League of Legends, a PC strategy game based on Defense of the Ancients—a popular Warcraft III mod—is now entering the open beta phase. The open beta lasts until October 27th, when developer Riot Games starts what they’re calling the “pre-season” launch. No, that’s not a typo. The first phase is really called the pre-season, like in football.

League of Legends will be broken up into several seasons. Each season will bring new maps and “Champions” with which to wage war on online opponents. Kind of like how each new season of The X-Files introduced new creatures and supernatural forces for Mulder and Scully to fight. That’s a bad example though, ’cause that show went down the crapper fast. Hopefully, League of Legends won’t suffer that fate.

The pre-season exists to allow players to learn the ropes of the game mechanics before Season One begins in early 2010. From what I’ve seen of the game, it seems ridiculously easy to learn, but hard to master. But don’t take it from me: check out the trailer above or the official site for more info on the game and it’s unique approach to strategy gameplay.