Riot Games says that 27 million people watched the 2014 League of Legends World Championship finals between Samsung Galaxy White and Star Horn Royal Club. That number is down from the 32 million who watched in 2013, but the number of peak concurrent viewers went up substantially, and fans who tuned in stuck with it longer as well.

Peak concurrent viewership—the number of people watching simultaneously—of the 2014 championship hit 11.2 million, up from 8.7 million in 2013, while the average viewing time grew from 42 minutes in 2013 to 67 minutes this year. The number of live viewers increased dramatically as well, apparently to more than double that the 2013 event, which took place at the 20,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles.

"It s awesome to see fans enjoying Worlds as a community, whether it s with 40,000 friends cheering together in Sangam Stadium, or as a group staying up late at a local viewing party halfway across the world," Riot said in a statement. "We re honored by your passion and participation. Thank you for tuning in."

Riot said it would reveal its plans for 2015 "in the coming weeks." In the meantime, you can scratch your MOBA itch with the 2015 Spring Expansion Tournament, a one-off tourney that will grow the North American and European Union LCS lineups from eight teams each to ten, that gets underway next week.

It's been more than a year since images of the upcoming League of Legends champion Ao Shin were leaked and then confirmed as legitimate by Riot Games. Lead Champion Designer Andrei "Meddler" van Roon said at the time that the character, a storm dragon, was still "quite a way off," and that's apparently still the case.

"We spent a bunch of time working on Ao Shin but ultimately concluded he wasn't hitting the mark so put him on hold for a while in order to figure some things out," van Roon said in response to a forum post asking if the champion had been dropped. "We still think his concept's really cool, as is some of the stuff we were trying with him, so do intend to make him someday. Don't expect to see him anytime soon though, we'd rather be slow, but do a better job of delivering on his potential, than quick."

Van Roon noted that other champions, like Lee Sin, Elise, and Azir, have gone through a similar process, which ultimately resulted in "better champs in the long run." He also said that Ao Shin's name may be changed when the champion is released, depending on whether it remains "a good fit for the final version."

Unfortunately for those looking forward to Ao Shin's release, van Roon cautioned that it won't be happening anytime soon. "For purposes of these sort of timelines the start of 2015 counts as 'soon,' or even 'very soon,'" he wrote. "Ao Shin's genuinely a long way off sorry."

Riot Games has done a lot this year when it comes to purging League of Legends of its more hostile elements. Now the studio has detailed its new approach to competitive bans. 

The notion of 'permaban' has been abandoned in favour of two categories of bans: fixed and indefinite. The former is a fixed ban period which can last for a maximum of two splits (ie, a full competitive season). Once these fixed periods expire they will be reviewed individually.

Meanwhile, indefinite bans are exactly that: players will be required to "meet the highest standard of conduct over a sufficient period of time to be permitted back into the League". Indefinite bans will last for a minimum of one competitive season.

It sounds pretty strict, but League Operations Manager Nick Allen says it's more conducive to reform. "By adopting a new framework for disciplinary action, we re aiming to give genuinely reformed players a second chance, and make sure that players who violate the Summoner s Code continue to feel the effects of their actions," Allen wrote.

"Respectful, cooperative, and competitively fair behavior applies to all members of the League of Legends community, and it s especially important that visible ambassadors of the sport serve as role models for their peers."

Full details on the changes can be seen over here. Riot announced last week that it will roll out rewards for well-behaved players.

Riot has taken a number of steps this year to combat toxic player behaviour in League of Legends, ranging from blocking offenders from joining ranked queues through to outright bans. While the measures have been well-received, those in the habit of behaving themselves are about to get a substantial reward in the form of a 4-win IP (Influence Point) boost. The reward, which will be granted to each player with a clean record, will roll out over the next week.

All the recent headlines about League of Legends disciplinary measures paint a bleak picture, but stats provided by Riot indicate otherwise: as of this week, 95 per cent of players have never received any punishment, while fewer than 1 per cent of players have been on the receiving end of a ban.

Still, Riot promises it is still "focused on addressing extreme cases of verbal toxicity, and will soon be testing additional systems that address gameplay toxicity like leavers, AFKs, and intentional feeders."

Riot Games has revealed the new League of Legends Champion Kalista, a twisted specter whose powers grant substantial damage bonuses to her Soul-Bound allies.

Based by her description, Kalista is a powerful Champion, but not a powerhouse. "Kalista is a marksman who cooperates with her Soul-Bound to deal substantial sustained damage, access her full repertoire of abilities and wither her enemies under her relentless assault," it states. "Kalista s potential is unlocked by solid communication and cooperation with allies rather than raw mechanical skill."

League of Legends designer Bradford "CertainlyT" Wenban said Kalista is designed for players who enjoy, or want to get better at, cooperative play. Bot lane fights often turn into two separate one-on-one battles rather than a proper two-vs-two contest, something the Sentinel passive Soul-Marked is intended to discourage through its emphasis on focused fire. At the same time, the character is designed to enable "tighter, more consistent teamwork without making Kalista so communication dependent that you practically need to play in the same room as your Soul-Bound."

"As designers, we are constantly trying to help players succeed. Building scenarios that overwhelm or confuse players is simple, laying the foundations for success is the challenge," Wenban wrote. "As such, Kalista highlights the cooperative end-state in which she and her ally are most likely to succeed and offers a tool kit to enable players to reach that state."

A detailed breakdown of Kalista is up now at leagueoflegends.com.

Article by James Chen

As an analytical caster and former coach of North America's Counter Logic Gaming, one of League of Legends' most venerable teams, OnGameNet Champions' Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles' presence on the 2014 World Championship live analysis desk in Busan and Seoul, South Korea wasn't just expected, it was a hotly demanded feature by the community. And as co-host of podcast Summoning Insights, alongside the oft-controversial Duncan "Thooorin" Shields, he's no stranger to controversy and criticism either.

So, as the one caster at Worlds not under Riot's aegis, who better to ask for a professional opinion on the production quality of the year's most hyped e-sports tournament?

"Dangerous, dangerous topic for me!" laughed Mykles. But he was overall impressed by the month-long spectacle. "I think, obviously, there were numerous successes. It was impressive they were able to move the events smoothly between four different cities in a month's time. And also, just the end-spectacle of the World Cup stadium was definitely something e-sports has pretty much never seen before. They did it on a scale which I didn't think should have been possible, given that they only had a few days to install that in the venue and check everything."

But the international undertaking didn't come away entirely free of issues. "In terms of the most disappointing thing: I felt that, because of the schedule, a lot of times the pacing of various segments between the analyst desk and main broadcast—or showing certain promotional videos—was often rushed." The same logistical successes were also sometimes weak points. In his eyes, less travel, less movement and a more stable environment would've ironed out the major wrinkles.

"I think that moving from city to city within the same country was a lot easier than moving from country to country, due to various regulations. Having to train new local camera operators every single time, who spoke different languages... To be fair, I wasn't there for the two legs of the group stage, but that's just what it seemed to me, when the analyst desk had to move to Korea and we had all these new Korean operators."

As for the games themselves: in contrast to last year's seeded format and best-of-three playoffs, Mykles enjoyed the 2014 system. "The only thing I would've changed about the tournament structure was having the quarterfinals be drawn a little more randomly. Having the first seeds randomly draw the second seeds, and not be from the same group. I think that would've made things more random and prevented any possible match-fixing for who the people were going to face in the quarterfinals."

"I think this is going to be a big wake-up call for the Korean scene, where if they want to retain talent, they need to pay players significantly more money."

He was a little nervous of the Samsung White versus Blue match-up as a result, as the two Korean sister teams were inherently the most likely to collude. "Yeah, yeah. It didn't happen, but it could have. Potentially. But, otherwise, I think the format was pretty good. I'm really happy that everything changed for two best-of-fives, and I think it was—for the most part—a very exciting tournament."

The one sour spot on the month-long agenda was the first week of the group stage, back in Taipei, where Group A was all but determined before the games even started. "I think we got a lot better games than last year. I hope they continue to use this format in the future. The one thing that I would change is that, instead of having international wild cards seeded directly into Worlds, I would take the IWC teams and pit them against the fourth-place teams of North America, Europe, Korea and China, and the third place team from Southeast Asia. Then, I would play a separate tournament for the last two slots of Worlds, and if the IWC teams can win under those conditions, then they deserve to go to Worlds. And if they can't, then we get the 4th-place Korean, or 4th-place European teams to Worlds instead, and I think that would've made groups A and B a lot more exciting."

As for OnGameNet Champions, Korea's domestic circuit that feeds into the Worlds stage, "exciting" is an apt description for the turmoil and changes affecting a tournament that's produced world champions two years in a row. Even before the end of Worlds, rumors were flying about a massive exodus of pro players to China, Europe and elsewhere—rumors that were later solidified as KT Bullets' star jungler, Kakao, announced his intent to compete in the neighboring pan-Asian giant.

The exodus of Korean players is unprecedented in e-sports history—even with StarCraft 2, only a few players signed by western teams outright relocated to a new country and new scene. "I think the biggest disturbing point is Rookie and Kakao left, who were on a current reigning winners-of-Champions team," said Mykles. "That's really weird, because if you had to name the top three players who weren't at Worlds, you'd probably say 'Kakao, Rookie and Faker.' Now two of them aren't going off. Ostensibly, it's because the Chinese teams pay better. It is baffling to me that the Chinese teams can pay better than a multi-billion dollar corporation like KT, SK Telecom or Samsung.

"I think that shows that the Korean players are not being very well compensated. Which is also strange compared to the Brood War days, where Flash would be making $500,000 a year. The KeSPA teams are accustomed to paying superstar players superstar salaries, but we're just not seeing that right now for whatever reason. I think this is going to be a big wake-up call for the Korean scene, where if they want to retain talent, they need to pay players significantly more money."

As for Kakao, formerly a teammate of Worlds second-place team Star Horn Royal Club's InSec: "If he does go to China, Kakao is a much more planning-oriented jungler. If he has sufficient ability to communicate with his team, I would expect Kakao to outperform InSec."

The Korean e-Sports Association, Riot Games, and onGameNet have announced some big changes for the 2015 League of Legends Champions season. Most of them are structural: Shifting from tournament format to league format, establishing a parallel reserve league, and doing away with "sister teams" in favor of expanded rosters for league teams. But what's particularly interesting are measures intended to improve the welfare of Korean pro gamers, including the introduction of a minimum salary policy.

KeSPA wants to establish a "Minimum Salary Policy for Pro Players" for the 2015 season, according to an onGamers report, which will set salary standards "on par with other domestic professional sports to help pro players lead a stable professional career." Also proposed is a minimum one-year contract requirement for players on LoL Champions teams, although that won't become mandatory until the 2016 season.

Specific numbers aren't mentioned, but a follow-up Inven analysis, translated by onGamers, notes that the minimum salary for professional baseball players in Korea is roughly $27,000, while the minimum for pro soccer players is $24,000, and basketball players bottom out at $35,000. The site guessed, based on the audience differential between e-sports and conventional sports, that the minimum salary for pro gamers will come in at around $20,000.

The problem as it currently stands, according to League of Legends caster Erik "DoA" Lonnquist, is simply that pro gamers can make more money elsewhere. "There's a lot of money in the Korean LoL scene through various sponsorships, but not a lot of that was ending up in the players' hands. Traditionally Korea has a history of paying their entertainment and sports talent considerably lower than what comparable positions in other parts of the world make," he said. "Players finally got fed up with it, recognized the financial opportunities abroad and soon the top teams here began to hemorrhage players left and right. These new 'improvements' are partially designed to stop that from continuing."

According to the Inven report, "Riot Games is planning on financially supporting the eight teams that will be competing in the LoL Champions" league, but the extent of its financial commitment wasn't revealed.

Microtransactions. "Micro." As in, very small bits of money—a dollar here, a dollar there—exchanged for comparably small in-game items: A new hat, perhaps, or some healing potions. But boy, it sure adds up. Riot Games earned $624 million from League of Legends last year, and that was only good enough for second place on the top-ten free-to-play earnings list. In 2014, however, it's shot to number one, and is poised to be the first to break $1 billion in microtransaction revenues.

League of Legends pulled in an estimated $964 million between January and September of this year, according to SuperData research (via VentureBeat), making the magical $1 billion mark almost a sure thing. And it's not alone: Last year's first-place finisher, the military FPS CrossFire, is at $897 million, Nexon's Dungeon Fighter Online is sitting at $891 million, and World of Warcraft has brought in $728 million. All them have a good shot at making it over the hump.

Also noteworthy is just how badly League of Legends is trouncing the other big free-to-play games in North American, Dota 2 and Hearthstone. Both made the list, but way, way back in the pack: Dota 2 is at number nine with $136 million in revenues, while Hearthstone brought up the rear with $114 million. I'm not going to shed too many tears for either of them, but it's a remarkable gap between them.

The World of Warcraft situation is interesting as well. Subscription numbers have slid dramatically over the past several years (although they recently enjoyed a bounce thanks to the launch of Warlords of Draenor), but the spending on in-game items, which is all these numbers take into account—no subscription revenues, in other words—is way up: Its nine-month total is more than triple the $213 million it earned in all of 2013.

In a similar light, Hearthstone may be doing better than it appears, because the figures are PC-only and thus don't account for mobile spending. That still wouldn't be enough to get it near LoL, but it might move it up a few places in the list.

The League of Legends World Championships finished up at the weekend, and the round between South Korea's Samsung Galaxy White and China's Star Horn Royal Club can be viewed in full below. Resident LoL expert James Chen had a few predictions regarding the round last week, but if you're wanting to watch the match free of spoilers I'd suggest not reading the final paragraph in this story.

Samsung Galaxy White ended up taking the championship, continuing South Korea's dominance for the sixth year. The prize was US $1 million, while Star Horn Royal Club took home $250,000 to share among them.

Written by James Chen, photos from lolesports.com

The all-China semifinals between team OMG and Star Horn Royal Club commanded the full duration of the best-of-five set a back-and-forth trade of triumphs as Royal Club wrestled for a means to keep OMG's top laner and captain Gogoing from building to ominous strength, and OMG in turn struggled in the face of Korean expatriate and jungler InSec's maverick picks and plays, never knowing what he was going to choose or how he was going to play.

In the end, only one team advanced and only one player got to claim the title of back-to-back world championship finalist.

Uzi the Kid

Jian "Uzi" Zihao might be suffering from a bad case of deja vu right now. His team's changed sponsors and swapped out four players since last year, but here he is again: standing over a defeated OMG, headed to a world championship grand finals against a heavily favored Korean team. But last time, the dream ended in a nightmare.

For most teams and players, being able to stand as finalists at the most prestigious tournament of the year would've been a victory in itself—a career highlight to round out a year of hard work. Royal Club's humiliation from a total defeat in the finals, however, outweighed those sentiments and lead to the dramatic dissolution of the prior squad. In their place, a new team was formed around Uzi, with the high-profile recruitment of former Korean KT Rolster star InSec playing a significant role. While the language barrier would make for a rough start—as evidenced by Star Horn Royal Club's dismal regular season performance—their potential growth promised to be a lot higher with InSec, once known as the most dominant jungler in the world.

It played out much like it did the year before: a perfectly timed peak coinciding with OMG's plateauing and struggles to maintain a lead. Uzi almost didn't have to show up for work—though his multi-kills throughout the series against OMG were crucial in breaking their will, they were effectively hand-fed to him by InSec's unorthodox Champion mastery and dominance, playing champions that were considered irrelevant to the global metagame for months, if not years.

But the question remains: is it enough this time? Though the non-Korean teams appear to have improved this year, the evidence of Korean dominance still remains. White's clean 3-0 sweep against sibling team Samsung Blue ominously threatens a repeat of last year's anticlimatic finish for Star Horn.

White-Out

Unfortunately for them, Star Horn Royal Club might have preferred to face any other Korean team in the finals: Star Horn's strengths are largely shared, and thus neutralized, by their counterparts on Samsung White. The clearest example would be in the jungle: InSec, former ace for the KT Rolster Bullets, was once known as the single most dominant player in the position, but lost that title a year ago when he decided to switch to top lane, and subsequently fell out of relevance.

To his favor, this year's semifinal set against OMG demonstrated a return to strength, showing the same combination of outright skill and unexpected plays that made him famous in the first place. Unlike his prior career as a Korean jungler, however, he has peers this time. His contemporary, DanDy, might be less willing to surprise his own team with a Fiddlesticks pick out of nowhere, but is as adroit as InSec was at his prime, and has an unmatched understanding of the map-wide pressure his position is capable of exerting.

Meanwhile, Uzi has found a true peer in Imp, White's mad dog of the bottom lane. While it'll take a head-to-head match to see which of the two infamously hot-headed AD carries truly reigns supreme, what is known is that Mata, Imp's support, needs to be nerfed. He's continued the legacy of play-making Korean supports like CJ Entus's Madlife—an incredibly strong play-maker with a talent for exploiting his opponent's slightest mistakes and forcing through even the best-laid defenses.

The games will ultimately be decided by a single position: mid lane, where PawN seems to be unstoppable. As nominal successor and historical kryptonite to last year's mid lane world champion, Faker, PawN has been yet unmatched by his world rivals. Corn has been a competent piece in Star Horn's strategies, but he's lacked that certain grace and dominance that PawN so easily exerted over the course of the preceding weeks. The man that's taken up the mantle of Samsung Blue's leader, Dade, is White's ace in the hole.

Amid the Spotlights

Seoul's World Cup stadium—host of the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the subsequent home for South Korea's biggest concerts—has space for over 66,000 attendees, and it will be jammed to capacity as China and Korea once again butt heads on their quest for the world title. It looks to be another record-setter for League of Legends, but the community is loudly worried about a repeat of the 2013 finals, which were held in Los Angeles's Staples Center.

While it's not uncommon for the grand finals of any competitive event to be a disappointment, the Korean dominance in League of Legends is contextualized by their predecessors in the StarCraft scene, where "foreigner" is now commonly used as a term for all competitors not originating from Korea itself. Another 3-0 victory over their Chinese rivals, commonly considered the second-strongest region in the world, would cement this sentiment for the young League of Legends community as well—a prospect that sits poorly with Uzi and company. As tens of thousands settle upon the World Cup stadium and the spotlights light up the field, the pressure mounts on the 17 year old savant and his team to realize the hopes and wishes of China's massive player base—and stop the South Korean juggernaut in its tracks.