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League of Legends continues to be one of the top esports games in the world, but things have sort of been slow over the last few weeks. While many teams are currently gearing up for another playoff push, that doesn’t mean that some big things aren’t taking place.
Over the last few days, there have been some big and interesting news stories that have come out surrounding this sport. Here is a look at a few of those stories, and how they might impact the next big tournament or event.
Sanderson Announces New Sponsorship
The North American Challengers League has had some struggles over the past year, and things have not been going smoothly. There was a recent news story that could start to turn things around, and bring some more positivity back to the league.
Brandon Sanderson is getting involved with this league by sponsoring the Maryville University team, and it could ultimately lead to others doing the same thing. Sanderson owns a company called Dragonsteel, and he is also an award-winning author of fantasy novels.
The NACL has not been drawing any viewers over the last few months, and several of the universities are looking to get out altogether. That would have a negative impact on the professional LoL action in North America as this has always been a great training ground.
More details on this partnership are going to be coming in the future, but it is being billed as a unique sponsorship by Dragonsteel. Riot Games has been working behind the scenes to secure these deals for teams in the NACL.
The Cincinnati Fear also have a new sponsor heading into the next season, but their sponsor is not one that draws as much attention. That team has added Starforge Systems as a title sponsor, and that could allow them to have more success as well.
Riot Games Hands Out Suspensions
Riot Games has oversight of professional esports action throughout the world, and that company has not been happy with what is going on in Vietnam. After a lengthy investigation, Riot Game has decided to punish many for breaking the Global Code of Conduct.
The entire VCS is going to be affected by these punishments as there are suspensions coming for members of eight teams. Eight players have been permanently banned from future events, while many others will be dealing with multi-year suspensions.
It’s still unclear as to what the issues were that led to these suspensions, but it has something to do with the integrity of matches. There have been match-fixing concerns in other esports events, but Riot Games has been quick to hand out punishments when that has been discovered.
The players that violated Article 3 of the Code of Conduct policy are going to receive the biggest punishments. Others are being punished for not reporting the mistakes, and that was outlined in Article 4.1.
More information will be coming out at a later date, but these issues are clearly going to impact the way that the next VCS season plays out.
2024 Summer Split Approaching
The 2024 Summer Split is going to back and better than ever in North America after LCS officials made some big changes. The most notable change is that the series are going to be best-of-three format, which will create more drama and rivalries.
Fans in North America were unhappy with other leagues using the best-of-three format, but that not being the case in the United States. There is also going to be a loaded field available, and it should lead to some excellent action.