Thousands attended Worlds in person and even more tuned in online to see two teams face off to win first place — as well as the larger chunk of a mostly crowdfunded prize pool (the final figure hasn’t been announced). The winning team will take home approximately half a million dollars, a figure that could go up if Riot sells more in-game cosmetics, the company said.
It’s also notable that both teams are South Korean, marking the return of the country’s dominance in “League” esports after China took dwelling the win in 2021, 2019 and 2018. Returning winner T1 has one of the vital recognizable gamers, Lee Sang-hyeok, higher generally known as “Faker,” a midlaner with reflexes that recall these of the biggest basketball athletes.
Veteran followers of “League” have naturally gravitated towards rooting for T1, although some are charmed by the Cinderella story of DRX, which has by no means received earlier than.
“DRX came into Worlds with a lot of doubts around them,” mentioned Eric Teixeira, a Brazilian content material creator and journalist. “They keep improving and getting more consistent.”
Teixeira guess $40 on what was considered an unlikely DRX win through the quarterfinals in New York and received $400, in opposition to the percentages.
Avril Alanna, 21-year-old skilled content material creator for esports group Cloud9, who flew in from Maryland to attend Saturday’s finals, mentioned she’s been rooting for DRX just because they’re the underdogs.
“This is [DRX bot laner Kim Hyuk-kyu] Deft’s first Worlds run that’s gotten this far, and he’s been in the industry for so long it would be such an amazing narrative of how hard work pays off, and as long as you chase your dreams and keep at it, you can achieve anything,” Alanna mentioned. She’s acquainted with how arduous work can repay — she began taking part in “League” when she was ten years outdated; eight years later, in 2019, she hit Challenger, the very best rank in “League of Legends.”
The event’s organizer, Riot Games, owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent, has ambitions to make Worlds as ubiquitous within the collective consciousness because the Super Bowl is within the United States.
Riot’s world head of League esports Naz Aletaha mentioned to The Washington Post in an interview, “If you’ve heard ‘League of Legends,’ if you play ‘League of Legends,’ you want to tune into Worlds, that’s our goal. And that’s why I liken it to the Super Bowl.”