Douglas DSU E-Sports Club co-hosts League of Legends viewing party

Douglas joins a multitude of E-Sports clubs to host the yearly event

By Davie Wong, Sports Editor

Like every sport aired on television, e-sports, particularly League of Legends, runs on a “season” based system. Every season spans two splits, similar to the baseball system. At the end of every split, the best teams in the region fight for “Championship Points” in a playoff format. At the end of the year, the top two or three teams in the region are invited to the World Championships, where they fight it out to see claim the title of “World Champions” and a rather handsome prize pool of money. Think of the World Championships like the FIFA World Cup in terms of tournament style.

Like any other sport, while viewership may wax and wane during the regular season, nearly every fan tunes in for the World Championship. In particular, similarly to the Superbowl or a game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, the final series of the World Championship, dubbed the Worlds Finals, or Finals for short, generates the highest number of viewers.

While anyone can watch via internet streaming, like most Final sporting events, people like to gather in one place with their friends or colleagues to watch the event. Last year, the UBC e-sports club managed to gather around 300–400 people on the UBC campus at 3 a.m. (the finals were hosted in Korea last year) to watch the finals together. This year, all the e-sports clubs around the Lower Mainland, including the Douglas College DSU E-Sports Club, have banded together to host one giant viewing party.

The makeshift coalition of clubs have rented a 20,000 square feet venue in Richmond the night of the World Championship Finals in hopes of bringing out as many fans and club members as possible. This was mostly possible due to sponsors, who supplied the money, hardware, and discounts to make this all affordable.

The clubs plan to stream the Finals and project it onto a large screen, much like a movie theatre. The seating will also be arranged in a movie theatre fashion, with priority being first come first serve. However, you will need a ticket to get into the screening of the Finals, much like movies. Tickets will be pre-sold online at www.eventbrite.ca , or via the clubs themselves, with a discounted admission of $10 for Douglas College students. If the event does not sell out in pre-sales, tickets will be sold at the door. However, with 1,000 available spots, it’s best to be safe and pre-buy.

Although the event starts at 5 p.m., there will be a variety of League of Legends-themed Halloween events outside of the venue starting at 3 p.m. Food carts and entertainment stands will also be outside the venue for the event, almost similar to a night-market style.

By hosting this style of event, the clubs involved are hoping to attract a larger community, grow their community, and potentially attract new members to their clubs. The event is mainly non-profit, with ticket money paying for the venue fee and equipment rental costs. In particular, according to the vice-president of the club, Jesse Hawker: “The Douglas College DSU E-Sports Club is hoping to gain exposure and recognition, allowing us to start running events of greater scale.”

The event is projected to go until midnight, and the venue was purposely selected due to its close proximity to public transit. For more information on the event, you can access the event page through the club’s Facebook: www.facebook.com/dsuesports/. You can also contact club president Brent Stant or Vice-president Jesse Hawker through the Facebook page.