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It is fair to say that after the misjudgment of their now curtailed partnership with controversial Saudi Arabian-based company Neom, the LEC and the League of Legends community have been waiting for some positive news and that may well have just arrived with news breaking of an exciting deal with technology giants Cisco.
Developers of League of Legends, Riot Games, announced that they had agreed on a multi-year deal with Cisco with the latter to become the Official Enterprise Networking Partner of League of Legends Esports.
“Reliable Infrastructure and Networking Capabilities”
The quality of an esports gaming experience can be ruined, for even the best teams, if the network on which they compete on is not the quickest or most reliable and this deal with Cisco aims to ensure that the top global League of Legends events all have “reliable infrastructure and networking capabilities across five continents and three global events that will improve the competitive experience for pro players as well as enhance the viewing experience for fans.”
Cisco will take over the running and operation of the private game server used to power all the top-level League of Legends esports matches around the globe, known as “The Realm”. This server is key to the long-term success of the title as it powers the League of Legends World Championships, the Mid-Season Invitational, and the All-Star event.
Cisco’s new servers are expected to offer “up to 200% raw performance improvement over the previous technology” with pro players expected to be able to play on the Summoner’s Rift game at sub-1ms ping.
Essentially this means that the server will cope with players reactions almost instantaneously and that gameplay will not be affected by issues such as lag anywhere near as often.
Regional Center Upgrades
Part of the deal will also see Riot Games employ Cisco technology to upgrade 200 tournament game servers in regional centers across the world. This will allow Riot to offer what they call a “common infrastructure footprint” which will offer “improved performance with reduced latency for regional professional gameplay”.
“As a sport completely reliant on technology, it is essential that League of Legends runs on a trusted and reliable network,” stated Scott Adametz, the Esports Tech Lead at Riot Games.
“With Cisco as a partner, we now are able to build and expand the infrastructure necessary to deliver the best esports experience possible for fans and professional players all over the world.”
Positive Reaction from LoL Community
When LoL Esports tweeted the news that Cisco had become a multi-year partner with Riot Games, the reaction from the League of Legends community has been almost uniformly positive, with a number of Tweets praising the deal and an equal number of excited Tweets about what the deal with Cisco could mean for top-level pro LoL esports gaming. However, there were still a couple of more muted responses.
As one user, Steamyguy, put it “Much better than neom”, while another Sepp52140111 responded with “Wow, finally a sponsor that you don’t need to be asshamed [SIC] of. Gj riot!”
Those few dissenting voices apart, the news has been met far more positively across the LoL community and this represents a much-needed positive image boost for League of Legends and the LEC.
Featured Image Credits: LoL Esports
