Image from LoL esports
Today, on Thursday the 5th of October, the main event of the League of Legends World Championship kicks off in Wuhan, China. The tournament has a prize pool of more than $2.25 million, 16 teams from all over the world competing and the action starts at 9:00 am CEST.
League of Legends is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena with 100 million active players every month (according to its developer, Riot Games) originally released in 2009. Since its release, the game has seen a steady rise in popularity and is now one of the most popular e-sports around. The gameplay revolves around two teams of 5 ‘champions’ competing to take down the opponents base first, and a match ranges from a modest 15 to upwards of 40 minutes in length.
Today’s competition will be the beginning of the group stage – a 4 day long even in which the 16 teams, divided between 4 groups, will compete for 8 places in the quarter finals happening later this month. After quarter finals and semi finals, the remaining two teams will face off in Beijing on November 4th – which leaves plenty of time to get familiar with the game until then.
The LoL World Championships is one of the largest events in competitive video games this year and although rivaled by DOTA’s “The International” in prize money, it is certainly an event to keep an eye on for anyone interested in e-sports.
