seasons explained to a n00b

Hi community! I'm very glad I found this game and trying to learn as much as I can as fast as possible. I don't really understand seasons and exactly how they work, like what are the benefits and how do I join one. I would greatly appreciate any comments that would help me out or some thorough links that would help ease the confusion. Thanks 😃

There is race seasons. The current one is over and a new one will begin in a few weeks. Each race season has several types of races which can include the vanilla game(1 hour normal race), a completely different racemode that has unique bosses/progression(descent champions) or even various mods affecting the race(1 hour exiles everywhere).

Just to quote the page from here http://www.pathofexile.com/seasons

"

Path of Exile race leagues are short duration events where players compete in a fresh economy to win prizes. With durations ranging from minutes to one month, they allow players to demonstrate mastery of the game.

Our race events are grouped into Seasons. Season Eight contains 190 events, running from 7 June 2014 to 20 July 2014 (NZT). Its signature race is 40 minutes Descent: Champions.

If you'd like to see your points and prizes for Season Eight, visit your profile page. You can see ladders of your overall placing in each Season here. For more information about how race events work, check out the announcements of Season One and Two

There is also temporary leagues. The upcoming one will be running for 3 months. They're separated into hardcore and softcore. Each one has its own set of unique items that aren't available anywhere else and a special modifier.

Previous examples include a hardcore mode where every rare enemy has a special "nemesis" modifier which added an additional dangerous stat to them. Last league there was ambush which had strongboxes. These completely changed the game since it allowed you to modify these strongboxes with various mods. You'd be ambushed by enemies and when you defeat them the chest releases a bunch of loot depending on the strongbox type. They have special properties which are hard to explain but they were a substantial buff to many types of loot(like maps). For more info see here http://pathofexile.gamepedia.com/Strongbox

The upcoming softcore version is called rampage which is implementing killstreaks. The full info on that is not out yet but it looks to be promising in some regards(special effects at certain killstreaks).

The main benefit of playing these temporary leagues is starting on an equal footing with everyone else. It also allows veterans to experience the whole game anew in a fresh economy and with many new features and content. Miniexpansions are released alongside these temporary leagues which encourages people to join them.