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

Our next stop on the League of Legends World Tour is once again on mainland Europe, where we’ll visit Germany. As longtime PC gamers, German gamers have always been avid participants in the online gaming space. From first person shooter titles to real-time strategy games to multiplayer online battle arenas, if it’s online and it’s competitive, the odds are good that you’ll find German teams somewhere in the lineup. With this in mind it should come as no surprise that Germany quickly established itself as the largest and fastest growing League of Legends community in Europe from the moment the doors opened on the platform in October of 2010 – a distinction that they have continued to maintain to this very day.

Although German players get most of their everyday gaming done from home, LAN parties and major gaming conventions are a regular occurrence all across the country. Of these LAN parties, the largest is NorthCon, which is held each year in Neumünster, Germany, and seats nearly 3,400 people. In addition to these LAN events, however, Germany is also home to GamesCom and CeBIT, two of the biggest gaming and technology conventions in the world. Both of these events host hundreds of thousands of people, and are regularly used as venues for some of the biggest and most important League of Legends tournaments.

While the sheer number of players who turn out is staggering in its own right, the passion and enthusiasm that they display is equally impressive. League of Legends exhibits often attract so many spectators that they can create traffic jams on the trade show floor, and many fans fashion signs supporting their favorite teams or don elaborate costumes. The German community also produces a huge volume of fan art, with new creations frequently making their way onto the forums.

Historically, Germany has always been a front-runner in the world of competitive gaming, and many of the oldest and most celebrated eSports organizations in the world call his country their home. Some of these organizations – such as SK Gaming, and Deutsche ClanLiga (who later changed their name to European eSports League, more commonly known as the ESL) – trace their histories all the way back to the dawn of online play in 1997.

With roots so deep in the eSports bedrock, it’s only natural that German summoners would be a mainstay in the competitive scene. The first League of Legends tournament to ever feature a cash prize was the German ESL Pro Series, and more Challenger Circuit stops have taken place in Germany than in any other nation in Europe. Additionally, German summoners can be found on the roster of many Challenger Circuit contenders, including: FnaticRaidCall, SK Gaming, Against All Authority and CLGeu.

On the international stage, Germany has maintained a constant competitive presence the world over. German summoners have competed in every international League of Legends competition to date, many claiming significant titles and prize money. Perhaps most notably, FnaticRaidCall – whose lineup features two German players – claimed victory in both the Season One Championship and the first Intel Extreme Masters World Championship event, the 2011 CeBIT invitational.

We’ve seen a lot from the passion, enthusiasm and dedication of our German community over the course of the past years, and everything we’ve seen only builds anticipation for the future. We look forward to hearing more from our German summoners in the coming seasons!