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At the end of October, League of Legends will celebrate its 10th birthday. It’s been a while since a team of enthusiasts started developing their version of the perfect MOBA game after being impressed with Dota.
Many things have changed since then, and their project progressed from the beta-test version to a game which is probably the most popular esports discipline of today.
Actually, the creators of the League of Legends, Brandon “Ryze” Beck and Marc “Tryndamere” Merrill, founded Riot Games aiming to promote their project in esports.
This article shows 5 of the top events in League of Legends history, which meant a lot for the game after its release in October 2009. LoL made it through many difficulties and changes before it became the hugely popular MOBA and esports game it is today.
The five points below list some of the most significant milestones for the League of Legends community and the game itself, according to the opinion of Yesportsbet.com specialists.
The Season 1 World Championship (2011)
Of course, the first great success of Riot Games and League of Legends was the Season 1 World Championship. The main event took place in Jönköping, Sweden. The local audience apparently consisted of nearly 300 people, despite there only being few seats available. More than 1m tuned in to watch the online broadcast of the event.
The first League of Legends World Championship started with only 8 teams and a $100,000 prize pool. The very first team to become champions were Fnatic (xPeke, Cyanide, Shushei, LamiaZealot, Mellisan) who outplayed the team Against All Authority in the final BO3 (2:0) and took a half of the prize pool ($50,000 or $10,000 per player).
But it was only the beginning.
Intel Extreme Masters Season VI World Championship (2012)
During the next year, the professional scene of LoL stagnated: players had moved from one organization to another and actually the League of Legends esports interest was quite low. Same faces, same simple strategies, and same winners in EU and NA regions started to bore the audience.
One team changed it all.
Moscow Five.
Darien, Diamondprox, AlexIch, Genja and GosuPepper came out of nowhere and literally destroyed everyone during the 2012 season. If previously the professional teams relied mostly on individual qualities and skills of their players while dueling each other in Summoner’s Rift lanes (“win lane – win game”), then Moscow Five raised the LoL esports to an absolutely new level. After them, League stopped being a game about 1v1 or 2v2 duels, and became a totally team-based MOBA about roaming, pushing and controlling map objectives.
During the IEM Season VI World Championship in Hanover, Germany, Moscow Five did not lose a single map either during a group stage or in playoffs. With a 100% win rate at the event, the Russians dominated the pro scene and became a breath of fresh air for the whole LoL esports community and fans.
Summoner’s Rift Evolves (November 19th 2014)
Time passes and everything has to change. Five years after its release, the old League of Legends map required a total rework, so Riot Games went for it. The Summoner’s Rift fans knew long before had faded away, and the new version of the main LoL arena entered the scene on November 19th 2014.
It had changes not only in visual aspect, but in the gameplay balance as well: new jungle minions were introduced, improving the correlation between farming speed and difficulty for junglers.
Players accepted the new jungle quite aggressively at first, but then Riot made some final fixes and the community understood how to play the new League.
100 Million Players (September 2016)
The life of all free-to-play projects totally depends on the fan base they have, on the number of people who are ready to spend time in their favorite game regularly, to follow its evolution and to get satisfaction each time they play.
For League of Legends, September 2016 was the month when Riot Games hit a true milestone achievement. The project which started as a dormitory room initiative of students became so popular that it had amassed 100 million unique player accounts. LoL had reached a new peak.
The Season 8 World Championship (2018)
During the Season 8 World Championship, League of Legends confirmed its status of the most popular MOBA game and the most famous esports discipline. The 8th Worlds had the biggest show, the biggest prize pool in history of LoL ($6,450,000), and the biggest audience: nearly 100 million people watched streamed broadcasts of the 2018 finals taking place in the esports capital of the planet: South Korea.
The Chinese team Invictus Gaming became World Champions after outplaying Fnatic 3-0. IG took $2,418,750 as the winning prize.
The Future of LoL
The future of League of Legends seems to be great. LoL has never really let up, and the existing fanbase is relatively stable and loyal. If Riot Games avoids making significant mistakes which could lessen the audience’s interest in the game, then surely their project will only grow.
As a part of the LoL community, we hope League of Legends continues to make gamers happy for as long as possible.
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