When I mention eSports to someone outside of the “gamer” culture, they generally have no idea what I am talking about. For many people, eSports is a culture that is either a joke or so incredibly niche that it simply cannot be profitable. The truth, however, is that eSports is bigger than ever: a multi-billion dollar industry. My personal experience with eSports is far off from the average fan, however.
League of Legends (referred to as LoL or League) is the most popular game in the world, and my eSports game of choice. League of Legends is a five-versus-five team-based MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). This single game brought in $2 billion this year alone and has over 100 million monthly active players. That is roughly 1.3 percent of the world population for a single game! These facts are what I usually present when someone assumes that eSports have yet to take off.
Outside of the global phenomenon and the economic success of eSports is the actual events themselves. On the weekend of October 21 and 22, I attended the League of Legends (LoL) Worlds Semifinals. The LoL World Championship (“Worlds”) is a 16-team, five-week event that takes place annually in October. The Semifinal matchups were between Korea’s SK Telecom T1 (SKT) versus Korea’s ROX Tigers (ROX), and Europe’s Hard2Kill (H2K) versus Korea’s Samsung Galaxy (SSG) respectively.
The tension in Madison Square Garden was palpable on Friday night. Two Korean titans were clashing for the fifth time since the Tiger’s inception, and SKT had won all previous series. SKT, lead by "the Michael Jordan of eSports" Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, take the stage, alongside coach Kim "kkOma" Jung-gyun. On the other side of the stage stands ROX, lead by Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho and Yoon "Peanut" Wang-ho. Peanut, the newest edition to the Tigers’ roster, was one of the most hyped up players of the entire tournament. The question of the night rested between Faker and Smeb: which superstar player would lead their team to victory that night? Faker, long touted as the #1 player of all time, had lost this title to Smeb on the pre-tournament Top-20 Player list.
The series itself was back and forth. The first match had SKT up, but they would be subbing out Bae "bengi" Seong-ung for substitute Kang "Blank" Sun-gu. With this change of players, ROX would dominate the next two games of the series, pulling out a stunning Miss Fortune (one of the game’s ‘champions’, or characters). ROX duo Kim "PraY" Jong-in and Kang "GorillA" Beom-hyeon surprised the world in back-to-back victories with this unusual composition. After a tense game four, wherein Bengi once again took the stage, the series was tied 2 – 2. SKT would roll their momentum into a tumultuous game five, leaving SKT heading to the Finals, and ROX heading home.
The following night had Europe’s H2K matching up against Korea’s SSG. The matchup was not as highly hyped or anticipated as the previous night’s match, and rightfully so. SSG would go on to sweep H2K in a 3 – 0 series. The night ended earlier than the previous, and left me and my friends on our ways back home.
My experience with the event as a whole was terrific. Rarely is waking up at 4 a.m. for a flight worth it, but on October 21, it absolutely was. The SKT v.s. ROX series is currently being called “the greatest series of League of Legends of all time” by many members of the community, and seeing it live was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Having the opportunity to travel to New York City for a weekend and meet up with friends that I hadn’t seen for almost five months was an opportunity worth taking.
