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'League of Legends' mockumentary 'Players' heads to Paramount+ on June 16th
Paramount+ has released the first trailer for Players, its long-awaited League of Legends mockumentary from American Vandal creators Dan Perrault and Tony Yacenda.
As 'League of Legends' summer games begin, the pros talk player health
"I hope other people are not ashamed to see a therapist," Søren “Bjergsen" Bjerg said.
ESPN will broadcast and stream 'League of Legends' spring playoffs
ESPN is diving deeper into live esports with League of Legends Championship Series broadcasts.
Social distancing is pushing esports into the mainstream
Industries around the globe have ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Bars, restaurants, stadiums and factories have shuttered, and entire countries are on lockdown as citizens are ordered to stay home for weeks at a time in an attempt to control the disease's spread. With the streets empty, people are turning to their screens more than ever before. Viewership of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Mixer and Hulu has risen weekly since shelter-in-place orders began rolling out, and people are on the hunt for new forms of entertainment, ideally with a social twist. Something with a chat room, or dozens of forum posts to read through, or an active Twitter and Instagram presence. Something with stats and high stakes. Something live. Enter: Esports. As economic activity spirals downward around the world, the esports industry has been spun into overdrive. Leagues are ditching plans for in-person tournaments and pivoting to online-only matches, where they're finding a hungry audience.
A popular immigration bill is bad news for US esports
"What makes me nervous is the fact that it just sailed through the House." Genie Doi is an immigration lawyer with Electronic Sports and Gaming Law, an esports-specific law firm in Los Angeles. She's talking about S.386, or the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which passed the House in July by 300 votes. Representatives even waived some of the voting rules with a process reserved to pass noncontroversial bills.
Echo Fox loses its pro 'League of Legends' franchise spot
Riot Games has announced that it will cut Echo Fox from its League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) after an incident of racism by a member of its ownership group went unaddressed. As part of an agreement between Riot and Echo Fox, LCS will sell the vacant slot and "provide the bulk of the proceeds from the sale to Echo Fox."
Racism accusations rock esports team Echo Fox
Former NBA star Rick Fox is leaving the esports team he owns, Echo Fox, after accusing a shareholder of an "abhorrent display of pure racism" and making threats to his family, according to an email obtained by Dexerto. Echo Fox has confirmed the incidents of racism, verifying the account in Fox's email, and the authoritative body behind North American League of Legends esports is investigating the allegations.
'League of Legends' finals head to Oakland's Oracle Arena
The North American League of Legends Championship Series has a home for its summer finals... and you'll definitely recognize it. Riot Games has announced that the Summer Split finalists will play on September 8th and 9th at Oakland's Oracle Arena -- you know, the home of the Golden State Warriors. This isn't completely surprising when the Warriors are an affiliate of the league's Golden Guardians team, but it's still rare for regional eSports competitions to get such a prominent venue.
Riot revamps EU 'League of Legends' circuit to retain pro players
Riot overhauled its North American League of Legends eSports championship to give pros a better reason to stick around, and now it's mounting a similar effort for Europe. The EU division of the League Championship Series has instituted a slew of reforms that should ensure more sustainable careers, most notably an end to relegation and promotion. There was a lot of turnover when teams knew they could fall from grace -- this lets them spend more time and money on players to create "lasting connections" with fans. In other words, a rookie with promise won't get cut just because their team had a rough first season.
League of Legends' first pro female player weighs her options
"I just want it to be known that I accomplished my goal for real, and I accomplished it for me, my teammates, and girls in eSports. That's it. No one else. Don't fucking put me on some LGBT agenda or some bullshit." That's part of the statement that Maria Creveling, known as "Remilia" on the gaming stage, posted to Reddit this morning, following her team's explosive victory in the North American League of Legends Challenger Series last night. The win bumped her team, Renegades, into the League of Legends Championship Series, meaning all of its players are now officially pro -- and making Remilia the first professional female player in League of Legends Championship Series history. However, she may choose to leave the LCS without ever playing a pro game.
The Navy is testing out a bigger, badder Fire Scout UAV
The Department of Defense is reportedly readying it's larger and more capable iteration of the MQ-8 Fire Scout UAV for use aboard its Littoral Combat Ships beginning in 2018. Military.com reports that after two years of flight tests, the Navy is prepping its new MQ-8C Fire Scout for operational testing ahead of its eventual deployment. It's predecessor, the MQ-8B, entered service last November aboard the USS Fort Worth.
Former pro League of Legends team opens wallets to fantasy eSports
Former League of Legends team Vulcun started a new fantasy eSports website, offering a $250,000 prize pool for League of Legends spectators. Much like other fantasy sports such as baseball and football, players participate in daily challenges by selecting a team of competitors during the upcoming 2015 League of Legends Championship Series. Also like other daily fantasy sports challenges, both of Vulcun's free and paid leagues work on a salary cap basis; the best League of Legends players in the LCS will be more expensive to roster, so fantasy players will need to be discerning about the athletes they add to their teams. Founded by Ali Moiz and Murtaza Hussain, Vulcun earned $1.3 million in funding from investors such as eVentures, Battery Ventures and 500Startups, and the team plans to "re-invest every single dollar we make at increasing the prize pool for League fans." While this season's fantasy League of Legends prize pool is $250,000, Vulcun's next goal is to reach $1 million. The next LCS season begins on January 22, so those interested in Vulcun's fantasy challenges will need to request an invite to its closed beta. As League of Legends continues to grow in popularity as a competitive sport, universities are awarding scholarships to student eSports athletes. [Image: Riot Games]
Hey, NPR: Stop trivializing eSports scholarships
On Monday, NPR's All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talked to New Tech City podcast host Manoush Zomorodi about Robert Morris University's new athletic scholarship program, the first of its kind in the United States – scholarships for League of Legends players. The hosts rattled off the stats: $500,000 for 30 scholarships, similar to some football scholarships the school offers. Zomorodi noted that 32 million people watched the final League of Legends championship game this year, more than watched the last game of the NBA finals. After talking to Robert Morris University's Associate Athletic Director Kurt Melcher, this happened: ZOMORODI: And from what I saw, Robert, it really was just like the football team or the track team - a tight-knit group. SIEGEL: (Laughter) So what's it like to be a collegiate e-athlete? Laughter. That's pulled directly from NPR's transcript of the broadcast, and you can listen to it here (this conversation at 3:08). During the final minutes of Siegel and Zomorodi's talk, there were titters and chuckles at factual information about the League of Legends scholarship. This bothered me.
Get Imagine Dragons' League of Legends song for free
League of Legends has an official song for its 2014 World Championship, and you can get it for free today. The song is "Warriors" by the band Imagine Dragons. "To kick off the start of the action, we set out to craft a war cry to rally behind in a creative collaboration with Imagine Dragons," Riot posted on its site. "Whether you're a solo queue warrior or fighting off the LCS jitters –- every moment counts." The MP3 is available for free on the site, but if you want the full animated music video, all you have to do is hit the jump below.
Bridging the gap between casual and pro at the Chicago Dota 2 Winter Open
At Ignite Gaming Lounge in Chicago, Illinois, the crowd is losing its mind. It's grand finals of the Chicago Dota 2 Winter Open, a two-day, double-elimination, 16-team throwdown, and for some reason someone has just picked Meepo. For those of you who aren't in the Dota 2 loop, suffice to say that Meepo isn't a standard hero pick for a tournament. Picking Meepo in a match with $1,000 on the line is a lot like jumping out of a plane and wishing for a parachute -- an incredible, amazing story if it works and an embarrassing, painful death if it doesn't, with the odds heavily on the latter. The announcers, broadcasting the match simultaneously on Dota TV (Dota 2's in-game spectating client) and Twitch, are dumbfounded. The chat channels are exploding. And as everyone witnesses the Meepo gamble pay off in the most incredible way, the excitement only expands and intensifies. But perhaps what's most special about this Meepo pick, about this final game between two local teams that have bested challenger after challenger, is not the risky strategy or the money on the line. What's special is that anyone is watching it at all.
PAX Prime 2013: Riot Games' Whalen Rozelle on LoL Season 3
I was really excited to step into Riot's press room on Friday at PAX Prime. We had just finished the first series of matches of the day, and it was pretty exciting to talk to people about the matches yet to come. But I don't think anyone was more excited to talk about League of Legends' e-sports scene than Whalen Rozelle, or RiotMagus as he's known on the internet. As the senior e-sports manager at Riot, he's tasked with making sure that events run smoothly, and I took the opportunity to ask him about the format for Season 3 -- especially improvements over Season 2 and the lessons Riot will be taking into Season 4.
League of Legends kicks off third season of e-sports
League of Legends is about ready to begin its third season of the League Championship Series, and this time Riot Games is bringing a few interesting changes to the field. Season 3 goes live on February 7th for North America and Europe and features four-days-per-week of streamed e-sports as teams battle to become the best -- and bring home the dough. For Season 3, Riot is fiddling with the structure to make a new league ranking system that should offer a "greater sense of progression." Players will battle it out in six tiers of similarly matched teams until the cream rises to the top. To help all players understand the changes, Riot's provided a handy infographic and FAQ covering the pertinent points. There's also a goofy promo video of players running around an empty stadium in slow-motion, and you know you want to see that. It's after the jump. Thank us later.
Riot Games' plan to standardize eSports
Ask a couple of Riot Games' employees what goes into choosing players for League of Legends' annual World Championships, and they'll rattle off a strange series of acronyms and words that represent tournaments from around the world: Major League Gaming, the IGN Pro League, ESL's Intel Extreme Masters Series, OGN, IPL, Dreamhack, Tales of the Lane, and so many more.The route from just playing for free online to the top of the World Championship ladders is so confusing and circuitous that most press outlets don't cover it, most players don't follow it, and even most eSports fans couldn't explain it all. There's a jargon to it (littered with player and team names full of weird capitalization and strange spellings) that's about as complicated to understand as the notoriously complex game itself.Riot's Vice President of eSports Dustin Beck even says that a recent tournament he attended was a big mess on its own: "The tournament kept pausing, it never started on time, you didn't have a schedule to know when your favorite teams were playing. It wasn't a fun experience, for me."Still, eSports is one of the biggest factors in League of Legends' overwhelming popularity, with thousands of people attending these tournaments, and millions (almost ten million, in fact) watching live online. So how does Riot plan to smooth out those wrinkles that keep an even larger audience out of the game? The company will take the game into Season 3 within the next few weeks, and with it begins Riot's eSports headliner, the League of Legends Championship Series.
Ask PSP Fanboy: Volume 4
Every Saturday, PSP Fanboy will answer your burning questions. If you have a question for the team, send an e-mail to andrew @ pspfanboy.com with the subject "Ask PSP Fanboy."Q: With news of the recent "Hello World" N00bz exploit for 2.81-3.03 PSPs, word is that an un-patched version of GTA: Liberty City Stories will be required for the future downgrader. How can I explicitly tell an un-patched GTA:LCS from a patched one?A: Hope this image from DCEmu helps:The unpatched version seems to feature different pictures. As a general rule of thumb, you'll have to look for the oldest copies you can find, so they'll most likely be used. When you pop in the disc, make sure the game offers a 2.0 firmware upgrade, not anything higher. Good luck.See more questions after the break.
Liberty City Stories now a Greatest Hit
It appears that the first GTA PSP game is now a budget Greatest Hits title. Best Buy lists the game with a $20 price tag and the trademark red banner on top. At this price, the PSP version now competes with the PlayStation 2 version of the game, and still retains PSP-exclusive features like multiplayer. Liberty City Stories may feature slightly worse graphics than the Vice City follow-up, but with a better storyline and funnier missions, this might be the game to pick up for GTA newbies, especially at such a bargain price.[Via CAG]
