Jung“ Impact” Eon Yeong( left) and Chae“ Piglet” Gwang Jin( right) being interviewed in Los Angeles Staples Center
many in the North American fan base cried out against the importing of foreign players, worried the esports scene would soon be dominated by foreign players.
Adding fuel to the fire, Yu“ XiaoWeiXiao” Xian, the former star mid-laner of LMQ, was accused of“ elo-boosting”, a banned practice of leveling up another player’ s account for money. In one case, XiaoWeiXiao allegedly made $ 1400 for a boost. While other professional LoL players have“ elo-boosted” before, these cases were before Season 2( 2012) when Riot Games outlawed“ elo-boosting.” Riot Games suspended XiaoWeiXiao, prompting fans to urge Riot Games to investigate the other foreign players as well, as“ elo-boosting” is more common in China and Korea.
Then, in late 2015, the Chinese investment company Tencent Holdings bought Riot Games, changing the course planned for League. In a complete surprise, Riot Games implemented“ Dynamic Queue,” allowing a player to team up with four other players of any division( League has a competitive ladder that consists of divisions based on skill- Challenger, Master, Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze). Since the debut of League, a player was allowed to partner with only one other player to climb the competitive ladder. In North America and Europe, players cried out that the new queue made it much easier for“ elo-boosters” and hackers. Before the changes, a player could only
“ boost” one or two clients at a time. Western players claimed, without any evidence, that the new queue was something Chinese players had wanted for a long time, and accused Riot Games of pandering to their new owners.
Although the last few months have been without scandal or controversy, there are still many obstacles League must overcome to become a professional sport rather than just a game. League is transitioning to a new client- the software interface that mainly allows players to queue for games. Released in late 2016, the client supposedly has fewer bugs and runs more smoothly. Additionally, Riot Games has just recently implement the annual preseason changes that impact the meta( every winter, Riot drastically updates the in-game arena and items by either adding to, removing from, or reworking them). In order to maintain the current player base and attract new players, League is constantly changing via patches( usually bi-weekly) that tweak items and champions. If Riot Games can keep the game fresh just like the last six years, League has a may well continue dominating the esports scene. For now, we can only speculate on what the preseason has in store for the players, as well as whether the Western and Chinese teams can close the gap between their skill levels and that of the Korean teams, which have claimed the previous four World Championships in a row.