How are we only finding this out now?
LoL : Blue and Red Teams Have Actual Names
The whole concept League of Legends is based on started with the first DotA, and in today's DotA 2 the name of the two sides is well-known, as the Radiant and the Dire, classic good and evil factions respectively.
In League of Legends, the two sides have always been called the Blue and Red side, due to the coloring. However, that is only among the player base. The original intent was a tad different.
What are the Sides in LoL Called?
Quite a lot of current League of Legends players, including us, have been playing the game for around 10 years now. But diving into some game files, and old lore, there is a discovery to be made.
In League of Legends game mode Nexus Blitz, the two sides are called Order and Chaos, while old game files dub the two sides as Team Aqua and Team Magma. The latter is exclusive to said game mode, however, while the former doesn't really hold up, due to the original red side actually being violet in color.
The lore, however, which has since been retconned and changed more times than can be counted, calls the Blue Side the Protectorate and the red side the Magelords.
Protectorate and Magelords - Lore
in the old League of Legends, what we now call the Summoner's Rift, was called the Fields of Justice in lore, and the arenas were an actual physical thing on Runeterra.
They were formed as an alternative to the Rune Wars, which ravaged the planet, so the various factions would have a way to settle their differences without widespread war.
The whole system was created by the Institute of War, a cabal of powerful summoners that saw the destruction in Runeterra's future if another Rune War kicked off. But even these Summoners were not infallible.
They separated themselves into two camps, the Protectorate, with the symbol of a stag, who would uphold all rules no matter how draconic they were, and the Magelords, with the symbol of the Owl, the ones who would not mind seeing another Rune War kick-off.
Nowadays the Summoner's Rift no longer exists as a place on Runeterra, and the old lore has been relegated to an alternate universe of the Warden and Marauder skin lines.
- Sometimes we miss the old League. Get yourself an LoL memento to stave away the nostalgia
However, while the current face of Runeterra has no place for Summoner's Rift, the map and the game, in general, take a great influence from the lore and ideas present on Runeterra, as a sort of echo of Runeterra Prime.
So, while the games we play are no longer canon in Runeterra's history, seeing as the champions and factions still exist on Runeterra, it's safe to assume that the Blue side and Red side are still the Protectorate and the Magelords, respectively.