In an interview with Gamespot, Riot Games’ eSports manager, Nick Allen, announced that League of Legends professional players are now recognized as professional athletes by the U.S. government.
“So the United States government recognizes League of Legends pro players as professional athletes and award visas to essentially work in the United States under that title,” Allen said, in part. “This is groundbreaking for eSports; now we can start looking at international players when they come over. It’s a much easier process because they’re actually recognized by the government. This is a huge thing.”
“This was a lengthy process; we had a lot of people fighting for this. It wasn’t something that happened overnight”, Allen added.
The next League of Legends tournament is the Season 3 World Championship which takes place October 4th in California.
(via VG247)