League of Legends Championship Draws 1.69 Million Viewers

[John Funk]

League of Legends Championship Draws 1.69 Million Viewers

​

Almost 1.7 million people around the world tuned in to watch the most legendary players in the League of Legends compete in a three-day tournament.

Riot Games' League of Legends has been doing well for itself recently, making headway into gamers' minds and - with its deceptively convenient free-to-play-but-pay-us-and-you-get-cool-stuff model - their wallets as well. At Dreamhack Summer 2011 [http://dreamhack.se/DHS11/] in Jönköping, Sweden, some of the best LoL players in the world battled it out to be crowned the game's first-ever World Champion.

According to Riot, the three-day live coverage of the championship drew a total of 1.69 million unique viewers. The final match between FnaticMSI and aAa (Against All Authority, if you were wondering) chalked up an estimated 210,000 unique viewers all on its own, which is pretty darn impressive. If you missed it, you can catch it here to the right.

Between this and the millions of streams [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111008-More-People-Watched-Major-League-Gaming-Online-Than-the-NFL-Draft] for the MLG Columbus tournament, it seems like e-sports are slowly catching on. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Though, I have to say, I really feel for those commentators. Not only does it have to be about five times harder to offer commentary on a game of League of Legends than, say, a 1v1 game like StarCraft II, but these guys obviously know the game well. The temptation to freak out and start screaming warnings about "Nid MIA" and "care top" must be tremendous.

These guys make me feel inadequate. I mean, I play a decent Xin Zhao and Ezreal, but I think any of these players could probably take me 5-on-1.

(League of Legends [http://season-one-championship.na.leagueoflegends.com/])

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[chaos order]

ahhhh LOL, fun game indeed. my personal favorite hero is zilian

 

[Falcon123]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

 

[Hippobatman]

ahhhh LOL, fun game indeed. my personal favorite hero is zilian

Noooonononononono, it's Mordekaiser all the way ;D

Anyway, I haven't played much, but I can vividly imagine watching a stream like that can be incredibly fun. Hell, I watch Street Fighter streams all the time, and I get hype.

That said; can't wait for EVO.

 

[Best of the 3]

Snipity

hehe, you'd be me with Kat any day X3

Xin to win :3

OT: It was a fun show. I enjoyed watching it and was quite glad to be part of that 1.7 million. I didn't think so many actually watched it but hey, numbers here don't lie.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

I actually watched this, mostly because the amount of players involved makes it more interesting than Starcraft, and let's face it, look at all the pretty colors!

Watching a Cho'Gath walk around eating things made me happy inside, I love that champ. Rumble is so much fun too. I really like Kog'Maw too, but...he simply doesn't perform as well at higher levels, despite the improvements

I still play him now and again anyway, because sniping people with Living Artillery never gets old.

 

[Frostbite3789]

ahhhh LOL, fun game indeed. my personal favorite hero is zilian

Noooonononononono, it's Mordekaiser all the way ;D

Anyway, I haven't played much, but I can vividly imagine watching a stream like that can be incredibly fun. Hell, I watch Street Fighter streams all the time, and I get hype.

That said; can't wait for EVO.

You're Brazilian aren't you? I hear he is number one in...certain regions.

While being a devout LoL player since right out of Beta, I actually watched none of this. Too depressed that I can't play because my computer is dying and I'm still in the middle of getting enough money for a new one that can play games without crashing. What a concept!

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

I used to enjoy Kat, a lot ^_^
God I hate Zilean though...

 

[Hippobatman]

You're Brazilian aren't you? I hear he is number one in...certain regions.

While being a devout LoL player since right out of Beta, I actually watched none of this. Too depressed that I can't play because my computer is dying and I'm still in the middle of getting enough money for a new one that can play games without crashing. What a concept!

Nah, Norwegian.

Mordekaiser is a walking heavy metal reference. What's not to like?

 

[Best of the 3]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

I used to enjoy Kat, a lot ^_^
God I hate Zilean though...

He's annoying, but nothing a good burst can't fix :3

Personally I find a good Morgana to be a bigger threat than Zil

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

I used to enjoy Kat, a lot ^_^
God I hate Zilean though...

Why do you hate Zilean? Is it because he is perhaps one of the best support characters in the entire game or the fact that he is one of the few support characters you can't focus a team fight because he'll just revive himself? I use to think Kayle's Ulti was one of the best support moves, now I know better.

 

[scotth266]

I am happy to say that I was one of those viewers. Shushei's Gragas/Alistair were breathtaking to behold, along with WestRice's Akali.

 

[Zetsubou-Sama]

Too bad the EU servers are shitty right now.

I play a mean Kennen, Miss Fortune and Blitzcrank. Others are Tristana, leblanc, Katarina, Trundle, and Orianna

 

[Nalfen]

Too bad the EU servers are shitty right now.

I play a mean Kennen, Miss Fortune and Blitzcrank. Others are Tristana, leblanc, Katarina, Trundle, and Orianna

Holy crap, another Trundle player we must ban together, the whole 14 of us...ALL HAIL THE TROLL!

OT: I was overall happy with the championship, quite disappointed with the NA teams performance because Epik had a real shot but they were just playing really poorly after day one.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

I used to enjoy Kat, a lot ^_^
God I hate Zilean though...

Why do you hate Zilean? Is it because he is perhaps one of the best support characters in the entire game or the fact that he is one of the few support characters you can't focus a team fight because he'll just revive himself? I use to think Kayle's Ulti was one of the best support moves, now I know better.

I just hate the fact that he's still a force to be reckoned with in the damage department, except because his skills are all support with the exception of his one damaging attack, they make that damaging attack very high powered to compliment. And he's difficult to lane against, especially when you have a feeding lane partner.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I am obsessed with LoL. I play a decent Amumu, but I absolutely love Nasus, Can't wait to try Yorick out

I want Yorick. Nocturne, Warwick and Rumble tend to be my A-game dudes.

Its Zilean, Nasus, Annie or Kat for me. You can't go wrong with some of the originals =P

I used to enjoy Kat, a lot ^_^
God I hate Zilean though...

Why do you hate Zilean? Is it because he is perhaps one of the best support characters in the entire game or the fact that he is one of the few support characters you can't focus a team fight because he'll just revive himself? I use to think Kayle's Ulti was one of the best support moves, now I know better.

I just hate the fact that he's still a force to be reckoned with in the damage department, except because his skills are all support with the exception of his one damaging attack, they make that damaging attack very high powered to compliment. And he's difficult to lane against, especially when you have a feeding lane partner.

He's only a dangerous force in small fights (1v1, 2v2) with the exception of one quick burst, he can't do much in a large 5v5 team fight and with enough magic resistance, his bombs won't do much.

Still, I think his rewind ability makes him extremely overpowered sometimes. Especially since it allows him to both A)Travel at over 500 movement speed indefinitely at level 18 and B) allows him to get access to his ulti in less then 30 seconds.

 

[YuheJi]

It's always good to see LoL succeed. Especially because I play it almost every day and haven't spent more than a few dollars on it thus far.

 

[Lyri]

I play a decent Xin Zhao and Ezreal

Same mains as I, although I recently downloaded it and Vayne is looking rather tempting.