What exactly is the ELO ranking?
This just effects Level 30 summoners doing rank right?
Do you have to be level 30 to do ranked?
What does a high\low ELO get you?
Does being in the top 10, 20, 100, ect... at the end of the season get you anything? ($, IP, RP, ect...)
I see that LOL has tournaments that give real $$ for winning them, does having a high ELO get you into those?

Thanks for any\all help.

Just a system to say how good you are.

Normal games also have an ELO that you cannot see for matchmaking purposes.

Yes.

Bragging rights.

Nope.

Yep.

One thing. Having a high Elo doesn't 'get you into tournaments.' Different tournaments have different requirements, and while some may have an entry requirement of a benchmark Elo, you aren't magically entered into tournaments with monetary rewards. You need to go figure out which you want to enter and sign up. There may be the occasional tournament for solo players, but the majority will be for teams.

Does being in the top 10, 20, 100, ect... at the end of the season get you anything? ($, IP, RP, ect...)

Actually you dont get RP nor IP but... at the end of the last season (yesterday) most of people probably will get a Janna Skin exclusive for them if they were gold or higher...

Still, Bragging rights like Helloining said xD

I tend to think of it as a sport. If you're just playing with friends or random people you come across, who cares if you win or lose? It's there for fun. Elo is just what they called the rating system they use, even though it's not a true elo system (google it if you're really curious, and for sanity sake don't just take 1 source as the truth.).

Personally I don't consider high elo to give bragging rights, if anything it flags you as a reason to complain about Riot's matchmaking. For instance, last night I was paired against a 2200 ranked elo player in lane and lost miserably. My normal elo sits around 1600 and my ranked solo is 1337 (Yes I stopped there on purpose). Now, I'm willing to argue that I should be around 1800 if I really cared to do ranked, but that's still a far cry from the 2200 I fought and got crushed by. I didn't really care, since I don't take the game too seriously, but my teammates used his elo as an argument for why I lost my lane and argued it against Riot's matchmaking.

Competitive play on the other hands has always been a multi billion dollar industry, and as such is taken beyond that of a "just for fun" thing.

The rest of your questions were more or less answered, I just felt like giving my opinion on the matter.

As a matter of fact, the top ranked teams on each region will be invited to a qualifier that will lead to the very best of the best playing as Pros in Season 3. Those top teams are judged by their standing on our in game ladder!

RedBeard explained it much better here if you're curious about all of the details:
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/....php?t=2755402

GG