It's that time of the year when professional "League of Legends" teams clash against each other to determine who the best in the world is. To the surprise of very few, a South Korean team is coming home this year as the game's world champions.
BBC reports that pro team SKT Telecom T1 did battle against the Samsung-sponsored Galaxy team at the finals of the 2016 "League of Legends" World Championships on Saturday. They came home with the title, their third and their second title in a row back to back, after a six-hour match that saw them beat Samsung Galaxy 3-2. Forbes reports that Lee Sang-hyeok, better known as "Faker," was once again the team's MVP.
SKT gets to take home a $2 million prize pot after winning the "League of Legends" world championships. The finals were played in front of at least 20,000 fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The two teams' finals were back and forth, involving five hotly-contested games of the popular and highly-demanding MOBA. It seemed as though SKT were able to deflate Samsung's spirits after the second game, but the latter was able to come back in the third to make the series more competitive, writes Rock Paper Shotgun.
"League of Legends," as well as its competitor in the genre "Dota 2" from Valve, is the next rising star in the world of eSports. That is, if it's not already. Riot Games counts around 60 million players playing the game every month. These games are becoming so popular that they warrant their own TV and news coverage, and the rising interest is able to sustain a rapidly growing professional scene. It's a scene that was pioneered by games like the original "StarCraft," which has become a national sport in South Korea, where both "LoL" pro teams are from.
