Yesterday we heard news that Riot had unleashed monstrous bans upon League of Legends pros Renegades, TDK and their owners. Renegades and its nominal owners Chris Badawi and Christopher Mykles have hit back at the ruling.

Mykles took to Twitter to protest being given 30 minutes' notice of the ban, asserting that he has been presented none of the evidence Riot cites nor that he was aware of most of the claims. Badawi chose Reddit to profess his confusion at the decision to ban him for life:

"I don't even know what to say to this. Players unsafe/unsafe environment? I can't even imagine what they are referring to. A secret deal with Monte? One simply does not exist. Not fulfilling contractual obligations? I'm beyond baffled none of it is true. I've spoken with Alex, Alberto, RF, Flarez, Maple and Haku and they don't have a clue what Riot is talking about either. Had no warning, reading it for the first time with you. I'm just floored at the injustice and randomness of this ruling."

Regarding allegations of player mistreatment within Renegades, current and former players have come forward to extol the team's virtues. Alberto 'Crumbz' Rengifo proclaimed, "My teammates and I aren't spineless. We would not put up with even one instance of an unsafe environment."

The counter-claims, while far from absolving everyone of wrongdoing, have provoked clamours for Riot to release the evidence it reports to have gathered against Renegades. As lawyer for Renegades Bryce Blum has complained, "Riot acts as judge, jury and executioner. They write, interpret and enforce rules with no third-party input, transparency, or the opportunity to appeal."

The counterpoint to that is, of course, 'Riot's game, Riot's rules'. The Q&A on the ruling already states, "we are not disclosing evidence because we have an obligation to protect the parties involved. People have placed their trust in us by stepping forward and we need to protect them from possible retribution. Further, some of these are serious allegations that extend beyond our LCS ecosystem, and it is not our goal to affect these parties outside of LoL esports."

However, the outcry from both sides is such that Riot might plausibly revise its disciplinary process to avoid similar headaches in future, at least when communicating with involved parties.

Riot has unleashed thunderous bans at League of Legends' pro level, citing the violation of existing sanctions, concern for player welfare and deliberate misrepresentation of professional relationships. Team Renegades is effectively defunct, and TDK will miss out on the CS Summer Split.

Chris Badawi, a stakeholder in Renegades, has been banned permanently with no hope of appeal. Formerly a named co-owner of Renegades, he was barred from owning a team for the 2016 season for soliciting players under contract with Team Liquid. However, Riot received evidence of a deal with current owner Chris Mykles "that would grant Badawi a 50% stake in the team once his suspension had expired."

Suspensions forbid "present and future ownership", as Riot believes Mykles was aware. He failed to disclose the arrangement during Championship Series team vetting, "which we consider to be an intentional and material omission apparently designed to circumvent the clear and public ban of Badawi."

For his involvement, Mykles is banned for one year, until the start of the 2017 Summer Split.

Worse, concerns for the welfare of Renegade players have resulted in its exclusion from all Riot-sponsored events. Riot heard reports of "confrontations between management and players, refusal to honor payment and contract provisions, and failure to maintain a safe environment for all team members." Renegade has been given until May 18 to sell the rights to its LCS spot.

TDK, owned by Sean and Chris Shim, was found to have intentionally misled Riot regarding its relationship with Renegades. In investigating trade requests, League officials were assured of the teams' independence. Evidence was later discovered that players continued to be paid or housed by their former teams after trades had taken place. Mingled finances are rarely conducive to the independence of competitive teams.

As a result, TDK is excluded from the Summer Split, while Sean and Chris Shim have received indefinite bans from association with any official league, open to review come 2019.

Competitive integrity is essential to Riot's business and the continued success of League's pro scene. Riot does not mess around protecting it.

This weekend is extremely busy, with both the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational and the many attractions of DreamHack Austin vying for your time. You'll find esports of almost every stripe ahead, with only Dota 2 taking a break in the immediate aftermath of the Manila Major qualifiers. GL HF!

League of Legends: Mid-Season Invitational 2016

MSI is the talk of the League of Legends world at the moment, and expect that to continue for the next week or so as the action rages on in Shanghai. We're currently in the middle of the group stages, which will continue throughout the weekend play starts at 06:30 BST/22:30 PDT on Saturday and at 04:30 BST/20:30 PDT on Sunday. As ever, you can find loads more information, and the livestream, at LoLesports.

CSGO: DreamHack ZOWIE Open

A cross-section of American CS:GO go to war with a grand prize of $50,000 on the line as part of the ongoing DreamHack ZOWIE Open series. This is a chance to check in on MLG Columbus surprise hit Luminosity Gaming as well as CLG, Cloud9, Liquid and more. Play starts on Saturday at 21:00 BST/13:00 PDT and you can watch the games on DreamHack's CS stream.

StarCraft II: DreamHack ZOWIE Open/WCS Spring Circuit Championship

Talented StarCraft II players compete for a share of $50,000 and, perhaps more importantly, 5000 WCS points. It opens with a massive 96-player group stage, so there are plenty of opportunities for unknown players to shine (or fail horribly.) Even so, you might want to tune in later in the day to see the highest standard of play. The games began today and continue throughout the weekend, starting at 17:45 BST/09:45 PDT on Saturday and 18:30 BST/10:30 PDT on Sunday. Here's the stream.

Hearthstone: DreamHack Grand Prix Series

Another open event at DreamHack Austin, this time with a relatively modest prize pool of $27,500. They only plan to livestream the best of the Swiss round followed by the top 8 bracket, so Sunday's probably the day to tune in expect the stream to start around 17:00 BST/09:00 PDT. You'll be able to find the stream link through dreamhack.tv.

Heroes of the Storm: NA Summer Regional

There's $100,000 on the line at the HotS Summer Regional at Dreamhack Austin, along with a spot at the Summer Global Championship in June. NA is one of the most dynamic regions for Heroes of the Storm, making this a good place to jump in if you've not tuned in before. Play began today, but you can watch the second day (including the finals) on Saturday from 17:00 BST/09:00 PDT. Find the livestream here.

Smite: Spring Split

There's another weekend of top-level European and North American Smite ahead. On Saturday, Hungry For More formed from the ashes of Titan will take on both Paradigm and Team Dignitas. They've had a spotty record so far, and will be looking to turn that around. In NA on Sunday, Enemy's new(est) roster will take on Team EnVyUs and SoaR G2A. Games start at 18:00 BST/10:00 PDT on both days, and you can watch them here.

Street Fighter V: Capcom Pro Tour NA Ranking Event

The latest stop on the Capcom Pro Tour rounds out the packed Dreamhack Austin event. There are a lot of incredible players in attendance, including Justin Wong, PR Balrog, Brenttiscool, Julio Fuentes and others. It's an open event, so if you're planning on tuning in then the best time is at 21:00 BST/13:00 on Sunday that's when the top 8 begins. Here's the livestream.

Taric is the latest champion to be reworked by Riot, and boy has he never looked more radiant. Patch 6.8 has brought about exciting changes to the Rift, but let s be honest it s Taric s time to shine. The former Gem Knight has had to patiently wait for his makeover, watching from the sidelines while Summoner s Rift and its champions have changed around him. Over time, Taric became a rare sight.

The latest update has shed light onto this stunning aspect, ascending him to his rightful place among the stars, along with new lore, kit, audio and a fresh look. It s comforting to see that old Dorito feet has received a makeover that is worthy of his character. As Taric himself says: "I am no longer the man I once was."

Taric s rework has left many players with questions. How did he become so buff? What hair product does he use? When will he be cast as the next Disney prince? But more importantly: what role he will play within the current meta?

 If looks could kill 

This eye-catching champ doesn t just dazzle his opponents in lane: he also packs a magnificent punch. Taric s main source of damage comes from his passive, Bravado, which activates after he casts any ability. Once activated, Taric's next two basic attacks within 4 seconds each gain 100% total attack speed, bonus magic damage, and reduce the cooldowns of his abilities. Starlight s Touch is affected significantly more than his other spells.

Bravado is an excellent source of harass and should be used to bully your opponent early on in the laning phase. Good use of this ability will deny gold and experience, hindering their build progression, as well as allowing your AD carry to sneak in some extra damage providing opportunities to snag first blood. This early harass can quickly force Taric s opponents under their turret or leave them with no choice but to recall. His ADC can now farm without the fear of constant poke while he can safely provide ward coverage, making it easier for his team to spot enemy rotations.

Once Taric has finished hitting his opponent with a flurry of auto-attacks he can retreat safely away and heal himself and all nearby allied champions with Starlight s Touch. Taric stores a charge of Starlight's Touch which periodically builds up over time, with a maximum of 3 being stored at once. Make sure to hold onto Starlight s Touch to deliver a more potent heal, and help turn the tide of the battle by giving your team a new lease of life. Starlight's Touch cannot be cast without charges, so choose your opportunities wisely as you may end up leaving your team high and dry.

Those who played Taric will be glad to see that his trademark stun is back in all its glory, but this time it comes with an added twist. Originally a targeted spell, Taric s stun could only shut down one opponent and offered little to no impact in teamfights. This has changed with his revamped stun Dazzle. Now Taric can cast his stun in any direction, while briefly moving around before projecting a beam of starlight towards the target location. The starlight erupts after a 1-second delay, dealing magic damage to all enemies hit stunning them for a brief period of time. This can be deadly when twinned with his passive Bravado, offering a brief window for himself and his allies to deal damage to those ensnared.

The most interesting addition to Taric s kit is Bastion. All of Taric s abilities can now be simultaneously cast from both Taric and his linked ally, the passive increases his armour while the active shields himself and his Bastion buddy for 2.5 seconds. Bastion remains on Taric s ally until he recasts it onto another ally, or if the two move far enough apart to break their link.

Thanks to Bastion, Taric can now double down on all his abilities creating some truly, truly, truly outrageous plays. Gone are the days of him eagerly sticking to his laner like a glorified babysitter. He can now provide support from afar with his twin heal on Starlight s Touch and clever positioning can make Dazzle all the more threatening, increasing the chance of stunning multiple opponents.

If Taric sees a friendly jungler approaching he can recast Bastion, giving them a shield that can sponge incoming damage that would otherwise deter unaided junglers. Taric can now utilise his stun and root his opponents in place while his ADC and jungler take down their targets. Once finished Taric can heal his teammates using Starlight s touch negating the damage taken during the brief skirmish.

Objectives can be claimed and defended more aggressively now that his team can bask in the sapphire invulnerability of his ultimate, Cosmic Radiance. Taric will activate this after a 2.5-second delay and will shroud himself and nearby allied champions in cosmic energy, granting invulnerability for 2.5 seconds upon impact. If the co-operation and synergy between Taric and his team is good, his ultimate has the potential to be the single most powerful spell in the entire game.

 Reach for the stars 

In the competitive meta early dives are common practice, and this is without having the safety of 2.5 seconds of invulnerability. Pro teams who use Taric could abuse his ultimate and increase potential diving opportunities like never before. We could even see Taric being played in solo lanes. After all, it is not unheard of for a support to be played competitively in other lanes: just look at how devastating Tahm Kench is in top lane.

In League of Legends teamfights are won and lost within a matter of seconds, so having a 2.5 second window of invulnerability is huge especially when given to the whole team. It is more than enough time to quickly dispatch squishy damage dealers, tower dive unsuspecting champions and make taking control over Baron Nashor and Dragon camps less daunting. Taric s Cosmic Radiance puts an end to otherwise-suicidal missions and creates limitless opportunities for plays that would otherwise never work. Taric says yes to these ideas, and brings them into the realms of possibility. After all: "there's nowhere left to go but up."

Streaming is one of the best parts about gaming once upon a time, watching someone play a game was an arduous task, up there with being Player Number Two. C mon, let me have a turn, you might whine as your friend took their time going through Chrono Trigger s menus. Few friends were virtuous enough to hand the controller over. Now, watching a game is a luxury. Whether you re watching the latest tournament to root for your favourite team, or just chilling out with the Pie on in the background, League s popularity is partially due to its accessibility through platforms like Twitch. And this is what makes the following stories so interesting not only are they both examples of Twitch s reach in making League such a dominant esports, but they re also radical opposites in terms of production quality, values, and audience.

Let’s go international

With the Mid-Season Invitational revving up in Shanghai, everyone s eyes are on the international stage. Regional champions from around the world are preparing to meet and battle it out. The MSI has always occupied a strange space it lacks the prestige and impact of Worlds, but is significantly more serious than All Stars. This year, Riot has upped the stakes by including Worlds seeds for teams who advance to the Knockout Stage.

Of course, non-Worlds international tournaments have had their fair shares of upsets and unexpected victors (remember WE going up against the GE Tigers at IEM Katowice?) Riot has certainly been working hard to get fans excited for the upcoming tournament, with incredible graphics and detailed profiles, hype videos and hashtags setting the stakes.

However, the big question is whether the current international format is working. There are a few concerns that come up again and again:

Right now, teams fight among their own region for long stretches, only rarely meeting international competitors. Besides Worlds and the Mid-Season Invitational, there are the Intel Extreme Masters Events. Teams commit to 18 matches in their own region before they have a chance at going on the international stage, and a strong performance during those 18 matches doesn t necessarily mean that they ll get to go on the global stage. The Immortals went 17-1 during the regular Split, but were knocked out of the Playoffs by TSM. The long stretch of the Split will only increase when the LCS changes from the current Best of 1 format.

It s not as though teams aren t interested in this international experience many teams are spending the off season bootcamping in Korea for the solo queue and scrims.

As we head into the Mid-Season Invitational, the clear favourites are SKTelecom T1. Not only are SKT T1 considered to be leagues ahead of the competition, but North America is considered to be a distant underdog.

Amid the hype, one must ask: will these tournaments continue to garner such interest if the winner is considered crowned before the matches begin? The Worlds seeds help, and fans will likely always tune into cheer for their teams (even if, and maybe especially if they re the underdog.)

While the fires of fan interest still burn strong, Riot will have to consider whether the best way to draw in new viewers and keep the interest of the old is to change the system for the rest of the year. Despite the possible necessity of these changes, there s no way they ll be put into place before MSI draws to a close, so League fans should check the games out. Who knows? Maybe SuperMassive or Counter Logic Gaming will shock the world and take the title home.

The curious case of Tyler1

While the world elite prepare to rumble in Shanghai, the headlines were dominated by a very small scale case. One streamer not a competitive player, not a coach or a celebrity had been marked as ban on sight by Riot. Who was this man? Tyler1 had been slowly building both an audience and a financial future through Twitch.

This could have been a tale of entrepreneurship and personality in the Internet age. Instead, this was less of the American dream and more like a nightmare. Tyler1 was a player notorious for two things:

• Playing Draven
• Being a terrible human being and teammate

His play was marked with intentional feeding, deeply personal insults, and a sort of petty bullying usually only found in middle school playgrounds. He treated world class shot caller and League legend Hai with vague contempt, argued with Phreak about the morals of champion select in a lobby with multiple Riot employees, and yet was somehow considered entertaining enough to pull in donation after donation (although he never earned a subscriber button, perhaps because of his foul conduct.)

Tyler1 should be a simple case: man trolls, feeds, and flames. Man is banned. Community rejoices.

Yet there s a small minority of players who insist that Tyler1 provided the League entertainment they craved. The question is not whether people care: the important question is why do they care?

Part of League s identity has been based off of trash talk, competition, and coming up with creative ways to thumb your nose at your opponent since its inception. League has made history with their community moderation efforts, but there are still fans who yearn for the days when the Rift was more of a Wild West environment. Tyler1 is just the most recent lightning rod for the conversation.

Realistically, there ll always be ways for players to antagonize players. I ve been griefed in Draw Something, and Hearthstone players can attest to the fury a well timed WELL MET can inspire. Despite this, Riot s march of progress will likely roll forward. Tyler1 s plight is hot news now, but he s infuriated ten players for every fan he has earned. For now, he stands as a marker of progress banning him is a victory, but it also shows signs that Riot has a way to come with their social reformation of the player base.

From Shanghai to player reform, it s a week of change for League of Legends. Both of these events are a sign of how easy it is to access League, on any level. Interestingly enough, they both show signs of change that has yet to come.

With the Mid Season Patch upon us, League of Legends is going through an absolute flurry of changes. Whether it s the new dragon (more like five of them) or the long awaited rework of Taric finally going live, League players are dealing with a whole lot of new content. While it s tempting to claim that all new content is good, the truth is complex. This is especially true when new additions are still being tested, measured, and weighed and in a regularly updated game like League, nearly everything is up to be rebalanced, re-evaluated, found wanting and then completely remade. Let s take a look at the new content in League, because it affects more than just the professional circuit it can have a major impact on everyday players.

 Champion updates and resonance 

Let s start with the latest Champion Update, Taric. Taric is one of the game s earliest champions, and his age showed he waddled around the Rift with a mass of spiky gem armour and triangle feet, his hair was an unmoving mass carved into a swirl, and he only had a minute of dialogue (by contrast, the most recent champion, Aurelion Sol, clocks in at twenty five minutes.) Riot had been open with their plans to bring Taric up to modern standards, and fans waited with bated breath. Sure, they were concerned about balance changes and competitive impact, but a very real portion of players were waiting to see what happened to his, well, fabulous nature.

The important thing to recognize about a champion like Taric is that amidst serial killers, ancient gods of war, the undead, and patriotic generals, you had a guy covered with gems who had a soft voice. The fan base took these scant character traits and turned them into a meme, which influenced how people saw him to many League players, Taric wasn t just a gem paladin, he was a refreshing take on masculinity.

Taric s rework completely leans into these themes, to the point where his pectoral muscles are bare and his hair is constantly flowing, even when he stands still. Riot Games have always been seeking to one up their previous releases from a pure quality standpoint (I mean, consider Ashe before and after her 2014 relaunch), but they ve recently been focusing on creating champions that fulfill a distinct identity. By rolling with the memes about Taric without turning him into a joke to be laughed at, Riot have shown that they re trying to make an identity for everyone to appreciate in their game. Taric is just the latest example of this philosophy Illaoi is a visual breath of fresh air as an enormous priestess, Rek sai is an inhuman hunter, Ekko is a scrappy street kid relying on his wits. Each example subverts expectations and create a clear, distinct identity.

This is a welcome standpoint from a visual and creative perspective, but let s take a look at how it affects the game itself.

Mid-season magic (or a muddle?)

When you take a look at the list of changes for the Mid-Season Update, it s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content. Mage items got reworked, and so did six mages! There are eight more mini reworks to the mage roster! Every mage can get a powerful item with a unique active that changes their play patterns! Oh, and Dragon got completely overhauled with a RNG element. Feeling dizzy yet?

Mass updates do two things to the game:

• They ignite interest by overhauling old content and making things (hopefully) more balanced.
• They force players to dedicate time to learn all of these changes and figure out what happened to their old favourites or their new mains.

The first goal is objectively a noble one; bad content shouldn t stay in a game for legacy reasons, and chain-nerfing champions without addressing their core problems just feels terrible for everyone.

The second goal is where things get muddy, and there s a lot at stake here sure, it s frustrating for someone who s a Silver II player to log on and frown at the new recommended items and perhaps feed for a game or two out of confusion. The real issue lies with competitive play, something that players rely on for their income and is essential to Riot s growth and market dominance.

Meta changes can seriously shake teams up, even though they currently dedicate hours every day to scrimming and practicing. Take a look at SKTelecom T1 s jungler Bengi, a two time World Champion and a player currently on the bench, as current jungler Blank suits the meta more. Even small shifts can change up series. The Immortals were knocked out of the NA LCS Semifinals, and many lay the blame at Huni s pick of Lucian top in a tank-dominated meta.

If even a single patch can change the fortunes of a team, what will the Mid-Season Update do? It s tempting to paint a dystopian picture of a future where Zyra mid and Malzahar jungle rampage over us all, but chances are that this will go like every other major update. Some teams will sink, other teams will thrive in the chaos. The question is: how many more radical updates and changes are left in League? Are the developers striving towards an elusive balanced state, or is the game on a constant tilt-a-whirl to keep things from getting too stale? In the constant stream of changes to give champions their own unique draw, will League lose its own identity?

Don t get me wrong as a Vel koz main, I m delighted to shred opponents with a laser beam. However, Riot themselves have said they re taking the long view on growing League. They ll eventually need to question whether they ve perfected certain systems, or whether they need to keep the constant stream of changes incoming. On the other hand, it s hard to take too sour a view on League s changes and evolution. After all, the new Shield of Valoran came from this process, and he is a sight for sore eyes. Only time will tell how the future will pan out for Riot s approach to evolution and design. Perhaps the most radical thing Riot can do is announce that some of their features are finally set in stone.

The League of Legends hero Taric has been around for almost as long as the game itself, but he hasn't been what you'd call popular with the players for a while. But that may soon change, as Riot is making some big changes to the character, who will soon hit the PBE with an all-new look, story, kit, and audio.

Taric's passive, Bravado, enables him to swing faster with his next two basic attacks whenever he casts an ability, dealing increased damage and also lowering his ability cooldowns. The Starlight's Touch ability allows him to heal himself and all nearby allies based on the number of charges he has stored, while Bastion casts all of Taric's abilities, simultaneously, from Taric and his linked ally, who he can change at will. With the Dazzle ability, he can fire a wave of celestial energy that stuns all enemies it hits, while Cosmic Radiance pulls down protection from the stars, making Taric and all nearby allies invulnerable for a few seconds.

The new and improved Taric works well with Graves, Vi, and Diana, but will have trouble with Zyra, LeBlanc, and Corki, according to the Champion Update page, which also digs into how the changed character will perform in Laning, Skirmishing, and Teamfights. He's also got an entirely new and more interesting history, as told in this tale of failure and redemption, and this digital comic about an encounter on his journey to the top of Mount Targon.

So what do you say, LoLers: Are you anxious to give the Shield of Valoran a second chance? Or do find his rework truly outrageous?

Happy Lies Day, everybody! Hope you ve enjoyed a wonderful day of lies. It s time to bring the festivities to an end, however, and settle in for a weekend of extremely serious and definitely happening digital sports. CS:GO is hosting the week s highest-profile clash, but there s plenty of LoL, Dota 2, Smite and fighting to go around. If any of the below tournaments turn out to be April Fools jokes, I will not be accountable for my actions. Haha! A cheeky Lies Day lie. It ll be fine! Nobody need get hurt.

League of Legends: NA and EU LCS quarterfinals

There's an awful lot of League of Legends this weekend. The EU and North American scenes are both getting stuck into their quarter finals, with EU playing at 16:00 BST/08:00 PDT on both days with NA following at at 20:00 BST/12:00 PDT. You can find the stream at LoLesports. China's LPL and Korea's LCK are also playing this weekend: once again, check out LoLesports for stream details and a schedule.

Dota 2: Epicenter Qualifiers

There's top and mid-tier Dota 2 going on all weekend in the Epicenter Qualifiers running around the world. In particular, check out Invictus Gaming vs. Vici Gaming at 18:00 BST/10:00 PDT on Saturday. The easiest place to find a schedule and English-language stream is on Gosugamers' hub page for the tournament.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: MLG Columbus 2016

CS:GO has evolved a MOBA-style prize pool for this $1m Major tournament. It's been running for a while already, but this weekend is your opportunity to catch the dramatic final rounds (or just sit in chat and complain that you haven't had any loot drops.) Play starts at 08:00 EDT (13:00 BST/05:00 PDT) on Saturday and 10:00 EDT (15:00 BST/07:00 PDT) on Sunday, running throughout. Find the livestream on MLG.

Capcom Pro Tour: Hypespotting

As our FGC man Andi Hamilton reported earlier this week, the Capcom Pro Tour is coming to the UK this weekend at Hypespotting in Glasgow. There's competition across the fighting game scene, from Street Fighter V to Mortal Kombat X to Smash. The Hypespotting website is down, at the time of writing, but this tweet has more information about the schedule.

Smite: Spring Split

Smite's new season has begun and the round robin continues this weekend in both Europe and North America. Play begins at 15:00 EDT (20:00 BST/12:00 PDT) and runs for a couple of hours. The best place to find information on the teams and format is on Smite Esports and you can find the livestream on Twitch.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The very last best-of-one match in professional League of Legends has been played, at least for the NA and EU LCS, and thank goodness for that. As has been noticed by casters, community figures, and the teams themselves, a single IEM event can have a western team play enough games to cover the span of their entire spring split—in other words, a single tournament is worth more in terms of adapting to the spotlight and endurance under pressure than anything they've done over the preceding weeks or months.

The summer switch to a best-of-two and best-of-three system doesn't just acclimate teams better to tournament conditions. It's also a lucrative development for them as professional organizations—and the difference between professional and amateur has always been about whether or not you get paid for what you're doing. As esports teams are financed largely by sponsorship deals and sales of team merchandise—the Riot stipend is only a fraction of the operational costs of the top teams—the extra time spent in front of the camera is important in terms of justifying their asking prices. The more games they have to churn through, and the longer time they get to spend in front of a camera, the more that everybody wins (albeit, in the case of sponsors, indirectly).

In and of itself, the greater exposure given to LCS teams is awesome. Though it means more work for the players, it's work they should be glad to undertake if the goal is to be competitive at international events—and for the development of their individual community influence as well. The problems, then, aren't within context of the western premier circuits—the problem is that they're the only ones getting these structural improvements.

Big bets

The news of North American Challenger team Ember's collapse was only a surprise in terms of how quickly it happened. One minute, they were writing screeds about player compensation transparency (taking the time to humblebrag about how much they could afford to pay their own) and next they re announcing the closure of their League of Legends team and the free agency of all but one player. Sympathies were especially reserved for jungler Santorin, who had just gotten out of his involvement with the sleaze surrounding European Challengers Huma two months before Ember's collapse.

The actual fact of a Challenger team dying off, regardless of how many six-figure paychecks they were slinging around, wasn't so surprising—especially after they lost their bid for an LCS spot. It is incredibly hard to get monetary traction at sub-LCS levels of competition: the viewership is a fifth of the regular broadcast (if you're lucky), your players are largely unknown, and the amateurish reputation of the circuit grants it less prestige.

The recent rash of high-profile, big-wallet investors don't actually provide any more stability to the Challenger scene—if anything, money makes it worse. Ember isn't the first to have their backers suddenly vanish after just one split: an investor's willingness to spend a few million on a project doesn't mean they'll be patient about making their money back. It's also been demonstrated by North American circuit leaders Immortals that you make a much higher and faster ROI by investing directly into the LCS itself, instead of bearing the uncertainty of missing out on qualifiers for technical or personnel reasons.

These aren't problems that can be solved overnight, but they are issues that can be alleviated with more intensive investments and focus on the Challenger scene by Riot. The often sleazy issues regarding player contracting and visa acquisitions should absolutely be more strictly scrutinized by Riot—at the very least, requisite contractual transparency measures can save the players from a lot of heartache and frustrations. A minimum duration stipulation too—it might scare off a portion of possible investors, but it's much healthier for the players and means that a rag-tag group of five solo queue warriors actually have a chance to develop into an actual team.

It'd also, of course, be necessary to expand the scope and style of Challenger-level coverage—to at least give the players a shot at a fanbase outside of the hardcore enthusiasts. While it's too much (and contrary to purpose) to give the exact same prominence and priority to Challenger players as they do to LCS-involved personalities (such as with the Drive video series), there's definitely a compromise between "equal coverage" and "almost none at all," and it doesn't yet feel as if Riot's found the right balance yet between the two.

Nor with other regions, to be frank.

We re still here

Speaking of suffering due to lack of exposure: Taiwan didn t get a bid at IEM Katowice. In fact, Taiwan is unique in more ways than just that: the LoL Master Series held in Taipei is the only one of the five premier leagues not to have an English broadcast. It's also the worst of the five in terms of endemic sponsorships and Challenger support, and that is directly tied to the lack of exposure and comparative support. The Riot Taiwan esports office consists of basically one official liaison, and local publisher Garena isn't willing to cough up the expenses to run an international marketing program—not when their well-defined operational region gives them few benefits from doing so.

In fact, the only attempt at licensed English casting of the LMS came from Twitch.tv, during the qualifiers run leading up to Worlds, and that was both short and poorly received (though it did help launch LCK caster Achilios's career).

Granted, the LMS does extremely well with what little it has. Its top players have shrugged off magnitudes-better contract offers for the sake of staying with their band of brothers, and its now year-old freedom from Southeast Asia's raised its teams back to international relevance, outcompeting North America and China alike while trading respectable blows with Europe and Korea.

But that haunts the region with a simple question: how much better could we be doing? How much are we really sacrificing out of emotional loyalty? Given the hard infrastructural and sponsorship limits imposed on the circuit, very few Taiwanese/Hong Kong players will be able to go pro for more than a few years at a time, meaning that the higher salaries in even the LSPL will eventually outweigh their loyalties—they might not be able to retire even with an LPL paycheck, but they can at least afford that transition back into a normal life. And that question's going to haunt even the likes of AHQ top laner Ziv, or Flash Wolves star jungler Karsa, no matter how impressive they were at the last Worlds.

This, too, has to be a top-down consideration from Riot: how to support a region that spits out a disproportionately high amount of their best and most exciting players. It is a concern that mirrors larger the disparity in treatment between the LCS and Challenger scenes, and likely warrants the same solutions. It's easy to lose sight of the importance of doing so, amid the glitz and high drama that the premier circuits are deliberately engineered for, but the fact is that these easily-ignored circuits and players constitute the seed corn of a healthy esports ecology.

In their rush to lavish fame and monetization options upon today's esports stars, it's even more important to lay the groundwork for tomorrow's. Faker's going to falter (again), FORG1VEN's gotta fly soon, and even Bjergsen's going to eventually bounce. Given the lack of human cloning technology at this moment, it's all the more important that Riot has a more viable long-term talent development strategy. The sooner it arrives, the better.

Editor s note: this is James last League of Legends column for us, at least for the time being—he s moving on to exciting new things. We ll be back with a new League of Legends columnist in a few weeks, but this marks the end of LoLWatch in its current form. I d like to thank James for his hard work and insight over the last year or so: you ve helped this Dota guy understand a few things about this LoL game everybody seems so excited about. - Chris

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!

The regular season has finally ended after nine weeks of play, and the Renegades' victory over Team Impulse marks the last-ever match under the NA LCS's old best-of-one format. The top six teams are now settling plans for a glamorous trip to Las Vegas to decide the North American title for the split—and to see who gets to represent the region at the Mid-Season Invitational in May.

Of course, the odds for some teams are better than others. A few teams were lucky to make it to the playoffs in the first place.

The path of kings: C9, TSM

In any prior split or year, the quarterfinals match between Cloud 9 and TSM would've rightfully been the grand finals. TSM in particular had an extensive history of dominance in North America—maybe not one matched with international success, but regional kings all the same. Cloud 9, too, had gotten used to being at the top, and they've been there since the founding of the original LCS roster. No rookie organization until now has been as successful, much less dominant, as C9 was in their prime.

Yet history has predictive limits—nobody would've predicted just how badly TSM floundered this spring, especially not in light of the roster they brought (and bought) together. The likes of Bjergsen—for a long time, the undisputed best mid laner in North America—with Doublelift, Svenskeren and Yellowstar was justifiably expected to be a winning formula, based on their prior work. Top laner Hauntzer was expected to be the weakest link of the lot, yet arguably proved a lot more consistent and dependable than his more storied and experienced teammates.

Not to mince words, but TSM is probably going to lose to Cloud 9. The team s dysfunctions have generated a lot of wild and baseless speculation and fingerpointing—but the fact that it's dysfunctional isn't in dispute. By contrast: Cloud 9 isn't a perfect team by any means, but the one thing nobody doubts is who's in charge. Team captain Hai has thrived in the support role—it's probably a lot less punishing to his wrists, for one, but more importantly the role facilitates his influence on the team's overall map control (thanks to providing most of the in-game vision) and shotcalling.

That seemingly-simple act of putting everybody on the same page at the same time is something that has stumped TSM all spring. True: TSM has traditionally done best in multi-game sets, like the best-of-fives that will be played out in Las Vegas, so discounting them entirely is, from a historical sense, unwise. But the TSM playing this split is almost unidentifiable from their prior form, so historical precedence can get wrecked.

The path of conquerors: NRG, Team Liquid

Given their famously high-profile investors, not to mention the caliber of their Korean players, NRG probably expected to be doing better than they were at the end of the split. To be clear: fifth place is not too shabby for a rookie organization, and if they were measured by the standard esports metrics of the last few years it'd be pretty impressive all around.

But they aren't just any esports organization. They're the little brothers of the Sacramento Kings. They count A-Rod, Shaq and Jimmy Rollins among their backers. And that actually sucks for them, because living up to those names and their lofty expectations is no easy task when Team Liquid's Dardoch is staring you down from the other side of Summoner's Rift.

It's rare for rookie players to give you chills when you watch them. The competitive pressure at the top of a region's circuit is vastly greater than anything solo (or dynamic) queue offers, greater than even the most intense Challenger Series match, so it usually takes at least a split or year for a player to really find their groove.

Dardoch, on the other hand, took to it like fish to water. Team Liquid's experiment with directly fostering North American talent has borne fruit far quicker than anybody had supposed, and its first product is a jungler that didn't just prove a worthy replacement for IWillDominate—at times, it's as if TL's fanbase's already forgotten their former jungler. The general rule is that a jungler's only as good as his team lets him be, but with TL it's almost the other way around—AD carry Piglet honestly hasn't looked this confident and in the groove since before he left Korea.

Too bad Piglet's former teammate Impact can't say the same. His bizarre man-against-the-world solo engages on the enemy team have left NRG fans and everybody else scratching their heads in dismay. The NRG vs TL quarterfinals match pits two former world champions against each other—but only one of them is looking like his old self at the moment.

The gated path

Waiting in the wings for the quarterfinals results are The Immortals and Counter Logic Gaming, the latter of which is looking to defend their Summer 2015 title. The greater risk is, of course, the Immortals—the team with a near-perfect season and the most dynamic and engaging play style in the entire NA LCS isn t to be trifled with. Huni and Reignover were the architects of Fnatic's perfect regular split last year, and Wildturtle's rejuvenated powerhouse performances throughout the spring is a direct rebuff of the criticisms he weathered while playing under the TSM banner—something that only causes further lamentations for his old team's fans.

CLG, on the other hand, have a few obvious issues. First and foremost is a static play style—pretty much every single match boils down to a splitpush strategy based around sending Darshan through an empty lane while the rest of the team keeps the enemy team engaged with a barrage of hard-hitting pokes. Second is that Huhi and Stixxay have obvious mechanical deficiencies compared to their counterparts on other teams—an issue that proved a crucial hindrance during IEM Katowice.

And yet it might be more dangerous to play CLG. If there's been any overarching theme to this spring's international success stories, it's that macro play is very nearly everything. CLG engineered the Immortals' sole defeat all split by virtue of immaculate map play, China was thoroughly embarrassed at IEM Katowice by their failures to adapt to it, and Korea's not only written the book on it, but several followup dissertations as well.

Whomever wins the North American title will find that they need to play to CLG's level to beat the Immortals. Given how games have worked out this spring, it's the only way they'll get into position to take advantage of Stixxay and Huhi's individual weaknesses in the first place. Fail that check, and they can be certain that Darshan'll be knocking on their front door.

PC Gamer Pro is dedicated to esports and competitive gaming. Check back every day for exciting, fun and informative articles about League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, CS:GO and more. GL HF!