While teams were separated by region previously, it was due to location more than anything else. Chinese, European, and North American teams were invited alongside domestic South Korean teams. South Korea's OnGameNet had run the Champions tournaments throughout 2012 and they quickly became the premier LoL esports competitions. The idea was that both LCS leagues would act as challenges on par with South Korea's Champions tournament, allowing all regions to rise in strength separately. In August 2012, when IPL 5 regional qualifiers were in full swing, Riot Games announced the creation of a League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) for North America and Europe, beginning in 2013.

Viewers didn't know it at the time, but IPL 5 was the end of an era, a sunset on individually-organized international tournaments, with the dawn of the LCS on the horizon. After three grueling days of group and double-elimination tournament play, Team World Elite and their cunning sixth man, coach Ji 'Aaron' Xing, were crowned victorious in the League of Legends tournament. 29, 2012, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was rated as 'The Best Hotel in the World.' That same day, the Cosmopolitan hosted IGN's ProLeague 5 gaming tournament, featuring StarCraft II and League of Legends. It's a pittance compared to the 100 million of Riot's 2019 League of Legends World Championship, but was a harbinger of what was to come for LoL and esports. Storylines and narratives for future faces of League of Legends esports were born, game knowledge was freely shared across regional lines, and 6 million unique viewers tuned in to the entirety of the IPL tournament, surprisingly close to the 8.2 million who tuned into the League of Legends world championship that same year. The greatest tournament in League of Legends history didn't happen at one of developer Riot Games' world championship events, but was hosted by IGN in Las Vegas.

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