KMK: League Of Legends Sold Out World Championships

The League Of Legends Sold Out World Championships have arrived. Unless you’re a gamer chances are you probably haven’t heard of E-Sports. Hey, I see that smirk curling your lips. Don’t laugh. E-Sports are big business, drawing thousands of spectators and dishing out millions in prize money. Earlier this year at the International World  Championships of DOTA 2 the winning team, Newbee, took home a purse of over 5 million USD. That’s an eye popping chunk of change. Now, let it sink in that DOTA 2’s popularity pales in comparison to it’s rival and the League Of Legends World Championships are upon us.

Atop the E-Sport mountain sits League of Legend or LOL for short. LoL, like DOTA 2, is a MOBA (multi-player online battle arena) style game where in two 5 man teams vie for control of the battle field with the ultimate objective of destroying the opposing team’s nexus located in their home base. To do so each player controls an avatar that possesses very distinct strengths, weaknesses, and abilities to destroy not only the enemy but also objectives on the map like towers, enemy minions, and non player creatures like Dragons, rock trolls, and even a Demon named Baron Nashor.

Got it? Don’t worry if you don’t. Once you’ve played or even just watched a few matches it all gets easy to understand but oh so hard to master. In League players rank from the lowly Bronze division, on through Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, to Master and Challenger level. That’s a whole lot of league and most don’t come anywhere near the top. However, for those who do, the Championship series awaits. The culmination of which took place this past Sunday in Korea at the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

The League of Legends finals while lacking the huge purse of DOTA 2 more than made up for it. Over forty thousand fans descended upon the stadium to watch live while millions upon millions viewed the match streaming online. Outside, vendors hawked souvenirs and swag. Sticker booths and photo zones with professional teams let you get your pic with a favorite pro. A fan art exhibition displayed a dizzying array of work from talented artists, many of who were on hand to sign their work. Not to be outdone the cos-players were out in force sporting outfits that looked straight out of the game while Imagine Dragon rocked the crowd with Warriors. Still, the real action was all about the four teams, two Korean ( Samsung Blue and Samsung White) and Two Chinese ( OMG and Star Horn Royal Club) squaring off. Only Samsung White and Star Horn Royal Club made it to the finals with Samsung White, as expected, demolishing it’s rival 3-1 in a best of five to rise from the ashes of SHRC’s dreams like the proverbial phoenix.

If you watched the match you really could sense the outcome early on. Samsung White completely wrecks the competition to a point that the tension evaporates. Their win is almost inevitable with the way they strangle their opponents on the map; slowly and methodically encroaching on the enemy’s base, destroying towers, taking objectives and amounting an insurmountable gold advantage. And therein lies the  problem with LOL If your team snowballs you really can’t be stopped.

Though you might want to tweak a known adage and say “don’t hate the game, hate the player” and in this case you’d be right. Samsung White and the other Korean teams are light years ahead of their rivals. In Korea, E-Sports rule right alongside other more mainstream sports like soccer and baseball. Here in the land of the morning calm E-Sports are championed by the government and sponsored by corporations. The teams practice, skirmish, and run drills like any other sports team. They put in the time, effort and work like other more traditional teams in more mainstream sports.They’re professionals. Which is probably why other teams from around the world are beginning to emulate the Korean model. They’ll have their teams living, sleeping, and practicing together.

Maybe this will level the playing field and make things more competitive. Still, my money’s on Samsung White in the finals of World’s 2015.