How to get into League of Legends esports
How to get into League of Legends esports
All of this is good and interesting, but what about solo players? In that case, it’s worth trying to reach the Challenger rank, which will most likely attract enough attention to you for joining a permanent team. There have been cases where even professional organizations have recruited solo players from the Challenger ranks multiple times. The system is once again as transparent as possible: twice a year, 32 teams compete in open qualifiers to reach the tournament finals and earn their slot in the Continental League alongside professional teams like Na’Vi, Team Empire, Hard Random, and others. How cool is that? Watch how the Continental League tournament looks like, and then imagine yourself getting there just by playing with friends! The more challenging the game, the more points you earn and the less you lose, creating a very pleasant experience of climbing the ranked ladder. Just imagine, from a beginner to a professional player on the stage of a huge tournament – only 5 ranked leagues and a large amount of diligent training. It’s hard to find a more direct and transparent system. In addition, in the CIS, there are University Battles that give even more opportunities to play in front of a huge audience.
The ranking system, in general, is structured as follows. There are 7 leagues, each with 5 divisions where you will have about 50 opponents. Once you accumulate 100 league points, you will be eligible to move to a higher division. It works like this: you are given three games, of which you must win at least two. Progressing from one league to another also happens the same way, but you will have to win at least three out of five games. How do you earn league points? Each victory will give you points in small amounts, depending on the game’s difficulty and your hidden rating. Another important difference between ranked games and normal ones is the pick system. You can still blind pick champions, but if you want to, for example, play as a support role, you can choose it in advance and mark your position on the map. As a long-time Dota 2 player, I can’t help but applaud Riot; this is a very good approach to team formation, especially given the limited champion pool. But enough of the dry details – let’s move on to something more interesting. Once you reach the fifth division of the Diamond league, the main event opens up to you – the Challenger League Championship, your chance to make it to the Continental League, and then to the world tournament.
One way or another, you made it to the Challenger League, what’s next? The road to the big arena is very short: you go through the open qualification, win the grand final, and that’s it! You are in the Continental League, from where a direct path to the Wild Card tournament leads, which is just a stone’s throw away from the World Championship. The system is designed to reward winning difficult games and not allow scoring easily. Of course, winning a tournament is not easy; it will require considerable effort from you and excellent teamwork. But the most important thing is that League of Legends does not put up any barriers and year after year strives to make the path to a career as a professional player as transparent as possible. To not drag it out, I’ll say the main thing: anyone who has dedicated enough time to the game and has found four equally passionate comrades can make it to a major tournament, but let’s take it step by step.