The Defense of the Ancients genre seems to be heating up. Last week Heroes of Newerth went free to play. Earlier this week we learned that Valve's DOTA 2 will be playable at Gamescom and now comes news from League of Legends.
Unveiled this morning, Riot Games' League of Legends is getting a new game mode and map that has two teams fighting to capture and hold five strategic points. Dominion, and the Crystal Scar map, will be available for free to all League of Legends players.
"We asked our millions of players around the world to expect the unexpected in 2011 – and with League of Legends: Dominion, we're making good on that promise," said Marc Merrill, president of Riot Games and executive producer of League of Legends. "Dominion brings something completely original to the MOBA genre, taking the proven fun of League of Legends' team-based competition with a diverse roster of champions, and unleashing them on a new battlefield with entirely new rules."
Riot Games describe Dominion as an "accelerated version of the classic League of Legends" with matches lasting about 20 minutes.
Gamers will have their first chance to check out the game later this month at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and later at PAX Prime in Seattle.
Check out some screen shots above and a video. Don't forget to click on the expand button in the bottom right of each image to see them full-sized.
You can contact Brian Crecente, the author of this post, at brian@kotaku.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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