Riot Games and ESL extend their partnership in eSports: European League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) to be produced and hosted in the ESL Arena for 2013.
The Electronic Sports League will help produce and host Riot Games’ European League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in the ESL Arena in Cologne. One of the world’s leading eSports platform, ESL, and Riot Games, developer of League of Legends (over 32,000,000 monthly active players) will expand their long-term relationship in 2013. Turtle Entertainment’s ESL continues to be the main partner of Riot Games’ eSports activities in Europe.
The eight best League of Legends teams in Europe will be competing in the ESL Arena in Cologne, Germany, on a weekly basis to determine the European Champions and representatives at the grand final of the World Championship at the end of 2013. The eSports video broadcasting company of ESL TV will broadcast the European LCS games live and free in a full HD stream.
"League of Legends has taken the eSports world by storm in record speed, with millions of enthusiastic players worldwide,” said Ralf Reichert, Managing Director at Turtle Entertainment. “Riot Games has high expectations of its own game as well as the professional tournaments. We are proud of the great trust Riot puts in us to celebrate the fascination with League of Legends at the highest level of gaming. We are looking forward to some unforgettable moments in the ESL Arena, our new eSports temple.”
“League of Legends fans have made it clear that they care about eSports, and so we’re committed to making Season 3 the best experience possible, both for the pros competing and for fans watching at home,” said Dustin Beck, Vice President eSports at Riot Games. “ESL has years of experience producing amazing eSports events, and we’re looking forward to working with them to make the European LCS awesome. Their new ESL Arena will be an excellent home to the very best League of Legends players in Europe.”
Turtle Entertainment is a leading gaming company in the field of competitive gaming and electronic sports. Founded in the year 2000 the company is currently offering its services in more than 46 countries including the US and China. Core of Turtle's services is it's online portal called Electronic Sports League (ESL) which became a highly popular destination site for competitive computer gamers around the world. The portal reaches up to ten million visits a month (IVW) generated by more than 4 million registered users. Turtle Entertainment broadcasts ESL events via ESL TV, ESL's web-TV service, since 2007. The headquarters has more than 115 employees and is located in Cologne, Germany. Turtle Entertainment owns the majority of the Chinese eSports league PGL (Pro Gamer League) since 2007. Important business partners of Turtle Entertainment are global corporations such as Intel, Deutsche Post, BenQ, Razer, TwitchTV, Sennheiser, ASUS, Red Bull, RaidCall, TrendMicro, SteelSeries, Supermicro, gamed!de and Blizzard Entertainment. Turtle Entertainment markets its products worldwide using these specific brands: Electronic Sports League (ESL), ESL Pro Series, Intel Extreme Masters, ESL Major Series, ESL TV, Consoles Sports League, eSport Schulmeisterschaft, eSports Award and ESL Female.
Riot Games is a direct-to-consumer video game developer and publisher of premium, competitive online games. The company was established in 2006 and has quickly become a leading global developer and publisher of premium free-to-play online video games for hardcore gamers, launching their debut title, League of Legends, in October 2009. To date, more than one million gamers play League of Legends and log more than half a billion minutes of playtime each month.
League of Legends, Riot Games’ debut title, celebrated its first anniversary on Oct. 27, 2010. Since its launch in North America and Europe, millions of players have downloaded the game to engage in session-based, multiplayer battles against rival teams. Built by a veteran development team, including original creators of the popular, player-made mod Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends combines elements of both strategy and competitive action genres.
