123-532: The League of Legends EMEA Championship ( LEC ) is the professional League of Legends esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA ( Europe, the Middle East and Africa ) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divided into three splits, winter, spring and summer, all consisting of three weeks of round-robin tournament play, which then conclude with play-off tournaments between
246-583: A "union game" since 2019 and said Formosa Interactive were directed to work only with union actors in the US. Riot described any complaints related to other games as unrelated to League of Legends . League of Legends uses a free-to-play business model. Several forms of purely cosmetic customization—for example, "skins" that change the appearance of champions—can be acquired after buying an in-game currency called Riot Points (RP). Skins have five main pricing tiers, ranging from $ 4 to $ 25. An additional "luxury" tier
369-527: A $ 2.13 million prize pool, with 14 teams qualifying from the primary League of Legends regions (China, Europe, North America, Korea and Taiwan/SEA) and two international wildcard teams. Riot stopped numbering seasons and instead simply used the year for the 2014 and future championships. The group stage began on 18 September in Taipei and concluded on 28 September in Singapore with eight teams advancing to
492-605: A EMEA ( Europe, the Middle East and Africa ) region. The "League of Legends European Championship " become the "League of Legends EMEA Championship ", meaning teams from Turkey and CIS 's leagues (TCL, LCL ) will no longer get direct slots for the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship . TCL will be a qualification of Tier-2 league EMEA Masters. Since the rebrand of the league in 2023, 10 teams, selected through franchising, compete in
615-505: A champion for all members of their team to play. In Nexus Blitz, players participate in a series of mini-games on a compressed map. Riot Games' founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merill had an idea for a spiritual successor to Defense of the Ancients , known as DotA . A mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos , DotA required players to buy Warcraft III and install custom software; The Washington Post 's Brian Crecente said
738-444: A collaboration with Marvel Comics in 2018. Riot had previously experimented with releasing comics through its website. Shannon Liao of The Verge noted that the comic books were "a rare opportunity for Riot to showcase its years of lore that has often appeared as an afterthought". The first comic was League of Legends: Ashe—Warmother , which debuted in 2018, followed by League of Legends: Lux that same year. A print version of
861-458: A form of gambling. In 2019, Riot Games' CEO said that he hoped loot boxes would become less prevalent in the industry. Riot has also experimented with other forms of monetization. In August 2019, they announced an achievement system purchasable with Riot Points. The system was widely criticized for its high cost and low value. In 2014, Ubisoft analyst Teut Weidemann said that only around 4% of players paid for cosmetics—significantly lower than
984-457: A head coach in their competitive matches, who will stay on stage and speak with the team via voice-chat in the pick–ban phase of the game. This change makes the head coach an officially recognized member of the team. The 2015 World Championship concluded the 2015 season and was held at several venues across Europe in October 2015. Like the 2014 World Championship, the 2015 World Championship was
1107-421: A large structure located within. League of Legends has received generally positive reviews; critics have highlighted its accessibility, character designs, and production value. The game's long lifespan has resulted in a critical reappraisal, with reviews trending positively; it is widely considered one of the greatest video games ever made . However, negative and abusive in-game player behavior, criticized since
1230-443: A list barring the union's members from working on the game. This was to reprimand Formosa Interactive, a third-party audio provider used by Riot, for using a shell company to subvert the 2024 SAG-AFTRA video game strike by employing non-union performers on a different game. Formosa denied the accusations in a statement, emphasising that it was unrelated to Riot. In a statement posted to X , Riot Games described League of Legends as
1353-474: A longstanding reputation for "toxicity"—negative and abusive in-game behavior, with a survey by the Anti-Defamation League indicating that 76% of players have experienced in-game harassment. Riot Games has acknowledged the problem and responded that only a small portion of the game's players are consistently toxic. According to Jeffrey Lin, the lead designer of social systems at Riot Games,
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#17328020053951476-576: A multi-city, multi-country event. 2015 Worlds was won by SK Telecom T1 , their second title, as they won the 2013 Worlds too. SKT top laner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-hwan was named the tournament most valuable player (MVP). The final was watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers. The various stages of the 2016 Worlds were held throughout the United States in Chicago , San Francisco , New York City , and
1599-457: A multi-million-dollar championship prize. In 2018, the final was watched by 6 million people, breaking 2017 's final's viewer record. The tournament has been praised for its ceremonial performances, while receiving attention worldwide due to its dramatic and emotional nature. The League of Legends World Championships has gained tremendous success and popularity, making it among the world's most prestigious and watched tournaments, as well as
1722-735: A new esports federation, "France Esports", which has the duty to be a representative body of esports towards the government and serve as a "partner of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee for all matters relating to the recognition of electronic sports as sport in itself". Spain did the same in November 2016, creating the Spanish Federation of Video Games and Esports Spanish Federation of Video Games and Esports. The LEC has attracted sponsorships from LG UltraGear, Kia , Red Bull , and Erste Group . Fnatic
1845-729: A number of changes to competitive League of Legends . The number of teams in the League Championship Series was increased from 8 to 10 in both the North America and Europe regions. A second Riot Games official international tournament was announced, the Mid-Season Invitational, which took place in May 2015, and featured a single team from each major region and one international wildcard. Additionally, starting from 2015, all teams are required to field
1968-459: A powerful allied unit after killing the Rift Herald, permanent strength boosts by killing dragons, and stronger, more durable minions by killing Baron Nashor. Summoner's Rift matches can last from as little as 15 minutes to over an hour. Although the game does not enforce where players may go, conventions have arisen over the game's lifetime: typically one player goes in the top lane, one in
2091-448: A ranked competitive ladder; a matchmaking system determines a player's skill level and generates a starting rank from which they can climb. There are ten tiers; the least skilled are Iron, Bronze, and Silver, and the highest are Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. Two teams of five players compete to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", which is guarded by the enemy champions and defensive structures known as "turrets". Each team's Nexus
2214-809: A result of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic , the two teams that qualified from the Vietnam Championship Series were once again unable to attend the event. All games of the tournament were hosted in the Laugardalshöll , with no fans in attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Iceland . The final was played on 6 November 2021 between Edward Gaming , from China's League of Legends Pro League , and defending champions DWG KIA (formerly Damwon Gaming), from League of Legends Champions Korea , with Edward Gaming winning
2337-569: A result of travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic , the two teams that qualified from the Vietnam Championship Series were unable to attend the event. All games leading up to the final were hosted in the Shanghai Media Tech Studio with no fans in attendance. The final was hosted in the Pudong Football Stadium as the building's inaugural event, hosting a limited number of 6,312 fans due to
2460-626: A result, several teams were forced to rebrand and leave their respective parent organisations. The 2015 Summer European LCS Finals were played at Hovet Arena , Stockholm . The series ended with Fnatic winning 3–2 over Origen and peaked at close to 1 million concurrent viewers on Twitch , YouTube , and Azubu – the highest number of viewers for any LCS match to date. The 2016 Spring European LCS finals were held at Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam , with G2 winning 3–1 against Origen, making it their first LCS title. The 2016 Spring European LCS split
2583-476: A season-ending event known as the Season Finals. This was a double elimination, with the top 4 seeds qualifying for the upper bracket. The LEC primarily reaches its viewers through online streaming using its own channels on Twitch and YouTube . On Twitch alone, viewership numbers regularly exceed 200,000 for regular season play, and the games have drawn over 1.7 million unique visitors. In Spring 2020,
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#17328020053952706-510: A series of tournaments mostly organised by third parties, such as Intel Extreme Masters in Europe, capped by a world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games. Riot Games announced the formation of the LCS on 6 August 2012, creating a fully professional league run by the company with a regular schedule and guaranteed salaries for players, featuring eight teams. Since the LCS was only launched in
2829-514: A single team, with Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok becoming the first player to win five World Championships, alongside the first to win 2 Finals MVPs. Developer Riot Games has announced that the League of Legends World Championship will take place in China in 2025. This announcement was made alongside news of an extended sponsorship agreement with smartphone manufacturer OPPO . It was later announced that
2952-474: A single-player mode. The free-to-play model was untested outside of Asian markets, so publishers were primarily interested in a retail release, and the game's capacity for a sequel . In 2008, Riot reached an agreement with holding company Tencent to oversee the game's launch in China. League of Legends was announced October 7, 2008, for Microsoft Windows . Closed beta-testing began in April 2009. Upon
3075-498: A support website to assist players. Feak said early development was highly iterative, comparing it to designing DotA . A demonstration of League of Legends built in the Warcraft III game engine was completed in four months and then shown at the 2007 Game Developers Conference . There, Beck and Merill had little success with potential investors. Publishers were confused by the game's free-to-play business model and lack of
3198-489: A team and battle to be the last one standing. Players do not directly affect combat but position their units on a board for them to fight automatically against opponents each round. Teamfight Tactics is available for iOS and Android and has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients. Other game modes have been made available temporarily, typically aligning with in-game events. Ultra Rapid Fire (URF) mode
3321-490: A team of producers creating audio for the game and its promotional materials. As of 2021 , the game has over 150 champions, and Riot Games periodically overhauls the visuals and gameplay of the oldest in the roster. Although only available for Microsoft Windows at launch, a Mac version of the game was made available in March 2013. In September 2024, Screen Actors Guild for radio and television placed League of Legends on
3444-477: Is a five-versus-five mode like Summoner's Rift, but on a map called Howling Abyss with only one long lane, no jungle area, and with champions randomly chosen for players. Given the small size of the map, players must be vigilant in avoiding enemy abilities. Teamfight Tactics is an auto battler released in June 2019 and made a permanent game mode the following month. As with others in its genre, players build
3567-418: Is a version of the game for mobile operating systems Android and iOS. Instead of porting the game from League of Legends , Wild Rift 's character models and environments were entirely rebuilt. A single-player, turn-based role-playing game , Ruined King: A League of Legends Story , was released in 2021 for PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , Nintendo Switch , and Windows. It
3690-474: Is located in their base, where players start the game and reappear after death. Non-player characters known as minions are generated from each team's Nexus and advance towards the enemy base along three lanes guarded by turrets: top, middle, and bottom. Each team's base contains three "inhibitors", one behind the third tower from the center of each lane. Destroying one of the enemy team's inhibitors causes stronger allied minions to spawn in that lane, and allows
3813-708: Is one of the world's largest esports, described by The New York Times as its "main attraction". Online viewership and in-person attendance for the game's esports events outperformed those of the National Basketball Association , the World Series , and the Stanley Cup in 2016. For the 2019 and 2020 League of Legends World Championship finals, Riot Games reported 44 and 45 peak million concurrent viewers respectively. Harvard Business Review said that League of Legends epitomized
League of Legends EMEA Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
3936-463: Is promotional material for a skin line by the same name. The group's debut single, " Pop/Stars ", which premiered at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship , garnered over 400 million views on YouTube and sparked widespread interest from people unfamiliar with League of Legends . After a two-year hiatus, in August 2020, Riot Games released " The Baddest ", the pre-release single for All Out ,
4059-441: Is the only team remaining that has played in every split since the inaugural 2013 Spring Split . The LEC announced a controversial sponsorship deal with Neom in 2020. Many of the league's staff threatened a walkout, which led to the sponsorship being cancelled. Riot Games launched League of Legends in October 2009 and attracted attention from the competitive gaming community. The first two seasons of competitive play consisted of
4182-590: The IGN Pro League and other major esports associations. Another $ 2 million went to Riot's Season 2 qualifiers and championship. The final $ 1 million went to other organizers who applied to Riot to host independent League of Legends tournaments. The Season 2 World Championship was held in early October 2012 in Los Angeles, California to conclude the US$ 5 million season. Twelve qualifying teams from around
4305-688: The LPL their first World Championship. Gao "Ning" Zhenning was named the MVP of the series in their victory. The final was watched by 99.6 million unique viewers, with concurrent viewership reaching a peak of 44 million viewers, breaking 2017's final's viewership record. The 2019 World Championship was held between 2 October to 10 November 2019, in three countries and cities in Europe : Berlin (play-in & groups), Madrid (quarterfinals and semifinals), and Paris (final). Twenty-four teams qualified to participate at
4428-529: The League of Legends intellectual property (IP). A stand-alone version of Teamfight Tactics was announced for mobile operating systems iOS and Android at the event and released in March 2020. The game has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients. Legends of Runeterra, a free-to-play digital collectible card game , launched in April 2020 for Microsoft Windows; the game features characters from League of Legends . League of Legends: Wild Rift
4551-437: The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). In the final, T1 defeated Weibo Gaming 3–0, extending their record for the most world championships won by single team with four titles. T1's top laner, Choi "Zeus" Woo-je , was named the MVP of the series, while teammate Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok became the first player to win four World Championships. The 2024 World Championship was held from 25 September to 2 November 2024, with
4674-450: The League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK). Riot Games collaborated with Lil Nas X to release " Star Walkin' " for the finals. In the final , DRX defeated T1 3–2 in a close series, becoming the first team to win the championship after starting from the play-in stage. DRX's top laner, Hwang "Kingen" Seong-hoon, was named the MVP of the series. Their victory was considered a Cinderella and underdog success story, as they had come from
4797-506: The University of Southern California , with an ulterior goal of recruitment. There they met Jeff Jew, later a producer on League of Legends . Jew was very familiar with DotA and spent much of the tournament teaching others how to play. Beck and Merill invited him to an interview, and he joined Riot Games as an intern. Beck and Merill recruited two figures involved with DotA: Steve Feak, one of its designers, and Steve Mescon, who ran
4920-562: The cable television sports channel ESPN . League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which the player controls a character ("champion") with a set of unique abilities from an isometric perspective. As of 2024, there are 168 champions available to play. Over the course of a match, champions gain levels by accruing experience points (XP) through killing enemies. Items can be acquired to increase champions' strength, and are bought with gold, which players accrue passively over time and earn actively by defeating
5043-483: The human rights abuses in the country , including criminalization of LGBT people, the partnership was called off the next day. Another two days later, the league's Director of Esports EMEA, Alberto Guerrero, put out a statement apologizing to the community for the partnership decision, with emphasis on apologizing to 'women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and League of Legends players in the Middle East'. Since 2023, Turkey , CIS and MENA have merged with Europe region to become
League of Legends EMEA Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue
5166-533: The 2016 World Championship final, with Faker winning the MVP award. The final was watched by 43 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14.7 million viewers, breaking 2015's final's viewer records. The 2017 World Championship series started in September 2017, and concluded in November 2017. It was held in 4 different locations throughout China: Wuhan (play-in and groups), Guangzhou (quarterfinals), Shanghai (semifinals), and Beijing (final). It
5289-447: The AD carry of Samsung, was named MVP. The final was watched by 60 million people, breaking 2016's final's viewer records. The tournament is widely praised for its high quality of plays and amazing ceremonial performances, while receiving worldwide attention for its dramatic and emotional series. It is currently the most watched tournament in League of Legends' history and is lauded as one of
5412-445: The Ancients , a custom map for Warcraft III , Riot's founders sought to develop a stand-alone game in the same genre. Since its release in October 2009, League has been free-to-play and is monetized through purchasable character customization. The game is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS . In the game, two teams of five players battle in player-versus-player combat, each team occupying and defending their half of
5535-471: The COVID-19 pandemic. The final was played on 31 October 2020 between Suning , from China's League of Legends Pro League , and Damwon Gaming , from League of Legends Champions Korea , with Damwon Gaming winning the championship 3–1. During the second game, Suning's top laner Chen "Bin" Zebin achieved the first "Pentakill" in the final of a World Championship. Damwon Gaming's jungler, Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu,
5658-583: The Chinese team Royal Club, granting them the title of the Season 3 world champions, the Summoner's Cup and the $ 1 million prize. The Season 3 World Championship grand final broadcast on 4 October was watched by 32 million people with a peak concurrent viewership of 8.5 million. The numbers once again beat the previous records for esports viewership. The 2014 World Championship featured 16 teams competing for
5781-477: The Fields of Justice—for example, Summoner's Rift—to avert a catastrophic war. Sociologist Matt Watson said the plot and setting were bereft of the political themes found in other role-playing games , and presented in reductive "good versus evil" terms. In the game's early development, Riot did not hire writers, and designers wrote character biographies only a paragraph long. In September 2014, Riot Games rebooted
5904-619: The Final will be held in Chengdu . This edition of the tournament is planned to feature 17 teams in total, with the MSI slots being kept and three teams from each of League' s new competitive regions (Americas, EMEA, Korea, China and Asia-Pacific) qualifying on top. One best-of-5 play-in match will be held before the Swiss stage between two teams. Riot Games, which owns League of Legends , commissioned
6027-491: The LCS finished with the top three finishers Fnatic , Lemondogs, and Gambit Gaming . The top three teams advanced to the Season 3 World Championships . Riot Games changed naming conventions in 2014, calling the season the "2014 Season" instead of "Season 4". The League of Legends Challenger Series was created as a second tier of competition for promotion and relegation . At the end of the 2014 season, an expansion tournament
6150-642: The LEC has attracted significant media attention. On 30 September 2016, the French Senate unanimously adopted the last version of the Law for a Digital Republic [ fr ] , significantly improving the visa process for LEC players and esports athletes in general, giving a legal framework to esports contracts, introducing mechanisms to ensure payment of cash prizes, specifying rights for minor esport athletes, and more. A few months before, France also introduced
6273-473: The LEC itself, however, has attracted considerable media attention, particularly around some events that legitimised the LEC as a serious competition. Teams in italics indicate teams that have been disbanded or no longer participates in the league. League of Legends League of Legends ( LoL ), commonly referred to as League , is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games . Inspired by Defense of
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#17328020053956396-497: The LEC reached an average minute audience of over 220,000. with the Spring Finals peaking at over 817,000 consecutive viewers. However, Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck stated in 2012 that there were no immediate plans to try to bring the LCS to traditional TV, but news coverage of the regular season isn't generally limited to dedicated electronic sports news sites, such as CBS Interactive's onGamers . The scale and popularity of
6519-415: The LEC. Each season is divided into three splits. Each split varies in format, but the top teams in each split qualify for the three international League of Legends events - First Stand for Winter, the Mid-Season Invitational for Spring, and the World Championship for Summer. In 2023 and 2024, the three splits offered Championship Points to teams, with these points determining teams that qualified for
6642-651: The LPL back-to-back World Championships. Gao "Tian" Tianliang was named the MVP of the series in their victory. The final was watched by more than 100 million viewers, peaking at 44 million concurrent views. The 2020 World Championship was held from 25 September to 31 October 2020 in Shanghai , China. 22 teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As
6765-469: The Riot won Best Esports Event for the 2019 , 2020 and 2021 League World Championships . At the 39th Sports Emmy Awards in 2018, League of Legends won Outstanding Live Graphic Design for the 2017 world championship ; as part of the pre-competition proceedings, Riot used augmented reality technology to have a computer-generated dragon fly across the stage. League of Legends' player base has
6888-524: The Wildcard region with the highest rank finish at the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (GPL in Southeast Asia, due to Gigabyte Marines from Vietnam prevailing there, and Vietnam received 1 more slot for VCS's second seed to participate GPL 2017 summer split). Samsung Galaxy reversed the previous year's result and defeated SK Telecom T1 3–0 in the 2017 World Championship final. Park "Ruler" Jae-hyuk ,
7011-474: The World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. The 2019 World Championship was played on Patch 9.19 from start to finish. The World Championship final was played on 10 November 2019 between LPL 's FunPlus Phoenix and LEC 's G2 Esports at AccorHotels Arena in Paris. FunPlus Phoenix won 3–0 against G2 Esports, granting China and
7134-494: The World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. Albeit, one team qualified for the event through the newly inaugurated Worlds Qualifying Series between the fourth-seeded teams from the LEC and LCS. The format for the event differed to the previous editions, with the introduction of a play-in stage, consisting of eight teams who are split into two double elimination brackets. There, three teams qualified to
7257-571: The World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , the League of Legends Continental League from the CIS region was unable to send a representative to participate in the event. The finals was played at the Chase Center on 5 November 2022 between T1 and DRX , both from
7380-522: The attacking team to damage the enemy Nexus and the two turrets guarding it. The regions in between the lanes are collectively known as the "jungle", which is inhabited by "monsters" that, like minions, respawn at regular intervals. Like minions, monsters provide gold and XP when killed. Another, more powerful class of monster resides within the river that separates each team's jungle. These monsters require multiple players to defeat and grant special abilities to their slayers' team. For example, teams can gain
7503-428: The best. The 2018 World Championship was held from 1 October to 3 November, 2018, in 4 cities across South Korea : Seoul (play-in), Busan (groups & quarterfinals), Gwangju (semifinals), and Incheon (final). Twenty four teams qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in North America, Europe, South Korea, and China, with twelve of those teams having to reach
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#17328020053957626-400: The birth of the esports industry. As of April 2021 , Riot Games operates 12 regional leagues internationally, four of which— China , Europe , Korea , and North America —have franchised systems . In 2017, this system comprised 109 teams and 545 players. League games are typically livestreamed on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube . The company sells streaming rights to
7749-523: The bracket stage. The bracket stage started on 3 October in Busan , South Korea, and concluded on 19 October with the grand final hosted at the 45,000-seats Seoul World Cup Stadium , where South Korean team Samsung Galaxy White beat the Chinese team Star Horn Royal Club to become the 2014 League of Legends world champions. Support player Cho "Mata" Se-hyeong was named the tournament most valuable player (MVP). American band Imagine Dragons contributed
7872-588: The champion Nunu's search for his mother, with the help of the yeti Willump, was announced for a planned release in 2022. It is being developed by Tequila Works , the creators of Rime . It was released on Windows and the Nintendo Switch on November 1, 2023. Riot Games' first venture into music was in 2014 with the virtual heavy metal band Pentakill , promoting a skin line of the same name. Initially, Pentakill consisted of six champions: Kayle, Karthus, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Sona, and Yorick. In 2021, Viego
7995-468: The champion roster was described by Steven Strom of PC Gamer as "fascinating"; Jackson pointed to "memorable" characters and abilities. Although the items had originally been praised at release by other outlets such as Kotaku , Jackson's reassessment criticized the lack of item diversity and viability, noting that the items recommended to the player by the in-game shop were essentially required because of their strength. While reviewers were pleased with
8118-583: The championship 3–2, ending DWG KIA's chance to win back-to-back world championships. Edward Gaming's mid laner, Lee "Scout" Ye-chan, was named the MVP of the series. The final had an average audience of 30.6 million, peaking at 73.86 million concurrent viewers. The 2022 World Championship was held from 29 September to 5 November, 2022, with the event taking place in 4 cities across North America : Mexico City (play-in), New York City (groups & quarterfinals), Atlanta (semifinals) and San Francisco ( finals ). Twenty-four teams qualified to participate at
8241-424: The championship. Over 1.6 million viewers watched the streaming broadcast of the event, with a peak of over 210,069 simultaneous viewers in the final. Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak of the winning team Fnatic was named the most valuable player (MVP) of the tournament. After Season 1, Riot announced that US$ 5,000,000 would be paid out over Season 2. Of this $ 5 million, $ 2 million went to Riot's partners including
8364-507: The diverse array of play styles offered by champions and their abilities, Strom thought that the female characters still resembled those in "horny Clash of Clans clones" in 2018. Two years before Strom's review, a champion designer responded to criticism by players that a young, female champion was not conventionally attractive. He argued that limiting female champions to one body type was constraining, and said progress had been made in Riot's recent releases. Comparisons persisted between
8487-469: The event taking place in three cities across Europe: Berlin , Paris and London . Twenty-two teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and results gained in this years' Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), with the LCK and LPL's 4th seeds in the Swiss stage reallocated to the winner and a team from the best performing region of the event. During
8610-466: The final in Los Angeles . The groups of teams were decided through a live group draw show on 10 September. The games were played on the 6.18 patch of the game with Yorick disabled, and Aurelion Sol disabled for days 1–3. There were 16 teams and 4 groups that consisted of 4 teams. The group stage was Bo1 and the top two teams from each group would advance to the Knockout Stage. The Knockout Stage
8733-596: The finals' broadcast of the 2023 World Championship, Riot Games announced that the finals of the 2024 edition of Worlds would take place in London at The O2 Arena on 2 November 2024. American band Linkin Park contributed the song " Heavy Is the Crown " as the tournament's anthem and performed live on the grand final stage in London. In the final, T1 defeated BLG 3-2, extending their record for most world championships won by
8856-508: The finals. The Summer Split LCS finals took place in Paris at the AccorHotel Arena , where G2 Esports won 3–0 against Misfits Gaming . In 2019 the league rebranded from the "Europe League Championship Series" (EU LCS) to the "League of Legends European Championship" (LEC) and began franchising. Following the example of North America's LCS , which franchised a year prior, the LEC selected ten permanent franchise partners, replacing
8979-513: The five-track debut EP from K/DA which followed in November that year. In 2019, Riot created a virtual hip hop group called True Damage, featuring the champions Akali, Yasuo, Qiyana, Senna, and Ekko. The vocalists— Keke Palmer , Thutmose , Becky G , Duckwrth , and Soyeon —performed a live version of the group's debut song, "Giants", during the opening ceremony of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, alongside holographic versions of their characters. The in-game cosmetics promoted by
9102-436: The form of patches . Although previous games had utilized patches to ensure no one strategy dominated, League of Legends ' patches made keeping pace with the developer's changes a core part of the game. In 2014, Riot standardized their patch cadence to once approximately every two or three weeks. The development team includes hundreds of game designers and artists. In 2016, the music team had four full-time composers and
9225-451: The game and others in the genre. GameSpot 's Tyler Hicks wrote that new players would pick up League of Legends quicker than DotA and that the removal of randomness-based skills made the game more competitive. Jackson described League of Legends' rate of unlock for champions as "a model of generosity", but less than DotA 's sequel, Dota 2 (2013), produced by Valve , wherein characters are unlocked by default. Strom said
9348-435: The game from its competitors. Smith concluded his review by noting that, although there was not "much room for negativity", Riot's goal of refining DotA had not yet been realized. Although Crecente praised the game's free-to-play model, GameSpy 's Ryan Scott was critical of the grind required for non-paying players to unlock key gameplay elements, calling it unacceptable in a competitive game. Many outlets said
9471-487: The game was fast-paced compared to Dota 2 's "yawning" matches, but slower than those of Blizzard Entertainment's "intentionally accessible" MOBA Heroes of the Storm (2015). At the first Game Developers Choice Awards in 2010, the game won four major awards: Best Online Technology, Game Design, New Online Game, and Visual Arts. At the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards , it won Best Free-to-Play Game. Music produced for
9594-496: The game was underdeveloped. A physical version of the game was available for purchase from retailers; GameSpot 's Kevin VanOrd said it was an inadvisable purchase because the value included $ 10 of store credit for an unavailable store. German site GameStar noted that none of the bonuses in that version were available until the launch period had ended and refused to carry out a full review. IGN 's Steve Butts compared
9717-547: The game won a Shorty Award , and was nominated at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards . League of Legends has received awards for its contribution to esports . It was nominated for Best Esports Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and 2018 , then won in 2019 , 2020 , and 2021 . Specific events organized by Riot for esports tournaments have been recognized by awards ceremonies. Also at The Game Awards,
9840-404: The game's fictional setting , removing summoners from the game's lore to avoid "creative stagnation". Luke Plunkett wrote for Kotaku that, although the change would upset long-term fans, it was necessary as the game's player base grew in size. Shortly after the reboot, Riot hired Warhammer writer Graham McNeill . Riot's storytellers and artists create flavor text , adding "richness" to
9963-499: The game's early days, persists despite Riot's attempts to fix the problem. In 2019, League regularly peaked at eight million concurrent players, and its popularity has led to tie-ins such as music, comic books, short stories, and the animated series Arcane . Its success has spawned several spin-off video games, including a mobile version , a digital collectible card game , and a turn-based role-playing game , among others . A massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on
10086-577: The game's early history. Crecente wrote that the community was "insular" and "whiney" when losing. Butts speculated that League of Legends inherited many of DotA 's players, who had developed a reputation for being "notoriously hostile" to newcomers. Regular updates to the game have resulted in a reappraisal by some outlets; IGN 's second reviewer, Leah B. Jackson, explained that the website's original review had become "obsolete". Two publications increased their original scores: GameSpot from 6 to 9, and IGN from 8 to 9.2. The variety offered by
10209-715: The game's high replay value . Kotaku reviewer Brian Crecente admired how items altered champion play styles. Quintin Smith of Eurogamer concurred, praising the amount of experimentation offered by champions. Comparing it to Defense of the Ancients , Rick McCormick of GamesRadar+ said that playing League of Legends was "a vote for choice over refinement". Given the game's origins, other reviewers frequently compared aspects of it to DotA. According to GamesRadar+ and GameSpot , League of Legends would feel familiar to those who had already played DotA . The game's inventive character design and lively colors distinguished
10332-579: The game, but very little of this is seen as a part of normal gameplay. Instead, that work supplies a foundation for the franchise's expansion into other media, such as comic books and spin-off video games. The Fields of Justice were replaced by a new fictional setting—a planet called Runeterra. The setting has elements from several genres—from Lovecraftian horror to traditional sword and sorcery fantasy. League of Legends received generally favorable reviews on its initial release, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Many publications noted
10455-716: The game; the North American league playoff is broadcast on cable television by sports network ESPN . In China, the rights to stream international events such as the World Championships and the Mid-Season Invitational were sold to Bilibili in Fall 2020 for a three-year deal reportedly worth US$ 113 million, while exclusive streaming rights for the domestic and other regional leagues are owned by Huya Live . The game's highest-paid professional players have commanded salaries of above $ 1 million—over three times
10578-400: The grand final, Taiwan 's professional team Taipei Assassins triumphed over South Korea 's Azubu Frost 3 to 1 and claimed the US$ 1 million in prize money. Over 8 million viewers tuned in to the Season 2 World Championship broadcast, with a maximum of 1.1 million concurrent viewers during the grand finale, making the Season 2 World Championship the most watched esports event in history at
10701-411: The group stage via a play-in round. The 2018 World Championship was played on Patch 8.19. Notably, champions Aatrox, Alistar and Urgot were extremely prevalent in the tournament, with the three characters being picked or banned in over 90 percent of the 78 games played. The World Championship final was played between Invictus Gaming and Fnatic. Invictus Gaming won 3–0 against Fnatic, granting China and
10824-545: The highest-paid players of Overwatch . The scene has attracted investment from businesspeople otherwise unassociated with esports, such as retired basketball player Rick Fox , who founded his own team . In 2020, his team's slot in the North American league was sold to the Evil Geniuses organization for $ 33 million. For the 10th anniversary of League of Legends in 2019, Riot Games announced several games at various stages of production that were directly related to
10947-583: The industry standard of 15 to 25%. He argued the game was only profitable because of its large player base. In 2017, the game had a revenue of US$ 2.1 billion; in 2018, a lower figure of $ 1.4 billion still positioned it as one of the highest-grossing games of 2018 . In 2019, the number rose to $ 1.5 billion, and again to $ 1.75 billion in 2020. According to magazine Inc. , players collectively played three billion hours every month in 2016. Before 2014, players existed in-universe as political leaders, or "Summoners", commanding champions to fight on
11070-416: The latter was released in 2019. In a video posted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of League of Legends , Riot announced an animated television series, Arcane , the company's first production for television. Arcane was a collaborative effort between Riot Games and animation studio Fortiche Production . In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , head of creative development Greg Street said
11193-474: The launch of the beta, seventeen champions were available. Riot initially aimed to ship the game with 20 champions but doubled the number before the game's full release in North America on October 27, 2009. The game's full name was announced as League of Legends: Clash of Fates . Riot planned to use the subtitle to signal when future content was available, but decided they were silly and dropped it before launch. League of Legends receives regular updates in
11316-406: The launch to the poor state of CrimeCraft 's release earlier in 2009; he indicated that features available during League of Legends 's beta were removed for the release, even for those who purchased the retail version. Matches took unnecessarily long to find for players, with long queue times , and GameRevolution mentioned frustrating bugs. Some reviewers addressed toxicity in
11439-513: The majority of negative behavior is committed by players "occasionally acting out". Several major systems have been implemented to tackle the issue. One such measure is basic report functionality; players can report teammates or opponents who violate the game's code of ethics. The in-game chat is also monitored by algorithms that detect several types of abuse. An early system was the "Tribunal"—players who met certain requirements were able to review reports sent to Riot. If enough players determined that
11562-404: The map. Each of the ten players controls a character, known as a "champion", with unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, champions become more powerful by collecting experience points , earning gold, and purchasing items to defeat the opposing team. In League ' s main mode, Summoner's Rift, a team wins by pushing through to the enemy base and destroying their "Nexus",
11685-487: The messages were a violation, an automated system would punish them. Lin said that eliminating toxicity was an unrealistic goal, and the focus should be on rewarding good player behavior. To that effect, Riot reworked the "Honor system" in 2017, allowing players to award teammates with virtual medals following games, for one of three positive attributes. Acquiring these medals increases a player's "Honor level", rewarding them with free loot boxes over time. League of Legends
11808-438: The middle lane, one in the jungle, and two in the bottom lane. Players in a lane kill minions to accumulate gold and XP (termed "farming") and try to prevent their opponent from doing the same. A fifth champion, known as a "jungler", farms the jungle monsters and, when powerful enough, assists their teammates in a lane. Besides Summoner's Rift, League of Legends has two other permanent game modes. ARAM ("All Random, All Mid")
11931-426: The mod "lacked a level of polish and was often hard to find and set up". Phillip Kollar of Polygon noted that Blizzard Entertainment supported Warcraft III with an expansion pack , then shifted their focus to other projects while the game still had players. Beck and Merill sought to create a game that would be supported over a significantly longer period. Beck and Merill held a DotA tournament for students at
12054-451: The most watched esports event in the world. The tournament rotates its venues across different major countries and regions each year. South Korea's T1 is the most successful team in the tournament's history, having won five world championships. The Season 1 Championship was held in June 2011 at Dreamhack Summer 2011 , and featured a US$ 100,000 tournament prize pool. 8 teams from Europe, North America, Southeast Asia participated in
12177-459: The music video featured a collaboration with fashion house Louis Vuitton . In 2023, Riot formed Heartsteel, a virtual boy band , comprising the champions Aphelios, Ezreal, Kayn, K'Sante, Sett, and Yone. The vocalists are Baekhyun from the K-pop groups Exo and SuperM , Cal Scruby, ØZI , and Tobi Lou . Heartsteel's debut single "Paranoia" was released in October of that year. Riot announced
12300-438: The opposing team's minions, champions, or defensive structures. In the main game mode, Summoner's Rift, items are purchased through a shop menu available to players only when their champion is in the team's base. Each match is discrete; levels and items do not transfer from one match to another. Summoner's Rift is the flagship game mode of League of Legends and the most prominent in professional-level play . The mode has
12423-584: The play-in stage as Korea's fourth seed representative, and had beaten some of the more favored and accomplished teams along the way, including the previous worlds champions Edward Gaming in a 3–2 reverse sweep in the quarterfinals, and defeating the LCK Summer Split champions Gen.G 3–1 in the semifinals. The 2023 World Championship was held from 10 October to 19 November 2023, with the event taking place in two cities across South Korea: Seoul and Busan . Twenty-two teams qualified to participate at
12546-509: The previous promotion and relegation format. The EU LCS' secondary league, the EU Challenger Series (EUCS), was consequently discontinued and replaced with an independent tournament named European Masters, which features the top teams from Europe's many regional leagues. In 2020, the league announced via their public Twitter account a partnership with a proposed Saudi Arabian city, Neom . Following major community backlash over
12669-496: The property is in development. League of Legends is the world's largest esport , with an international competitive scene consisting of multiple regional leagues that culminate in an annual League of Legends World Championship . The 2019 event registered over 100 million unique viewers, peaking at a concurrent viewership of 44 million during the finals . Domestic and international events have been broadcast on livestreaming websites such as Twitch , YouTube , Bilibili , and
12792-532: The second stage of the event where the qualifying teams, along with thirteen other teams, faced off in a swiss-system tournament to determine the qualifiers to the knockout stage, with the eventual champions being crowned at the conclusion of the single-elimination knockout stage. The finals was played at the Gocheok Sky Dome on 19 November 2023 between Weibo Gaming from the League of Legends Pro League (LPL), and previous years' finalist T1 from
12915-462: The series is "not a light-hearted show. There are some serious themes that we explore there, so we wouldn't want kids tuning in and expecting something that it's not." The series is set in the utopian city of Piltover and its underground, oppressed sister city, Zaun. It stars Hailee Steinfeld as Vi , Ella Purnell as Jinx , Kevin Alejandro as Jayce, and Katie Leung as Caitlyn. The series
13038-499: The theme song " Warriors " for the tournament, and performed live on the grand final stage in South Korea. All games were made available for free via live streaming. The 2014 World Championship games were streamed live by 40 broadcast partners and cast in 19 languages. The grand final was watched by 27 million people, with concurrent viewership peaking at over 11 million viewers. After the 2014 season, Riot Games introduced
13161-601: The third year of professional play, it was dubbed "Season 3". The top three finishers in the Riot Games European regional championships held in August 2012 automatically qualified, with the remaining five teams being decided in qualifier tournaments held in January 2013. Each LCS season is divided into two splits for spring and summer; the first games of the first spring split took place on 7 February 2013 in North America and on 9 February 2013 in Europe. Season 3 of
13284-586: The third-seeded European team. The 2017 Spring European LCS finals were held at the Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg , Germany , where G2 won 3–1 against Unicorns of Love , securing their third LCS title and qualifying for the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), an annually-held international League of Legends competition. G2 placed second at the MSI 2017, losing 1–3 to SKT T1 , the Korean representatives, in
13407-552: The time. The Season 3 World Championship was held in late 2013 in Los Angeles, California . 14 teams from North America, Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and one of the emerging League of Legends territories measured up at the World Playoffs after having qualified through their regional competitions. The grand final was held in the Staples Center on 4 October 2013, where Korean team SK Telecom T1 defeated
13530-683: The top six teams. At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship . The LEC represents the highest level of League of Legends play in the EMEA. With the exception of some touring events, all games of the LEC are played live at the Riot Games Arena in Adlershof , Berlin , Germany. In addition to a small studio audience, all games are streamed live in several languages on Twitch and YouTube , with broadcasts regularly attracting over 300,000 viewers. The popularity and success of
13653-431: The winner's trophy as the Summoner's Cup. Riot specified that it should weigh 70 pounds (about 32 kilograms), though the actual weight of the finished cup was reduced so it would not be too heavy to lift in victory. The World Championship Cups for 2012 and for 2014 were created by Thomas Lyte . In 2022, Riot Games announced the formation of a multi-year partnership with American jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. , producing
13776-472: The world participated in the championship, which boasted the largest prize pool in the history of esports tournaments at the time at US$ 2 million, with US$ 1 million going to the champions. The group stage, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches took place between 4 and 6 October. The grand final took place a week after, on 13 October in the University of Southern California 's Galen Center in front of 10,000 fans, and were broadcast in 13 different languages. In
13899-458: Was Bo5 and the #1 vs #2 teams from each group would face each other in the bracket. The total prize pool was US$ 5,070,000 and it was spread among the teams. The first place (SK Telecom T1) took $ 2,028,000, the second team (Samsung Galaxy) took $ 760,500, and the third and fourth place (ROX Tigers and H2K) took $ 380,250 divided among the 2 teams. The rest of the prize pool was distributed among the 5th–16th places. SKT won 3–2 versus Samsung Galaxy in
14022-436: Was announced in 2024 that cannot be purchased outright, but must be "won" using RP and an in-game slot machine mechanic. As virtual goods, they have high profit margins . A loot box system has existed in the game since 2016; these are purchasable virtual "chests" with randomized, cosmetic items. These chests can be bought outright or acquired at a slower rate for free by playing the game. The practice has been criticized as
14145-549: Was available for two weeks as a 2014 April Fools Day prank. In the mode, champion abilities have no resource cost, significantly reduced cooldown timers, increased movement speed, reduced healing, and faster attacks. A year later, in April 2015, Riot disclosed that they had not brought the mode back because its unbalanced design resulted in player "burnout". The developer also said the costs associated with maintaining and balancing URF were too high. Other temporary modes include One for All and Nexus Blitz. One for All has players pick
14268-401: Was held in Europe that added two teams in region, giving the LCS a total of 10 teams for the start of the 2015 Season. Additionally, Riot introduced the concept of "Championship points", which teams would earn based on performance across both splits and playoffs in order to qualify for the League of Legends World Championship . A new sale of sponsorship rule was instated for the 2015 season. As
14391-538: Was introduced to the group. Their music was primarily made by Riot Games' in-house music team but featured cameos by Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Danny Lohner , a former member of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails . Their second album, Grasp of the Undying , reached Number 1 on the iTunes metal charts in 2017. Pentakill was followed by K/DA , a virtual K-pop girl group composed of four champions, Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai'sa. As with Pentakill, K/DA
14514-539: Was named the MVP of the series. Damwon's win ended the LPL's back-to-back streak of world championship victories. The final was watched at its peak by 46.07 million viewers. The 2021 World Championship was held from 5 October to 6 November 2021 in Reykjavík , Iceland. In line with last year's iteration, 22 teams qualified to participate at the World Championship based on placement within their own regional leagues and previous regional results in international play. As
14637-701: Was played on patch 7.18, with the newest champion Ornn being disabled. Patch 7.18 is slightly older than patches 7.19 and 7.20, which are the new standard for online matches during the September - November period. The most notable difference being the stronger Ardent Censer support meta with patch 7.18. A total of 24 teams participated in the tournament: 3 teams from South Korea, China, North America, Europe and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau; 1 team from Brazil, Latin America North, Latin America South, Japan, Oceania, Turkey, Southeast Asia and CIS/Russia; and 1 team from
14760-428: Was released in November 2024 to a similarly positive critical response. League of Legends World Championship The League of Legends World Championship (commonly abbreviated as Worlds ) is the annual professional League of Legends world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 44-pound (20-kilogram) Summoner's Cup, and
14883-445: Was set to be released in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic . On November 6, 2021, Arcane premiered its first season on Netflix following the 2021 League of Legends World Championship , and was available through Tencent Video in China. It received critical acclaim upon release, with IGN's Rafael Motomayor asking rhetorically if the series marked the end of the "video game adaptation curse". A second and final season
15006-611: Was the first time G2 played in the professional LCS after having been promoted due to winning the European Challenger Series and European Promotion Tournament in summer 2016. The 2016 Summer European LCS finals were played at the Tauron Arena in Kraków , Poland . G2 won 3–1 against Splyce and secured their second LCS title. Splyce would later win the 2016 Summer European Gauntlet and qualify for Worlds as
15129-435: Was the first title released under Riot Games' publishing arm, Riot Forge , wherein non-Riot studios develop games using League of Legends characters. In December 2020, Greg Street, vice-president of IP and Entertainment at Riot Games, announced that a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the game is in development. Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story , a third-person adventure game revolving around
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