Eve Online lead designer leaves for League of Legends

Eve Online lead designer Kristoffer Touberg is leaving developer CCP to join the League of Legends team at Riot Games.

Touberg will be swapping working on the brutal space trade, politics and warfare MMO in Iceland for the massively popular MOBA in Riot Games' Dublin studio.

In an announcement posted on Facebook, Touberg states that League of Legends is one of his favourite games. Touborg has worked at CCP for five years, starting out at the company as a tester before quickly climbing the ranks to be lead game designer.

'It's been an incredible five years, working for a company I love, on a game I love. Not a lot of people get that opportunity, but I did and I'll always be grateful that CCP let me work in a place where I'd get up every morning and be happy to go to work,' said Touberg.

He is making the move because he feels like it is time for him to try something new and that his interest has shifted from the EVE Online universe to the competitive scene at League of Legends.

'I feel a bit lucky that I get to work on not just one of my favourite games, but two of them. I don't think I could have asked for anything more and it's pretty humbling to go from one love to another,' Touberg adds. 'To everyone at CCP, it's been wonderful and I would happily do it all over again.'

Eve Online has been running since 2003 and has seen the release of 19 free expansions to the original game, with the latest being Odyssey which was released in June this year.

The more recently launched League of Legends was released in 2009 and has steadily risen to become one of the most popular games in the world, seeing approximately 12 million players logging in every day according to Riot Games.