This Week in eSports - Catching up!

Posted on at 6:50 PM by Glyceroll
After missing last week, we're back for with an extra long edition of This Week in eSports!
[Warning: There will be spoilers after the jump! Check here for spoiler free NA and EU posts!]

Continue reading for a big recap on the recent eSports news, including all of our Worlds 2014 teams, Riot's stand on interregional movement, the expansion up to ten teams for NA and EU LCS next season, lots of individual team news, and more!


Competitions:


  • [2014 World Finals] We've finally got our last batch of teams qualified for the 2014 World Finals!  Here's a current (hopefully final) list of the teams that will be competing:
    • EU (3 Spots) (Determined from Gamescom EU Regional Finals)
      • Fnatic
      • Alliance
      • SK Gaming
    • NA (3 Spots) (Determined from PAX Prime NA Regional Finals)
      • TSM
      • Cloud 9 
      • LMQ
    • KR (3 Spots) (Determined by OGN/NLB Circuit Points and KR Regional Finals)
      • Samsung Galaxy Blue
      • Samsung Galaxy White
      • NaJin White Shield
    • China (3 Spots) (Determined by LPL Spring/Summer and China Regional Finals)
      • EDward Gaming
      • SH Royal Club
      • OMG
    • International Wildcard (2 Spots)
      • Dark Passage - Representing Turkey
      • KaBuM! e-Sports - Representing Brazil
    • SEA (2 Spots) (Determined by GPL Summer 1st Place and Garena Regional Finals)
      • Taipei Assassins
      • ahq



Check out the teaser for Riot's new "Road to Worlds" series! 

  • [All] Lolesports has updated their Flickr page with new photos from PAX Prime and Gamescom! 

  • [All] Riot announced a new set of guidelines for inter-regional movement of players to help limit the impact of incredibly skilled players moving to a "lesser" region in order to dominate the scene and cause toxicity. The TL;DR of the changes are:
    • A new, global Interregional Movement Policy will be introduced next week that has been independently adopted by and coordinated between the major regional professional and semi-professional leagues. (e.g. EU LCS, OGN The Champions, LPL, NA CS etc.)
    • For North America and Europe, the policy will be enforced through a new regional residency requirement. It will apply to the Expansion Tournament and all future events.
    • The new NA and EU residency requirement will require teams to have at minimum three of their starting players in any given game meet the new NA and EU residency requirement. Teams will retain the ability to field up to two non-exempt, non-resident players on their starting roster.
    • LCS and Summer Challenger Series teams will not be required to change their current rosters.


  • [LCS] Riot announced that they would be going ahead with their plan to add 2 teams to the current LCS cast of 8 teams (totaling 10 - I can count!). A one time Expansion Tournament will be held following the upcoming Promotion Tournament/World Finals consisting of the losing promotion teams and teams from the ranked ladder. In addition to 2 extra teams, Riot is still considering adding circuit points to the LCS in order to better determine which teams perform the best. Be sure to let Riot know what you think about the future possible additions over on the lolesports page and through Twitter/Facebook! 

  • [2014 World Finals - Reminder] The preliminary schedule for the World Finalshave been posted, including dates and times for every event leading up to the grand finals in  Seoul Korea.
  • The days and locations for the  World Final stages are: 
  • Group Stage One in Taipei, Taiwan from September 18th - 21st 
  • Group Stage Two in Singapore from September 25th - 28th
  • Quarter Finals in Busan, Korea from October 3rd - 6th 
  • Semi Finals in Seoul, Korea on October 11th - 12th 
  •  Finals in Seoul, Korea on October 19th.

  • [2014 World Finals - Reminder] Along with the above information, Riot also released the official Worlds Rule book! Check it out for information on prizing,  team member eligibility, and much more.

  • [2014 World Finals - Reminder] If you have ANY questions or concerns regarding the upcoming 2014 World Finals, be sure to visit the LoL eSports Intro to Regional 2014 site or ask in the comment section below.

  • [Promotion Matches - Reminder] RiotNickAllen announced the schedule for the 2015 Spring Promotion Tournament for the challenger and relegated LCS teams:

Tuesday, September 9
10am PDT/7pm GMT – Copenhagen Wolves vs H2K Gaming
~3pm PDT/12am GMT – CLG vs. Curse Academy

Wednesday, September 10
10am PDT/7pm GMT – Gambit Gaming vs. SK Gaming Prime
 ~3pm PDT/12am GMT – Evil Genuises vs. Team Coast

Thursday, September 11
 10am PDT/7pm GMT – Millenium vs. Unicorns of Love
~3pm PDT/12am GMT – CompLexity vs. Team 8



Team News and Roster Changes:


  • [NA] Wazabi Gaming's roster was acquired by XDG. The new XDG is operated as a separate entity compared to the old LCS team and has no ties to the previous team (in terms of team management). 

  • [NA] CLG announced that they would be parting ways with their current coach Montecristo. In a statement on their website, CLG said that:
"With the further establishment of League of Legends as the premier competitive eSports title, the demands on teams and staff have evolved to demonstrate the unsustainable nature of the previous coaching arrangement. While MonteCristo has offered to assist the team in LA during its preparations for its upcoming match against Curse Academy, the team has elected to begin this transition immediately with current support staff and new resources."
  • [NA] hi im gosu was announced as a new substitute AD Carry player for CLG. In addition to new substitutes - Zuna was brought in by the team to "help with communications" for the upcoming relegation matches. 

  • [EU] Gambit Gaming announced that they have gone through with their initial rumored decision to replace Genja for the upcoming relegation matches. Taking his place will be Krislund. An official statement from the team can be found below: 

    "Upon completion of LCS EU Summer split we decided to take a week-long break and then begin practicing for 2015 EU LCS Spring Promotion Tournament. During this break, Evgeny "Genja" Andryushin informed Gambit's management of his desire to take a prolonged vacation due to him being exhausted. He was ready to start practicing only a week prior to our departure to the US, therefore he suggested us to resort to playing with another AD Carry in order to avoid wasting precious practice time." 

  • [NA] Team Coast recently announced that they would be picking up  Miracle (Top) and Ringer (Mid) (both from Korea) to supplement their team while moving Goldenglue and Rhux to the bench. 

  • [SEA] Singapore Sentinels announced that they would be putting the team in permanent (for the time being) hiatus in order to "collect ourselves and figure out our future." The current members will be released from the roster so they can join other teams in the meantime. 

  • [EU - Worlds] SK Gaming will be unable to bring their coach to the 2014 World Finals. Due to the nature of the event, Riot has to bring coaches under the same stipulations that the players are under (where previously, coaches were not "officially" endorsed by Riot but rather the organization). Due to this stipulation, SK Gaming's coach Incarnation will be unable to attend with his team due to his ban from approximately 1 year ago. More followup can be found via the reddit thread with a response from Nick Allen.

  • [China] WeiXiao (of World Elite) announced that he would be retiring from League of Legends. He'll continue to stream under the World Elite name for the time being (considering he's a pretty huge celebrity and his name carries a ton of weight) so he isn't gone for good! 

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