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League of Legends: The Future of eSports is the Future of All Sports

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league

by Minh Vu

            When you think of video games, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? It’s probably something along the lines of, “a fun hobby to play on the weekends or after school to pass the time.”  Equipped with their CDs and Steam downloads, however, gamers have expanded the gaming world to become much more than a hobby.  The newest video game sensation League of Legends is perhaps the clearest example of this phenomenon.  League of Legends has evolved video gaming into a sport, or for those with whom that categorization might not sit comfortably, an “eSport”. New data from Riot Games has shown that League of Legends is officially the most-played online computer game in North America and Europe. It is a teamwork-based game that currently boasts 1.3 billion hours of worldwide game-play a month, or to put that into a more workable perspective, roughly 54 million days or 150 thousand years worth of time per month.

So does this enormous popularity qualify League of Legends as a sport? Well, there are certainly no sit-ups, push-ups, or sprints involved, I can tell you that. However, in lieu of physical ability, League, as gamers colloquially call it, calls for astonishing strategy, reaction time, cohesion, and intelligence on the part of the gamer. Furthermore, advanced electronic peripherals and powerful technology replace traditional sports staples like rims, hoops, helmets, and goal nets. Additionally, rather than cleats digging into a grass or clay field, shoes squeaking on the court, or skates gleaming across ice, this eSport is played competitively throughout the world on impressively large stages which hold large LCD screens and two sets of five seats located opposite from each other for the competitors.  The level of competition at these events is, without a doubt, akin to what you’d see on any athletic field or in any arena or coliseum throughout the world.

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