112-470: The League Championship Series ( LCS ) was the top level of professional League of Legends in the United States and Canada . The esports league was run by Riot Games and had anywhere from eight to 10 teams. Each annual season of competition was divided into two splits, spring and summer, which concluded with a double-elimination tournament between the top teams. At the end of the season,
224-516: A Riot Games rules change concerning sponsorship, Alliance LoL left the organization and rebranded itself as Elements . Elements was created in January 2015 from the League of Legends roster of Alliance after rebranding itself due to a new sale of sponsorships rule established after the 2014 season. The initial starting roster of Elements included Wickd, Shook, Froggen, Rekkles, and Nyph. After
336-550: A promotion and relegation system. In 2015, the league expanded to ten teams. In 2018, the NA LCS shifted to a franchise system with ten permanent teams, which became eight after the 2023 season. Along with the new model, the league rebranded to simply the League of Legends Championship Series , aligning with the EU LCS's change to League of Legends European Championship, creating unique identities for major regions. The franchise era of
448-583: 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
560-419: A 4–4 record at the end of the fourth week of the spring split, Elements replaced Wickd with former Millenium top laner Kevin "kev1n" Rubiszewski. In the sixth week of the split they replaced Nyph with former Evil Geniuses support Krepo, who had previously played with Froggen on CLG.EU and EG. Nyph stayed in the team as an assistant coach. One week later, Wickd returned to the toplane position while kev1n became
672-621: A career in programing and S4 joining OG. S4 went on to win the Boston Major and the Kiev major, after leaving Alliance for OG . The post TI6-shuffle squad featured former Ninjas in Pajamas players Limmp, Handsken and Jonassomfan as well as Loda and EGM. This squad had mediocre success failing to qualify for any major events during the TI6-TI7 season; ultimately leading to EGM being kicked on
784-505: 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
896-444: 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
1008-454: A consistent decline. For instance, the 2023 LCS Summer finals reached a peak of just over 223,000 viewers, marking a decrease of around 50,000 viewers compared to the previous split's finals and a decrease of 150,000 viewers compared to the summer 2022 finals. Riot Games CEO Brandon Beck stated in 2012 that there were no immediate plans to try to bring the LCS to traditional TV, and news coverage of
1120-458: 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
1232-421: 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
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#17327986544461344-443: 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
1456-474: 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,
1568-462: A new North Conference, joined by a team from northern Latin America and a as-yet determined guest slot, which would be determined by a promotion and relegation tournament after 2025. In its final year, the LCS featured eight North American teams who competed in two seasonal splits, spring and summer. The regular season of the spring split adopted a round-robin format with best-of-one matches, with
1680-465: A one-time payment to Rally Cry, the NACL organizer, and emphasized cost-sharing between LCS and NACL teams. Prior to the start of the 2024 season, TSM sold their franchise slot to Shopify Rebellion . In addition, on November 19, 2023, Golden Guardians and Evil Geniuses exited the LCS, as their third-party administrator agreement with Riot Games was terminated. With not enough time to fill the two vacancies,
1792-488: A percentage of the company. In April 2024, the team underwent rebranding, leaning into the color green in their visual branding and introducing a new stylized "A" logo. They also introduced Rattio, an anthropomorphic rat as their new mascot. A few months after being picked up by Alliance, the Dota 2 team won The International 2013 , defeating former TI champions Natus Vincere in the grand finals 3–2. The team finished
1904-459: 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
2016-448: 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
2128-603: A rocky start the team beat out TI reigning champions Evil Geniuses 2–0 in a best of three in the final. After their back to back victories at lans the team decided to drop out of the upcoming tournaments and focus on the Shanghai Major . The team split up after the sixth rendition of the International, which resulted in AdmiralBulldog retiring to pursue streaming full-time, and Akke retiring to pursue
2240-526: 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
2352-613: A sub. Nyph replaced Mart as the new head coach, joining the team during the picks and bans. Elements went 7–11 in the EU Spring LCS regular season to finish 7th, failing to make the playoffs. Rekkles left the team in April and was replaced at AD Carry by Erik “Tabzz” Van Helvert. Elements changed four of the players on the roster for the Summer 2015 Split. In early May 2016, German football club FC Schalke 04 bought Element's LCS spot. In late 2024 Alliance participated in
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#17327986544462464-498: 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
2576-489: 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
2688-490: 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
2800-477: 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
2912-418: 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
3024-474: 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
3136-708: 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
3248-441: Is ongoing, Alliance announce the departure of MyNuts and use Kebap as a Standin for their series against Virtus.Pro The team welcomes their previous teammate EGM back to Alliance They would go on to win both WCA, the biggest prize pool event that was not directed by Valve, beating LGD in a best of 5; with a score of 3–2. Following this they went to Starladder almost missing the tournament due to weather complications. Despite
3360-463: 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 ,
3472-550: The COVID-19 pandemic , LCS commissioner Chris Greeley announced the suspension of the 2020 season on March 13, 2020, with no definite timeframe for resumption. Subsequently, the LCS resumed its competitions through online play, starting on April 18, 2020. The league decided to discontinue Monday Night League in May 2020 due to low viewership. Instead, the league extended its broadcasts to include Friday evenings. The league rebranded from
League Championship Series (esports) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3584-662: The Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) and Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) in 2025 to form the League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA), with the LCS becoming the new league's North Conference. With the exception of some touring events, all games of the LCS were played live at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, California . In addition to a small studio audience, all games were streamed live on Twitch and YouTube . Prior to
3696-477: 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
3808-558: The League of Legends Championship Series into the League Championship Series ahead of the 2021 season. A new logo and two new mottos were introduced: Made by many and All for the game. The LCS expanded the 2021 season to include a preseason tournament called the LCS Lock-In. The league also merged the regular season of the spring and summer splits. Team's spring split regular season record qualified them for
3920-506: 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
4032-562: 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
4144-510: The 2023 Summer Split, led most LCS franchises to disband their development rosters. In response, the LCSPA threatened a player walkout to support affected individuals, viewing Riot's decision as unprecedented and contradictory to earlier assurances. The LCSPA demanded Riot's support for the NACL, citing successful second-tier leagues in other regions. The walkout vote passed, resulting in the first major esports league strike. Riot responded by delaying
4256-571: The 2023 season, another franchise sale took place when NRG Esports acquired Counter Logic Gaming, assuming control of its LCS slot. The 2023 season also saw the LCS Players Association (LCSPA) threaten a player walkout . In May of that year, Riot Games announced plans to remove the requirement for LCS teams to financially support North American Challengers League (NACL) teams, citing the need to provide more operational and financial flexibility to LCS teams. This change, effective from
4368-853: The Alliance.LATAM lineup playing in the South American DPC has left the organization. The Alliance League of Legends team formed in December 2013, and was granted the spot vacated by Evil Geniuses in the European League of Legends Championship Series due to Evil Geniuses moving to the North American LCS. In the Spring Split, Alliance finished 3rd in the regular season with a 16–12 record, behind SK Gaming and Fnatic . Alliance mid-laner Henrik “Froggen” Hansen
4480-500: 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
4592-477: 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
League Championship Series (esports) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-723: The LCS Mid-Season Showdown, which itself would be a qualifier for the Mid-Season Invitational. Regular season records over both spring and summer would be used to seed teams into the LCS Championship tournament, with the top three teams from there moving on to the World Championship. For the 2022 season, the league returned to the previous regular season format, with each split's records being confined to that specific split. In
4816-587: The LCS has witnessed several team sales and rebranding efforts. The 2020 season introduced format changes and had to adapt to online play due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, the LCS again rebranded to the League Championship Series. The 2023 season saw controversy with the LCS Players Association (LCSPA) threatening a player walkout over financial support for teams in the North American Challengers League (NACL). The LCS merged with
4928-541: The NA LCS re-branded its name to simply the LCS and with updated their logo. The change aligned with the EU LCS's name change to the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) earlier that year. Following the EU LCS's transition to LEC, all major regions in the competitive world of League of Legends had a unique name, logo, and brand identities. The changes were made to establish distinct identities for every regions. The league saw several franchise sales in 2019. In June,
5040-461: The NA LCS would shift from a promotion and relegation system to franchised league with ten permanent teams beginning in 2018. Each of the ten teams would have guaranteed spots, which would encourage owners to make substantial investments, including the creation of training facilities and improvements in coaching, scouting, and player well-being. Each team was also mandated to maintain an academy squad for emerging talent development. Riot Games also raised
5152-519: The North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). Within these leagues, eight teams representing their respective regions engaged in regional competitions. The top teams in each region advanced to the League of Legends World Championship . The league was not profitable throughout its first season. At the end of 2013, Riot announced a Challenger league, later known as the League of Legends Challenger Series (CS). The league
5264-742: The North American representatives for the World Championship . For both split playoffs, all matches were played in a best-of-five format. † Denotes a team that is no longer in League of Legends The LCS primarily connected with its audience through online streaming via dedicated channels on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube . Games in 2013 drew in more that 1.7 million unique viewers. While regular season viewership on Twitch approached nearly 300,000 peak viewers in 2014 at times, recent years leading up to 2023 saw
5376-469: 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
5488-479: The Summer split using single round-robin best-of-three matches. In both splits, the top six regular season teams progressed to the double-elimination spring playoffs. The spring split had the top four in the upper bracket and the bottom two in the lower bracket, with the spring playoffs champions and runner-up qualifying as the North American representatives for the Mid-Season Invitational , while
5600-413: The World Championship, Alliance finished 3rd in their group, failing to advance to the knockout stage. The team was upset by Brazilian team KaBuM! e-Sports , which denied them a chance to play in a tiebreaker for a chance to progress to the knockout stage. At Intel Extreme Masters San Jose, the team was eliminated by Cloud9 . The team picked up Martin "Rekkles" Larsson on 24 November 2014. After
5712-522: 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
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#17327986544465824-400: 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
5936-588: 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
6048-468: 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
6160-675: The concept of "Championship points", which teams would earn based on performance across both splits and playoffs in order to qualify for the World Championship. A new sale of sponsorship rule was instated for the 2015 season, prohibiting companies that facilitated sponsorships for LCS teams from also possessing the branding of those LCS teams. Notably, the GoodGame Agency held ownership of both Europe's Alliance and North America's Evil Geniuses while simultaneously managing sponsorships for both teams. Consequently, in compliance with this new regulation, these teams underwent rebranding, adopting
6272-416: The contract never actually took effect. As a substitute, Riot entered into an agreement to non-exclusively carry its broadcasts on ESPN+ instead, in addition to existing outlets such as Twitch. 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
6384-507: 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
6496-569: 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
6608-436: 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
6720-584: The formation of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), a professional gaming league designed to provide support to teams from Europe, Asia, and the United States. The inaugural season of the LCS commenced on February 7, 2013, coinciding with the third season of professional play in League of Legends . As such, it was designated as "Season 3". It was split two regional leagues: the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS) and
6832-443: The formation of the North American League of Legends Championship series, League of Legends had a growing competitive scene, but a professional league was not a central component of Riot Games' initial business strategy. However, in 2011, professional organized league play became a prominent point of emphasis for Riot after the company hosted its inaugural championship tournament at DreamHack . On August 6, 2012, Riot Games announced
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#17327986544466944-451: 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
7056-435: 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
7168-487: 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
7280-496: 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
7392-547: 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,
7504-404: 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
7616-499: 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
7728-577: 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
7840-715: 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
7952-579: 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
8064-652: 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
8176-510: The group stages with a perfect 14–0 record, and only lost 3 games throughout the whole tournament (losing 1 game to Team DK, and the aforementioned 2 games to Na'Vi). At The International 2014 , the defending champions failed to make it out of the group stages, finishing tied for 11th place with a 6–9 record. After the tournament, their long stable roster fell apart, with the departure of Gustav "s4" Magnusson , Henrik "AdmiralBulldog" Ahnberg , and Jerry "EGM" Lundkvist. While Starladder i-League
8288-545: 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
8400-583: 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
8512-669: The largest single prize money payout in esports history. The League of Legends team is one of the five teams that won a season of European League of Legends Championship Series with Fnatic , G2 Esports, Mad Lions and Rogue. The organization was founded in April 2013, picking up the Dota 2 team No Tidehunter as well as StarCraft II player Naniwa. The organization expanded into League of Legends in December 2013, which competed in European League of Legends Championship Series . They entered Super Smash Bros. in November 2014 with
8624-492: The last day of the "Drop period" before TI7 rosters had to be locked. They picked up Pablo as his replacement. After The International 2017 , for which Alliance did not qualify, the team announced that they would part ways with its players Simon “Handsken” Haag, Linus “Limmp” Blomdin and Jonas “jonassomfan” Lindholm. On April 10, 2023, the Alliance Cybersports organization announced on its official website that
8736-416: 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
8848-537: 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
8960-406: 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
9072-527: The league announced that they would continue with eight teams for the 2024 season. On June 11, 2024, Riot Games announced that the LCS, Brazil's Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLOL) and the Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) would form a pan-American league, later known as the League of Legends Championship of The Americas , that would begin play in 2025. Under this new model, six of the eight existing LCS teams would remain partnered and form
9184-513: 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
9296-404: 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",
9408-487: 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
9520-438: 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")
9632-479: The minimum salary for players to US$ 75,000 , with an average annual income for League pros around $ 150,000. Additionally, a players' association was established to offer financial, legal, and career-building support to players. The buy-in price for the league was $ 10 million for existing League of Legends teams, who had previously participated in the League Championship Series or Challenger Series. New teams would be subject to an additional $ 3 million, which
9744-426: 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
9856-459: 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
9968-771: The names Elements and Winterfox , respectively. Furthermore, Curse Inc. faced restrictions on sponsoring LCS team Team Curse , leading to a comprehensive merger of the entire esports organization under the banner of Team Liquid . The league's first female player, Maria "Remilia" Creveling , also joined the league in the 2015. On May 8, 2016, Riot Games took a series of punitive actions against NA LCS teams Team Impulse and Renegades , along with Challenger Series team Team Dragon Knights . These actions effectively banned these teams from participating in any future sanctioned League of Legends contests due to several infractions, including neglecting player payments, mistreatment of players, and withholding information that would have rendered
10080-438: 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
10192-463: The parent company of Dignitas announced that they had partnered with the Houston Rockets to acquire Clutch Gaming for reportedly over $ 30 million, marking the first-ever merger involving a League of Legends franchise in the LCS. In May, Riot Games issued a 60-day ultimatum to Echo Fox, demanding the removal of co-founder and shareholder Amit Raizada from their cap table. This action
10304-496: 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
10416-464: The regular season were generally limited to dedicated electronic sports news sites. In December 2016, Riot announced that it had reached a deal with BAMTech (a spin-off of MLB Advanced Media ) to serve as the exclusive distributor of LCS broadcasts through 2023. BAMTech would have paid $ 50 million per-year under the contract, and split advertising revenue with Riot. However, internal complications arose after The Walt Disney Company acquired BAMTech, and
10528-421: The sale process. In September, Evil Geniuses acquired Echo Fox's LCS slot for $ 33 million. Before the 2020 season, the league implemented a series of format changes. The league removed the "Championship points" system introduced in 2015. In this new structure, victories during the spring splits would solely serve to qualify a team for the Mid-Season Invitational . The regional qualifying tournament, which
10640-462: 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
10752-593: The signing of Armada , a Fox and Peach player. Alliance left StarCraft II in July 2014 with the release of their last player, SortOf. The League of Legends team was rebranded as Elements in January 2015 due to the team ownership rules in the League of Legends Championship Series preventing GoodGame Agency from owning multiple teams. On 12 December 2016, Twitch spun Evil Geniuses and Alliance into player-owned organizations. According to Alliance member Jonathan Berg, all original members in addition to Armada got
10864-530: The start to the 2023 Summer Split, stipulating that if both parties could not reach an agreement within the designated two-week period, the Summer Split would be cancelled and no teams would be eligible for the 2023 World Championship . A deal was reached on June 8, establishing a new NACL business model with a 50/50 revenue split, governance improvements, minimum player notice and severance requirements, and healthcare insurance reinforcement. Riot also provided
10976-464: The summer split had all six teams placed in the upper bracket, with the top seed being to choose their second round opponent like in the LCK . In addition, the lower bracket was staggered, with the first round losers facing each other and the second round losers entering in different rounds based on their seed. The winner of the summer champions were crowned LCS Champions, with the top three teams qualifying as
11088-421: The teams ineligible for competition. In addition to these sanctions, it was found that, during trade requests between Renegades and Team Dragon Knights, both organizations provided misleading information to League officials regarding the independence of the two teams and the status of players and payments. The evidence indicated that some players continued to be compensated and housed by their former teams even after
11200-496: The trade had been completed. As a result of these actions, former Renegades owner Chris Badawi was permanently banned from participating in Riot-sanctioned leagues, and Christopher Mykles was banned from holding any Riot-sanctioned position within a competing organization for one year. The three teams were given until May 18 to sell all rights and legal claims to their LCS/CS berths. In June 2017, Riot Games announced that
11312-471: The winner, runners-up and third-place team of the summer playoffs qualified for the annual League of Legends World Championship . Established in 2013, the league was initially split into two regions: the European League of Legends Championship Series (EU LCS) and the North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS). The NA LCS featured eight teams, which were determined via
11424-436: 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
11536-549: 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
11648-478: Was distributed to the teams that were replaced in the league. The NA LCS received over 100 applications for a spot in the league. The ten franchised teams were announced in November 2017. Among the already established teams in the NA LCS were FlyQuest , Team SoloMid , Cloud9 , Counter Logic Gaming , Echo Fox , and Team Liquid , while the newly admitted teams to the NA LCS were 100 Thieves , Clutch Gaming , Golden Guardians , and OpTic Gaming . In December 2018,
11760-414: Was established with the purpose of serving as a platform for developing talent and providing an opportunity for Challenger-level teams to participate in the LCS via a promotion and relegation system. Heading into the 2015 season, an expansion tournament was held in both Europe and North America that added two teams in each region, giving the LCS a total of 10 teams per region. Additionally, Riot introduced
11872-538: 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
11984-480: Was prompted after it was revealed that Raizada had used racist language directed at former Echo Fox CEO Jace Hall during an email exchange, and in another email, Raizada also made threats against the family of Echo Fox's owner, Rick Fox . When Echo Fox failed to comply with Riot's directive, Riot Games forced Echo Fox to sell its LCS franchise. After a failed attempt to sell the franchise to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment , Echo Fox agreed to allow Riot Games to handle
12096-523: Was released in November 2024 to a similarly positive critical response. Alliance (esports) Alliance is a professional gaming and esports organization based in Sweden that was formed in April 2013. In December 2016, the organisation announced that it had become player-owned after parting with its parent organisation, GoodGame agency which was owned by Amazon through its subsidiary Twitch . The Dota 2 team won The International 2013 , then
12208-445: 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
12320-435: 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
12432-421: Was used to advance teams to the World Championship, was also eliminated. Instead, the top three teams from the summer split playoffs earned the right to advance to the World Championship. The LCS also implemented a revised schedule for the 2020 season, featuring broadcasts of matches on Monday evenings called "Monday Night League" in addition to their regularly scheduled Saturday and Sunday broadcasts. In response to
12544-470: Was voted as the MVP of the Spring Split with 28% of the vote. In the playoffs, they finished 4th, losing to Fnatic in the semifinals 2–1, then lost to ROCCAT 2–0 in the 3rd place game. In the Summer Split, Alliance topped the regular season standings with a 21–7 record. They then won the playoffs with a 3–1 over Fnatic in the finals, giving the team a spot in the 2014 League of Legends World Championship . At
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