling strings and calling in favors to assemble an elite team of Summoners to thwart this rapacious undertaking.
- Sign Up Here—All skill levels are welcome.
The stakes for this match will be Commerce. Hey, Ionia can sell stuff, too!
—CupcakeTrap
Caitlyn, you monster.
FACTIONS 
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