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Riot Games, Inc. is an American video game developer and eSports tournament organizer based in West Los Angeles, California. The company was founded in 2006 by University of Southern California roommates Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, as they sought to create a company that continuously improves on an already released game, instead of commencing development on a new one. Riot Games was majority-acquired by Tencent in February 2011 and subsequently became part of their Tencent Games division. , Riot Games operates 24 offices around the world, in which it employs 2,500 staff members.

Riot Games is best known for League of Legends, a multiplayer online battle arena game and the company's flagship product. The game was first released in October 2009, and subsequently became the game with highest active player count by 2013. Since 2011, 2013 and 2015, respectively, Riot Games also operates the League of Legends World Championship, Championship Series and Mid-Season Invitational eSports tournaments for their game.

History
Riot Games' founders, Brandon "Ryze" Beck and Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, became friends while business students at University of Southern California, where they bonded over video games. Beck and Merrill were frustrated because they felt game developers were not listening to fans. Developers, they believed, moved from game to game too quickly, leaving their passionate communities behind. During their time playing video games together, Beck and Merrill created an idea for a company that continually introduced new features to its games. Rather than follow the video game industry formula of releasing game after game, Beck and Merrill sought to create a company that was player-focused and made games that constantly evolved. They drew inspiration from Asian video game designers who were offering games for free, yet charging for additional perks. The founders thought it would be unfair to create a pay-to-win game, so they decided Riot Games would not sell upgrades that other players receive through skill. Rather, the additional perks would include cosmetic improvements such as new clothes that changed characters' appearance, so players can personalize their experience.

Beck and Merrill sought funding from family and angel investors, originally raising US$1.5 million to launch Riot Games in Los Angeles, California. The company was incorporated under the laws of California on August 31, 2006. The first person Riot Games recruited was Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, a developer on the multiplayer online battle arena game DotA Allstars. As they refined League of Legends initial creation, they sold investors on the plan for a video game company rooted in e-commerce, which led to several rounds of funding that totaled to US$8 million, including investments by the Benchmark and FirstMark Capital venture capital firms, as well as Chinese holding company Tencent, who would later become League of Legends distributor in China.

Riot Games released League of Legends as a free-to-play game on October 27, 2009. The company continued to develop League of Legends by allowing players to offer feedback. Their game designers and executives participated in online forums to make adjustments based on player feedback.

On May 10, 2010, Riot Games announced that they would take over distribution and operation of their game in Europe; to do so, Riot Games established relocated their European headquarters in Brighton to new offices in Dublin. In February 2011, Tencent paid US$400 million for a 93 percent stake in Riot Games. Tencent bought the remaining 7 percent in December 16, 2015; the price was not disclosed.

In 2012, in response to toxicity and harassment in video game culture, Riot Games launched a "player behavior team" of psychologists to combat harassment on its platform. Riot Games' tactics to address issues on League of Legends, including an opt-in chat function between opposing players, informing banned players of the reasoning behind the ban, and creating a tribunal of players to weigh in on bans, resulted in a 30 percent drop in reported harassment behavior. By 2013, League of Legends has been the most-played multiplayer PC game in the world. From 2014 to 2016, the number of active League of Legends players grew from 67 million to more than 100 million.

Riot Games relocated to a new building on a 20-acre campus in West Los Angeles in 2015. In March 2016, Riot Games acquired Radiant Entertainment, another developer who previously worked on Rising Thunder and Stonehearth. On October 13, 2017, Beck and Merrill announced that they were returning their focus to developing games, aiming to create new experiences for video game and eSports players. Beck and Merrill handed over the day-to-day operations and overall management of the League of Legends team to three longtime employees: Dylan Jadeja, Scott Gelb and Nicolo Laurent, who previously served as chief financial officer (CFO), chief technology officer (CTO) and president, respectively. Subsequently, Gelb and Laurent assumed roles as chief operating officer (COO) and chief executive officer (CEO), respectively, while Beck and Merrill became the Riot Games' chairmen. , Riot Games employs 2,500 people, operating 24 offices around the globe.

eSports
Riot Games operates eSports leagues worldwide. This includes the League of Legends Championship Series, comprising leagues in North America and Europe. In total, there are more than 100 teams in Riot Games' 14 regional leagues around the world. Teams compete over the course of a season separated into two seasonal splits. Teams earn championship points to qualify for two major international competitions: the Mid-Season Invitational and the League of Legends World Championship. Riot Games' World Championship is the annual professional tournament at the conclusion of each season.

In June 2014, Alessandro Di Fiore, the founder and CEO of the European Centre for Strategic Innovation, wrote in Harvard Business Review that Riot Games' League of Legends was the massively multiplayer online game that epitomized the growth of the eSports industry. During 2010 and 2011, the Riot Games team developed new content for League of Legends; it was during this time that the company realized that people did not only like to play League of Legends, but also liked to watch it. As a result, Riot Games established its own League of Legends eSports leagues that produce weekly broadcasts and create a professional game schedule. Following Riot Games' first world championship event in 2011, a small affair at a conference in Sweden, the company decided to turn their tournaments into pro sports-like events. It invested in broadcasting equipment, hired sports programming producers, and trained pro gamers to be "TV-ready". In 2012, Riot Games held its tournament at University of Southern California's Galen Center, offering US$1 million in prize money. Riot Games has since held tournaments in Berlin, Seoul, Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The company sells corporate sponsorships, merchandise, and streaming rights for its eSports league. In 2015, investors bought stakes in teams and began building their own squads. Among the team owners in Riot Games' leagues are the owners of the Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Dodgers, AOL co-founder Steve Case, and life coach Tony Robbins. Inc. cited the growth of the leagues and high-profile ownership as part of its reasoning for making Riot Games its 2016 Company of the Year. Following debates over whether pro players and coaches should have a greater share of Riot Games' eSports revenue and concerns raised about the company making in-game changes prior to matches, the company issued an open letter in 2016 promising higher revenue shares and more collaboration with professional teams. In 2017, Riot Games held the League of Legends World Championships in Beijing. The same year, the company announced it would franchise its ten-team North American League of Legends Championship Series, which cost at least US$10 million to enter.

Reception

 * Ernst & Young — Entrepreneurs of the Year (Beck and Merrill) (2011)
 * Business Insider — 4th oif the 25 Best Tech Companies to Work For (2013)
 * Game Developers Choice Awards — Pioneer Award (Beck and Merrill) (2014)
 * Glassdoor — 18th of the 50 Best Places to Work (2015)
 * Fortune — 39th of the 100 Best Companies to Work For (2016)
 * Inc. — Company of the Year (2016)
 * British Academy of Film and Television Arts — Special Award (2017)
 * National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences — Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Live Graphic Design (2018)