Semi-finals game between RNG (Roya Never Give Up) and SKT (South Korea Telecom T1) took place yesterday in Shanghai, China and was the most epic game of the year. If you haven't watched it, you should go to lolesports and watch it. If you are a fan of League of Legends or any Esports you will love the match. If you are not into Esports yet, you will find it amazing and probably get a better understanding why Esports is part of the global culture and will keep growing as time goes by. Before I move on to reviewing the match, I would like to answer few of the common questions skeptics of Esports ask.
Why would anybody want to watch others playing video games?
Because it is FUN. Watching pro players competing on a big stage is as fun as watching any traditional Sports, if not more. I could reverse the same question about traditional sports. Why would anybody watch some other people playing a ball? The answer would be same. It is FUN. The keyword here is entertainment. We, human beings, are social beings and we spend significant parts of our lives in entertainment. We could go deep into the psychology of this kind of behavior, but that is a topic for another day.
So Esports is fun as much as any traditional sports. However, for a spectator to enjoy the game, he/she should know the rules and have a general understanding of how the game is played. This would be true for any other traditional sports. Usually, fans of certain sports know most of the rules and they know exactly what is going on. For those who have played the game, have a blast when they watch esports. With the same logic, if a person does not understand the rules of any other traditional sports, they will not enjoy it.
There are so many video games and new ones are created all the time. There is no way one person can know all the rules for all games.
First of all, not all video games are candidates for Esports. Only certain ones can achieve becoming Esports and building fan base. It takes a lot of effort and money building the audience. But when done right, prosperity for business follows. It is crazy how much esports fans spend on in-game purchases.
Just like with traditional sports, people don't have to be a fan of all esports games. Usually, people are fans of one or two esports games. Not every soccer fan is a fan of basketball or vice versa. The same rule applies in traditional sports. So this is not something unique for Esports.
But what I find challenging for fans of Esports is the continues updates to how the game is played, skills champions have, etc. If an Esports fan doesn't play the game regularly and is not aware of the software update, he/she might find themselves scratching head when they see something new when they were expecting something else.
As intend to continue the conversation about Esports, and how Blockchain and Esports can benefit from each other, I will be plugging in my thoughts on the topic along with my future reviews of Esports games and Esports news.
This game was Epic. Hipe around this match was so crazy, even it was semi-finals it was treated as finals. These two teams are considered to be the best in the world.
SKT are defending champions, they have won 3 world championships and several regional championships. While all of their players are considered the best, their start player is Faker. Faker holds numerous regional and international titles, he is considered to be the best League of Legends players of all times. He is known to make impossible make possible.
Other players of the team are Huni, Bang, Wold, Blank, and substitute player Peanut.
Start player of RNG is Uzi. Uzi is an incredible player, he is known for his crazy plays that nobody else can pull off. However, there is a curse on him, as a great player as him cannot win the most important games. In 2013 League of Legends Championship Final game SKT faced RNG, Faker faced Uzi. I still remember that game, it was so close, and it was full of emotions. SKT beat RNG, Uzi was so emotional and almost was crying on the stage. He sat on his chair for a while until he as able to recollect himself and move on.
So this game was supposed to be a re-match. SKT facing RNG, and Faker facing Uzi again for the Championship title. This time though the tournament is going on in China, in the home of RNG and Uzi. Chinese fans are eager to see a Chinese team beat the defending Champions. If anybody can beat SKT that would be RNG. Other players of RNG are Letme, Xiahu, Mlxg, and Ming.
The ways game is set up, teams play best of fives. Meaning whoever can win first 3 games is the victor and moves on the finals. For the first game, RNG was on a blue side, and SKT was on a red side. The game was very close but ended with RNG defeating SKT. The crowd was very loud and happy to see their team perform at their highest potentials.
The second game also was a close game, but this time SKT took the victory. However, third game was where RNG showed real power and won with total domination in a very short time. The crowd got even louder, the score was 2-1, and RNG was one game away from putting an end to the SKT reign.
SKT changed their strategy, and their coach decided to pull jungle player Blank and bring in substitute Peanut. Peanut who performed great last year, and showed poor performance during summer games. So he was benched for Worlds games. Now though, SKT was so close to being eliminated, and they take decisive move to bring in Peanut. This was a great opportunity for Peanut to redeem himself and show he could bring SKT the victory again.
The fourth game was also a close game but with Peanut in the jungle, and Faker roaming all over the map brought beat RNG. Now the score was 2-2. They had to play one more game. Last and the most important one. This was the chance for RNG to prove they can beat SKT, however it was not meant to be. SKT showed the dominating game and won the game with outstanding performance. Throughout the series, Faker showed excellent performance and proved once again that he is the best player in League of Legends and earned another title of Player of the Series.
As camera was rolling through the audience, you could see so many disappointed fans of RNG were so emotional, some even crying. This was the chance for RNG and Uzi to show their home fans that the were the best team. However, that didn't happen. Even though curse of Uzi not being able to win important international tournament continues, he still remains as a legendary player and his story will be repeated many times in the future.
Another semi-finals game was SSG vs WE. This was South Korean team vs Chinese team game. SSG beat WE by 3-1 and they are moving on to final. Finals will be next week between two Korean teams: SKT and SSG. Korean teams keep dominating esports on an international arena. Visit lolesports for more information on stats and tune in for the Final.