Before meeting the CSU League of Legends organization, I had no idea what this game consisted of or anything about the community that surrounds this growing E-Sport. According to Gameinfo.com, League of Legends is an online game that consists of two teams of characters with individual skill sets that battle head-to-head across multiple animated battlefields and game modes to produce a community thriving with tournament play and organizations.
On September 26th the CSU League of Legends club organized a competitive tournament for 80 of their members in the Newsom Events Center, but ended up having well over 100 participants. The CSU League of Legends Club President, Daniel Doryland shared with me what the organization did, “Our club activities consist of 'LANs', such as this, where we get together for a giant tournament. We have online meetups, since it is an online game, most of the stuff we do is online through the week. The World Championship is starting on October 1st. We will be having viewing parties where we get together and watch all of the events.”
The outreach of this growing organization is immense and spreading throughout the college community here at CSU. The CSU League of Legends Facebook page has over 700 “likes,” which is further proof of the popularity of this community based E-sport.
Watching over 100 CSU students set up their laptops, desktop computers, microphones, and headphones to tune into the online gaming portals and compete together with some Red Bull in hand was quite an experience. I didn’t expect to come across an industry leader of energy drinks and event sponsorship, Red Bull, to step in and support the event. It just goes to show that E-sports are gaining legitimacy as competitive sports and are being recognized by multinational businesses around the globe. The consensus is that participating in League of Legends is a sport indeed (Ratified by US Government in July 2014).
League of Legends is also a professional sport, and one individual on the path to a professional level is Fort Collins local Ayden Adair. Ayden is a 15-year-old League of Legends gamer who competed at the tournament at CSU. He is ranked at “Diamond 5”and is in the top two percent of the worldwide League of Legends membership of over 67 million players per month. This is Ayden’s first tournament and he was excited to attend for his first time. He described, “When you’re in an environment like this, it’s incredible because I can speak in our language and everyone will understand it, and we can laugh about it and you know you are not being pre-judged for playing League.”
The community is an immensely diverse organization that is pulling members from Greek Life, Residence Halls, D1 sports teams, alumni, the international student community, and is providing a place for individuals with a common interest to unite. This is one of the few areas on campus where you will see such a diverse group of students coming together for a common social interest.
A participant in the tournament event was first year CSU student Cody Bridges. Bridges explained to me the benefits of his involvement in the CSU League of Legends community, “I am here and I actually feel welcomed.” Cody Bridges stumbled upon this gaming community while attending the CSU Involvement Fair and was attracted to the club because, he said, “I can nerd out and people will accept me.” The CSU League of Legends club is congregating members of the collegiate body who are passionate about the same thing in an open and welcoming forum.
This community of CSU students, who are all passionate about League of Legends, is an organization that is gaining momentum on campus. The reach of this game is worldwide and the community that surrounds it is just as massive. The CSU League of Legends club is up and coming, and I wish you all the best in your online battles.
