I remember my Dad, back in 1982, such a long time ago because I am old, unpacking my ZX Spectrum 48K Personal Computer, plugging in a tape recorder and loading up Asteroids. This was my 10th Birthday present and he was “just testing it.” I wasn’t allowed to play, but his words “these things will never catch on” were probably echoed every generation about something or other – computers, consoles, fire, the wheel…
A youth of Atic Atac, Jet Set Willy (just… no), Knightmare, Way of the Exploding Fist, Barbarian, all loaded up over the space of fifteen to twenty minutes (you weren’t there, man, you don’t know the pain of patience) with the TV screeching at you just to play a game for the next thirty minutes, usually on your own, though I had a brother (still do, Hi Jon), so we did play two-player games but that was it.
No LAN parties
No Internet
No Social Media or YouTube
These were the Dark Ages of the late 20th Century. That we have documents to prove they existed is as much a miracle as the copies of the Magna Carta still in existence.
With the Internet, the world changed, and gaming has not stopped changing, and one amazing example of this is the WORLDS 24 League of Legends Final held in the O2 Arena, London, England, on Saturday 2nd November 2024.
I was invited as the guest of a VIP by Riot Games and spent a little time the night before watching a Beginner’s Guide video, having only played the game a few times in the distant past and not being very good at it, nor understanding what I was really doing.
I am, because I’ve been a gamer my whole life, aware that there are Professional Gaming Teams out there and that Asia tends to dominate at the moment. I’ve also watched every episode of King’s Avatar on Netflix (with Subtitles) which I heartily recommend to everyone! The idea of anyone playing, no, better and more accurate to say competing at Computer Games (eSports) would have had me saying “this will never catch on” (and hence falling into the generational stereotype) twenty years ago.
These players spend every day practising, learning, working on strategy, becoming a team as much as, and I’d dare say somewhat better than, a football or Rugby team. As they play, they are in constant communication, sharing information, formulating, discarding, and enacting tactics to bring about a victory. Sometimes they are carefully planned, others are spur of the moment and based upon long association – they know what the others will do before they do it.
The more you watch, the more you understand the ebb and flow of the game, the more you are drawn into the contest.
The two teams competing over five games were the South Korean fan-favourites Team One (with Faker being the most well known player in the world, I am told – and judging by the cheers which went up every time he got a kill I can see this as the total truth!) against the Chinese Team BLG who had been storming their way through round after round to reach this final.
To add to the rivalry and drama; Faker has one four previous WORLDS for Team One, whereas Knight, of BLG, had yet to win one but had been close a number of times.
The stage was set. Five Games. Five fights to the death. What a spectacle it was!
Oh, and if you’re not convinced as to how important eSports are… a. Linkin Park wrote the theme song for the WORLDS and were there, in the O2, performing it live for the crowd, and b. Graham Ashton, RIOT GAMES Esports (External Affairs Manager) showed me the stats for numbers watching at the start – 6 million people worldwide NOT including China which would easily have doubled that figure. Also, c. Arcane is an animated show on Netflix based in the League of Legends World which has won Emmy awards and is about to return for Season 2.
eSports are big business and Governments (I am in the UK, so this is aimed at the current Government) would be well advised to take note and start promoting, looking for those opportunities.
Two quick figures for you about the UK’s games market for 2024.
- £4.47 Billion in Games Sales Revenue
- £3.68 Billion added to GDP from the Video Games Industry
The crowd cheered, lights flashed, as the two teams approached the stage and sat at their computers, getting last minute strategies from their coaches as they chose their avatars/champions one by one. It wasn’t, for me, until the last three games that I got a real understanding of how important this phase really was. Each team choosing champions to synergise with their teammates and counter those picks on the other teams.
Game one began, and like every game which followed, BLG took the first kill and the game got started. I was confused on the strategies, the subtleties of the play in this game. The commentators did a great job of keeping us up to speed on the goings on, but it was so fast in places that, though I knew something extraordinary had happened, some planned confluence of skills and ultimates, I just really didn’t grasp it.
Team One lost game one and you could sense a change in the crowd’s mood. More BLG cheering than that for T1.
Game two though was a total opposite. T1 came out of their base and stomped BLG who just could not, despite trying hard, mount a defence or counter attack.
Game three went BLGs way though with a change of Champions, and gauging the crowd’s reaction there were some bold choices which would make the players the hero or villain depending on how it went.
2 – 1 to BLG meant they needed just one more game to take their first ever International title and the momentum was with them.
Game Four was a little longer, I feel, as a game but T1 took ascendency at around the fifteen minute mark and didn’t look like losing from them on.
2 – 2. Last game. Winner takes all.
And Game Five was a nervy, cautious affair. Neither team seemed willing to take chances or push too far. Towers fell. Dragons were killed. Then, at 29 minutes there was a team vs team battle. It came from near nowhere and it ended with T1 taking out BLG and from that moment it was over.
I’ve not done the tense moments justice, I’ve not conveyed the oohs or the groans on each kill, the gasps as a character died, or the insane level of noise whenever Faker killed one of the opposition.
All in all, from start at 2pm to finish at 7pm, I don’t think I’ve ever been so engaged in a sport, in a final, unable to look away in case I missed something.
This was an amazing experience, a spectacle to rival an England game at Wembley, an American Football game with all its pageantry, excited commentary, little between play skits and events going on. Linkin Park. The dancers. The commentators.
Simply brilliant.
eSports have been growing and growing over the decades, and the 17,000 of us inside the O2 (there were no empty seats) loved every minute, and they’ll keep growing.
What the next generation will say “this will never catch on” in reference to is bound to be wrong also – listen out for it, smile at their naivete, and just nod in the wise way that old people (like me) do.
Hold onto your hats, grab your keyboards, settle a hand on your mouse and get ready to play because eSports are here to stay.
And thank you to Riot Games for the invite and opportunity.
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Julia Kitvaria Sarene