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League of Legends has progressed a lot through out the years, and it has had a lot of awesome history behind it that seems to get forgotten. This is how League of Legends became what it is today.

League of Legends was found back in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Mark Merrill, also known as "Ryze" and "Tryndamere" together. A short while after, they partnered with Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon.
In September 2006, production of League of Legends officially began, inspired by a popular Warcraft 3 Mod called Defense of the Ancients with the idea that the mod was so innovative and enjoyable that it could create its own game and genre.

2006

2007/2008

League of Legends production continued, until finally on October 7th, League of Legends: Clash of Fates was announced to the public.

2009

February 21st, the closed "friends and family alpha test" of League of Legends began. Around the same time, the first trailer was released for the game.
April 10th, League of Legends: Clash of Fates exited the alpha stage, and closed beta began shortly after. This is when League was really being developed, with the release of two new champions, Singed and Zilean.
May 9th, the first ever version of the Summoners Rift winter map became playable and was added to the custom game options.
October 10th, the store was implemented into the game. This is when we first saw Riot's Free to Play business model.
October 22nd, the game's second open beta began, and shortly after on October 26th, League of Legends dropped its Clash of Fates suffix and was released as League of Legends in North America and Europe with a free to play business model and a nice variety of 40 different champions.

2010

March 29th, a new map called Twisted Treeline was released out of its beta stage and was implemented into the game with a normal match making queue. This was the first new game mode Riot has released for League of Legends, and eventually led them to develop other game modes and maps.
July 6th, the first ever rework of a champion took place on the champion called Kayle.
July 13th, Season 1 officially began, and a solo ranked, 3v3 ranked premade and 5v5 ranked premade was added, with draft mode being implemented in to all ranked queues. Ranked used an elo system to match players of similar skill level against and with eachother. Also on July 13th, the Journal of Justice was added into the client, with periodic publications of League of Legends lore and story.
October 19th, the first Autumn or Harrowing Summoners Rift map skin was added, marking the second official map skin being added.

2011

February 16th, CO-OP vs AI matchmaking queue was added, greatly increasing the new player experience.
May 23rd, the Tribunal System was implemented. This was a way for players to punish others that have recieved multiple reports.
June 17th, Season 1 World Championship took place in Sweden, and was won by Fnatic over All Authority, which had a prize pool of $100,000. This is what defined the meta today, with a top laner, a jungler, a mid laner, and an ADC with a support in the bot lane.
September 26th, Dominion, a new game mode was added, this marked the third map added in to League of Legends, but slowly, Dominion lost its hype.
November, Riot officially announced that League of Legends had a monthly playerbase of 11.5 million active players.
November 15th, Season 2 began with many new changes. The game had 88 released champions at the time.

2012

January 17th, colorblind mode was added, and this let most colorblind people play the game enjoyably and effectively. On the same day, the Dodge Stat was removed from the game. They didn't want to make the the game to be RNG based, so they removed it.
May 1st, the official Spectator Mode was added into the game. Before spectator mode was launched, the spectate feature was located in a summoner spell called Observer, that would clear the Fog of War from the map. This was later removed due to champions with global passives interfering with the game, so it was replaced.
May 23rd, the Summoners Rift recieved its first graphical update.
June 29th, Pulsefire Ezreal, the very first Ultimate Skin was added. This costed 3250 RP, equivelant to over $20.
July 7th, marking a milestone for League of Legends, the 100th champion named Jayce was added in to the game.
September 12th, the Diamond Elo Tier of 2200 ELO was implemented in to the ranked system. Previously the highest tier was Platinum, but the playerbase has grown so much that it deserved more for the players that have really dedicated their time to become the best of the best.
October 12th, the Season 2 World Championship was held in the U.S.A., and was won by the Taipei Assassins, in an upset victory over Azubu Frost. This was watched by over 8 million people worldwide, with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
October 25th, the Twisted Treeline map recieved a complete visual update.
December 3rd, a huge preseason update hit the PBE and then later hit the live servers.

2013

February 1st, Season 3 began with an updated ranking system, removing the ELO system and adding divisions and promotions, with the inclusion of the Challenger Tier. Only the best of the best can achieve this rank. League had an official 110 champions.
The first League Championship Series, also known was the LCS began, starting in Europe and North America.
March 1st, the Mac Beta begins. You originally needed a third party program to run League on the Mac, but Riot worked on it and after a while, Mac users were able to play without worry.
March 28th, the first champion rework happened to Karma and was added.
April 29th, Howling Abyss was added, marking the 4th official map being added, with the game mode ARAM, All Random All Mid.
October, League had an official 32 million monthly players.
October 3rd, the Season 3 World Championship began, and took place in U.S.A., and was won by SKT T1 against Star Horn Royal Club. This was the most watched Esports event ever in the world.
November 22nd, Riot released their first temporary game mode called One-For-All on Summoners Rift, sparking a series of temporary game modes Riot would try to experiment with. On the same day, a huge preseason update hit the live servers, changing the support role, vision, and a rework to the mastery system.

2014

Riot announced that they had 67 million monthly active players, becoming the most played computer game by a longshot.
January 14th, Season 4 begins, with the increase of the challenger tier of 50 players to 200 players. The game had 117 champions.
January 17th, the Challenger Series began in North America and Europe.
March 23rd, Team Builder launched as a new matching queue. This was a great way for players to get the role they wanted.
April 1st, the Ultra Rapid Fire mode was added temporarily for 2 weeks.
August 27th, the Master Tier was added, removing LP clumping at Diamond 1, and creating a much better system for feeding in to the Challenger Tier.
October 19th, the Season 4 World Championship took place in South Korea and was won by Samsung Galaxy White over Star Horn Royal Club. This was watched by over 27 million people.
November 5th, Summoners Rift second official rework hit the live servers.
November 20th, a massive preseason patch hit live servers, with changes to the jungle, dragon and baron, with the addition of the rift scuttler and huge changes to items.

2015

January 21st, Season 5 began with 123 released champions, marking another ranked reset for League of Legends.
June 22nd, a new Heads up Display was implemented. After a few tweaks and changes, it came to be a pretty nice and slick addition.
October 31st, Season 5 World Championship took place and was held in Europe. This was won by SKT T1 over KOO Tigers.
November 11th, another preseason hit the PBE and then later the live servers. This included massive changes to the AD Carry role, new and changed items, the addition of the Rift Herald, the removal of Green Wards, the rework of masteries and changes to the game flow and mechanics.
Now we are at present day. League has come a long way since the beginning.

History

League of Legends has progressed a lot through out the years, and it has had a lot of awesome history behind it that seems to get forgotten. This is how League of Legends became what it is today.

League of Legends was found back in 2006 by Brandon Beck and Mark Merrill, also known as "Ryze" and "Tryndamere" together. A short while after, they partnered with Steve "Guinsoo" Feak and Steve "Pendragon" Mescon.

In September 2006, production of League of Legends officially began, inspired by a popular Warcraft 3 Mod called Defense of the Ancients with the idea that the mod was so innovative and enjoyable that it could create its own game and genre.

2006

2007/2008

League of Legends production continued, until finally on October 7th, League of Legends: Clash of Fates was announced to the public.

2009

February 21st, the closed "friends and family alpha test" of League of Legends began. Around the same time, the first trailer was released for the game.

April 10th, League of Legends: Clash of Fates exited the alpha stage, and closed beta began shortly after. This is when League was really being developed, with the release of two new champions, Singed and Zilean.

May 9th, the first ever version of the Summoners Rift winter map became playable and was added to the custom game options.

October 10th, the store was implemented into the game. This is when we first saw Riot's Free to Play business model.

October 22nd, the game's second open beta began, and shortly after on October 26th, League of Legends dropped its Clash of Fates suffix and was released as League of Legends in North America and Europe with a free to play business model and a nice variety of 40 different champions.

2010

March 29th, a new map called Twisted Treeline was released out of its beta stage and was implemented into the game with a normal match making queue. This was the first new game mode Riot has released for League of Legends, and eventually led them to develop other game modes and maps.

July 6th, the first ever rework of a champion took place on the champion called Kayle.

October 19th, the first Autumn or Harrowing Summoners Rift map skin was added, marking the second official map skin being added.

2011

February 16th, CO-OP vs AI matchmaking queue was added, greatly increasing the new player experience.

May 23rd, the Tribunal System was implemented. This was a way for players to punish others that have recieved multiple reports.

June 17th, Season 1 World Championship took place in Sweden, and was won by Fnatic over All Authority, which had a prize pool of $100,000. This is what defined the meta today, with a top laner, a jungler, a mid laner, and an ADC with a support in the bot lane.

September 26th, Dominion, a new game mode was added, this marked the third map added in to League of Legends, but slowly, Dominion lost its hype.

November, Riot officially announced that League of Legends had a monthly playerbase of 11.5 million active players.

November 15th, Season 2 began with many new changes. The game had 88 released champions at the time.

2012

January 17th, colorblind mode was added, and this let most colorblind people play the game enjoyably and effectively. On the same day, the Dodge Stat was removed from the game. They didn't want to make the the game to be RNG based, so they removed it.

May 23rd, the Summoners Rift recieved its first graphical update.

June 29th, Pulsefire Ezreal, the very first Ultimate Skin was added. This costed 3250 RP, equivelant to over $20.

July 7th, marking a milestone for League of Legends, the 100th champion named Jayce was added in to the game.

September 12th, the Diamond Elo Tier of 2200 ELO was implemented in to the ranked system. Previously the highest tier was Platinum, but the playerbase has grown so much that it deserved more for the players that have really dedicated their time to become the best of the best.

October 12th, the Season 2 World Championship was held in the U.S.A., and was won by the Taipei Assassins, in an upset victory over Azubu Frost. This was watched by over 8 million people worldwide, with a prize pool of $1,000,000.

October 25th, the Twisted Treeline map recieved a complete visual update.

December 3rd, a huge preseason update hit the PBE and then later hit the live servers.

2013

February 1st, Season 3 began with an updated ranking system, removing the ELO system and adding divisions and promotions, with the inclusion of the Challenger Tier. Only the best of the best can achieve this rank. League had an official 110 champions.

The first League Championship Series, also known was the LCS began, starting in Europe and North America.

March 1st, the Mac Beta begins. You originally needed a third party program to run League on the Mac, but Riot worked on it and after a while, Mac users were able to play without worry.

March 28th, the first champion rework happened to Karma and was added.

April 29th, Howling Abyss was added, marking the 4th official map being added, with the game mode ARAM, All Random All Mid.

October, League had an official 32 million monthly players.

October 3rd, the Season 3 World Championship began, and took place in U.S.A., and was won by SKT T1 against Star Horn Royal Club. This was the most watched Esports event ever in the world.

2014

Riot announced that they had 67 million monthly active players, becoming the most played computer game by a longshot.

January 14th, Season 4 begins, with the increase of the challenger tier of 50 players to 200 players. The game had 117 champions.

January 17th, the Challenger Series began in North America and Europe.

March 23rd, Team Builder launched as a new matching queue. This was a great way for players to get the role they wanted.

April 1st, the Ultra Rapid Fire mode was added temporarily for 2 weeks.

August 27th, the Master Tier was added, removing LP clumping at Diamond 1, and creating a much better system for feeding in to the Challenger Tier.

October 19th, the Season 4 World Championship took place in South Korea and was won by Samsung Galaxy White over Star Horn Royal Club. This was watched by over 27 million people.

November 5th, Summoners Rift second official rework hit the live servers.

November 20th, a massive preseason patch hit live servers, with changes to the jungle, dragon and baron, with the addition of the rift scuttler and huge changes to items.

2015

January 21st, Season 5 began with 123 released champions, marking another ranked reset for League of Legends.

June 22nd, a new Heads up Display was implemented. After a few tweaks and changes, it came to be a pretty nice and slick addition.

October 31st, Season 5 World Championship took place and was held in Europe. This was won by SKT T1 over KOO Tigers.

November 11th, another preseason hit the PBE and then later the live servers. This included massive changes to the AD Carry role, new and changed items, the addition of the Rift Herald, the removal of Green Wards, the rework of masteries and changes to the game flow and mechanics.

Now we are at present day. League has come a long way since the beginning.