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 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 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.
