165-625: The League of Legends division of Cloud9 (C9) is a gaming team based in Los Angeles , California, and competes in the League of Legends Championship of The Americas (LTA), the top-level professional league for video game League of Legends in the Americas, as a franchised team in the North Conference. Established in 2013, the League of Legends division was the founding division of Cloud9. The team
330-580: A "union game" since 2019 and said Formosa Interactive were directed to work only with union actors in the US. Riot described any complaints related to other games as unrelated to League of Legends . League of Legends uses a free-to-play business model. Several forms of purely cosmetic customization—for example, "skins" that change the appearance of champions—can be acquired after buying an in-game currency called Riot Points (RP). Skins have five main pricing tiers, ranging from $ 4 to $ 25. An additional "luxury" tier
495-474: A 2–1 victory over Imperial Esports . The team would go on to drop to the lower bracket following a 2–1 loss against FaZe, before qualifying for the playoffs after wins against Chinese roster 5yclone and Apeks. Fnatic were eliminated in the first round of playoffs by Monte in a 2–1 defeat. On 2 November 2023, Fnatic announced the departure of mezii amid reports of his move to Team Vitality . Later that month, on 11 November, roeJ transferred to Preasy. Dexter
660-512: A 30–3 game record and the highest winning-percentage in LCS history at 90.9%. Due to their NA LCS Summer Season championship, Cloud9 received bye into the quarterfinals at the Season 3 World Championship (Worlds). In their first match, on September 23, Cloud9 lost to the top-seeded European team Fnatic by a score of 1 games to 2, eliminating them from the tournament. On October 29, the organization announced
825-404: A 3–1 record. In the playoff semifinals, Cloud9 lost to OMG, 0–2, and were eliminated from the playoffs. In the 2014 NA LCS Summer Split , Cloud9 suffered a mid-season slump, falling to as low as fifth place in the season standings, but recovered to finish with a 18–10 record in the regular season and claim the top seed in the playoffs. After sweeping Team Curse the semifinals, Cloud9 advanced to
990-500: A champion for all members of their team to play. In Nexus Blitz, players participate in a series of mini-games on a compressed map. Riot Games' founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merill had an idea for a spiritual successor to Defense of the Ancients , known as DotA . A mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos , DotA required players to buy Warcraft III and install custom software; The Washington Post 's Brian Crecente said
1155-444: A collaboration with Marvel Comics in 2018. Riot had previously experimented with releasing comics through its website. Shannon Liao of The Verge noted that the comic books were "a rare opportunity for Riot to showcase its years of lore that has often appeared as an afterthought". The first comic was League of Legends: Ashe—Warmother , which debuted in 2018, followed by League of Legends: Lux that same year. A print version of
1320-459: A collection of cosmetic Counter Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins. In 2015, Fnatic announced a return to Dota 2 , acquiring and sponsoring Team Malaysia . On 1 October 2015 sports betting website Dafabet became a sponsor of Fnatic. On 23 March 2017, Fnatic announced that it would be making a one-off return to Heroes of Newerth with an all-Swedish roster made up of Makke, iNsaniA, Xibbe, Boxi and miCKe, and it would compete at
1485-423: A competitor, he remained with Cloud9 in an organizational role as a partner management and team expansion assistant. On May 8, Cloud9 officially signed Incarnati0n as a replacement for Hai as mid-laner. The team started the 2015 NA LCS Summer Split going 3–7. After the poor start, Meteos stepped down from the starting roster, later citing internal issues with his teammates. In his stead, Hai substituted back into
1650-458: A form of gambling. In 2019, Riot Games' CEO said that he hoped loot boxes would become less prevalent in the industry. Riot has also experimented with other forms of monetization. In August 2019, they announced an achievement system purchasable with Riot Points. The system was widely criticized for its high cost and low value. In 2014, Ubisoft analyst Teut Weidemann said that only around 4% of players paid for cosmetics—significantly lower than
1815-443: A list barring the union's members from working on the game. This was to reprimand Formosa Interactive, a third-party audio provider used by Riot, for using a shell company to subvert the 2024 SAG-AFTRA video game strike by employing non-union performers on a different game. Formosa denied the accusations in a statement, emphasising that it was unrelated to Riot. In a statement posted to X , Riot Games described League of Legends as
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#17330923639291980-464: A longstanding reputation for "toxicity"—negative and abusive in-game behavior, with a survey by the Anti-Defamation League indicating that 76% of players have experienced in-game harassment. Riot Games has acknowledged the problem and responded that only a small portion of the game's players are consistently toxic. According to Jeffrey Lin, the lead designer of social systems at Riot Games,
2145-403: A new DotA team with a roster of Edvin "Kwom" Börjesson, Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Rasmus "Misery" Berth, Rene "Kebap-" Werner, and Aringazin "Aidar" Aidar. In 2010 FnaticMSI.HoN was restructured with a roster of Johan " N0tail " Sundstein, Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen, Henrik "Freshpro" Hansen, Jascha "Nova" Markuse, and Tal " Fly " Aizik. In January 2012, Fnatic took on RaidCall as a sponsor. With
2310-453: A powerful allied unit after killing the Rift Herald, permanent strength boosts by killing dragons, and stronger, more durable minions by killing Baron Nashor. Summoner's Rift matches can last from as little as 15 minutes to over an hour. Although the game does not enforce where players may go, conventions have arisen over the game's lifetime: typically one player goes in the top lane, one in
2475-448: A ranked competitive ladder; a matchmaking system determines a player's skill level and generates a starting rank from which they can climb. There are ten tiers; the least skilled are Iron, Bronze, and Silver, and the highest are Master, Grandmaster, and Challenger. Two teams of five players compete to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", which is guarded by the enemy champions and defensive structures known as "turrets". Each team's Nexus
2640-551: A renewal of partnership with a global online gaming entertainment service "LeTou" and would serve as official sponsors for their DOTA 2 squad. In November 2022, Fnatic launched its own music label, Fnatic Music. The announcement coincided with the album Fnatic Island Vol. 1. On 6 May 2024, the Esports World Cup Foundation, funded by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and organizers of
2805-674: A reputation as one of Counter-Strike 's premier in-game leaders and strategy callers from 2006 to 2012 due to his ability to lead several completely different Fnatic rosters to major tournament wins. However, in March 2012, he announced his surprise retirement before the IEM Season VI World Finals, going on to become the first chief gaming officer for Fnatic. Xizt took on the role of the in-game leader, replacing cArn with Finn "karrigan" Andersen , another Danish player. The new team won their first major LAN event at Copenhagen Games 2012. On
2970-456: A row, and after losing a tiebreaker game against ahq, they were eliminated from the tournament. On October 23, Cloud9 officially announced that LemonNation would be retiring as a competitor and transitioning to a coaching role. Cloud9 signed Rush and Bunny FuFuu in November, with Bunny FuFuu splitting time with Hai. With the new roster, Cloud9's final tournament of 2015 was IEM X Cologne , as
3135-479: A score of 3–2. Cloud9's Mid-Season Showdown title qualified them to play in the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) as the sole representatives of North America. For the first round of the tournament, Cloud9 was placed into Group C with Korea's DWG KIA , Japan's DetonatioN FocusMe and Latin America's Infinity Esports . After a 1–2 win–loss record to begin the group stage, Cloud9 won their final three matches to finish
3300-453: A single match, Fnatic failed to qualify for the 2021 Stockholm Major , and shortly afterward, Jackinho was benched from the team. Owen "smooya" Butterfield was signed to replace Jackinho on a 3-month trial. The addition of smooya marked the first time in the history of Fnatic fielded a British majority line-up. After poor results at Katowice 2022 in February, smooya was benched and replaced by
3465-518: A single-player mode. The free-to-play model was untested outside of Asian markets, so publishers were primarily interested in a retail release, and the game's capacity for a sequel . In 2008, Riot reached an agreement with holding company Tencent to oversee the game's launch in China. League of Legends was announced October 7, 2008, for Microsoft Windows . Closed beta-testing began in April 2009. Upon
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#17330923639293630-617: A spot at the 2020 World Championship . The following year Cloud9 returned the favor, defeating Team SoloMid in the 2021 Summer Playoffs, eliminating them from post-season contention and in doing so, Cloud9 claimed the finals spot at Worlds 2021 . Latest roster transaction: April 16, 2024. LCS Most Valuable Player LCS Finals MVP LCS Rookie of the Split LCS Coach of the Split League of Legends League of Legends ( LoL ), commonly referred to as League ,
3795-492: A support website to assist players. Feak said early development was highly iterative, comparing it to designing DotA . A demonstration of League of Legends built in the Warcraft III game engine was completed in four months and then shown at the 2007 Game Developers Conference . There, Beck and Merill had little success with potential investors. Publishers were confused by the game's free-to-play business model and lack of
3960-484: A team and battle to be the last one standing. Players do not directly affect combat but position their units on a board for them to fight automatically against opponents each round. Teamfight Tactics is available for iOS and Android and has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients. Other game modes have been made available temporarily, typically aligning with in-game events. Ultra Rapid Fire (URF) mode
4125-438: A team of producers creating audio for the game and its promotional materials. As of 2021 , the game has over 150 champions, and Riot Games periodically overhauls the visuals and gameplay of the oldest in the roster. Although only available for Microsoft Windows at launch, a Mac version of the game was made available in March 2013. In September 2024, Screen Actors Guild for radio and television placed League of Legends on
4290-500: A team wins by pushing through to the enemy base and destroying their "Nexus", a large structure located within. League of Legends has received generally positive reviews; critics have highlighted its accessibility, character designs, and production value. The game's long lifespan has resulted in a critical reappraisal, with reviews trending positively; it is widely considered one of the greatest video games ever made . However, negative and abusive in-game player behavior, criticized since
4455-509: A victory over Cloud9 , before being knocked down to the lower group by ENCE where they were eliminated by GamerLegion, finishing 9–12th. On 18 May 2023, prior to the roster changes, Fnatic qualified for the Saudi Arabian Gamers8 2023 tournament. Fnatic were eliminated early from the tournament on 16 August, following a 2–0 loss to Cloud9. Fnatic attended ESL Pro League Season 18 with their opening match played on 13 September,
4620-491: Is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games . Inspired by Defense of the Ancients , a custom map for Warcraft III , Riot's founders sought to develop a stand-alone game in the same genre. Since its release in October 2009, League has been free-to-play and is monetized through purchasable character customization. The game is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS . In
4785-473: Is a five-versus-five mode like Summoner's Rift, but on a map called Howling Abyss with only one long lane, no jungle area, and with champions randomly chosen for players. Given the small size of the map, players must be vigilant in avoiding enemy abilities. Teamfight Tactics is an auto battler released in June 2019 and made a permanent game mode the following month. As with others in its genre, players build
4950-418: Is a version of the game for mobile operating systems Android and iOS. Instead of porting the game from League of Legends , Wild Rift 's character models and environments were entirely rebuilt. A single-player, turn-based role-playing game , Ruined King: A League of Legends Story , was released in 2021 for PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S , Nintendo Switch , and Windows. It
5115-474: Is located in their base, where players start the game and reappear after death. Non-player characters known as minions are generated from each team's Nexus and advance towards the enemy base along three lanes guarded by turrets: top, middle, and bottom. Each team's base contains three "inhibitors", one behind the third tower from the center of each lane. Destroying one of the enemy team's inhibitors causes stronger allied minions to spawn in that lane, and allows
Cloud9 League of Legends - Misplaced Pages Continue
5280-453: Is one of the most successful organisations in the league. The team won the first League of Legends World Championship in 2011, and it held the record for most LEC titles from 2011 to 2020. Fnatic's Counter-Strike team, which has traditionally been located in Sweden , won the first ever CS:GO Major in 2013 and two more between 2013 and 2015. After a series of poor results dating back to
5445-683: Is one of the world's largest esports, described by The New York Times as its "main attraction". Online viewership and in-person attendance for the game's esports events outperformed those of the National Basketball Association , the World Series , and the Stanley Cup in 2016. For the 2019 and 2020 League of Legends World Championship finals, Riot Games reported 44 and 45 peak million concurrent viewers respectively. Harvard Business Review said that League of Legends epitomized
5610-459: Is promotional material for a skin line by the same name. The group's debut single, " Pop/Stars ", which premiered at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship , garnered over 400 million views on YouTube and sparked widespread interest from people unfamiliar with League of Legends . After a two-year hiatus, in August 2020, Riot Games released " The Baddest ", the pre-release single for All Out ,
5775-588: The 2013 Spring Split , making them the defending champions of the LCS. The first meeting between the teams took place in Cloud9's first-ever LCS Regular Season match on June 12, 2013; Cloud9 went on to win the match. Cloud9 defeated Team SoloMid in the 2013 Summer and 2014 Spring finals. In the following two LCS Finals, Team SoloMid defeated Cloud9 in both the 2014 Summer and 2015 Spring finals. They met again in three consecutive NA LCS playoffs from Spring 2016 to Spring 2017; Team SoloMid won each match, which included
5940-634: The 2016 Summer and 2017 Spring finals. Cloud9 defeated Team SoloMid in the 2018 Summer semifinals. The same year, Cloud9 took down Team SoloMid in the 2018 World Championship play-ins, eliminating Team SoloMid from qualifying for the World Championship. In 2019, Team SoloMid defeated swept Cloud9 in the 2019 Spring semifinals match. Team SoloMid handed Cloud9 their only loss in the 2020 Spring Regular Season. Team SoloMid eliminated Cloud9 in Summer 2020 Playoffs, which also prevented Cloud9 from securing
6105-400: The 2018 NA LCS Spring Split strong, going 8–2 through the first five weeks. They ended the split with an 11–7 record and in a four-way tie for third place with Team SoloMid, Team Liquid , and Clutch Gaming . After losing the third-place tiebreaker against Team Liquid and winning the fifth-place tiebreaker against Clutch Gaming, Cloud9 entered the playoffs as the fifth seed. Licorice was named
6270-466: The 2019 LCS Spring Split , Cloud9 secured the second seed and a bye to the semifinals of the playoffs after a win over FlyQuest on March 23. With a win over Clutch Gaming in their final regular season match, the team closed out the regular season with a 14–4 record. Licorice was named to the LCS All-Pro 1st Team and was the runner-up for the league's Most Valuable Player award, while head coach Reapered
6435-517: The 2020 LCS Spring Split in what was generally considered one of the greatest season performances by a team in the league's history. The team's fourth LCS title came in Spring 2021 after winning the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown . Additionally, Cloud9 hold several LCS records, including the highest winning percentage in a single split (92.9%) and the longest game winning streak in a single split (18). Cloud9's League of Legends division traces its roots back to
6600-473: The 2020 LCS Spring Split with a 12–0 record through the first six weeks, securing a spot in the winners bracket of the playoffs in the process. The team's first, and only, loss in the regular season came on March 7, when they fell to Team SoloMid in week 7. Cloud9 finished the regular season with a 17–1 record – tied for the best game record in LCS history – and the top seed in the playoffs. All five starters, Licorice, Blaber, Nisqy, Zven, and Vulcan, were named to
6765-556: The Counter-Strike competitive scene in 2004, when the team was founded by Freek "FraK" Tammelling. The initial roster, led by Benjamin "diGitaL" Hildén, managed to win CPL Singapore 2005 but struggled to make much of an impact at other international events. At the beginning of 2006, Fnatic released the entire line-up except for sniper Harley "dsn" Örwall, who was tasked to assemble a new roster. Örwall recruited Patrik "cArn" Sättermon,
Cloud9 League of Legends - Misplaced Pages Continue
6930-477: The League of Legends intellectual property (IP). A stand-alone version of Teamfight Tactics was announced for mobile operating systems iOS and Android at the event and released in March 2020. The game has cross-platform play with the Windows and macOS clients. Legends of Runeterra, a free-to-play digital collectible card game , launched in April 2020 for Microsoft Windows; the game features characters from League of Legends . League of Legends: Wild Rift
7095-414: The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS). Azure Gaming and Team MRN proved to be formidable opponents, leading to Team NomNom's elimination. As a result, Nientonsoh and Yazuki decided to part ways with the team. In early 2013, Team NomNom underwent a rebranding and officially became Cloud9 (C9). The team's emerged victorious at the 2013 MLG Summer Promotion Qualifiers , defeating Velocity esports in
7260-591: The Romanian sniper Iulian "regali" Harjău, shortly before qualification for the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 . In March 2022, Brollan who had been with Fnatic since 2018 and during that time made the HLTV top 20 players twice, was transferred to NIP. Valentin "poizon" Vasilev and Peppe "Peppzor" Borak were added to the roster to replace smooya and Brollan, although poizon only on trial and Peppzor temporarily moved up from
7425-736: The Silicon Roundabout at Old Street , with a full-time senior management team including a CEO, CGO, Sales Director, Accounts Director and Head of Creative Services. Fnatic also runs an independent digital agency, Sannpa , for businesses looking to be involved in esports. In April 2019, Fnatic raised $ 19M in Series A funding round and restructured its leadership as it plans a major expansion in Asia and North America. In October 2019, Fnatic acquired Indian PUBG Mobile team Xspark, consisting of Sc0utOP, Ronak, Paritosh, Owais and InYoDream. Fnatic disbanded
7590-500: The University of Southern California , with an ulterior goal of recruitment. There they met Jeff Jew, later a producer on League of Legends . Jew was very familiar with DotA and spent much of the tournament teaching others how to play. Beck and Merill invited him to an interview, and he joined Riot Games as an intern. Beck and Merill recruited two figures involved with DotA: Steve Feak, one of its designers, and Steve Mescon, who ran
7755-560: The World Championship . Cloud9 sat atop the regular season standings throughout the entirety of the Spring Split of the 2021 LCS season , and after a win over Immortals in their Spring final regular season match, Cloud9 finished with the first half of the season with a 13–5 record and secured the top seed in the 2021 Mid-Season Showdown . Blaber, Perkz, and Zven were all named to the 2021 LCS Spring Split All-Pro 1st Team, and Vulcan
7920-516: The World of Warcraft 3v3 community was players TooGood, Vo0, and Ztrider. The Fnatic. WoW division won top finishes in events including BlizzCon , Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and Major League Gaming (MLG). In 2007, Fnatic acquired a DotA team, Fnatic. DotA, represented by Ritter "Ritter" Rusli, Romi "melen" Gunawan, Ariyanto "Lakuci" Sony, Sugiarto "BaHaMuT" Cahyadi, Jeffry "Neo" Lu. They were formerly known as XcN DotA. In 2008, Fnatic picked up
8085-562: The cable television sports channel ESPN . League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in which the player controls a character ("champion") with a set of unique abilities from an isometric perspective. As of 2024, there are 168 champions available to play. Over the course of a match, champions gain levels by accruing experience points (XP) through killing enemies. Items can be acquired to increase champions' strength, and are bought with gold, which players accrue passively over time and earn actively by defeating
8250-463: The chief gaming officer of Fnatic in 2012. Wouter Sleijffers replaced Anne Mathews as CEO in 2015, while Sam Mathews is the board chairman. Between 2008 and 2009, Fnatic was sponsored by MSI and SteelSeries , spurring a temporary name change to FnaticMSI. On 1 June 2011, Fnatic partnered with EIZO to launch their gaming monitors into the market. In 2006, Fnatic acquired a World of Warcraft team, Fnatic. WoW. Returning to represent Fnatic in
8415-529: The #1 position in HLTV 's team rankings after the tournament, and remained the #1 ranked team in the world until 18 April 2016. In April 2016 olofmeister suffered a wrist injury, and John "wenton" Eriksson took his place temporarily. On 15 August 2016 Fnatic announced that Robin "flusha" Rönnquist , Jesper "JW" Wecksell, and KRIMZ would be transferred to GODSENT and the team would be welcoming Simon "twist" Eliasson and Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson in return. Wenton, who
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#17330923639298580-561: The 2020 LCS Spring Split All-Pro 1st Team, head coach Reapered was named the Coach of the Split, and Blaber won LCS Spring Split Most Valuable Player award. In first round of the upper bracket of the playoffs, Cloud9 swept 100 Thieves , 3–0. The team then defeated Evil Geniuses , 3–1, in the upper bracket finals, advancing them to their second consecutive finals appearance. Cloud9 secured their third LCS title on April 19 after they swept FlyQuest , 3–0, in
8745-782: The 2021 LCS season onwards. Records for the Spring and Summer Splits would no longer be separated; records from the Spring Split carry over to the Summer Split. Additionally, the Spring Split Playoffs were replaced by the Mid-Season Showdown, which acts as a qualifier for the Mid-Season Invitational , and the Summer Split Playoffs were replaced by the LCS Championship, which would then act as a qualifier for
8910-400: The 2021 regular season in fourth place with a 27–18 record. In the first match of the double-elimination 2021 LCS playoffs , Cloud9 faced Team Liquid, and lost by a score of 1–3, sending them to the lower bracket. The team went on to win three series in a row in the lower bracket, defeating Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Team SoloMid by scores of 3–0, 3–0, and 3–2, respectively, securing
9075-579: The Esports World Cup tournament series, announced the 30 organizations (known in the ESWC as Clubs) who would make up the Club Support Program, with Fnatic being one of them. This program gives teams a one-time six-figure stipend if an organization is willing to enter new esports as well as additional funding each year if they drive viewership and fan engagement to the Esports World Cup. Fnatic entered
9240-473: The Fields of Justice—for example, Summoner's Rift—to avert a catastrophic war. Sociologist Matt Watson said the plot and setting were bereft of the political themes found in other role-playing games , and presented in reductive "good versus evil" terms. In the game's early development, Riot did not hire writers, and designers wrote character biographies only a paragraph long. In September 2014, Riot Games rebooted
9405-625: The HonTour Season 5 World Finals in Bangkok . On 2 April 2017, Fnatic became the champions of HonTour Season 5, defeating [MiXs] Phoenix MiXs on the grand finals. On 6 October 2017, Fnatic joined the competitive Rocket League scene after acquiring the former roster of Leftovers . On 12 April 2018, Fnatic joined the competitive Rainbow Six Siege scene after acquiring the former roster of Mindfreak. The company has its headquarters in London, near
9570-617: The NA LCS Rookie of the Split, while head coach Reapered was the runner-up for the NA LCS Coach of the Split. In the playoffs, Cloud9 was swept by Team Liquid in the quarterfinals by a score of 0–3. Before the Summer Split began, Jensen , Sneaky , and Smoothie were benched from the starting lineup, with Goldenglue , Keith , and Zeyzal being promoted from Cloud9's academy team as their replacements. With their starters benched, C9 started
9735-489: The NA LCS Spring Split 1st All-Pro Team and was a runner-up for the league's Most Valuable Player award. The team faced Team SoloMid in the quarterfinals on April 2; they won the first game of the match but lost the following three to lose by a score of 1–3. Between splits, Cloud9 made the biggest roster changes in their organization's history, acquiring Impact from NRG eSports to replace Balls, bringing Meteos back to
9900-454: The NA LCS finals. After dropping the first two games of the match, Cloud9 won the following two to tie up the series but lost game five, finishing the split as the runners-up of the league. After starting the 2017 NA LCS Summer Split with a 6–6 record, Cloud9 finished the split on a six-match winning streak to finish the regular season with a 12–6 record and the fourth seed in the playoffs. Jensen
10065-514: The North American Regional Qualifier for the 2015 World Championship as the last seed. In the tournament, they defeated Gravity Gaming , Team Impulse , and Team Liquid to earn North America's third seed in the World Championship tournament. Cloud9 started the group stages going 3–0 in the first week, defeating ahq eSports Club , Invictus Gaming , and Fnatic . In the second week of the group stage, they dropped three games in
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#173309236392910230-465: The Riot won Best Esports Event for the 2019 , 2020 and 2021 League World Championships . At the 39th Sports Emmy Awards in 2018, League of Legends won Outstanding Live Graphic Design for the 2017 world championship ; as part of the pre-competition proceedings, Riot used augmented reality technology to have a computer-generated dragon fly across the stage. League of Legends' player base has
10395-412: The Summer Split regular season with a 3–7 record and in last place through the first five weeks. In that time, Jensen and Sneaky returned to the starting roster in weeks three and four, respectively, as the team implemented a seven-man rotating roster, with Blaber and Svenskeren splitting starts at jungle and Jensen and Goldenglue splitting starts in the midlane. The team closed out the final four weeks of
10560-584: The academy team. After not achieving desired results, ALEX and poizon were benched and Peppzor was returned to the Fnatic Rising academy team, leaving only KRIMZ and mezii in the team. In an attempt to better results, the Danish duo Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi and Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen were transferred from Copenhagen Flames to Fnatic, in June. In August, to complete the roster the Dutch rifler Dion "FASHR" Derksen
10725-522: The attacking team to damage the enemy Nexus and the two turrets guarding it. The regions in between the lanes are collectively known as the "jungle", which is inhabited by "monsters" that, like minions, respawn at regular intervals. Like minions, monsters provide gold and XP when killed. Another, more powerful class of monster resides within the river that separates each team's jungle. These monsters require multiple players to defeat and grant special abilities to their slayers' team. For example, teams can gain
10890-400: The birth of the esports industry. As of April 2021 , Riot Games operates 12 regional leagues internationally, four of which— China , Europe , Korea , and North America —have franchised systems . In 2017, this system comprised 109 teams and 545 players. League games are typically livestreamed on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube . The company sells streaming rights to
11055-581: The champion Nunu's search for his mother, with the help of the yeti Willump, was announced for a planned release in 2022. It is being developed by Tequila Works , the creators of Rime . It was released on Windows and the Nintendo Switch on November 1, 2023. Riot Games' first venture into music was in 2014 with the virtual heavy metal band Pentakill , promoting a skin line of the same name. Initially, Pentakill consisted of six champions: Kayle, Karthus, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Sona, and Yorick. In 2021, Viego
11220-468: The champion roster was described by Steven Strom of PC Gamer as "fascinating"; Jackson pointed to "memorable" characters and abilities. Although the items had originally been praised at release by other outlets such as Kotaku , Jackson's reassessment criticized the lack of item diversity and viability, noting that the items recommended to the player by the in-game shop were essentially required because of their strength. While reviewers were pleased with
11385-419: The departure of coach Alex Penn and the addition of Dan Dinh as the team's coach as the team planned to move from San Jose to Los Angeles. After a poll conducted earlier that month, Cloud9 was voted into IEM Season VIII - Cologne ; the team received the most votes and was seeded directly into the semifinals. Cloud9 faced Gambit Gaming in the semifinals match on November 24, but Gambit took the win to move onto
11550-491: The disbandment of Quantic Gaming's League of Legends roster, which included Nientonsoh, Hai , Yazuki, WildTurtle , and LemonNation . Following their departure from Quantic Gaming, these five players came together to form their own team called Team NomNom. However, their initial foray into the competitive scene faced an early setback when they were eliminated during the group stage of the Season 3 North American Offline Qualifier for
11715-507: The diverse array of play styles offered by champions and their abilities, Strom thought that the female characters still resembled those in "horny Clash of Clans clones" in 2018. Two years before Strom's review, a champion designer responded to criticism by players that a young, female champion was not conventionally attractive. He argued that limiting female champions to one body type was constraining, and said progress had been made in Riot's recent releases. Comparisons persisted between
11880-502: The event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Cloud9 initially carried their momentum from the Spring Split into the 2020 LCS Summer Split , posting a 9–0 record regular season record throughout the first half of the split. However, their momentum came to an end, as the team only won two of their next six games, including suffering their first 0–2 week for the first time in two years. After splitting their final two games, they finished
12045-447: The favorites to win the tournament. Cloud9 lost their first three games, before winning two of their three games on the last day, putting them at a three-way tie with Rogue and FPX, with each team sitting at a 2–4 record. Cloud9 won the tiebreaker game, which was against Rogue, and advanced to the quarterfinals, becoming the first North American team to make it past the group stage since the previous Cloud9 team reached semifinals in 2018. In
12210-535: The finals, they were swept by Team Liquid, 0–3, to finish as the runners-up of the split. Cloud9 was placed in the North American Regional Qualifiers in order to qualify for the 2018 World Championship play-in stage . With a bye into the final, Cloud9 swept Team SoloMid, 3–0, in the finals match and earned a spot in the play-ins. Placed in a group with Japan's DentonatioN FocusMe and Brazil's KaBuM! , Cloud9 went 4–0 in their group and advanced to
12375-515: The finals. Cloud9 closed out 2013 by defeating European team Fnatic , 2–0, on December 22 at the Battle of the Atlantic. The win marked the first time that Cloud9 had defeated an international team. In the 2014 NA LCS Spring Split , Cloud9 closed out the final five weeks on a 13-game winning streak, equaling their LCS record 13-game winning streak in 2013, to finish the regular season with a 24–4 record and
12540-463: The finals. In the match, Cloud9 took an early lead, winning the first game, but lost the following three, losing the match 1–3 and finishing the split in second place. With their performance in the 2016 LCS season, Cloud9 qualified as the second seed in the North American Regional Qualifiers tournament for the 2016 World Championship . At the Regional Qualifiers, they swept Team EnVyUs, 3–0, in
12705-400: The finals. The win gave the team their first LCS title since 2014. With an overall 26–2 game win–loss record, including playoffs, for the split, Cloud9 set a LCS record for the highest winning percentage ever in a single split by a North American team at 92.9%, breaking their previous record of 90.9% from the 2013 Summer Split. The win qualified the team their first Mid-Season Invitational , but
12870-473: The finals. This win secured their qualification for the 2013 NA LCS Summer Promotion Qualifiers. Cloud9 was then reacquired by Quantic Gaming on April 1. The roster, consisting of Balls , Meteos , Hai, Sneaky , and LemonNation, went undefeated in the Summer Promotion Qualifier, earning them a spot in the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split . Following their qualification, Quantic made the decision to revert
13035-456: The first North American team in two years to defeat a Korean team after taking down NaJin White Shield. Cloud9 advanced to the knockout stage but lost to Samsung Galaxy Blue , 1–3, on October 4 in the quarterfinals. In November, Cloud9 was voted in by fans to play at IEM Season IX San Jose . In the tournament, the team swept paiN Gaming , 2–0, in the quarterfinals and defeated Alliance, 2–1, in
13200-465: The first game but dropped the following three, losing 1–3 and placing second for the second LCS split in a row. A few days after their second-place finish, on April 22, Hai officially retired from the team, citing chronic wrist pain and a loss of team confidence as the reasons for his retirement. Hai's retirement ended the team's nearly 750-day record of having the longest starting lineup in professional League of Legends history. While Hai stepped down as
13365-413: The first time, an international one following the addition of UK players Alexander "ALEX" McMeekin and William "mezii" Merriman and the benching of JW and Golden. This change was positive at first for Fnatic, leading to good performances at ESL Pro League XIV , and allowed them to regain a spot amongst the top 20 HLTV teams; however, following a bad performance at IEM Fall 2021, where they failed to win
13530-513: The five-track debut EP from K/DA which followed in November that year. In 2019, Riot created a virtual hip hop group called True Damage, featuring the champions Akali, Yasuo, Qiyana, Senna, and Ekko. The vocalists— Keke Palmer , Thutmose , Becky G , Duckwrth , and Soyeon —performed a live version of the group's debut song, "Giants", during the opening ceremony of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, alongside holographic versions of their characters. The in-game cosmetics promoted by
13695-436: The form of patches . Although previous games had utilized patches to ensure no one strategy dominated, League of Legends ' patches made keeping pace with the developer's changes a core part of the game. In 2014, Riot standardized their patch cadence to once approximately every two or three weeks. The development team includes hundreds of game designers and artists. In 2016, the music team had four full-time composers and
13860-451: The game and others in the genre. GameSpot 's Tyler Hicks wrote that new players would pick up League of Legends quicker than DotA and that the removal of randomness-based skills made the game more competitive. Jackson described League of Legends' rate of unlock for champions as "a model of generosity", but less than DotA 's sequel, Dota 2 (2013), produced by Valve , wherein characters are unlocked by default. Strom said
14025-435: The game from its competitors. Smith concluded his review by noting that, although there was not "much room for negativity", Riot's goal of refining DotA had not yet been realized. Although Crecente praised the game's free-to-play model, GameSpy 's Ryan Scott was critical of the grind required for non-paying players to unlock key gameplay elements, calling it unacceptable in a competitive game. Many outlets said
14190-483: The game was fast-paced compared to Dota 2 's "yawning" matches, but slower than those of Blizzard Entertainment's "intentionally accessible" MOBA Heroes of the Storm (2015). At the first Game Developers Choice Awards in 2010, the game won four major awards: Best Online Technology, Game Design, New Online Game, and Visual Arts. At the 2011 Golden Joystick Awards , it won Best Free-to-Play Game. Music produced for
14355-492: The game was underdeveloped. A physical version of the game was available for purchase from retailers; GameSpot 's Kevin VanOrd said it was an inadvisable purchase because the value included $ 10 of store credit for an unavailable store. German site GameStar noted that none of the bonuses in that version were available until the launch period had ended and refused to carry out a full review. IGN 's Steve Butts compared
14520-534: The game won a Shorty Award , and was nominated at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards . League of Legends has received awards for its contribution to esports . It was nominated for Best Esports Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and 2018 , then won in 2019 , 2020 , and 2021 . Specific events organized by Riot for esports tournaments have been recognized by awards ceremonies. Also at The Game Awards,
14685-404: The game's fictional setting , removing summoners from the game's lore to avoid "creative stagnation". Luke Plunkett wrote for Kotaku that, although the change would upset long-term fans, it was necessary as the game's player base grew in size. Shortly after the reboot, Riot hired Warhammer writer Graham McNeill . Riot's storytellers and artists create flavor text , adding "richness" to
14850-499: The game's early days, persists despite Riot's attempts to fix the problem. In 2019, League regularly peaked at eight million concurrent players, and its popularity has led to tie-ins such as music, comic books, short stories, and the animated series Arcane . Its success has spawned several spin-off video games, including a mobile version , a digital collectible card game , and a turn-based role-playing game , among others . A massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on
15015-577: The game's early history. Crecente wrote that the community was "insular" and "whiney" when losing. Butts speculated that League of Legends inherited many of DotA 's players, who had developed a reputation for being "notoriously hostile" to newcomers. Regular updates to the game have resulted in a reappraisal by some outlets; IGN 's second reviewer, Leah B. Jackson, explained that the website's original review had become "obsolete". Two publications increased their original scores: GameSpot from 6 to 9, and IGN from 8 to 9.2. The variety offered by
15180-711: The game's high replay value . Kotaku reviewer Brian Crecente admired how items altered champion play styles. Quintin Smith of Eurogamer concurred, praising the amount of experimentation offered by champions. Comparing it to Defense of the Ancients , Rick McCormick of GamesRadar+ said that playing League of Legends was "a vote for choice over refinement". Given the game's origins, other reviewers frequently compared aspects of it to DotA. According to GamesRadar+ and GameSpot , League of Legends would feel familiar to those who had already played DotA . The game's inventive character design and lively colors distinguished
15345-579: The game, but very little of this is seen as a part of normal gameplay. Instead, that work supplies a foundation for the franchise's expansion into other media, such as comic books and spin-off video games. The Fields of Justice were replaced by a new fictional setting—a planet called Runeterra. The setting has elements from several genres—from Lovecraftian horror to traditional sword and sorcery fantasy. League of Legends received generally favorable reviews on its initial release, according to review aggregator website Metacritic . Many publications noted
15510-450: The game, two teams of five players battle in player-versus-player combat, each team occupying and defending their half of the map. Each of the ten players controls a character, known as a "champion", with unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, champions become more powerful by collecting experience points , earning gold, and purchasing items to defeat the opposing team. In League ' s main mode, Summoner's Rift,
15675-696: The game; the North American league playoff is broadcast on cable television by sports network ESPN . In China, the rights to stream international events such as the World Championships and the Mid-Season Invitational were sold to Bilibili in Fall 2020 for a three-year deal reportedly worth US$ 113 million, while exclusive streaming rights for the domestic and other regional leagues are owned by Huya Live . The game's highest-paid professional players have commanded salaries of above $ 1 million—over three times
15840-435: The grand finals to face Team SoloMid for the third consecutive split. Cloud9 won the first game, extending their playoff winning streak dating back to the 2013 NA LCS Summer split, but dropped three of the next four games to lose the match, 2–3, and finish in second place. With their finish at the 2014 NA LCS Summer split, Cloud9 qualified for the 2014 World Championship . In the World Championship group stages, Cloud9 became
16005-578: The group stage with a 4–2 record and advanced to the next stage of the tournament, the Rumble stage, as the second seed from their group, behind DWG KIA. Cloud9 finished the Rumble stage with three wins and seven losses and did not advance to the next stage of the tournament. Following their fifth-place finish in the MSI, Cloud9 promoted Calvin "K1ng" Truong from their academy team and sent Zven to their academy team. Additionally, Reignover stepped down as head coach to become
16170-554: The group stage, placing second in their group after losing the tiebreaker to Detonation FocusMe, before defeating PEACE from Oceania with a score of 3–0 to qualify for the main event. In the group stage, Cloud9 were placed in Group A alongside Korea's Dawmon Kia (DK), China's FunPlus Phoenix (FPX), and Europe's Rogue . Group A was dubbed the "Group of death" by the media, as it hosted the two previous World Championship winners in DK and FPX, who were
16335-456: The group stages. Cloud9 began the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split going 1–3. By the end of the regular season, the team finished with a 12–6 record, and after defeating Counter Logic Gaming in a tiebreaker match, they claimed the second seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. After defeating Team Liquid in the semifinals match, Cloud9 advanced to the finals to face Team SoloMid for the fourth straight LCS split. Cloud9 took an early lead, winning
16500-595: The guidance of their new leader, Markus "pronax" Wallsten, taking out the team Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP). In 2014, Fnatic took in 2 ex-LGB players, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson. They went on to win ESL One Katowice 2015 after defeating NIP, and on 24 August 2015, Fnatic won ESL One Cologne 2015 , after defeating Team EnVyUs . Because of this roster's back-to-back major wins and eleven other international titles, some consider this Fnatic team to be
16665-496: The head coach of the team for the past four years. The organization promoted Cloud9's academy team coach Kim "Reignover" Yeu-jin as their new head coach. While the organization originally stated that the 2020 player roster would remain together going into the 2021 season, it was later announced that the team had parted ways with Licorice and Nisqy; the team promoted Fudge from their academy team and acquired Perkz from G2 Esports as their replacements. The LCS made major changes for
16830-538: The highest-paid players of Overwatch . The scene has attracted investment from businesspeople otherwise unassociated with esports, such as retired basketball player Rick Fox , who founded his own team . In 2020, his team's slot in the North American league was sold to the Evil Geniuses organization for $ 33 million. For the 10th anniversary of League of Legends in 2019, Riot Games announced several games at various stages of production that were directly related to
16995-539: The in-game leader of Eyeballers; Oscar "Archi" Torgersen, from Team GoN; and Begrip duo Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund. This line-up would go on to win many major events in 2006, culminating with a 1st-place finish at CPL Winter 2006. In 2011, Fnatic's Counter-Strike team placed top three in many events with their newly acquired player, Michael "Friis" Jørgensen. This simultaneously led to dropping many uncontracted players such as Qet ( Counter-Strike ), Lauke ( UT ) and Vo0 ( Q3 ). cArn gained
17160-583: The industry standard of 15 to 25%. He argued the game was only profitable because of its large player base. In 2017, the game had a revenue of US$ 2.1 billion; in 2018, a lower figure of $ 1.4 billion still positioned it as one of the highest-grossing games of 2018 . In 2019, the number rose to $ 1.5 billion, and again to $ 1.75 billion in 2020. According to magazine Inc. , players collectively played three billion hours every month in 2016. Before 2014, players existed in-universe as political leaders, or "Summoners", commanding champions to fight on
17325-503: The knockout stage for the first time since 2015. After their 2019 season, the team acquired Dignitas' player Vulcan in exchange for a reported $ 1.5 million and academy player Johnsun. Additionally, Cloud9 parted ways with Sneaky , the team's starting AD carry of the past seven years, although later it was announced that Sneaky would remain as a part of the organization as an owner, advisor, and streamer. The team signed former Team SoloMid player Zven as his replacement. Cloud9 began
17490-448: The knockout stage. In the quarterfinals, Cloud9 swept Korea's Afreeca Freecs , 3–0, and advanced to the semifinals. The win marked the first time in seven years that a North American team had qualified for the World Championship semifinals. Cloud9 was swept by Fnatic , 0–3, in the semifinals, ending their World Championship run. In November, Jensen was transferred to Team Liquid; Cloud9 acquired Nisqy from Splyce as his replacement. In
17655-416: The latter was released in 2019. In a video posted to celebrate the tenth anniversary of League of Legends , Riot announced an animated television series, Arcane , the company's first production for television. Arcane was a collaborative effort between Riot Games and animation studio Fortiche Production . In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , head of creative development Greg Street said
17820-530: The launch of the beta, seventeen champions were available. Riot initially aimed to ship the game with 20 champions but doubled the number before the game's full release in North America on October 27, 2009. The game's full name was announced as League of Legends: Clash of Fates . Riot planned to use the subtitle to signal when future content was available, but decided they were silly and dropped it before launch. League of Legends receives regular updates in
17985-406: The launch to the poor state of CrimeCraft 's release earlier in 2009; he indicated that features available during League of Legends 's beta were removed for the release, even for those who purchased the retail version. Matches took unnecessarily long to find for players, with long queue times , and GameRevolution mentioned frustrating bugs. Some reviewers addressed toxicity in
18150-419: The main roster to replace Rush, and bringing Bunny FuFuu back to the main roster to replace Hai. Additionally, the team added former Edward Gaming coach Bok "Reapered" Han-gyu as the team's first official head coach. Cloud9 began the 2016 NA LCS Summer Split regular season with an 8–5 record. Up to this point in the season, Bunny FuFuu and Smoothie split starts, but on July 10, Bunny FuFuu stepped down from
18315-513: The majority of negative behavior is committed by players "occasionally acting out". Several major systems have been implemented to tackle the issue. One such measure is basic report functionality; players can report teammates or opponents who violate the game's code of ethics. The in-game chat is also monitored by algorithms that detect several types of abuse. An early system was the "Tribunal"—players who met certain requirements were able to review reports sent to Riot. If enough players determined that
18480-487: The messages were a violation, an automated system would punish them. Lin said that eliminating toxicity was an unrealistic goal, and the focus should be on rewarding good player behavior. To that effect, Riot reworked the "Honor system" in 2017, allowing players to award teammates with virtual medals following games, for one of three positive attributes. Acquiring these medals increases a player's "Honor level", rewarding them with free loot boxes over time. League of Legends
18645-438: The middle lane, one in the jungle, and two in the bottom lane. Players in a lane kill minions to accumulate gold and XP (termed "farming") and try to prevent their opponent from doing the same. A fifth champion, known as a "jungler", farms the jungle monsters and, when powerful enough, assists their teammates in a lane. Besides Summoner's Rift, League of Legends has two other permanent game modes. ARAM ("All Random, All Mid")
18810-426: The mod "lacked a level of polish and was often hard to find and set up". Phillip Kollar of Polygon noted that Blizzard Entertainment supported Warcraft III with an expansion pack , then shifted their focus to other projects while the game still had players. Beck and Merill sought to create a game that would be supported over a significantly longer period. Beck and Merill held a DotA tournament for students at
18975-455: The music video featured a collaboration with fashion house Louis Vuitton . In 2023, Riot formed Heartsteel, a virtual boy band , comprising the champions Aphelios, Ezreal, Kayn, K'Sante, Sett, and Yone. The vocalists are Baekhyun from the K-pop groups Exo and SuperM , Cal Scruby, ØZI , and Tobi Lou . Heartsteel's debut single "Paranoia" was released in October of that year. Riot announced
19140-506: The new title sponsor, Fnatic expanded into South Korea and became the first non-Korean esports team to acquire a professional gaming house in Seoul . In 2012, Fnatic picked up the former GamersLeague Dota 2 team in order to compete with other top teams. The team placed fourth in ESWC , but soon after, the team parted ways with Fnatic. In August 2014, Fnatic partnered with Luke Millanta to create
19305-437: The oldest professional Western League of Legends teams, developed a rivalry as a result of their four consecutive North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) finals matches from Summer 2013 to Spring 2015. In 2013, former Team SoloMid manager Jack Etienne purchased the contracts of the players of Cloud9, and the team's first season was in the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split . Earlier that year, Team SoloMid had won
19470-438: The opposing team's minions, champions, or defensive structures. In the main game mode, Summoner's Rift, items are purchased through a shop menu available to players only when their champion is in the team's base. Each match is discrete; levels and items do not transfer from one match to another. Summoner's Rift is the flagship game mode of League of Legends and the most prominent in professional-level play . The mode has
19635-472: The play-ins and represent North America as the third seed. In the play-in stage, Cloud9 was placed in a group with Team oNe and Dire Wolves. They went undefeated in their group with a 4–0 record to advance to the next stage of the play-ins. In the second stage, a single match against Lyon Gaming, Cloud9 swept Lyon, 3–0, and qualified into the Group Stage of the 2017 World Championship . In the group stage, Cloud9
19800-419: The playoffs. On December 19, Cloud9 officially announced they had promoted Contractz from their Challenger team to replace Meteos and signed former Dignitas player Ray as a substitute. Cloud9 went undefeated through the first four weeks of the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split , going 8–0. Prior to week five, the contract of Meteos , a substitute player for Cloud9 at the time, was sold to Phoenix1 . The team finished
19965-496: The property is in development. League of Legends is the world's largest esport , with an international competitive scene consisting of multiple regional leagues that culminate in an annual League of Legends World Championship . The 2019 event registered over 100 million unique viewers, peaking at a concurrent viewership of 44 million during the finals . Domestic and international events have been broadcast on livestreaming websites such as Twitch , YouTube , Bilibili , and
20130-576: The quarter-finals. They then qualified to the Legends Stage of the Blast Paris Major 2023 , but failed to qualify for the playoffs, being eliminated in the 2–2 bracket by Into The Breach. Following the withdrawal of Virtus.pro , after its players failed to obtain visas, Fnatic attended IEM Dallas 2023 . F0rest stood in for KRIMZ for the tournament where they were eliminated early, following losses to MOUZ and 9z. On 30 June 2023, FASHR left
20295-425: The quarterfinals, Cloud9 were matched up against Korea's Gen.G , and were swept 0–3, ending their run, and placing 5th–8th overall. After their defeat in the 2021 World Championship quarterfinals, Perkz and Vulcan left the team, and Cloud9 signed Summit, Beserker, and Winsome as players and Nick "LS" Desare as their new head coach. After a strong 3–1 start to the split, falling only to heavy favorite Team Liquid , it
20460-452: The regular season in second place with a 13–5 record and a bye into the second round of the playoffs. Blaber and Zven were named to the 2020 LCS Summer Split All-Pro 1st Team. In the second round of the upper bracket of the playoffs, Cloud9 fell to FlyQuest, 1–3, dropping them into the lower bracket. The team then swept Evil Geniuses, 3–0, in the second round of the lower bracket. Cloud9's playoff run ended after they lost to Team SoloMid, 1–3, in
20625-418: The regular season in second place with a 14–4 record and a first-round bye in the Spring Split Playoffs. Smoothie was named to the 2017 NA LCS Spring Split 1st All-Pro team, Reapered was named the NA LCS Coach of the Split, and Contractz was named the NA LCS Rookie of the Split. In the playoffs, Cloud9 swept Phoenix1, 3–0, in the semifinals. For the sixth, and second consecutive, time, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in
20790-507: The regular season on an 8–0 run to finish the regular season in second place with an 11–7 record. Jensen was named to the All-Pro 1st Team, Blaber was named the Rookie of the Split, and Reapered was named the Coach of the Split. Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the semifinals match of the playoffs; after falling behind 1–2, Cloud9 won the final two games to win the match, 3–2, and advance to the finals. In
20955-494: The regular season with a 12–6 record, again claiming the second seed in the playoffs and qualifying directly to the semifinals. Svenskeren won the Summer Split Most Valuable Player award and was named to the LCS All-Pro 1st Team. In the semifinals match, the team took a 3–1 win over Counter Logic Gaming and advanced to their seventh all-time LCS finals match. Cloud9 faced Team Liquid in the finals; after leading
21120-535: The roster of the esports team myRevenge. Two months later, the squad consisting of xPeke , LaMiaZeaLoT, Shushei, CyanideFI , Mellisan and MagicFingers qualified for the Season 1 World Championship after WetDream left. Fnatic, after scoring 2–1, were crowned the Season 1 world champions. In Season 2 and the preseason before it, the team participated in the Intel Extreme Masters Season VI circuit and Azubu The Champions Spring 2012, where they reached
21285-531: The same weekend, FnaticRC.aLive won his first ever major tournament at IPL4 Las Vegas. After Fnatic won 2012 DreamHack Summer and the Swedish Championships, Rasmus "Gux" Stahl retired from Counter-Strike , leaving an open spot in Fnatic. On 26 June, Fnatic announced that Martin "trace" Heldt would join the team. In August, Richard "Xizt" Landstorm left the team to play CS:GO for NiP ; Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson
21450-432: The second round and defeated Immortals, 3–1, in the finals, giving them the third seed for North America in the 2016 World Championship. At the 2016 World Championship, Cloud9 was placed in a group with IMay, SK Telecom T1 , and Flash Wolves . Cloud9 went 3–3 in the group and earned the a spot a spot in quarterfinals, where they faced Samsung Galaxy on October 14. The team was swept by Samsung, 0–3, and were eliminated from
21615-437: The second round of the play-ins. With a 3–2 victory over Russia's Gambit Esports , Cloud9 advanced to the 2018 World Championship . In the group stage, Cloud9 was grouped with Europe's Team Vitality , China's Royal Never Give Up (RNG), and Korea's Gen.G . The team finished with a 4–2 record in the group and tied for first with RNG; after losing a tiebreaker match against RNG, they finished second in their group and advanced to
21780-542: The semifinals. The team took home their first IEM title on December 7 after they swept Unicorns of Love , 3–0, in the finals. In the midst of the 2015 NA LCS Spring split regular season, Cloud9 competed in the IEM Katowice World Championship , which took place beginning on March 13, after qualifying as the winners of IEM San Jose in 2014. The team made an early exit in the tournament after falling to GE Tigers and Flash Wolves in their first two matches of
21945-428: The series 2–1, Cloud9 lost the final two games to lose the match, 2–3, and finish the split at the runners-up. After their LCS finish, Cloud9 qualified directly into the group stage for the 2019 World Championship as North America's second seed. In the group stage, Cloud9 was drawn into a group with Griffin , G2 Esports , and Hong Kong Attitude . The team finished with a 2–4 record in the group, failing to advance to
22110-457: The series is "not a light-hearted show. There are some serious themes that we explore there, so we wouldn't want kids tuning in and expecting something that it's not." The series is set in the utopian city of Piltover and its underground, oppressed sister city, Zaun. It stars Hailee Steinfeld as Vi , Ella Purnell as Jinx , Kevin Alejandro as Jayce, and Katie Leung as Caitlyn. The series
22275-416: The start of 2021 there were more changes, with flusha stepping down from the team's active roster, to be replaced by the 21 year old talent Jack "Jackinho" Ström Mattsson. after this change, the team had a slew of losses, falling over the next six months to a near all-time low of position #65 on the HLTV team ranking. As a result of this, the decision was made to change things up, with the roster becoming, for
22440-532: The start of 2021, Fnatic made a move towards an international roster for the first time since 2013. The organisation has claimed more than 200 championship victories across 30 different games since its inception in 2004. According to Forbes , Fnatic is worth $ 260 million (as of 2022 ) and is among the top 10 most valuable esports companies. The organisation was founded on 23 July 2004 by Sam Mathews and Anne Mathews. After playing on Fnatic's Counter-Strike team for several years, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon became
22605-492: The starting roster. Cloud9 dropped the three of the next four games, heading into the final two weeks with a 4–10 record and in eighth place – a low enough placement to be relegated . The team finished the season with a 6–12 record, and after defeating Team 8 in a tiebreaker match, they placed seventh in the regular season standings to avoid relegation but missed the LCS playoffs for the first time in their organization's history. After avoiding LCS relegation, Cloud9 qualified for
22770-484: The starting roster. Similar to the 2016 Spring Split, Cloud9 finished the 2016 Summer Split regular season with a 12–6 record and the third seed in the Summer playoffs. In their quarterfinal match against Team EnVyUs , Jensen set an LCS record 20 kills in a single game as the team went on to win, 3–1. The team then defeated Immortals , 3–2, in the semifinals. For the fifth time in the team's history, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in
22935-403: The strongest roster ever assembled in the history of CS:GO . In November 2015, after a few disappointing tournament performances, pronax decided to take a hiatus from competitive CS:GO . He was replaced with Dennis "dennis" Edman from international team G2 Esports. In December 2015, Fnatic beat NIP 2–1 and secured their second Fragbite Masters win, the other being in season 3. Fnatic regained
23100-511: The team a spot in the 2014 All-Stars event in Paris, France. However, on April 30, Hai suffered a collapsed lung , which would prevent him from attending the All-Star event; two days later, Counter Logic Gaming's Link replaced him in the lineup on a loan . In group stage of the tournament, the team defeated OMG , Fnatic , and Taipei Assassins , but lost to SK Telecom T1 K , to finish the stage with
23265-462: The team in March 2021. In November 2019, Fnatic announced it had entered into a partnership with Japanese company Sanrio to collaborate on content and merchandise around its Hello Kitty brand. In October 2020, Fnatic announced a multi-year global partnership with Chinese-based global consumer electronics and home appliances market leader, Hisense . The same year Fnatic signed a multi-year partnership with BMW . In March 2021, Fnatic announced
23430-411: The team qualified for the tournament after winning a fan vote. The team faced H2k-Gaming in the quarterfinals, but after winning game one of the match, they dropped the following two games and were eliminated from the tournament. In the 2016 NA LCS Spring Split , Cloud9 finished the regular season with a 12–6 record and the third seed in the Spring playoffs. Jensen (formerly Incarnati0n) was named to
23595-537: The team to join OG , and later that year, on 4 July, Fnatic announced that nicoodoz was benched from the active roster. Fnatic replaced the departing players on 6 July 2023, signing previous MOUZ player Christopher "dexter" Nong and former LDLC player Aurélien "afro" Drapier. Nicoodoz left the bench and joined Danish roster Preasy on 29 July 2023. Fnatic qualified to the group stages of IEM Cologne 2023 , following victories over Complexity Gaming and 9INE. They accomplished
23760-406: The team's name back to Cloud9. However, the team would soon experience yet another ownership change, as former Team SoloMid manager Jack Etienne purchased the players' contracts for less than $ 20,000, solidifying the establishment of the Cloud9 organization. In the 2013 LCS Summer split regular season, the team went on a 13-game winning streak, marking the longest winning streak in LCS history at
23925-454: The team's new assistant coach, while Alfonso "Mithy" Rodriguez took over as the team's new head coach. After beginning the Spring Split of the 2021 LCS season with a 4–5 record, Cloud9 brought Zven back to the starting roster, and K1ng returned to the Academy team. After posting a 21–12 record partially through the season, the team secured a spot in the LCS Championship on July 6. Cloud9 finished
24090-564: The third and final spot for North America at the 2021 World Championship in the process. The team lost 1–3 in the lower bracket finals to 100 Thieves , ending their playoff run. At Worlds, Cloud9 started in the Play–In stage, and were drawn into Group A, alongside Taiwan's Beyond Gaming , Japan's Detonation FocusMe, Turkey's Galatasaray Esports , and the Unicorns of Love of the LCL . The team went 3–1 in
24255-425: The third round of the lower bracket. Due to changes made in the 2020 LCS season, where only the top three teams from the Summer Split would qualify 2020 World Championship , Cloud9 did not qualify for the 2020 World Championship, marking the first time in the organization's history that they would not attend the World Championship. On September 14, Cloud9 parted ways with head coach Bok "Reapered" Hangyu, who had been
24420-470: The time. They went on to finish the 2013 Summer split with a 25–3 game win–loss record to claim the top seed in the Summer Season Playoffs. With a bye into the semifinals, Cloud9 defeated Dignitas by a score of 2 games to 0. The team went on to sweep Team SoloMid , 3 games to 0, in the grand finals on September 1 to claim their first-ever LCS title. With the win, Cloud9 finished the season with
24585-421: The top seed in the playoffs. With a bye into the semifinals, Cloud9 first defeated Team Curse by a score of 2–0 in the playoffs. Cloud9 won their second consecutive LCS title after a 3–0 sweep over Team SoloMid in the grand finals on April 20. After going 5–0 in the playoffs, Cloud9 extended their record winning streak to 18 games and had gone undefeated in back-to-back playoffs. Their LCS playoffs victory earned
24750-703: Was added to the roster. Furthermore, mezii took the position of in-game leader after it was left vacant after the departure of ALEX. After three years of not attending a Major, with the last being the IEM Katowice Major 2019 where Fnatic finished 12–14th in the Challengers Stage , they managed to qualify for the IEM Rio Major 2022 Challengers Stage . Fnatic would go on to make it past the Challengers and Legends Stage , before being eliminated by Outsiders in
24915-528: Was already a substitute for Fnatic, completed the line-up. On 20 August 2017 Fnatic announced that olofmeister would depart from Fnatic to join FaZe Clan , and dennis would also leave Fnatic and join GODSENT ; they were replaced by Maikil "Golden" Selim and Lekr0. In September 2019, flusha and Golden, two previous squad members, rejoined the team. Following this roster move, Fnatic enjoyed some success, until at
25080-593: Was announced as his replacement. When Fnatic switched to Counter Strike: Global Offensive , they became one of the top teams in the world. In order to complete the roster, Fnatic announced that Xyp9x and JOKERN would join them to compete in Counter Strike: Global Offensive . The team was able to finish in the 3rd/4th position of the EMS Season 1 Finals. In late 2013, Fnatic won the first ever major tournament in Counter Strike: Global Offensive , under
25245-436: Was announced in 2024 that cannot be purchased outright, but must be "won" using RP and an in-game slot machine mechanic. As virtual goods, they have high profit margins . A loot box system has existed in the game since 2016; these are purchasable virtual "chests" with randomized, cosmetic items. These chests can be bought outright or acquired at a slower rate for free by playing the game. The practice has been criticized as
25410-499: Was announced less than an hour before Cloud9's first match of week three that LS had been dismissed as head coach. Regardless, Cloud9 would end the regular split in sole position of second place, but would end the spring split playoffs in fourth after 0–3 defeats to both 100 Thieves and Evil Geniuses , only managing to beat Golden Guardians in a best of 5 during the first round of the losers bracket. On May 2, Isles, Summit, and Winsome departed Cloud9. Team SoloMid and Cloud9, two of
25575-549: Was available for two weeks as a 2014 April Fools Day prank. In the mode, champion abilities have no resource cost, significantly reduced cooldown timers, increased movement speed, reduced healing, and faster attacks. A year later, in April 2015, Riot disclosed that they had not brought the mode back because its unbalanced design resulted in player "burnout". The developer also said the costs associated with maintaining and balancing URF were too high. Other temporary modes include One for All and Nexus Blitz. One for All has players pick
25740-406: Was benched from the roster on 24 November, reducing the active roster to just KRIMZ and afro. Ahead of Elisa Masters Espoo 2023, on 27 November Fnatic announced the signings of Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro, Matúš "MATYS" Šimko and Can "kyuubii" Ali. Dexter left Fnatic on 11 December 2023, joining Australian team Grayhound Gaming. Fnatic entered the League of Legends scene in March 2011 by acquiring
25905-533: Was introduced to the group. Their music was primarily made by Riot Games' in-house music team but featured cameos by Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Danny Lohner , a former member of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails . Their second album, Grasp of the Undying , reached Number 1 on the iTunes metal charts in 2017. Pentakill was followed by K/DA , a virtual K-pop girl group composed of four champions, Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai'sa. As with Pentakill, K/DA
26070-453: Was named the Coach of the Split for the second split in a row. In the playoffs, Cloud9 faced Team SoloMid in the semifinals on April 13. After winning the first two games of the series, Cloud9 dropped the following three to lose the match by a score of 2–3. Through the first six weeks of the 2019 LCS Summer Split , Cloud9 accrued an 8–4 record. Prior to week seven, the team traded Keith to Golden Guardians in exchange for Deftly. Cloud9 finished
26235-490: Was named to the 2nd Team, while the Cloud9 coaching staff won the Coaching Staff of the Split award. In the Mid-Season Showdown, Cloud9 defeated 100 Thieves , 3–0, and Team Liquid , 3–1, to advance to the finals. In the finals match, the team once again faced Team Liquid, who had made it to the finals through the lower bracket of the playoffs. Cloud9 took home their fourth LCS title on April 11 after taking down Team Liquid by
26400-635: Was named to the NA LCS Summer Split 1st All-Pro team and was the runner-up for the NA LCS Summer Split MVP. The team faced Team Dignitas in the quarterfinals of the Summer Split Playoffs on August 19; Cloud9 lost the match, 1–3, ending their 2017 LCS season. Cloud9 was placed into the North America Regional Qualifiers for the 2017 World Championship play-in stage . The team defeated Counter Logic Gaming 3–1, to advance to
26565-481: Was originally a player-owned team before they were acquired by Quantic Gaming that same year; weeks later, the contracts of the players were sold to Jack Etienne . Under their founding roster of Balls , Meteos , Hai , Sneaky , and LemonNation , Cloud9 won back-to-back League Championship Series (LCS) titles in their first two years of existence by winning the 2013 NA LCS Summer Split and 2014 NA LCS Spring Split . The team claimed their third LCS title by winning
26730-633: Was placed in a group which with Korea's SKT Telecom T1 , China's EDward Gaming , and Taiwan's ahq e-Sports Club . They achieved a 3–3 record in the group stage and advanced to the knockout stage as the second seed from their group. In the quarterfinals, Cloud9 lost a 5-game match against Team WE from China and were eliminated from the tournament. In November 2017, Cloud9 made multiple roster changes. The team lost Impact to free agency and signed Licorice as his replacement. Additionally, Cloud9 transferred Contractz to Golden Guardians and acquired Svenskeren from Team SoloMid as his replacement. Cloud9 began
26895-538: Was released in November 2024 to a similarly positive critical response. Fnatic Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC ) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London , United Kingdom . Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games. Fnatic's League of Legends team competes in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) and
27060-445: Was set to be released in 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic . On November 6, 2021, Arcane premiered its first season on Netflix following the 2021 League of Legends World Championship , and was available through Tencent Video in China. It received critical acclaim upon release, with IGN's Rafael Motomayor asking rhetorically if the series marked the end of the "video game adaptation curse". A second and final season
27225-435: Was the first title released under Riot Games' publishing arm, Riot Forge , wherein non-Riot studios develop games using League of Legends characters. In December 2020, Greg Street, vice-president of IP and Entertainment at Riot Games, announced that a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on the game is in development. Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story , a third-person adventure game revolving around
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