Behind League of Legends, e-sports’s main attraction

Dozens of those players are now in Seoul, at the fourth world championship. On Oct. 19, the finals will be held in a stadium built for soccer’s World Cup, with 40,000 fans expected and many times that number watching online. Last year, Riot Games says, 32 million people around the world saw a South Korean team win the Summoner’s Cup, along with a grand prize of $1 million, in the Staples Center in Los Angeles. That’s an audience larger than the one that tuned in to the last game of the N.B.A. finals that year.

I play League of Legends, and the sheer size of the game and everything related to it still baffles me. I, too, watch the World Championships live, I play almost every day, watch other people play on live streams and youTube, and I’m still enjoying it. Quite the phenomenon.

39 Comments

  1. 2014-10-11 1:01 am
    • 2014-10-11 1:44 am
      • 2014-10-12 4:38 am
        • 2014-10-12 3:19 pm
        • 2014-10-15 6:11 pm
  2. 2014-10-11 2:40 am
  3. 2014-10-11 5:49 am
    • 2014-10-11 8:20 am
      • 2014-10-11 9:20 am
    • 2014-10-11 8:22 am
      • 2014-10-11 9:19 am
        • 2014-10-11 10:18 am
          • 2014-10-12 2:36 am
          • 2014-10-12 4:29 am
          • 2014-10-12 6:16 pm
          • 2014-10-13 7:22 am
          • 2014-10-13 5:37 am
          • 2014-10-13 7:22 am
          • 2014-10-13 9:45 am
          • 2014-10-14 8:33 am
          • 2014-10-12 4:05 am
        • 2014-10-11 4:39 pm
    • 2014-10-11 9:12 am
      • 2014-10-13 9:37 am
        • 2014-10-14 8:39 am
    • 2014-10-13 6:37 am
  4. 2014-10-11 3:32 pm
    • 2014-10-12 5:15 am
      • 2014-10-12 11:52 am
        • 2014-10-12 12:36 pm
          • 2014-10-12 3:00 pm
          • 2014-10-13 9:39 am
          • 2014-10-13 12:32 pm
        • 2014-10-13 7:02 am
        • 2014-10-13 9:19 am
          • 2014-10-13 10:21 am
          • 2014-10-14 6:13 am
          • 2014-10-14 1:46 pm
    • 2014-10-13 7:33 am