ency, Jarred Kennedy, director of esports and merchandise at Riot Games, told ESPN. Theres a concern with whos keeping Riot accountable. W

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A bounce went the right way at a key time for Mikael Granlund and the Minnesota Wild.Granlund scored with 44.5 seconds left, Devan Dubnyk stopped 25 shots for his league-leading fourth shutout, and the Wild beat the Boston Bruins 1-0 Thursday night.Granlund took a pass from Jonas Brodin circled below the end line and came out to the right of Tuukka Rask. His centering pass went off Adam McQuaid then off Rask and into the Boston net.Thats why I always pass, joked Granlund, who missed an open net in the second period.Dubnyk has had to carry the Wild lately as Minnesotas offense has mustered just 10 goals in its past seven games, yet won three. He has allowed nine goals in his last nine games, stopping 274 of 283 shots in that span to account for a .965 save percentage. For the season, his goals-against average (1.48) and save percentage (.952) are league bests.Its not my job to score. Its my job to work with the guys and defend. I have zero complaints with how the guys have been defending for me and playing, Dubnyk said. I got no question in here that these guys can put the puck in the net. Sometimes it takes something like that to turn it around.Minnesota has allowed an NHL-low 29 total goals in 16 games this season, including 10 in its last nine games, dating back to a 5-0 shutout Oct. 25 in Boston.Dubnyk kept the game scoreless 6 minutes into the third coming out of the crease and diving to poke the puck away from Matt Beleskey, who was in alone after a turnover by Matt Dumba.Rask stopped 28 shots. He is 4-1-0 in his past five games, with a 0.80 goals-against average and .947 save percentage.His best save came late in the second, getting his glove up quick to stifle Jason Pominville, who was alone in front and had a second to move the puck to his forehand.Hes been unbelievable, carrying us and bailing us out when we made mistakes, David Backes said. We need to find a way to beat the other goaltender.Boston has scored four goals in its last three games.An undisclosed injury has kept Bruins leading-scorer David Pastrnak, who has 10 goals and 14 points in 14 games, out of the past two practices. Coach Claude Julien said the right wing is day to day. Riley Nash played on the top line with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.After an evenly played opening period featuring stellar stops on both ends, and Minnesota controlling the first 14 minutes of the second, Boston thought it took a 1-0 lead when a shot from Torrey Krug deflected off the skate of Backes and behind Dubnyk with 5:30 to play in the frame. However, after a lengthy video review it was ruled the Bruins were offside entering the zone.Pardon my language but the (bad) bounces were 1-1 and ours was just an offside and theirs was a goal, Rask said. But after two periods when its 0-0 you feel like its gonna be some kind of breakdown or lucky bounce and thats what happened.Game notes Boston was scoreless on two power plays and is 4 for 60 all-time against the Wild. ... Minnesota assigned C Joel Eriksson Elk to Farjesta BK in the Swedish Elite League. Eriksson Ek has two goals and three assists in nine games and would have had the first year of his three-year entry-level contract kick in if he played a 10th game. ... Bruins D Kevan Miller, who began practicing with the team Tuesday, did not play. He had surgery Oct. 11 to repair a fracture in his left hand.UP NEXTBruins: Host Winnipeg on SaturdayWild: Host Colorado on Saturday to conclude a three-game homestand Cheap Nike Shox Gravity Mens . Cote was eligible to become a free agent Feb. 15. Cote helped running back Jon Cornish run for a league-high 1,813 rushing yards en route to being named the leagues most outstanding player. Mens Vapormax Sale . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. http://www.clearancenikeshoxcheap.com/ . PETERSBURG, Fla. Nike Shox Mens Cheap . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Cheap Vapormax For Sale . Pierce was ejected in the third quarter of Indianas 103-86 win Monday. George Hill stole a bad pass and was going in for a layup, and Pierce hustled back and appeared to be trying to wrap him up. There are turning points for every professional sports league. Sometimes its the merger of two leagues such as the NFL and AFL in 1966, or the NBA and ABA 10 years later. Sometimes its the impact of a player. When Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, the NHL didnt have another team in the United States west of Minneapolis or south of Philadelphia. When Magic Johnson and Larry Bird entered the NBA in 1979, the NBA Finals, which would become their annual stage, was still televised on tape delay.On Thursday, esports, and more specifically League of Legends, might have ushered in a turning point for an emerging league looking for the same credibility and stability as traditional sports.Riot Games, which is the developer and publisher of League of Legends, announced a series of initiatives aimed at growing the game and moving it closer to a traditional sports model. While the jury is still out whether players and team owners take to the new model, Riot hopes these moves will inject more revenue into the entire ecosystem.To help us get there, the organization said in a news release, well share [League of Legends] esports revenue streams and collaborate with our partners to develop new business models and actively shape the league. We want these partners to have permanent stakes, to be invested in a stable future and profit from the continued success of the sport.The announcement came after a series of high-profile events - from two North American League of Legends Championship Series (NA LCS) teams, Renegades and Team Impulse, being kicked out of the league to a public dispute between Riot co-founder Marc Merrill and Team Solomid owner Andy Dinh - called into question the structure and practices of the company.There are obviously many differences between esports and traditional sports, but talk to the owners of the 10 teams competing in the NA LCS and theyll tell you it starts at the top. Unlike traditional sports where individual teams make up the ownership group of leagues like the NFL and the NBA, owners of LCS teams in the leagues in North America, Europe, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and many more, have no ownership stake in the league.Riot Games owns the game and there is currently no significant sharing of revenue streams as there is in other professional sports league where member clubs profit from broadcast rights, league merchandise and sponsorship sales. Teams make most of their money off of their own individual sponsorship deals and streaming revenue. And even those deals are hard to come by for many teams since the NA LCS forces the bottom three teams in a 10-team league to play in a relegation tournament, where two teams could not only be sent down to the Challenger Series but be forced to fold with the loss of revenue following such a move. Its a chance many sponsors dont want to take and serves as the biggest reason why sponsorship and player deals are largely year-to-year arrangements instead of long-term contracts.Its an outdated model that has come under heavy criticism lately from team owners looking to grow along with the sport before being forced out due to shrinking revenues, increasing player salaries and the instability caused by a relegation system thats common abroad but foreign to North American professional sports leagues.Weve had the privilege of talking to a number of different sports leagues across a variety of topics and one of the things that we learned is there is there is no singular path or singular outcome that works for everybody, Whalen Rozelle, co-director of esports at Riot Games, told ESPN. What we were inspired by was the idea of a collective group that has shared interest in achieving victory together. We believe League of Legends as a sport can get to that point.When Riot Games kicked out Renegades and Team Impulse, as well as Team Dragon Knights of the Challenger Series in May, tellling owners they had 10 days to sell the team, many within the community were outraged by the drastic action that came without much in the way of publicly divulged proof of wrongdoing.dddddddddddd The swift rulings without the opportunity for an appeals process also gave many prospective investors pause. After having their teams receive investments from athletes such as Shaquille ONeal, Alex Rodriguez, Jimmy Rollins and Rick Fox as well as inquiries from teams such as the Miami Dolphins, the death penalties served as a black eye for a company in need of makeover.We learned theres a desire within the community for more transparency, Jarred Kennedy, director of esports and merchandise at Riot Games, told ESPN. Theres a concern with whos keeping Riot accountable. We acknowledge the need to build mechanisms so there can be more shared governance of what we do together. We think there are some things we can do with third-party arbitration in cases that are death-penalty situations. We want to reinforce the comfort level of the community that were doing things in the best interest of the sports and the fans and the players.Five years ago, Brandon Beck, co-founder of Riot Games, envisioned a future where events and production value matched that of traditional sports, and where major tournaments would be held at sold-out arenas in front of thousands of screaming fans. It seemed like a pipe dream at the time, but the truth was he didnt need five years. When the League of Legends Season 3 World Championship was held at Staples Center in Los Angeles in 2013, it sold out within an hour and had 32 million unique viewers online. That figure is higher than the number of people who tuned in to watch the BCS National Championship Game or Game 7 of the NBA Finals that year.This years world championships will once again be held at Staples Center next month, and after again selling out in a matter of minutes it became the most searched for event on StubHub, surpassing NFL and college football games.Beck also envisioned a future where there would be rivalries among storied teams with strong fan bases and legendary players known for long careers with a team, just like in traditional sports. While weve seen that in some cases, the current economic model has made it impossible for teams to think past one year as they try to not get regulated or worse, fold. The majority of contracts in the NA LCS are year-to-year, as is the shelf life for some of the lower-tier teams. Thats something that Riot Games plans to address following Thursdays announcement.The idea of a long-term partnership is a major step, Rozelle said. That allows teams to think on a longer time frame, and as we build the future that will be highly unlikely without the teams thinking on the same time frame that were thinking. You make different decisions when youre thinking in the short term and the long term. And the increased economic activity in the scene will ensure both security long term and give teams the confidence to sign players to longer term contracts.Esports and League of Legends specifically isnt where it wants to be yet. Where that is exactly is even a mystery to Riot Games executives still amazed at how far theyve come with a game they introduced to the public only seven years ago and now has over 100 million monthly players. The idea of selling out arenas and being watched by more people than the NBA Finals or Final Four was too far-fetched to even be a dream five years ago. But they know to get the next level theyre going to need some help now.Our goal is to make this as professional an enterprise as any other major sports leagues, Kennedy said. We know there are gaps and how we close those gaps is by working with the teams and players. We cant do that alone. ' ' '