World’s 2017 ESports

This archived article was written by: Brendan Holt

It is that time of year again when League of Legends, the most popular video game ever created, hosts its annual international ESports tournament: Worlds.
Before we get into the details of this year’s matchup, let’s take a moment to explain to any newcomers what League of Legends really is. League of Legends, also referred to as LoL or League for short, is a 5 on 5, team-based MOBA game where players pick between over 100 plus champions, each with their own unique set of abilities and play styles. The game takes place on a map called Summoner’s Rift, where players fight their way to destroy the enemy Nexus.
There is lots of strategy involved in achieving victory, such as item builds, team composition, runes and masteries, player mechanics, roaming and the list goes on and on.
Even with the complexity of high level play, the game takes an “easy to learn, hard to master” approach; so if you are a casual player or a competitive player, League of Legends fills both criteria.
Now that we have a grasp of what League of Legends is, let us move onto the more exciting stuff. Last year, demon king “Faker” led the Korean team SK Telecom T1 to first place in Worlds 2016, which was the first time anyone had won two international League of Legends tournaments back-to-back.
Worlds 2017 starts Sept. 23, and hosts some familiar teams: the crowd favorite TSM from North America, G2 from Europe, Edward Gaming from China and the team that nearly beat SKT in last year’s finals, Samsung Galaxy from Korea. SKT is once again returning to defend their throne and we can expect there to be at least two other Korean teams placing in the semi-finals with them, but after North America’s domination during Rift Rivals, fans are suspecting that the NA region of pro play might reduce that number and hopefully take the trophy for themselves.