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LMQ after winning the grand finals of the NA Challenger Series.
League of
Legends on the International
Stage By Won Chung
Since its debut in 2009, League of Legends( League) has grown to 100 million monthly players, becoming the most popular game in the world. Furthermore, League is also the most viewed electronic sport( esport) with 36 million people watching the 2016 World Championship. With a revenue of $ 1.6 billion dollars and a worldwide player base, League is challenging the perception of traditional sports. However, it is not without its scandals.
In the winter of 2013, LMQ, a Chinese professional League team, moved to North America. The team easily secured a spot in the League of Legends Championship Series( LCS), where they dominated against the other North Americans teams. However, with each win, the North American LCS fan base became increasingly critical of the foreign born team. Former fans of the competitive StarCraft scene, another popular video game, argued the North American competitive StarCraft scene died when a number of Asian players, who did not speak English, immigrated to North
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America and dominated the tournaments. The influx of non-English speaking players led StarCraft fans to lose interest, as they felt disconnected from the players. Even with popular casters and analysts arguing LMQ adds healthy competition to the North American LCS, fans still sought to oust the Chinese team.
Within a few months, Riot Games, the developers of League and organizers of the LCS, stepped in and mandated that each team have at least three players local to the region to be eligible to compete. The company sought to restrict the importing and exporting of foreign players, in addition to preventing foreign teams from entering another region so freely. The company stated that players are“ local” to a region if they had been residing in said region for two of the last three years. These restrictions took a toll on LMQ, which had a full Chinese roster and relied on Chinese substitutes. Although Riot Games allowed the original five members of LMQ to continue playing in the North American LCS, two members eventually left and one member retired. This change forced the team to recruit North American players, leading to a communication barrier within the team. However, these rule changes were not necessarily targeted at LMQ. In order to protect the“ identity” of each region, Riot Games wanted to prevent western organizations from“ poaching” players from Korea, whose League teams dominated the professional scene.
In early 2015, the North American Team Liquid and Team Impulse recruited Chae“ Piglet” Gwang Jin and Jung“ Impact” Eon Yeong to their rosters, respectively. These players were formerly part of SKT T1, the South Korean team that won the 2013 World Championship. Although some fans accepted the world champions for their skill,