Not many people are aware a huge tournament is coming up in the gaming world during the next week. It’s time again for the League of Legends World Championship, now in its third season. The hype is getting crazy as the beginning rounds approach. With a $ 1 million prize and a chance to have their names forever written on the Summoner’s Cup, teams from North America, Europe, China, South Korea and Southeast Asia—along with one wild card international team—are getting prepped for competition. Each of the areas I mentioned, except the wild card team, has 3 teams who have entered into the competition.
The competition begins on Sept. 15 and goes until Oct. 4 with the finals at the Staples Center. Earlier this summer, Riot Game’s League of Legends gained dramatic news attention when it became recognized as a professional sport. This will only help the already popular League of Legends maintain its record as the most watched e-sport to date.
The tournament will have live casters and analysts who have been chosen as experts on the game. They will comment on strategy and debate about the possible outcomes of the games. The tournament will be live-streaming every match, but tickets are still available for the quarterfinals and the semifinals.
League of Legends is an online multiplayer arena game in which each player chooses a unique champion to take out the opposing team’s base. The games can last for more than an hour, which is a little daunting to the casual gamer, but it is fun. Each match played earns players a certain amount of points based on who battled and who won. These points can be used to unlock other champions, which adds another dimension of strategy to the game. The matches can be one-on-one all the way up to five-versus-five. There are three main ways to play: custom game, co-op versus AI and ranked match.
A custom game is where players create their own game with friends or random people—regardless of rank—to fight against other human players. The custom games can have an adjustable amount of players just like the other two types of gameplay. The points for custom games can vary because of the individualized customization.
Co-op versus AI is pretty self-explanatory. Players team up with other human players to take down a team of computer players. Of all of the play styles, co-op versus AI is one of the best to figure out the basics of the game, but, because the opponents aren’t actual people, the points given for winning a co-op vs. AI match are the lowest.
Ranked matches are battles in which the players are decided based on individual performance. Usually, players are paired with players of comparable ability. The prizes for these matches are the highest of the three types of matches. As players continue to battle, their ranks increase, and they’re given the opportunity to compete with more skilled opponents.
To get into the World Championship, teams have to be the top of multiple tiers of competition. Every player on each team has to have accounts with a rank of 30 to even become eligible to enter the preliminary competitions. This may sound like a seemingly easy task, but the amount of skill required to play this game well is ridiculous. I’m normally pretty good at any kind of game, but I cannot get past rank 8.
Each team has five members who each play a specific role in the match. The roles are support, jungler, ad carry, top lane and mid lane. The support is like all normal support roles. Supports cannot usually act alone but can buff allies while debuffing enemies, which is invaluable in battle. Junglers have one main role: clear out the monsters hiding in the woods on the map. They usually change roles near the end of the match by acting as a tank that tears through the opposing team. The ad carry position starts out incredibly weak, but by the end of the match the ad carry players can do large amounts of damage at once. Top lane and mid lane players stick to their paths on the map; top lane covers the top lane and the mid lane covers the middle lane.
For those who think that this sounds boring, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how entertaining watching and listening can be. I watch videos and still have fun with it despite the fact that I’m terrible at the game. The strategy and teamwork required to be successful in this tournament is high, and the competition is fierce. This year’s tournament will be the best and most talked about tournament yet. Tune in on Sept. 15 to catch the action.
