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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 ,