The League of Legends hero Taric has been around for almost as long as the game itself, but he hasn't been what you'd call popular with the players for a while. But that may soon change, as Riot is making some big changes to the character, who will soon hit the PBE with an all-new look, story, kit, and audio.

Taric's passive, Bravado, enables him to swing faster with his next two basic attacks whenever he casts an ability, dealing increased damage and also lowering his ability cooldowns. The Starlight's Touch ability allows him to heal himself and all nearby allies based on the number of charges he has stored, while Bastion casts all of Taric's abilities, simultaneously, from Taric and his linked ally, who he can change at will. With the Dazzle ability, he can fire a wave of celestial energy that stuns all enemies it hits, while Cosmic Radiance pulls down protection from the stars, making Taric and all nearby allies invulnerable for a few seconds.

The new and improved Taric works well with Graves, Vi, and Diana, but will have trouble with Zyra, LeBlanc, and Corki, according to the Champion Update page, which also digs into how the changed character will perform in Laning, Skirmishing, and Teamfights. He's also got an entirely new and more interesting history, as told in this tale of failure and redemption, and this digital comic about an encounter on his journey to the top of Mount Targon.

So what do you say, LoLers: Are you anxious to give the Shield of Valoran a second chance? Or do find his rework truly outrageous?

Happy Lies Day, everybody! Hope you ve enjoyed a wonderful day of lies. It s time to bring the festivities to an end, however, and settle in for a weekend of extremely serious and definitely happening digital sports. CS:GO is hosting the week s highest-profile clash, but there s plenty of LoL, Dota 2, Smite and fighting to go around. If any of the below tournaments turn out to be April Fools jokes, I will not be accountable for my actions. Haha! A cheeky Lies Day lie. It ll be fine! Nobody need get hurt.

League of Legends: NA and EU LCS quarterfinals

There's an awful lot of League of Legends this weekend. The EU and North American scenes are both getting stuck into their quarter finals, with EU playing at 16:00 BST/08:00 PDT on both days with NA following at at 20:00 BST/12:00 PDT. You can find the stream at LoLesports. China's LPL and Korea's LCK are also playing this weekend: once again, check out LoLesports for stream details and a schedule.

Dota 2: Epicenter Qualifiers

There's top and mid-tier Dota 2 going on all weekend in the Epicenter Qualifiers running around the world. In particular, check out Invictus Gaming vs. Vici Gaming at 18:00 BST/10:00 PDT on Saturday. The easiest place to find a schedule and English-language stream is on Gosugamers' hub page for the tournament.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: MLG Columbus 2016

CS:GO has evolved a MOBA-style prize pool for this $1m Major tournament. It's been running for a while already, but this weekend is your opportunity to catch the dramatic final rounds (or just sit in chat and complain that you haven't had any loot drops.) Play starts at 08:00 EDT (13:00 BST/05:00 PDT) on Saturday and 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST/07:00 PDT) on Sunday, running throughout. Find the livestream on MLG.

Capcom Pro Tour: Hypespotting

As our FGC man Andi Hamilton reported earlier this week, the Capcom Pro Tour is coming to the UK this weekend at Hypespotting in Glasgow. There's competition across the fighting game scene, from Street Fighter V to Mortal Kombat X to Smash. The Hypespotting website is down, at the time of writing, but this tweet has more information about the schedule.

Smite: Spring Split

Smite's new season has begun and the round robin continues this weekend in both Europe and North America. Play begins at 15:00 EDT (20:00 BST/12:00 PDT) and runs for a couple of hours. The best place to find information on the teams and format is on Smite Esports and you can find the livestream on Twitch.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The very last best-of-one match in professional League of Legends has been played, at least for the NA and EU LCS, and thank goodness for that. As has been noticed by casters, community figures, and the teams themselves, a single IEM event can have a western team play enough games to cover the span of their entire spring split—in other words, a single tournament is worth more in terms of adapting to the spotlight and endurance under pressure than anything they've done over the preceding weeks or months.

The summer switch to a best-of-two and best-of-three system doesn't just acclimate teams better to tournament conditions. It's also a lucrative development for them as professional organizations—and the difference between professional and amateur has always been about whether or not you get paid for what you're doing. As esports teams are financed largely by sponsorship deals and sales of team merchandise—the Riot stipend is only a fraction of the operational costs of the top teams—the extra time spent in front of the camera is important in terms of justifying their asking prices. The more games they have to churn through, and the longer time they get to spend in front of a camera, the more that everybody wins (albeit, in the case of sponsors, indirectly).

In and of itself, the greater exposure given to LCS teams is awesome. Though it means more work for the players, it's work they should be glad to undertake if the goal is to be competitive at international events—and for the development of their individual community influence as well. The problems, then, aren't within context of the western premier circuits—the problem is that they're the only ones getting these structural improvements.

Big bets

The news of North American Challenger team Ember's collapse was only a surprise in terms of how quickly it happened. One minute, they were writing screeds about player compensation transparency (taking the time to humblebrag about how much they could afford to pay their own) and next they re announcing the closure of their League of Legends team and the free agency of all but one player. Sympathies were especially reserved for jungler Santorin, who had just gotten out of his involvement with the sleaze surrounding European Challengers Huma two months before Ember's collapse.

The actual fact of a Challenger team dying off, regardless of how many six-figure paychecks they were slinging around, wasn't so surprising—especially after they lost their bid for an LCS spot. It is incredibly hard to get monetary traction at sub-LCS levels of competition: the viewership is a fifth of the regular broadcast (if you're lucky), your players are largely unknown, and the amateurish reputation of the circuit grants it less prestige.

The recent rash of high-profile, big-wallet investors don't actually provide any more stability to the Challenger scene—if anything, money makes it worse. Ember isn't the first to have their backers suddenly vanish after just one split: an investor's willingness to spend a few million on a project doesn't mean they'll be patient about making their money back. It's also been demonstrated by North American circuit leaders Immortals that you make a much higher and faster ROI by investing directly into the LCS itself, instead of bearing the uncertainty of missing out on qualifiers for technical or personnel reasons.

These aren't problems that can be solved overnight, but they are issues that can be alleviated with more intensive investments and focus on the Challenger scene by Riot. The often sleazy issues regarding player contracting and visa acquisitions should absolutely be more strictly scrutinized by Riot—at the very least, requisite contractual transparency measures can save the players from a lot of heartache and frustrations. A minimum duration stipulation too—it might scare off a portion of possible investors, but it's much healthier for the players and means that a rag-tag group of five solo queue warriors actually have a chance to develop into an actual team.

It'd also, of course, be necessary to expand the scope and style of Challenger-level coverage—to at least give the players a shot at a fanbase outside of the hardcore enthusiasts. While it's too much (and contrary to purpose) to give the exact same prominence and priority to Challenger players as they do to LCS-involved personalities (such as with the Drive video series), there's definitely a compromise between "equal coverage" and "almost none at all," and it doesn't yet feel as if Riot's found the right balance yet between the two.

Nor with other regions, to be frank.

We re still here

Speaking of suffering due to lack of exposure: Taiwan didn t get a bid at IEM Katowice. In fact, Taiwan is unique in more ways than just that: the LoL Master Series held in Taipei is the only one of the five premier leagues not to have an English broadcast. It's also the worst of the five in terms of endemic sponsorships and Challenger support, and that is directly tied to the lack of exposure and comparative support. The Riot Taiwan esports office consists of basically one official liaison, and local publisher Garena isn't willing to cough up the expenses to run an international marketing program—not when their well-defined operational region gives them few benefits from doing so.

In fact, the only attempt at licensed English casting of the LMS came from Twitch.tv, during the qualifiers run leading up to Worlds, and that was both short and poorly received (though it did help launch LCK caster Achilios's career).

Granted, the LMS does extremely well with what little it has. Its top players have shrugged off magnitudes-better contract offers for the sake of staying with their band of brothers, and its now year-old freedom from Southeast Asia's raised its teams back to international relevance, outcompeting North America and China alike while trading respectable blows with Europe and Korea.

But that haunts the region with a simple question: how much better could we be doing? How much are we really sacrificing out of emotional loyalty? Given the hard infrastructural and sponsorship limits imposed on the circuit, very few Taiwanese/Hong Kong players will be able to go pro for more than a few years at a time, meaning that the higher salaries in even the LSPL will eventually outweigh their loyalties—they might not be able to retire even with an LPL paycheck, but they can at least afford that transition back into a normal life. And that question's going to haunt even the likes of AHQ top laner Ziv, or Flash Wolves star jungler Karsa, no matter how impressive they were at the last Worlds.

This, too, has to be a top-down consideration from Riot: how to support a region that spits out a disproportionately high amount of their best and most exciting players. It is a concern that mirrors larger the disparity in treatment between the LCS and Challenger scenes, and likely warrants the same solutions. It's easy to lose sight of the importance of doing so, amid the glitz and high drama that the premier circuits are deliberately engineered for, but the fact is that these easily-ignored circuits and players constitute the seed corn of a healthy esports ecology.

In their rush to lavish fame and monetization options upon today's esports stars, it's even more important to lay the groundwork for tomorrow's. Faker's going to falter (again), FORG1VEN's gotta fly soon, and even Bjergsen's going to eventually bounce. Given the lack of human cloning technology at this moment, it's all the more important that Riot has a more viable long-term talent development strategy. The sooner it arrives, the better.

Editor s note: this is James last League of Legends column for us, at least for the time being—he s moving on to exciting new things. We ll be back with a new League of Legends columnist in a few weeks, but this marks the end of LoLWatch in its current form. I d like to thank James for his hard work and insight over the last year or so: you ve helped this Dota guy understand a few things about this LoL game everybody seems so excited about. - Chris

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The regular season has finally ended after nine weeks of play, and the Renegades' victory over Team Impulse marks the last-ever match under the NA LCS's old best-of-one format. The top six teams are now settling plans for a glamorous trip to Las Vegas to decide the North American title for the split—and to see who gets to represent the region at the Mid-Season Invitational in May.

Of course, the odds for some teams are better than others. A few teams were lucky to make it to the playoffs in the first place.

The path of kings: C9, TSM

In any prior split or year, the quarterfinals match between Cloud 9 and TSM would've rightfully been the grand finals. TSM in particular had an extensive history of dominance in North America—maybe not one matched with international success, but regional kings all the same. Cloud 9, too, had gotten used to being at the top, and they've been there since the founding of the original LCS roster. No rookie organization until now has been as successful, much less dominant, as C9 was in their prime.

Yet history has predictive limits—nobody would've predicted just how badly TSM floundered this spring, especially not in light of the roster they brought (and bought) together. The likes of Bjergsen—for a long time, the undisputed best mid laner in North America—with Doublelift, Svenskeren and Yellowstar was justifiably expected to be a winning formula, based on their prior work. Top laner Hauntzer was expected to be the weakest link of the lot, yet arguably proved a lot more consistent and dependable than his more storied and experienced teammates.

Not to mince words, but TSM is probably going to lose to Cloud 9. The team s dysfunctions have generated a lot of wild and baseless speculation and fingerpointing—but the fact that it's dysfunctional isn't in dispute. By contrast: Cloud 9 isn't a perfect team by any means, but the one thing nobody doubts is who's in charge. Team captain Hai has thrived in the support role—it's probably a lot less punishing to his wrists, for one, but more importantly the role facilitates his influence on the team's overall map control (thanks to providing most of the in-game vision) and shotcalling.

That seemingly-simple act of putting everybody on the same page at the same time is something that has stumped TSM all spring. True: TSM has traditionally done best in multi-game sets, like the best-of-fives that will be played out in Las Vegas, so discounting them entirely is, from a historical sense, unwise. But the TSM playing this split is almost unidentifiable from their prior form, so historical precedence can get wrecked.

The path of conquerors: NRG, Team Liquid

Given their famously high-profile investors, not to mention the caliber of their Korean players, NRG probably expected to be doing better than they were at the end of the split. To be clear: fifth place is not too shabby for a rookie organization, and if they were measured by the standard esports metrics of the last few years it'd be pretty impressive all around.

But they aren't just any esports organization. They're the little brothers of the Sacramento Kings. They count A-Rod, Shaq and Jimmy Rollins among their backers. And that actually sucks for them, because living up to those names and their lofty expectations is no easy task when Team Liquid's Dardoch is staring you down from the other side of Summoner's Rift.

It's rare for rookie players to give you chills when you watch them. The competitive pressure at the top of a region's circuit is vastly greater than anything solo (or dynamic) queue offers, greater than even the most intense Challenger Series match, so it usually takes at least a split or year for a player to really find their groove.

Dardoch, on the other hand, took to it like fish to water. Team Liquid's experiment with directly fostering North American talent has borne fruit far quicker than anybody had supposed, and its first product is a jungler that didn't just prove a worthy replacement for IWillDominate—at times, it's as if TL's fanbase's already forgotten their former jungler. The general rule is that a jungler's only as good as his team lets him be, but with TL it's almost the other way around—AD carry Piglet honestly hasn't looked this confident and in the groove since before he left Korea.

Too bad Piglet's former teammate Impact can't say the same. His bizarre man-against-the-world solo engages on the enemy team have left NRG fans and everybody else scratching their heads in dismay. The NRG vs TL quarterfinals match pits two former world champions against each other—but only one of them is looking like his old self at the moment.

The gated path

Waiting in the wings for the quarterfinals results are The Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming, the latter of which is looking to defend their Summer 2015 title. The greater risk is, of course, the Immortals—the team with a near-perfect season and the most dynamic and engaging play style in the entire NA LCS isn t to be trifled with. Huni and Reignover were the architects of Fnatic's perfect regular split last year, and Wildturtle's rejuvenated powerhouse performances throughout the spring is a direct rebuff of the criticisms he weathered while playing under the TSM banner—something that only causes further lamentations for his old team's fans.

CLG, on the other hand, have a few obvious issues. First and foremost is a static play style—pretty much every single match boils down to a splitpush strategy based around sending Darshan through an empty lane while the rest of the team keeps the enemy team engaged with a barrage of hard-hitting pokes. Second is that Huhi and Stixxay have obvious mechanical deficiencies compared to their counterparts on other teams—an issue that proved a crucial hindrance during IEM Katowice.

And yet it might be more dangerous to play CLG. If there's been any overarching theme to this spring's international success stories, it's that macro play is very nearly everything. CLG engineered the Immortals' sole defeat all split by virtue of immaculate map play, China was thoroughly embarrassed at IEM Katowice by their failures to adapt to it, and Korea's not only written the book on it, but several followup dissertations as well.

Whomever wins the North American title will find that they need to play to CLG's level to beat the Immortals. Given how games have worked out this spring, it's the only way they'll get into position to take advantage of Stixxay and Huhi's individual weaknesses in the first place. Fail that check, and they can be certain that Darshan'll be knocking on their front door.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

I haven't been deep into the League of Legends scene for a while now, but this clip left even me dumbfounded. LoL player Delogrand—who either prays to RNGesus twice a day or is truly one level above 'next-level'—managed to get both a Baron steal and a pentakill with no help from his team and after being the first person to die. I'll let the clip above speak for itself, because its genuinely incredible to watch nothing but fog of war as the kills roll in. Be sure to keep watching to see it from the enemy team's point of view. 

Delogrand is playing Malzahar, a champion added to LoL nearly six years ago that doesn't see a huge amount of play—not none, but it's fair to say that the opponents in the video above may not have been familiar enough with him to know what was coming. After blowing his ultimate combo on the enemy tank without much gained, Malzahar ran blindly toward the Baron pit to try and disrupt the the other team from taking it. He was quickly (and predictably) blown up, but Delogrand managed to use his E ability, Malefic Visions, on a weak enemy before dying. This is where the fun begins.

Malefic Visions is a damage over time ability that lasts four seconds, but if the target dies while it is still applied, the ability jumps to the next closest target and its timer restarts. So even though Malzahar was long dead, Malefic Visions killed its first target (the already low Heimerdinger, who mistakenly stuck close to his team) then hopped from enemy champion to enemy champion, with the help of some unfortunately place Heimerdinger turrets and a lot of damage from Baron Nashor, eventually getting the final tick of damage on Baron itself. 

It's truly a sight to behold, and I don't think I've seen anything quite like it before. It took a healthy dose of luck, Baron damage, and clueless opponents, but that doesn't diminish what happened. And I think the stunned response from Delogrand's team, standing in base wondering what just happened, pretty much sums up my reaction as well. 

Thanks, /r/LeagueOfLegends.

This week, things ramp back up for Dota 2 with Pit League Season 4, Hearthstone's Winter Championship crosses the ocean, the LCS marches onward like an unstoppable army, and Heroes of the Storm sees its biggest tournament since the Spring Championship. There's a whole bunch of great tournaments happening this weekend, and here's how you can watch them all.

Hearthstone: European Winter Championship

North America had its time in the limelight last week, so this weekend Europe takes its turn. As with the other regions, the European Winter Championship is the first of three qualifying tournaments where the winner walks away with a ticket to this year's World Championship and the largest portion of a $100,000 prize pool. Play begins at 14:00 CET (6am PST) each day, starting today and going through Sunday, and you can find the stream here.

Heroes of the Storm: Enter the Storm #2 Playoffs

A double elimination tournament between eight teams fighting over at $10,000 prize pool, Enter the Storm #2 concludes this weekend after group stages narrowed the field last week. Some of the best teams in North America—including Cloud9, Tempo Storm, Team Naventic, and Gust or Bust (previously King of Blades)—face-off for the first time since the NA Spring Championship last month. The bracket kicks off today at 1pm PST (21:00 CET) and then 11am PST (19:00 CET) on both Saturday and Sunday. You can watch the stream here. 

League of Legends: NA LCS, Korean LCK, Chinese LPL, Taiwan/Hong Hong LMS

League of Legends' esports scene continues to be a nuclear clock, with which we can measure all other things. The LCS, LCK, LPL, and LMS all march merrily onward, drip feeding you high-level competitive LoL at all hours of the day. Korea's LCK is on Saturday (starting at 1am PST/08:00 CET) while China's LPL games start today at 10pm PST (05:00 CET) and then Sunday at 12am PST (07:00 CET). The LMS also enters the fray this weekend, with games at 4am PST (11:00 CET) on Saturday, and then again at 10pm PST (05:00 CET). All of this is going on around the North American LCS, which begins at 12pm PST (19:00 CET) both Saturday and Sunday. You can visit LoLesports for a full schedule and livestream link.

Dota 2: Dota Pit League Season 4

Things ramp back up from the post-Shanghai Major dip with Pit League Season 4 and a $100,000 prize pool, not including the additional prize money from the sale of in-game tickets. Games will kick of on both Saturday and Sunday 10:45 CET (3:45am PST), with the round of 8 being held on the former and the semis and finals on the latter. You can find more information about the tournament on its official site, and watch the stream here.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!