League of Legends: perspective of someone who lived it for the first time

This is a chronicle from the view of a person who has never played or who does not know in depth about this eSport, which is growing worldwide.

After the freestylers, the protagonists of the day made their glorious entrance before the deafening ovation of the attendees. These are not 10 young people, they are idols, celebrities, public figures. They had already been asked at the press conference: how do you deal with being public figures of a nascent sport?

Both teams were aware that they weren't any John Doe. I kept thinking: if I had become famous, if they had sponsored me, if I had the opportunity to travel the world and get paid to play FIFA or Age of Empires at the age of 18 or 20, I would surely have gone crazy.

When the game started, everyone went crazy for a while and then they shut up, like a tennis match, to analyze in detail what the players were doing. Well, it was nothing as tennis, because the narrators kept commenting on the game and explaining what was happening. In the four gigantic screens, the competition was shown.

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The map was a square and the bases were located directly in opposite corners. There are three roads, called lanes, that lead to the bases, and each road is guarded by two turrets per team, so each team has six. In the middle of the map is the jungle, where several wild animals and beasts live. There are from frogs and giant birds to dragons and Baron Nashor, a giant beast similar to the Gyarados pokemon, which is the most powerful one.

The players are not alone: they have an army of subjects that help during the fight and are perfect for annihilating and winning coins. If one kills a player, it is not that he disappears and must wait until the next game to play. Depending on how much time has passed, the dead takes some time to revive. At the beginning of the game, it takes very few seconds; if the match takes between 40-50 minutes, which is on average what a LOL match lasts, it takes a minute to revive.

Although I told you that a normal match lasts between 40-50 minutes, the first match lasted only 25 minutes; Isurus, the shark, emerged victorious. This meant that Isurus completely dominated the rainbow, a team to which most Colombian assists were going because the coach, Gerson “Dye” Castaño, is Colombian, the only one in the host country of the final.

I went to the press room to see what the LOL expert journalists had to say. Many took Isurus's victory for granted, seeing the fierce bend. In one of my conversations, Faker's name came up . I had heard that name in some game I saw the night before, so I asked who that person was. Can you imagine going to cover any football game and ask who Messi is? Well, that happened to me with Faker. Fortunately nobody looked at me badly or treated me condescendingly because they knew that I was just doing my job and that I didn't know anything about LOL.

That's right, Faker is the Messi of LOL. He is a Korean from the Korean team, SK Telecom, who has won the world championship three times in a row. There was a journalist in particular who spoke with a fanaticism overwhelmed by the Korean, just as any fan of Barcelona speaks of the wonders of Messi. If they knew what Faker earns a year between competitions, salary and sponsors, they wouldn't believe me.

The second game started in about 20 minutes. This time the victory was for Rainbow7 that, I don't know how the hell they did, but they managed to trick the sharks that they were going to capture the base again very easily, but the rainbow slipped down the top lane and managed to destroy the base of one shot. I can't describe how the attendees went crazy when they showed the Mexican team on the screens going to the base.

The score was tied and attendees were increasingly restless, not to mention the finalists. This time I returned to the gallery earlier to listen to those who were close to me. Everyone talked about strategies, what R7 should do to win the championship, how Isurus will easily win the final because 'The Rainbow' after that comeback ran out of ideas, how Leza should be playing in Korea.

The third match started. Both teams were even, until at about 30 minutes Isurus attacked the enemy base without success. The rainbow counterattacked, quickly went to the shark base, failed and in a matter of five minutes lost the third game.

At the beginning of the fourth game, there was a slightly unmotivated and terrified R7, while the sharks entered with confidence in what would be their coronation as champions of Latin America. Many were disappointed, because they wanted their countryman Dye raising the glass. And yes, ten minutes later, more exactly at the 33rd minute, Isurus destroyed the rainbow and established himself as the first champion of the LOL Movistar Latin American League.

LatinAmerican Post | Pedro Vergara

Copy edited by Juliana Suárez