The Intel Extreme Masters series of competitions have gone to places like Katowice, Sydney, and Oakland, and one of the games that has seen competitions at IEM is League of Legends. This won't be the case any longer, however, as IEM organiser Michael Blicharz confirmed on Reddit.
"The current season of Intel Extreme Masters will not feature League of Legends," he explained. "We have taken a decision not to schedule IEM events around Riot's LCS calendar. In the current LoL landscape during the off season Western players are being traded or are on vacation while Korea and China are running tournaments with their teams locked in. Working around those limitations didn't seem like the right way to move forward."
"Our 2017 events won't happen to be in a period where pro LCS teams are free to compete. In discussions with Riot it was also determined that LCS wouldn't pause for Katowice. This means that for the first time since 2011 LoL won't be there. I am sad I won't see some of you there next year."
Blicharz went on to say that he wasn't sure whether IEM would run more League of Legends events in the future, but that ESL would continue to support the game. Will you miss the IEM League of Legends tournaments?