After years of following pro sports, League of Legends esports leagues are ‘finally free to be ourselves’
Photo: Riot Games For years, competitive gaming has done its best to mimic professional sports, whether it's players wearing Nike jerseys, big-name celebrity investors, or ambitious plans for home-and-away games. But Chris Greeley, commissioner of the League of Legends Championship Series - the game's top professional league in North America - believes that esports has moved beyond mimicking existing sports.
We had this idea in the beginning that, because esports is a sport, and we wanted to be taken seriously, we should look like a sport," he tells The Verge. The LCS looked like the NBA on TNT. It was great for validation and for investors and sponsors to look and say Hey, this looks just like a sport, therefore this is an easy translation.' But we've...