Jung “ Impact ” Eon Yeong ( left ) and Chae “ Piglet ” Gwang Jin ( right ) being interviewed in Los Angeles Staples Center
many in the North American fan base cried out against the importing of foreign players , worried the esports scene would soon be dominated by foreign players .
Adding fuel to the fire , Yu “ XiaoWeiXiao ” Xian , the former star mid-laner of LMQ , was accused of “ elo-boosting ”, a banned practice of leveling up another player ’ s account for money . In one case , XiaoWeiXiao allegedly made $ 1400 for a boost . While other professional LoL players have “ elo-boosted ” before , these cases were before Season 2 ( 2012 ) when Riot Games outlawed “ elo-boosting .” Riot Games suspended XiaoWeiXiao , prompting fans to urge Riot Games to investigate the other foreign players as well , as “ elo-boosting ” is more common in China and Korea .
Then , in late 2015 , the Chinese investment company Tencent Holdings bought Riot Games , changing the course planned for League . In a complete surprise , Riot Games implemented “ Dynamic Queue ,” allowing a player to team up with four other players of any division ( League has a competitive ladder that consists of divisions based on skill - Challenger , Master , Diamond , Platinum , Gold , Silver , and Bronze ). Since the debut of League , a player was allowed to partner with only one other player to climb the competitive ladder . In North America and Europe , players cried out that the new queue made it much easier for “ elo-boosters ” and hackers . Before the changes , a player could only
“ boost ” one or two clients at a time . Western players claimed , without any evidence , that the new queue was something Chinese players had wanted for a long time , and accused Riot Games of pandering to their new owners .
Although the last few months have been without scandal or controversy , there are still many obstacles League must overcome to become a professional sport rather than just a game . League is transitioning to a new client - the software interface that mainly allows players to queue for games . Released in late 2016 , the client supposedly has fewer bugs and runs more smoothly . Additionally , Riot Games has just recently implement the annual preseason changes that impact the meta ( every winter , Riot drastically updates the in-game arena and items by either adding to , removing from , or reworking them ). In order to maintain the current player base and attract new players , League is constantly changing via patches ( usually bi-weekly ) that tweak items and champions . If Riot Games can keep the game fresh just like the last six years , League has a may well continue dominating the esports scene . For now , we can only speculate on what the preseason has in store for the players , as well as whether the Western and Chinese teams can close the gap between their skill levels and that of the Korean teams , which have claimed the previous four World Championships in a row .