LoL world championships draw millions of viewers

By Kameron Chausse

The League of Legends World Championship tournament is underway. For the month of October, the best teams from across the world will compete against each other. Each match will be broadcast to an audience of millions. The tournament will culminate in an epic best-of-five battle  between the top two teams on October 31 for the title of World Champions and a potential grand prize of $1 million.

To those not in the know, League of Legends is one of the most played multiplayer computer games on the planet as well as one of the most widely viewed eSports in the world. According to numbers released by Riot Games, who developed the game, League of Legends had 27 million daily players and 67 million unique monthly players as of early 2014. Over 27 million viewers, with 11.2 million viewers at one time, tuned in to the final match of the 2014 World Championships – compared to 5 million viewers for the NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 in the same year.

The main game mode is played between two teams of five, each player controlling a unique character on a two dimensional map with a fantasy setting. The teams of five will then utilize teamwork and their character’s unique abilities to conquer neutral objectives and eventually destroy the enemy’s base. With a roster of over 125 unique characters, every match is a test of each team’s adaptability and strategy.

A total of sixteen professional teams have made it to Worlds this year. Of those, three are North American; Counter Logic Gaming (CLG), Team SoloMid (TSM), and Cloud9 (C9). The other eleven hail from South Korea, China, Europe, and Southeast Asia with two “International Wildcards” (one from Brazil, and one from Thailand). Traditionally, the Korean and Chinese teams have been favourites – the 2012 champions were the Chinese Taipei Assassins, where the 2013 and 2014 winners were the South Korean SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy White, respectively. The only Western team to have won the World Championship in history has been the European team Fnatic, in season one in 2011.

This year’s tournament began on the first of October with the group stages taking place over the first two weekends of the month. Several teams, including all three North American teams, were knocked out in the group stages with the remaining players made up of a mix of European, Chinese, and Korean teams.

“It’s a spectacle and one full of people who were all really talented and entertaining playing a game I liked,” said Niraj ‘Everbronze’ Ratanji, a Silver-5 ranked LoL player and eSports enthusiast.  “I think it’s also a good way to pick up on ways to improve as a player yourself.”

Everbronze has played League of Legends for three years and been a fan of the LoL eSports scene since 2012. In that time he has become a diehard TSM fan and has taken to following the players on streaming sites, even in the off season. He will continue to follow current and former TSM affiliated players now that they are not obligated to continue in the tournament.

ESports are gradually becoming more popular as viewership grows. LoL’s World Championships this year will be held in several cities across Europe, with the finals being held in Berlin’s Mercedes-Benz Arena. Last year’s season four World Championships were held in South Korea’s packed Sangam Stadium where 40,000 fans cheered the teams on. Sangam Stadium might be remembered as a venue for 2002’s FIFA world cup.

“The growth of eSports has been nothing short of amazing,” said Shaun Byrne, CEO of eSport Gaming Events (EGE). EGE is an event planning company that organizes eSports events in Windsor and Essex County. “ESports have been able to accomplish in just a few years what traditional sports have taken over fifty years to accomplish.”

Several real-world establishments have begun to broadcast eSports events for their patrons as well, with ‘eSports cafes’ such as Tecumseh’s Kappa Gaming Lounge cropping up across North America and beyond. Cineplex has announced plans to begin broadcasting certain events up on the silver screen.

The LoL championships will be broadcast across several websites including streaming site Twitch.TV, YouTube, and Riot’s own eSports website lolesports.com. It’s also available through the League of Legends in-game client, through a pop-up function. A full schedule can be found at http://2015.na.lolesports.com/ and past and current games from this tournament can be found at the LoLChampSeries YouTube channel.