Josiah Holloway
Leicester pub Soar Point is the only venue in the Midlands to be broadcasting the League of Legends World Championship final live on Sunday, October 19.
League of Legends, an online free-to-play computer game, has a daily player base of 27 million individual users and 67 million users per month.
De Montfort University League of Legends Society Chairman, Derry Holt said: “Ever since we started playing, my friends and I have always said it’d be great to be able to sit down in a pub, have a drink and watch Esports.
“A lot of people don’t see how a game can be so exciting, but it’s just like watching any other competitive sport. There’s skill involved, people have their favorite teams – it’s no different to watching a game of football or rugby.”
Every year the best teams from North and South America, Asia and Europe compete to win the World Championship title and USD $1,000,000 prize money.
This year Korea will host the final.
Thomas Mawby, 17, of Leicester said: “I’m not the sort of person you’d describe as a ‘gamer’. I only started playing the game recently after some of my friends introduced me to it, but it’s still really exciting to see Soar Point will be showing the final.”
The 2013 League of Legends World Championship was streamed on websitetwitch.com and was watched by over 32 million people. The 2012 Olympic games only reached a peak of 500,000 people watching a YouTube live stream.
Soar Point is eager for anyone interested in Esports to come along to the event. The final begins at 8am.
More details about the event are available on Soar Point Facebook page. Further information on E-sports can be found at euw.lolesports.com
