How Samsung SSD and League of Legends Bring Endless Victory to Gamers

Shunpo! Since 2009, Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL) has taken the esports world by storm. The popular MOBA (or multiplayer online battle arena game) features two teams of five unique, player-controlled "champions" facing off to infiltrate the other team's base and destroy their Nexus. In competitive play, what separates the top professional LoL players from the rest of the pack comes down to speed and latency— not just of their gaming reflexes but also their computer hardware. That’s why the North American League of Legends Champion Series (LCS), the premier esports league for LoL, officially endorses #SamsungSSD products like the 990 PRO with Heatsink and the Portable SSD T7 Shield as “the official SSDs of the LCS.” Endless Victory with the 990 PRO with Heatsink When the LCS Teach Team builds top-of-the-line PCs to be used on stage during esports events, they use Samsung’s cutting-edge NVMe (Nonvolatile Memory Express) consumer SSD, like the 990 PRO with Heatsink. Samsung’s line of NVMe-based SSDs has long been the official drives for the LCS, because they excel at reducing latency and lag, while also being extremely durable. Why? It all comes down to speed and reliability. Featuring boosted random read/write speeds up to 1,600K/1550K IOPS and sequential read/write speeds up to 7,450/6,900 MB/s, the 990 PRO achieves near maximum speed for the PCIe 4.0 standard. In addition, the built-in heatsink helps guarantee that the drive won’t overheat during even the most frenetic match. Before the LCS adopted Samsung solid state drives, the LCS experienced a number of hardware and drive-related failures, says David Chan, system engineer at Riot Games. Many of these failures were due to the fact that LCS has to ship up to 60 PCs from tournament to tournament, during which bumps in the road can cause literal havoc with less reliable, shorter life expectancy SSDs, ending matches before they start. “After testing, we chose Samsung SSDs as our official LCS memory partner to give players the best performance and speed during crucial split-second reaction times, and the reliability to keep performing through every game of the season," Chan explains. Now, thanks to Riot Games' adoption of Samsung NVMe-based SSDs like the 990 PRO, these failures are a thing of the past. Broadcasting Victory with the T7 Shield Portable SSD But in esports, the competition itself is just one part of the equation. Just as important as the speed and reliability of LoL gaming machines is viewership: the ability for the LCS to capture, edit and broadcast matches to millions of viewers around the world without a hiccup. This is why LCS relies on Samsung’s Portable SSD T7 Shield for event photography and in-match video capture and edition. Featuring rugged drop-resistance and IP65-rated dust and water resistance, the T7 Shield is durable enough that critical event footage won't be lost, no matter how roughly it is traded between video teams. With capacity up to 4TB, sequential read/write speeds of up to 1,050/1,000 MB/s and compatibility with USB 3.2 Gen 2 and PCIe® NVMe™ standards, the T7 Shield is also fast enough for lag-free 4K+ video editing, straight from the drive. When every moment needs to be broadcast to a global audience in real-time, the T7 Shield's speed and durability make a huge difference to the LCS photo team. With the T7 Shield, they can not only transfer massive video files in seconds, but the extra physical protection means that they can work in any country or locale without losing files. Conclusion When it comes to reliability and performance, hardcore gamers and multimedia professionals alike demand the best. That’s why we’re so proud that LCS has chosen Samsung SSDs like the 990 PRO with Heatsink and the Portable SSD T7 Shield as their official SSDs. In League of Legends and the LCS, the speed and durability requirements of gamers and multimedia professionals are united, which is why being able to bring both groups endless victory at the same time is one of Samsung Memory’s proudest accomplishments.