MTW announced today that they will be picking up Goose as their new League of Legends team. This is a great opportunity for Team Goose, who has struggled to pay for trips to tournaments they've qualified for. The original announcement is in German, but we have a translation for you =)

"They had no sponsor for Intel Extreme Masters in Kiev, but Goose has now found a home in mTw! We are proud to welcome APictureOfAGoose, our new international team in League Of Legends:

Team-manager: Christina 'gnomesayin' Laird is 26 years old, a night manager of a used bookstore, and lives in Virginia (USA).

AD Carry: James 'Atlanta' Moreland is 20 years old and comes from Westchester (USA).

Top Lane: An 'BalIs' Le is 17 years old and a student from Texas (USA).

Support: Curtis 'Curtoky' Windsor is 21 years old and a Yard Coordinator at a Bobcat Dealership (Surfwood Equipment). He comes from Port Coquitlam (Canada).

Jungler: Jake Kevin 'Xmithie' Puchero is 20 years old and studies computer animation in Bellflower City (USA).

AP Carry: Zachary Allan 'MandatoryCloud' Hoschar is 20 years old and a student from Lexington Park (USA).

We are thrilled to have this team aboard. To celebrate this new partnership, we are doing a best of three Showmatch with one of the best teams in North America, Team SoloMid! The matches will commence on Sunday at 1PM PST, and will be broadcasted via our own3d.tv channel. Tune in and subscribe to be notified whenever we broadcast our games!

During this match, we will be raffling off slots for a practicing session with both of our League of Legends teams. There will be three raffles with six slots per raffle, offering eighteen players the chance to play in in-house skirmishes alongside and against our players. Just like us on Facebook, keep an eye on our website, and stay tuned!

"As a lot people might have noticed, we’ve been looking for a LoL team for quite some time now. After recruiting a German team some time ago, we decided to make the next step and work together with a North American team. We think that the North American LoL community is huge and we definitely want to be a part of it. The guys from Goose are dedicated, talented, and hungry for success. Together we will grow to become a force to be reckoned with." -- mTw sports director Christopher 'rukie' Pawlowski."

Edit: Clarified showmatch time.

[Source: MTW; Translation Courtesy: Gnomesayin]

There are a lot of League of Legends sites out there, and most of them have a lot of bloggers. It's a tall order to keep up with all of it, but don't you worry; we'll do it for you. We like you that much.

Each week, we'll sort out the best blogs, vlogs, podcasts, sites and articles from the rest and compile them into one handy (and also dandy) post for you to use as a guide to the week's League of Legends happenings.

• In something of a shift for A DIFFerent View (though one that was intended long ago), DiffTheEnder blogged about adjustments that could be made to improve the laning phase. He then broke down the efficiency of AD versus the efficiency of AS.
• Stonewall discussed the attitudes of the community, specifically the need for people to recognize their competition is usually similar to their skill level. He also gushed over Nautilus before updating his jungle tier list.
• IronStylus wrote about the development track that ultimately brought us Iron Solari Leona.
• Xpecial vlogged about his team's play after its recent loss to Moscow 5.
• SSJSuntastic broke down the benefits of various support runes.
• Cadred.org interviewed Ocelote.
• Chaox vlogged about TSM's recent scrims and online tournaments.
• The Rain Man, meanwhile, talked about what TSM is doing as a team to better condition themselves for the day-to-day grind of professional esports, including improving their bathing habits.
• SK Gaming's MrOw interviewed Invictus Gaming's Tabe.
• Renekton Bot wrote about spell vamp and lifesteal and how they're oh-so-very fun. The most fun. Ever.
• If stats and numbers and finances are your kind of thing, you might like this NASDAQ article about League of Legends. But I'll sum it up for you: the game's pretty damn successful.
• SK's JammeH took at a look at the Chinese adoption of League of Legends.
• Meanwhile, South Korea is considering some major regulation on gaming.
• Dignitas' Spockrocket interview Choppa in da Car's chu8 after the Curse Invitational quarterfinals.
• Redrover, meanwhile, discussed the globalization of League of Legends, specifically looking at the variance in game's competitive presentation across the different regions.
• Massively's Patrick Mackey wrote a pretty in-depth article on techniques to improve your last hitting. This article is very much geared toward new and inexperienced players.
• Elementz hosted an AMA over at LoLPro.
• And here are the week's vlogs and podcasts: Beyond the Rift ep. 32, ColbyCheeze Pro Commentary 10, In the Zone ep. 13, In the Zone ep. 14, LoLPod ep. 34, MOBA Weekly ep. 21, Road to Hannover ep. 2, State of the League ep. 23, Trinity Force Podcast ep. 16, Ult in 10 ep. 10.

Fiora is the next League of Legends champion.

The PBE just updated with a slew of new files, and among them are a ton labled "Fiora" in the champions section. We'll update as we get more information.

Update #1: Here's her animations:

Update #2: A lot of folks in the comments on YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter are pointing out that she appears to be a fencer, so it's likely we'll be seeing some thin/pokey sword filling that hand soon. Or maybe she just points at people. Hmm!

Update #3:

Fiora Abilities: Taken from the PBE client, so no idea on damage numbers, etc.

Passive - Duelist: Fiora regenerates health over 6 seconds each time she deals damage. Striking champions will cause this effect to stack up to 4 times.

Q - Lunge: Fiora dashes forward to strike her target, dealing physical damage. Fiora can perform the dash a second time within a couple seconds at no mana cost.

W - Ripost: (Passive) Fiora's Attack Damage is increased. (Active) Fiora parries the next basic attack from a champion or monster and reflects magic damage back to the attacker.

E - Burst of Speed: Fiora gains Attack Speed for a couple seconds. Each basic attack or Lunge she lands during this time increases her Movement Speed, stacking.

R - Blade Waltz: Fiora dashes around the battlefield striking random champions dealing physical damage. Successive strikes against the same target deal less damage. 

Blade Waltz sounds familiar =P

Tips & Items: 

Playing as Fiora -

Fiora's passive grants health regeneration whenever she attacks. The bonus stacks against champions so don't be afraid to fight small skirmishes and trades.

Blade Waltz deals a lot of damage, but if you save it for when the enemy team tries to attack you it also save you from taking a lot of damage. (sic)

Playing Against Fiora -

Save disables for when Fiora activates Burst of Speed-it only lasts 3 seconds and Fiora needs to deal a lot of damage while it is up to be effective. 

Fiora is really sticky when she has access to Lunge, but after she casts it twice it has a fairly long cooldown which can be exploited. 

Rec Items:

(Classic) Dorans, GA, IE, Bloodthirster, Merc Treads, Ghostblade

(Dominion) Prospector's, IE, Black Cleaver, Merc Treads, Ghostblade, Bloodrazer

It must be the snow. It's the only thing I can think of that would make February so distinct from every other month.

Seriously: it's third-party tournament season all of a sudden. Last weekend we had the start of the Curse Invitational, with eight teams competing for a cool $5,000, as well as the chance to take on Curse Gaming and win an even cooler $20,000. Like I said, it's already under way; the usual suspects have already proceeded to the semis.

Meanwhile, gaming desktop purveyor Alienware's bringing back its League of Legends Battleground, with registration already available to the masses. It's a two-month league that narrows the hundreds down to just 32 teams, who will then compete for a smooth $1,750 in cash prizes. The first game starts in two weeks, but open enrollment is still available. Think you have the chops to roll with the big boys 'n' girls? Only one way to find out. Oh, and there are both NA and EU leagues, so region isn't an excuse.

Not to be outdone by everyone else, Absolute Legends has started its own league. Two of them, in fact. The Absolute Amatuer League -- which you might hear me call Absolute Amatuer Hour on accident -- begins in March, and is open to ANY TEAM on the EU West server. You'll be getting in touch with Wetdream himself (figuratively), and the winner of said league will be promoted to AL's other new league, the Absolute Pro League.

What's APL, you ask? It's pretty self-explanatory; Absolute Legends has also started a competitive league for the professional teams with EU West accounts. The competition here looks fierce:

Teams are competing for 1,000€ each month, though the second- and third-place teams will walk away with sweet, sweet hardware. At the end of the season -- the length currently not determined -- the top eight teams will compete for one of four spots in the Grand Final, a LAN event with a (minimum) prize of $10,000.

While the announcement is a bit unclear, we do know that the winner of the AAL will graduate to the APL, and the APL team with the worst record will drop down to the AAL.

So don't embarass us, TSM.

Nevermind that while all this is going on, we still have the IPL4 Qualifiers happening.

Let's just rename February "Tournamonth." It's easier to remember all this.

[Sources: Curse; Alienware; Absolute Legends; IPL]

CLG NA Chauster, CLG EU Krepo, CLG NA Doublelift, and V8 Muffinqt. 5 PM PST! 

There's so much to talk about, so it should be pretty fantastic.

Here's a slick little countdown timer thing.

Oh, and if you haven't had the opportunity to check out "On the Road to Hannover: Curse" the VOD is now available on the YouTube channel. The CLG one should be available shortly as well.

If you haven't loaded up League of Legends since the patch, you might want to take a look at these Nautilus patch skins. As such, I've pinned them to the front of SotL for your viewing pleasure.

Abyssal Nautilus Skin Splash

Subterranean Nautilus Skin Splash

Dark Crystal Ryze Skin Splash

Heartseeker Vayne Skin Splash

There are also rumors and whispers of a Twitch skin found in the files, but no idea if that'll make it in at some point before the next patch.

The Nautilus Champion Spotlight is out, and with it a million posts across the internet that say "Hey look, he's fighting Annie in the beginning, just like in Bioshock." If you're one of the wonderful people who want to witness this spectacle, take a look at the video below. What are your thoughts on the champion? Be sure to leave them in the comments.

The patch notes are out for the Nautilus upgrade which we're guessing will launch tomorrow/tonight. We've tossed the Shen buffs/changes up here because it's likely the most interesting thing in the balance changes, but there's a lot more to check out, including Sona nerfs, Soraka nerfs, etc. Be sure to hit up that Source link below for more information.

 Oh, and we've gone ahead and embedded the patch preview below as well, since we may have accidentally missed that.