League Of Legends Leading the Way

League of Legends has been out for a little over 4 years now and if you have paid ANY attention to the video game scene, you know how immensely popular the game is. I am a pretty frequent visitor to Twitch TV and I would say that LoL has the most viewers 95% of the time. Not to mention, its normally not even close in regards to viewership. As of right now, LoL has 82,000 viewers and the second most viewed game has 11,000 viewers.

I played the game for a few weeks awhile back and while it was fun, it never really held my attention for more then a few weeks at a time. In order to keep my A.D.D. at bay, a game has to be REALLY good and most importantly, fun. Now I know that alot of the fun with this game is playing with other people and working as a team. I only know a few people that play LoL and even if I knew more, my gaming schedule is anything but normal. So my playing experience has been almost exclusively solo.

So what made me take another look at LoL? As previously stated, I go to Twitch TV quite often and I am very used to LoL being the number 1 viewed game. However, this weekend when I took a look I couldn't help but to notice the overwhelming number of viewers...it was over a half of million people!!! Even with those numbers, I didn't think too much of it. I just assumed some major tourney was going on. It is pretty common for big eSport games to get similar viewer numbers during major tourneys. Though I would be lying if I said that I have ever seen over a half of million viewers tuned into one game on twitch.

I went on with the rest of my day and I couldn't help to notice one of my favorite YouTuber's, Husky StartCraft, live tweeting about this LoL tournament he was at. He wasn't apart of the broadcast team, just there as a fan. Oh yeah, it was also at the same arena where the LA Lakers play their home games...the Staples Center! The SOLD OUT Staples Center at that!

Okay, okay, now I you have my interest. I mean the fucking Staples Center?!? I went back to twitch and started watching the stream. It was grand finals and I have to say I was quite shocked on all the hype and excitement from the crowd. I watched the final few matches and I figured that I have to give this game another go around. See if I can't get what all this fuss is about. I mean who knows, maybe this is my chance to go pro and win millions of dollars...

...dreams can happen right? I wasn't joking about the millions though. The winning 5 man team took home a 2 million dollar prize. Quite balla for a group of teenagers if I don't say so myself.



Check out this great article GameSpot put out on the finals and the eSport scene. LoL is eSports right now people. I can't help but to get excited when I read these types of things. I love video games and if ESPN can broadcast bowling on a Saturday afternoon, then why the fuck not popular and competitive video games? Here is my favorite quote from the article...

"Riot Games Vice President of eSports Dustin Beck tweeted during Game 1 of the broadcast that there was an estimated 1 million concurrent users watching through Twitch, YouTube, and AzubuTV, with another 1 million concurrent users watching through streams in China and South Korea. Beck added in conservative estimates of an additional 4 million watching on TV in an unspecified number of countries."

The article does also mention that they are getting some major sponsors now as well adding that Coke Zero has signed on for the upcoming season. Step in the right direction I say right? Fuck yeah it is. Like the game or not, anyone that is for the expansion of eSports has to recognize that LoL is leading the way and that by itself is pretty flipping awesome.

I Canz Play Too?!?

That's right! Even a normal fat american like myself can play the game. It is the main game that has seen huge success from the FTP (free to play) game model. Unlike other games that use the model, you really do not get an advantage by paying for in game items. I am pretty noobish at the game and have yet to play against other players...only co-op vs AI bots. The game is extremely simple and like most really good eSports competitive games, it gets very complex and complicated fast. 

So far I've been struggling heavily, but also learning quite a bit. I plan to document my journey in this blog from noob to below average...

...I know I am setting the bar high right? We shall see how it goes and hopefully it will turn out a fun and enjoyable experience to play and also write about. I have a few helpful links listed on my page under the Gaming section that pertain to LoL. It is also a given that I will copy and paste all the best information I find helpful like the awesome blogger I am.  

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