Written and Media by Miguel Fabela.
Welcome to Summoner’s Rift! These are the first words you hear when entering the battlegrounds of “League of Legends”. You’re probably asking yourself why is this article in the sports section when “League of Legends” is a video game played on a PC. Although that is true, it is considered to be in the category of an e-sport. The definition of an e-sport from Google is “a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers”. Before you begin to criticize “League of Legends” for being considered a sport, why don’t you take the time to learn and understand the game?
Source: http://en.intelextrememasters.com
“League of Legends” is a team oriented strategy game, with the goal being to work together with your teammates to bring down the enemy nexus located in the middle of your base before your opponents take down yours. The nexus is essentially the heart of your base: if it goes down then you lose. It is the utmost importance to keep this alive. No matter what happens during the game, you must keep an eye on it.
To begin, you get to choose between a variety of champions (characters) that will fit the role you choose to play. There are four unique roles to choose from: Top, Mid (Middle), Jungle, and Bot (Bottom) which contains roles in it’s perspective lane. A lane is an area where each of the five champions reside in and go to battle. In each of the three lanes there are three towers that are protecting the enemy’s base, along with one inhibitor (small nexus).
To reach the nexus, you must destroy all the towers in one lane reaching the nexus. There are more micro-details that go into play when trying to get to the nexus but that is for another article! You can check out the video below if you want to get a visual understanding about the game.
Currently there are millions of ranked players in the world, which includes players that are at level thirty and currently played at least ten games in a season. The number of current active total players has reached 32 million! “League of Legends” has reached the number one most played game in the PC game in the world. This can be seen in the massive amounts of fans going to watch their favorite professional League teams. There are many teams to choose from as your favorite but the most popular team in North America (NA) is TeamSoloMid aka TSM.
Source: na.leagueoflegends.com
There are events held everywhere for League of Legends, whether they are held online for small tournaments or even selling out venues like Staples Center and Madison Square Garden. The game has become surprisingly popular since its release in October of 2009. Recently, Big Ten Network (BTN) partnered with Riot Games to host the first ever collegiate e-sport competition for the game. With teams in the Big Ten competing for a title to be champions.
While “League of Legends” is not as physically demanding as football, basketball, or baseball, it does not mean that there is any less dedication to the amount of time and effort that is being put into winning a championship. Now what’s in your way from seeing victory?
BTN University League of Legends
Big Ten Network University League of Legends – ULoL – say what? Yes, esports, it's a real thing now – and, League of Legends is the biggest esport in the world. Here's Mike Hall to help break down what exactly League of Legends is and compare it to a B1G sport you're probably much more familiar with – basketball.
Posted by Big Ten Network on Monday, February 6, 2017
