Saturday will see the 15th League of Legends world champion crowned, with this year’s tournament at Chengdu’s Dong’an Lake Sports Park Indoor Gymnasium in China. Fifteen is a special number, and I can still remember the skepticism many showed the first time Riot Games brought League of Legends to the Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Obviously, that skepticism didn’t last. LoL has become one of the biggest games and esports in the world. Per Newzoo’s Pulse player behavior tracker, it was the 14th most-played game among the countries it tracks, averaging 7.58 million players in September. And this doesn’t even count China, one of the hotbeds of League fandom.
“Worlds is always a celebration in and of itself,” said Chris Greeley, Riot Games’ global head of esports. “This year, we’re doing a couple of things around Worlds.”
Riot Games’ celebration of this landmark includes a revamped trophy. With its deal with Tiffany wrapped up (though it still makes the trophy for Riot’s Chinese league), Riot now gets its bling from Bullpen. The new Summoner’s Cup (now in its third iteration) is lighter — 22 pounds vs. 44 pounds for the previous trophy. In the past, there have been legitimate fears of someone from the victorious team dropping the trophy during their celebration. It also has the names of all previous champions engraved on it.
Bullpen makes other gear for Riot as well, such as a T-shirt cannon modeled after Jinx’s rocket cannon from LoL.
“[Bullpen is] primarily a fabricator,” Greely said. “Anything you can dream of, they can make.”
Riot also had a happy coincidence occurring with the in-game skins it’s offering in LoL during this year’s championship. This year, the skins celebrate Samsung Galaxy’s victory in 2017 and Invictus Gaming’s title in 2018, which reassembled part of that roster as the No. 4 seed in this year’s tournament.
Riot also enlisted Chinese pop star G.E.M. for the for this year’s Anthem and closing ceremony (other performers such as Anyma, Chrissy Costanza, and TEYA are also in that show). “She’s a powerhouse in China,” Greely said, but also noted other ways the singer’s style fits with League of Legends.
“There’s probably two or three big markers,” he said. “One is that League of Legends esports is pretty iconic culturally in China, so G.E.M. was excited for the opportunity … to really be immortalized alongside artists like Imagine Dragons and Zed, who have done our anthems in the past. …As a result, she’s essentially our ambassador of Chinese culture onstage during the opening ceremony in Chengdu, and that was an important piece, for her to be able to carry that torch for her country.”
Saturday should also be special as it could determine another milestone in League esports — will Worlds see its first threepeat in South Korea’s T1, or will another South Korean team, kt Rolster, unseat the two-time defending champs?
One thing is certain, whomever wins should have an easier time hoisting the trophy this year.
