Link to the article:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/riot-announces-lan-client-will-be-in-use-for-season-2-6398220

After the shenanigans in the match between World Elite (WE) and Counter Logic Gaming EU (CLG.EU) at the season 2 quarterfinals, Riot is working on a LAN client that will be used in tournaments. In the past, many games came with a LAN function to host offline events, such as tournaments like these. However, over time, developers and publishers became more and more worried about the rise of piracy and private servers. They turned away form LAN and just use an internet connection. Unfortunately, the need for a constant internet connection causes problems such as what happened in the League of Legends quarterfinals where there were at least 2 disconnects and 1 power outage that caused the entire event to be delayed. Had this not occurred, there is a chance that the quarterfinals match ups could have been very different considering the path that the first 2 games actually took. The games that actually counted had very one sided results that day. Do not forget about the incident with Starcraft 2 early in the year where the entire crowd ended up chanting "We want LAN." Perhaps there is a need for a LAN version of games just for when they host tournaments. There is always a risk that things might go wrong, but the developers, publishers, event hosts, and sponsors should be doing everything they can to reduce that risk, even if it means opening it up to a chance of piracy. Odds are any game can be pirated anyways as long as there is someone motivated enough to do so.

The LAN client will be used in today's finals match (about 3 hours from this post at 17:30 PST, that's 5:30 PM). 

Back in the late 90s and even the early 2000s, online games often included a LAN feature because video games were still seen as a sort of group and social activity. However, as time went on, games became less about group activities and were considered something you did alone. Not all games are like that, but many are treated as that. With things like Xbox Live and PSN, games became tied to individual accounts along with the saves making it even harder to bring a game to a friend's house to play. The result is that many games have continued on to the path as a solo game rather than a group thing. It is rare for several people to actually be in the same room playing the same game any more. Gaming is still a stigma in the United States and many games try to separate themselves through the "casual gamer" market. Other countries like Germany and Australia are also quick to jump on the anti-video game bandwagon whenever the opportunity arises. If LAN or better forms of offline multiplayer were reintroduced into video games, it might change the perspective on video games again.