Summoners of the League of Legends! Hear ye and be warned that the Council has decreed that a contest of arms upon that Field of Justice known as the Howling Abyss shall conclusively resolve the disputes hereafter described.
♦ 21 MARCH, 25 CLE. PILTOVER asserts a right to conduct a search for missing Piltovian persons on land belonging to IONIA, without Ionian interference, those persons having gone missing during the investigation of an extradimensional phenomenon pursuant to the Agreement on Threatening Phenomena of 24 CLE, and to conduct such additional experiments as may be reasonably related to that search.
♦ 22 MARCH, 25 CLE. ICATHIA demands enforcement of a contract for the transfer of certain artifacts under the ownership of the Frostguard tribe of THE FRELJORD, which protests that Icathia did employ arcane means to drive the contracting party (now deceased) mad, thereby invalidating the subsequently signed contract.
Let the word of the League be as law, lest all the powers of Runeterra arrange themselves against ye. There may be no appeal.
This weekend, we’ll have special Intermission Featured Matches between Piltover and Ionia (Saturday, March 21) and between Icathia (the Void) and the Freljord (Sunday, March 22). 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 Champion rosters. (These rosters tend to be much more lenient and broad than one would find during an arc.)
Anyone, regardless of skill level, may sign up. The sign-up forms are below, after the descriptions of each dispute. Teams will be randomly selected. We use ranked tiers to roughly balance the teams for the sake of fairness.
What are they fighting for? Piltovian researchers picked up on some disturbing extradimensional readings on the coast of Ionia and investigated, as they are permitted to do under international law, but now some of them are missing; they want to continue their search without Ionian interference, while Ionia argues that the emergency has passed and they must be allowed to supervise the Piltovian operation. Meanwhile, a Frostguard sage contracted to sell certain artifacts to an Icathian prince, and perished soon thereafter; the Frostguard is now blocking the transfer, alleging that the agreement was made under the influence of telepathic duress.
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.
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 Champion lists.
Please excuse the draftish “placeholder lore” below. I hope it’s enough to give people some idea of which side they want to fight for.
The listed stakes are somewhat open to change; we’re still revising World Systems.
Saturday, 21 March, 25 CLE—Piltover v. Ionia
International law recognizes a right of all League member-states to trespass into the territory of another state in the event of a dangerous extradimensional event that threatens Valoran generally. On Thursday, 12 March, 25 CLE, a Piltovian vessel, the Zealous Pursuit, traveling to an Ionian port detected unusual readings from the coast. The Summoners on board informed the captain, Oliver Hemley, that they sensed severe dimensional disruption, and executed affidavits to that effect. After receiving approval via transvox from the Admiralty, the captain brought the Zealous Pursuit to an emergency landing and deployed the ship’s company of riflemen to aid in the investigation. They expected to confront demons from the Void; instead, they found a surreal landscape resounding with unearthly chimes and bizarre creatures. When an Ionian delegation arrived on 16 March, they were stopped by Captain Hemley’s marines, who told them that several members of the expedition had gone missing, and that until they were found Piltover was considering this region under their temporary jurisdiction. Some went so far as to imply that Ionians were behind the disturbance in the first place.
While Ionia and Piltover had generally enjoyed amicable relations, this incident brought increased tension, heightened by the veiled accusations thrown back and forth. Ionia argued that the “emergency” had passed, and that in any event the treaty was not meant to provide exclusive control to the investigating party. Piltover countered that an implicit purpose of the treaty was to allow Valoranian states to investigate potential wrongdoing, and further that until its people were accounted for, it had a vested interest in maintaining control over operations in that region.
- Sign Up Here—All skill levels are welcome.
The stakes for this match will be Insight points.
Sunday, 22 March, 25 CLE—Icathia v. the Freljord
A Frostguard sage named Emwer signed a contract with Prince Kathabra of Icathia, turning over a collection of priceless artifacts in exchange for a set of spellbooks, and promptly died. When the prince’s agents arrived in the Freljord to collect the artifacts, Lissandra ordered the items placed under guard in her sanctuary. The Prince thereupon filed a petition with the League, seeking enforcement of the contract; Lissandra countered with evidence that Emwer had been driven insane by Icathian magic, and was not in his right mind when he signed the contract.
- Sign Up Here—All skill levels are welcome.
The stakes for this match will be Insight points.
—CupcakeTrap
Caitlyn, you monster.
FACTIONS 
Do they ever do these matches on EUW?
We do, or did. Right now, EUW isn’t active enough for us to run shoutcasted matches there. Hopefully, it’ll pick back up when the next arc begins. That said, EUW people are fully encouraged to try running some Intermission Matches anytime they can get the people together.