League of Legends news » League of Legends World Tour - France

The next stop on our League of Legends World Tour brings us back to mainland Europe, where we visit France. France has a long history of online competitive gaming, with the RTS, MMORPG, and MOBA genres forming the backbone of the scene. This predisposition to the genre sparked immediate interest in League of Legends amongst French players, many of whom began their League of Legends careers in the very early phases of the beta.

Since the European platform opened its doors on October 2009, interest in the game has steadily increased, making France one of the largest single-language communities in Europe. As a matter of fact, in 2011 alone the French population in League of Legends nearly doubled in size! While French players primarily choose to do their gaming from home, France still has a well-established cyber café network. Many French summoners, particularly students, can be found spending their lunch break taking in a couple quick battles on the Fields of Justice.

Like so many other places across the globe, the French community is also home to passionate fan artists and cosplayers. More recently, however, streaming has become increasingly popular in the region as more and more French tournaments and eSports celebrities have begun broadcasting. As a matter of fact, the French language cast of the recent Kings of Europe tournament approached record-setting numbers for a French eSports stream, with over 16,000 concurrent viewers!

French teams have been a dominant force in League of Legends eSports from the onset, taking part in nearly every major international competition to date. What began under the banner of time-honored, multi-game eSports such as Millenium and Against All Authority, has expanded to encompass a huge number of amateur and semi-pro teams competing in a burgeoning national scene. In-person League of Legends tournaments take place nearly every month, with organizations such as SUPINFO and Les Masters Français du Jeu Vidéo staging country-wide circuit events. France even recently opened the doors on its first sponsored gaming house under the leadership of veteran player and Season One finalist Kujaa.

This longstanding competitive history has brought France a great deal of success on the world stage. Perhaps most notably, Against All Authority claimed the runner up position in the League of Legends Season One Championship, but French success hasn’t been limited to this milestone tournament. French teams Cypher and Millenium are both strong contenders in the Season Two Challenger Circuit, and frequently represent their home country at competitions all across the globe. Both of these teams also qualified for the IntelEM World Championship, giving France more national representatives in Hannover, Germany, than any other European nation!

French players have already made quite an impact on the global League of Legends community, but with such an enthusiastic community and so many up and coming teams, we’re willing to bet that the best is still to come. We look forward to seeing what the summoners of France bring to the table as we go forward in 2012!