Riot Starts Own Pro-Gaming League

Starting in early 2013, Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, will be creating its own online gaming league. Called League of Legends Championship Series, the organization will pit the top eight teams from Asia, North America and Europe in weekly matches that will be broadcasted in HD for free. The teams will be competing for millions of dollars in prizes, and will also be salaried so that League of Legends is "a sustainable career choice for professional players."

The Championship Series will take place in a format similar to other televised sports, with a regular season that sees multiple matches each week, followed by a regional playoffs and a world championship battle.
The selected teams will be chosen based on their ranking in the League of Legends Season 2 competition. This increases the pressure on the teams participating in the upcoming North American and European Regional tournaments for Season Two, as the top three teams from each region will be automatically qualified for the Championship Series. The European Season Two Regionals will take place during August 16th -19th at Gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany, while the North American tournament will occur August 30th - September 2nd at PAX Prime in Seattle, Washington.

The creation of the new league doesn't mean Riot is abandoning its previous professional gaming partners, either.  Today's press release states "the Championship Series will represent the absolute highest level of competitive play in League of Legends Season 3" but adds that "the competition will also be fierce in the Challenger Circuit, which consists of events hosted by Intel Extreme Masters, Major League Gaming and the IGN Pro League."

Want to learn more about the game Riot says is "the most played PC game in the world"? To see League of Legends competitive play, check out the abundance of broadcast matches and awesome videos over on the IPL website.

Source : feeds.ign.com