The rebirth of the league that started it all.

The LCS has had outside experts straighten their ties and tell them what to do before. A decade-long quest for validation turned the LCS and most other esports leagues into carbon copies of ESPN-but-for-video-games.

Today, the ascendancy of esports is complete (though not nearly finished), boasting huge viewership, top-tier analysts and deep history. The LCS had grown bigger and more diverse and had begun to encapsulate a much wider range of interests, but the brand hadn't evolved to reflect all that.

The community had grown up, but the LCS hadn't grown up with it. The need for legitimacy pivoted from commercial to cultural. The change required a shift in perspective—from looking elsewhere to looking within.