League of Legends or LoL for short, is a competitive multiplayer game for PC. Chances are however that if you go to UCI, you’ve heard of it at least in passing. Take one step into the Esports Arena and you’ll see many players both new and old duking it out on this virtual battlefield. Although not quite as mainstream as traditional sports, the competitive scene for this game is enormous. And despite the fact that the comparison of video game to sport is more than controversial, there is no denying that throughout the world people love the game as much as any other.
Recently, The Association of Gamers at UCI held a viewing party for the League of Legends World Championship, and I was happily able to attend. It’s an annual event that is live streamed at the Crystal Cove Auditorium, and although I personally don’t play, I was amazed at the passion and excitement of all the fans. Sponsors provided pizza, chips, and drinks for all of the spectators, and the event was even sponsored by big name hardware companies like HyperX, Nvidia Geforce, and GIGABYTE, who were all contributing prizes for the raffle. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough to win a new graphics card or keyboard, but I was really impressed at the production value, and the fact that TAG was able to snag such high profile sponsors. I had heard about it, but I didn’t fully realize how large and passionate the gaming community at UCI really was.
The theater was completely packed, and there were people rooting for both the grand finalists: Samsung and SK Telecoms. SKT had won three of the past six championships, so people were expecting them to take every game in the best out of five series. To the community’s surprise however, Samsung managed to win three games straight and take home the victory. Even though I had no team I was especially rooting for, being there with people so passionate about the game was an amazing experience. There were so many hype moments and exciting games that even though it was 3 AM, the whole crowd was completely full of energy.
I would highly recommend this event to anyone. Even if you’re not a fan of League of Legends or you’re not a fan of video games in general, I think it’s definitely worth going to.
