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Riot Games loses 'League of Legends' lawsuit to retired soccer star
A Dutch court has ruled that developer Riot Games must pay former Netherlands midfielder Edgar Davids for using his likeness in League of Legends. According to the ruling, a championship skin used in the game infringed on his personal image rights.
Brexit is even making 'League of Legends' champions pricier
As if the prices of tech hardware shooting up as a result of last summer's Brexit vote wasn't disappointing enough, now it's making the cost of entirely virtual items more taxing on the wallet. League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced that from July 26th, it's adjusting the UK prices of Riot Points (RP) -- which players use to unlock champions and buy skins/other in-game swag -- to compensate for the decline in the value of the pound.
How 'League of Legends' can shape the future of esports
League of Legends is a driving force of the esports industry. With more than 100 million players around the world and tournaments that regularly sell out stadiums including the Staples Center and Madison Square Garden, League represents the epitome of mainstream professional gaming. League sets the esports standard. That's one reason it was such a big deal when Riot Games announced massive changes coming to the North American League of Legends Championship Series, which decides the team competing in the World Championship every year. The new rules are designed to give North American players and franchises more security, more money, and more input in league decisions. After about a month to absorb the new regulations, we spoke with leaders and coaches of three major League of Legends teams -- Immortals, Team Dignitas and Team Liquid -- about what this means for the future of professional play.
'League of Legends' creator wins $10 million in cheating lawsuit
If you've noticed fewer cheaters in your League of Legends matches in recent weeks, you now have a good idea as to why. Riot Games has won a settlement in its lawsuit against LeagueSharp, the subscription cheating service that offered automated play (that is, bots) to win in League games. The agreement has LeagueSharp paying $10 million, bans its software and gives Riot control over its websites. LeagueSharp technically shut down in January, but the terms of the settlement weren't circulating until now.
Former 'League of Legends' developers unveil 'Dauntless'
Jesse Houston, Sean Bender and Robin Mayne founded Phoenix Labs in 2014 after leaving League of Legends studio Riot Games, and they staffed their independent venture with folks from the Mass Effect team and other mainstream franchises. Today, Phoenix Labs revealed its debut game: Dauntless, a cooperative, online action-RPG set to hit PC, for free, in 2017.
'League of Legends' is about to change and it's all your fault
League of Legends players should probably give up on the idea of a game editor. Riot Games lead designer Greg Street hates to slam the door on any particular idea, but he's fairly confident that players will never be allowed to mess around with the game's core mechanics. Riot simply doesn't want players to create 1,000 new versions of League of Legends in the hope that one new game mode might stick. "Philosophically, that's something we're really reluctant to do," Street says. This doesn't mean Riot is afraid of change. League of Legends patch 6.24 goes live on December 7th, and it should be game-changing enough to satiate fans hungry for something new. For example, the 2017 season update introduces a practice mode where players can try out tricky maneuvers over and over again, with the option to instantly reset cooldowns, test out new paths through the jungle, play around with infinite gold and lock champions at specific levels.
Unboxing and playing the 'League of Legends' board game
Mechs vs Minions is League of Legends fanfiction presented in the style of Dungeons & Dragons or Descent, with just a hint of Fireball Island thrown in for good measure. It's a cooperative, programmable, card-wielding board game set in the League universe, starring League characters, but nothing about it feels shoehorned into a tabletop format. This could easily be a standalone game on the shelf at Target, no outside video game connection required.
'League of Legends' is adding post-game replays
Nailing a sweet pentakill in League of Legends is even better when you have an easy-to-share video of it for bragging rights. But what if you don't want to resort to third-party tools to watch or create a clip? Well, according to developer Riot Games, you shouldn't have to wait much longer. Ahead of next season, Riot announced it's adding the highly-requested feature to the game, and replays from the current patch can be watched directly from the LoL client itself.
'League of Legends' owners open up revenue streams to pro teams
"We recognize that the current ecosystem isn't consistently profitable yet for team owners or for the league." That's how Riot Games' directors of eSports Jarred "Bradmore" Kennedy and Whalen "Magus" Rozelle laid out the studio's plans to funnel more money to professional League of Legends teams in 2017. The changes come after four years of explosive growth across the eSports industry, with League of Legends leading the charge, but it also follows a public spat between coaches and founders about the game's booming economy.
League of Legends' creators made a board game
Riot Games is best known for League of Legends and now the developer-publisher is pushing into board games. Mechs Vs. Minions is the studio's debut effort, and it features miniatures, a modular board system, dice, a custom sand timer (think an hourglass, but on a smaller scale), quest cards and an overarching story. In addition to all that, there's a physically large mystery item locked away in the box, according to a feature article from Polygon.
'League of Legends' fuels college rivalries with live broadcasts
You no longer have to head to a basketball or football game to see your favorite college sports rivalry play out. Yahoo eSports and Riot Games' uLoL are partnering on a series of five League of Legends live broadcasts that will pit players from major North American schools against each other once a week, starting November 4th at 6PM Eastern. You vote for your favorite rivalries among 12, ranging from Cal/Stanford to Harvard/Yale -- the top 5 go on to in-person competitions that Yahoo will stream online. There will even be viewing parties at each school if you'd rather watch with fellow students. While there's no certainty that these college MOBA match-ups will be as intense as the conventional kind, it's safe to say that there's a lot of pride on the line.
'League of Legends' will keep adding new champs for 'many years'
League of Legends studio Riot Games is 10 years old, and like a fifth-grader riding his first two-wheeler, it's just getting started. Riot announced this week that League of Legends boasts 103 million monthly active players, up from 67 million in 2015. Compare that with Dota 2, which had 13.5 million players in the past month, or Overwatch, which has a total player pool of about 15 million. League of Legends is a massive phenomenon, helping pave the way for eSports as it enters mainstream consciousness and partnering with universities to kick off the next generation of competitive gaming. The game itself is also huge. There are 132 champions in League of Legends, each with individual abilities, personalities, backstories, voice acting and costume choices, and Riot is constantly adding more. Just today, the company teased a new champion, bringing the revised total to 133. That number is going to keep growing for a long while, Lead Game Designer Greg Street tells Engadget.
Riot Games is suing a huge 'League of Legends' cheat service
Cheating ruins online games. Full stop. Valve has cracked down on folks running amok in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends developer Riot Games is doing the same. Specifically, Riot is suing the owners of "Leaguesharp" (L#) which charges between $15 and $50 a month for services that grant the ability to "see hidden information; 'automate' gameplay to perform with enhanced or inhuman accuracy; and accumulate levels, experience and items at a rate this is not possible for a normal human player," according to the lawsuit papers obtained by Rift Herald.
Riot used 'League of Legends' chat logs to spot bad staff
Sadly, bad language and a general lack of respect is an expected and, now, almost accepted part of playing video games online. It's a problem that permeates not just the community around each game, but also the people that are working on them. Riot Games, developer of the MOBA juggernaut League of Legends, has looked at employees' chat logs and found a surprising correlation between their behavior in and out of the game. So if someone has been a jerk or generally difficult in the game, there's a reasonable chance that they've expressed similar behavior in the office.
ESPN and 'League of Legends' studio aren't making a broadcast deal
League of Legends is one of the most popular esports titles in the world, but it's not heading to ESPN any time soon. Spokespeople for Riot Games and ESPN tell Engadget that the companies are not working on a broadcasting deal, despite a report on PVP Live claiming otherwise. "The story is inaccurate -- no active talks with ESPN at the moment," the Riot spokesperson said. An ESPN spokesperson further confirmed, "The story is false. We do not have a deal with Riot Games to broadcast League of Legends."
'League of Legends' studio buys a fighting game powerhouse
Riot Games, the studio in charge of League of Legends, acquired Radiant Entertainment and all of its fighting game technology this week. Radiant is staffed by popular figures in the fighting game community, including former Street Fighter commentator and Capcom community manager Seth Killian. The studio was created by Tom Cannon and Tony Cannon, who are also founders of the world's largest fighting game tournament, the Evolution Championship Series. Radiant has two titles under its belt: the free, online fighting game Rising Thunder and the town-building simulator Stonehearth.
'League of Legends' music gets an EDM remix in 'Warsongs'
Something about electronic dance music makes it the perfect soundtrack to League of Legends. Maybe it's that pounding bass. Maybe it's EDM's steady, rhythmic backbone. Maybe it's the energy inherent in EDM that makes it the soundtrack of choice for many of League's professional players, streamers, YouTubers and even Riot Games itself. Or, maybe it's simpler than all of that. "League is just cool as fuck and so is EDM." That's Marshmello, one of the contributors on Riot Games' latest project, Warsongs, an album of 11 League of Legends tracks each remixed by high-profile or emerging EDM artists. It's available right now to download or stream in the US for free via Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, Google Play, iTunes and the League of Legends website.
'League of Legends' is now fully owned by China's Tencent
After buying most of the studio behind League of Legends in 2011, Tencent now owns it outright. California studio Riot Games told employees that the Chinese internet giant behind WeChat had purchased the remaining equity in the company. There was no word about the price, but League of Legends reportedly makes $1 billion a year via in-app purchases. Tencent should be able to afford it, though, as it was recently valued at $200 billion, ahead of China's Alibaba. Tencent also owns big stakes in Activision Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, and Gears of War developer Epic Games.
'League of Legends' shoutcaster loves the game, not the fame
Trevor Henry doesn't like to think of himself as "famous." He prefers the term "recognizable," and then only in certain situations -- like at the League of Legends World Championships in Europe this year. Henry, professionally known as Quickshot, is a shoutcaster for League of Legends, which means he's often the face and voice of professional matches as he commentates on live games and analyzes important moves afterward. Literally millions of people know who he is: In 2014, 27 million fans watched the final match of the League World Championships. For perspective, the NBA Finals in 2014 averaged just 15.5 million viewers per game. Quickshot has been in the shoutcasting game for half a decade, first as a hobby and now professionally in a rapidly evolving industry. He knows where professional League of Legends started and sees where it can go -- and he told us all about it.
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.
