League of Legends in the CIS

In the 2nd season (2012), the most successful LoL team from the CIS was the Moscow Five , consisting of Eugene Darien Mazayev, Danil Diamondprox Reshetnikov, Alexey Alex Ich Ichetovkin , Eugene Genja Andryushin and Eduard GoSu Pepper ”( Edward ) Abgaryan. Then “Moscow Five” won the Intel Extreme Masters stage in Kiev , IEM World Championship in Hanover , and also went to the semi-finals of the World Championship from Riot Games , where they lost to “ Taipei Assassins ” with a score of 1: 2 ^[6] , taking the second after “ MiG Blaze »place in the LoL team ranking by the number of prize money won per season ^[7] .

In the 3rd season (2013), Riot Games opened the Russian-language server of League of Legends ^[8] , they began to hold their own ESL and lol‐game.ru tournaments ^[9] . The CIS region also received a quota for the International Wildcard Tournament (Worlds 2013 qualifying tournament), which was raffled off as part of the First Regional Championship ^[10] . The Lithuanian team “ GamingGear.eu ” won the final of the HRP, then winning the qualifying tournament for the World Cup ^[11] . At the Season 3 World Championship, “GamingGear.eu” could not leave the group, ending their participation in the tournament with a difference of 1: 7 - the only victory in the tournament, the team from Lithuania won over the North American “Team SoloMid” in an already decisive match ^[12] .

The Russian Federation of Computer Sports held the Russian qualification for World Cyber ​​Games 2013 - the team “ The RED ”, then called “mjaso”, for which Ivan “ FIRees ” Silantyev, Dmitry “ DimaJke ” Gushcha, Anton “ Fomko ” Fomkin, won, won it. Valentin “ NikSar ” ( Zima zvR ) Zimakov and Dmitry “ Dimonko ” Korovushkin. At the WCG, instead of Dimonko and FIRees, “The RED” took ZmeyGorynych and Dimode to China ^[13] . The Russian team left the group from second place and finally took 6-8 place after losing in the quarterfinal of the Lyon Gaming tournament from Mexico with a score of 0: 2 ^[14] .

In the IEM Season VIII qualification - Cologne in the north-north won The RED ^[15] , who again went to the main tournament with a replacement - this time Dimode replaced Fomko. “The RED” lost the quarterfinal series to the “ Gambit Gaming ” team, eventually taking 5-6th place in the tournament ^[16] .

In 2014, the first regular LoL competitions took place in the CIS - the first seasons of the SLTV StarSeries and ESL Pro League . “ Carpe Diem ” became the champion of StarSeries Season I , having beaten in the final series the top-1 team of the first season of ESL Pro League “ Team Dragon ” with a score of 3: 2 ^{[17] [18]} . In the second season , within the Star Series, the quota for the tournament for non-major regions was first played, the “ Hard Random ” team, as the CIS champion, took place at IWC Gamescom 2014 ^{[19] [20]} . In 2015, “ StarSeries ” underwent significant changes: the number of teams participating in the group stage was reduced from 12 to eight, the competitions began to be held according to the system of two splits per year: spring and summer ^[21] - both championships were for “ Hard Random ” ^{[ 22] [23]} .

StarSeries is the first regular League of Legends competition with the participation of professional teams in the post-Soviet space , ^{[24] [25] [26]} according to some esportsmen who played in it, had flaws, ^{[27] [28] the} result of which was a development lag behind the championships in other regions. It was also noted that an independent organization of the league by the developer himself would help bring the CIS scene to a new level, ^{[27] [25]} . So in December the Continental League for League of Legends (LCL) was announced ^[29] . Its participants began to receive assistance in renting gaming houses, salaries for players were introduced. ^[3]