The following article represents the views and opinion only of its author.

Introduction

Honourable mentions:

Shushei

How he contributed: Fearless experiments with champions which, in turn, caught many of his opponents off guard. This made him one of the most unpredictable carries you could face, a true terror in competitive play.



Results: Over half of his picks have become viable sooner or later after he brought them into the spotlight and have since become leading AP Mid champions in both casual and competitive games.

Riot Games Riot Games

How they contributed: Despite being sometimes a hit-and-miss, their balance changes have been generally good and have helped the game grow. They have an excellent balance team and have always asked the opinion of professional games once a general change or a more peculiar champion was in the works. That and the occasional IP boost, nice skin sale or great April fool’s joke is what earned their place here. The final and very important factor was their intolerance to anyone who broke the summoner’s code, casual and pro player alike.



Results: More than 50 million players, 8 servers located worldwide, 5 million in prize money for Season 2, The League of Legends Championship Series, Record-breaking stream views. Need I say more?

How he contributed: Perfecting the Phantom Dancer first build, single-handedly landing Urgot a massive nerf that “kicked” him out of competitive play.



Results: Benchmark plays which will always be remembered in the annals of competitive play such as the infamous Urgot 1 versus 2 lane back in IEM Hannover against Dignitas. In addition to this, few players worldwide can boast in landing such a powerful nerf for their mastery of a certain champion. Perfecting the Phantom Dancer first build, single-handedly landing Urgot a massive nerf that “kicked” him out of competitive play.Benchmark plays which will always be remembered in the annals of competitive play such as the infamous Urgot 1 versus 2 lane back inIEM Hannover againstDignitas. In addition to this, few players worldwide can boast in landing such a powerful nerf for their mastery of a certain champion.

OGN Tournament Series Number 4:OGN Tournament Series

How this contributed: Planting the seeds which would later form a strong and highly competitive domestic scene capable of producing quality players regardless of position and rank.



Results: Out of the last 12 major international events, Korean teams have only failed to reach the Top 4 once - IGN Pro League 5, where Azubu Blaze finished 7/8th. They have won five out of those twelve. These results go to show how strong the competition actually is. Cult status of the OGN amongst foreigners. Planting the seeds which would later form a strong and highly competitive domestic scene capable of producing quality players regardless of position and rank.Out of the last 12 major international events, Korean teams have only failed to reach the Top 4 once -IGN Pro League 5, whereAzubu Blaze finished 7/8th. They have won five out of those twelve. These results go to show how strong the competition actually is. Cult status of the OGN amongst foreigners.

Season two came in and went out with a blast! We witnessed many changes within the meta game one way or another, with complete overhauls of it, to simple “discoveries” of champions who, in proper hands, spelled disaster for others on the Summoner’s Rift. However, it must be noted that throughout the whole season, the game already had a solid style of play with three defined lanes and a “Scion of Balance” – the Jungler. Once this order was established and teams began to devise their plans, the truly creative and innovative thought was the one coming on top. We saw many cases where one team or another dominated the scene just because of those little strokes of brilliance which redefined the way their opponents had to face them. It took time. Oh, it took plenty of time before many teams accepted that the world as they knew it (or in our case, the meta game) was changing and in order to adapt, they must accept the new “crazy” ways.Here we will talk about exactly these deviations which made League of Legends so flexible and irresistible to the E-Sports competitor. The top five will feature, in order of importance, the most interesting changes that hit our beloved game after the Season one finals which took place almost two years ago. Back then, Fnatic who were led by Enrique Javier 'xPeke' Cedeño Martinez , snatched the victory from against All authority and walked away 35,000 euro richer. Since then, League of Legends has exploded and is comfortably sitting on the E-Sports throne as the supreme ruler of the industry, with more than 50 million unique accounts and hundreds of thousands of games being played every day – from a simple training game versus the AI to a practice match being created by rival teams who will seek to improve their skills and enter a higher echelon of play. Without further ado, I give you the top five innovators and contributions in Season 2.1.We begin our list with the honourable mentions as I believe they should be noted prior to first place. This list gives praise to our community favourite –! The seasoned veteran and undoubtedly best AP mid player at some point during his career, has been a part of the professional scene since its baby steps. A true king, when the double AP composition was still viable, he andxPeke were a feared duo and many people remembered what Shushei’s Gragas was capable of.Shushei has always been the guy with crazy ideas and we can be thankful as he is also the master behind three terrors – Diana, Vi and Evelynn. The Pole picked these champions almost immediately upon release (Diana, Vi) and introduced them to competitive play. Despite not always being successful, he showed the world what they are capable of. From then onwards,Alex Ich andMisaya became masters of the Ability Power Evelynn, whileScarra showed just how strong a fed Diana can be. To these fine gentlemen we can say a warm “Thank you!” and probably some not very pleasant words as I am sure these three champions have caused you not one or two headaches during the conquest of ELO/League Points.2. This one was definitely easy. Riot games are the most user-interactive developer out there. Despite reaping lots of results and gaining an unbelievable, almost exponential player base growth during the 2011-2013 period, these guys have always had a thing or two to show us, the community, how much it means to them that LoL is the number one E-Sport. We on the other hand, have created numerous ways to celebrate their hard work such as casual, amateur and professional competitions, news streams, online discussion shows, tutorials, custom champions skins, songs, short stories, cosplay and many, many others!I sincerely hope that they stay on track and continue to do a good job. We as a community have always been very critical of them and to a certain point, the customer is always right! However, from time to time it is necessary to give credit where credit is due and Riot Games have shown us dedication, passion, patience and love towards their creation and every single person involved.Our fifth spot goes to the notorious James Bond from Russia – Gambit’sGenja! Ever since the Russian team hit the scene back in early 2012, they have been the most consistent team to have ever played the game. Every element in their line-up has had and has fulfilled its purpose in the best way possible. The most peculiar piece of the puzzle is undoubtedly Evgeny. His passive play style is somehow seen as a paradox to the “see hero, kill hero” philosophy that he introduced. However, he has explicitly stated that kills and KDA ratios do not matter if team orders are not followed. His Phantom Dancer first build was a benchmark on attack damage carries such as Vayne and Kog’Maw back in the day. When asked about this “strange” build, he calmly replied that there were team objectives across the map and the only way to have the necessary mobility to contest them or set up any other type of non-lane aggression was to purchase that item first.Often criticised for his passive behaviour,Genja has proven time and time again that his positioning is with pinpoint accuracy. This could possibly explain his ability to successfully play champions with no escape capabilities such as Ashe, Miss Fortune, and Kog’Maw among others. His teammate and captain,Alex Ich, in an interview withDuncan “Thorin” Shields, stated that it wasGenja who taught him how to properly position and make the best out of a situation. With this quality, the Russian AD Carry perfectly positions himself in the number five spot in our ranking!It is no secret thatKorea is the Mecca of E-Sports and once League of Legends became a strong competitive title, the first big tournament came to be. Initially, the easterners were miles behind the strength of their American or European counterparts. However, once their excellent infrastructure, which was taken page by page from their extensive experience with StarCraft, became fully functional, the domestic scene bloomed and produced fearsome teams with world class players. Just as in StarCraft, South Korea became an entire competitor in their own right. This would not have happened without a podium where these players would showcase edge-of-the-seat plays which westerners would later marvel upon. The OnGameNet did exactly this. They simply provided the environment for teams like MiG Blaze and Frost who, in time, became the two most dominant teams in the country. Their transformation toAzubu Blaze andAzubu Frost made them the best team in the world as the latter took home The Champions Summer 2012 over Counter Logic Gaming EU and went on to finish runners-up to Azubu Taipei Assassins at the Season 2 World Championship.I still rememberCLG.eu versusAzubu Frost in The Champions Summer 2012. The exact feeling running through me was the pleasure of seeing a foreigner (in our case European) team making an incredible performance in a Korean event and going the distance against the very best. WhenFroggen and the lads lost I was neither angry nor sad, I was full of hope. This went on to show that we will do all in our power to not let the StarCraft: Brood War skill gap become a reality in League of Legends, despite results saying otherwise. In the end we must praise the OGN for successfully breeding star teams and players.This concludes Part one of the Top 5 innovators and contributions in Season 2. You can expect part two within a week and until then, have fun on the Summoner's Rift, fellow players!