"Boards" is another name for Internet forums, which (as far as I know) originated in the days of online "bulletin board systems" long ago, when they were generally called boards. The term is not used much these days, and with Riot closing League of Legends Boards at the end of this month, it will fade a bit more.

"Effective March 9, 2020, we will be closing the League of Legends Boards," Riot said in an announcement." We know that some of you use them regularly, so we did not make this decision lightly. However, after examining the number of you who use the Board, it is clear that the popularity of this platform has declined significantly. Both players and lighters have migrated to other community discussion platforms such as Reddit and Discord, leaving Boards underutilized"

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"We would like to give a big shout out to our volunteer moderators, who have been a great help to the Boards community! Over time, we have seen volunteer moderator programs spring up for those passionate enough to support the players in their respective regions. They put a lot of effort into organizing community events like cosplay and fan art contests. They were always present on the Board, talking to the players and supporting them. I can't thank all the volunteers who have spent the past 10 years moderating the Board and supporting the community enough!"

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To give users a chance to archive what they want to keep, the Board will be view-only on March 9, but will remain accessible. A week later, however, it will go completely offline, and anything not archived will be lost.

The reaction to the Board's closure seems to be muted, which probably justifies Riot's decision to shut it down. Still, and even though I am not a LoL player, I always find it sad when a traditional forum goes out of business.

But I don't think you can fight progress, and fortunately there are plenty of other places where League of Legends fans can keep up with community happenings in the post-Boards world. Our PC Gamer Forums are another friendly place for discussion.