6/21/2017 League of Legends needs to preserve its written history | PC Gamer

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League of Legends needs to preserve its written history

By Cassandra Marshall 13 hours ago

The end of EsportsWikis highlights a problem that Riot must solve.

Photo credit: Riot Games

My mother doesnt exactly understand what I do for a living. To be fair, its a bit of a convoluted explanation: I work for
several clients, and collect several incomes. It all falls under the same umbrella: I professionally write about competitive
gaming and esports. Sometimes this means I write human interest stories, sometimes I write recaps, and of course I write
Rift Tales here at PC Gamer. I dont bring this up to brag, but to provide necessary context to my upcoming plea: League of
Legends has an archival problem, and the Esports Wikis situation has revealed just how deep that goes.

Critical resource
EsportsWikis is a community resource maintained by RheingoldRiver and her team. Was may be the more appropriate word
here; River and her team have parted ways with their investors, GAMURS, after GAMURS took a large loss on the wikis. Well,

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6/21/2017 League of Legends needs to preserve its written history | PC Gamer

in this capitalist world, whats there to be done, right? The problem is that EsportsWikis was a massive resource for League
that was relied on by Riot sta . Heres De cio, EU shoutcaster and analyst, wondering who will pick up EsportsWikis slack.

Martin Lynge Follow

@RiotDeficio

Sooo... With esportswikis going down - Where do I go to get

quick and easy p/b overviews?
12:27 PM - 18 Jun 2017

8 280

Froskurinn, color caster for the LPL, notes that EsportsWikis is the only resource that correctly tracks important details for the
region.

Froskurinn Follow
@Froskurinn

River and her staff are essential to prep and the only wiki that
ever gets LPL timezones, rosters, and VoDs
correct.twitter.com/RheingoldRiver
3:26 AM - 13 Jun 2017

14 76

To say that losing EsportsWikis is a shame for League of Legends is an understatement; it verges on a crisis. My colleagues at
the Rift Herald have penned an eloquent call to arms to Riot, hoping that the devs themselves can save Rivers e orts. Id like
to go one step further and explain why the proposed alternatives to EsportsWikis arent going to work out.

Human resources
My mom isnt quite sure what I do for a living, but there is one time we connected over my work. I decided to stop trying to
explain it by bringing up my employers or my workload, and instead, I told her a story. I told her the story of Piglet, a young
boy who would sneak out of his parents house in Korea to practice in PC Bangs. I told her about how his dedication paid o ,
and his skill in solo queue garnered the interest of SK Telecom T1.

He went from sneaking out and hoping his parents didnt nd out to playing under the banner of a team sponsored by a
major media company. This was something that registered with my mom. We fought my entire teenage life (and the adult
years I lived under her roof) because, well, I played too many video games. Sure, I never got signed by SKT T1, but I eventually
earned a living. My mom understood the struggle.

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