Forum Writing 3

[Kris Schutzel]

Esports Primer: League of Legends
https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-lol-primer/esports-primer-league-of-legends-idUSFLM1tj2jd

This article is a good introduction to the scene of League of Legends Esports. It explains what League of Legends is and how it is played. It explains the structure of the esport, including how teams play against each other and how the best teams are decided. Finally, it also lists a few of the strongest and most well-known teams and players before explaining how to watch professional League of Legends play.

League of Legends players raised $6m for charities they'll pick
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-04-10-league-of-legends-players-raised-USD6m-for-charities-theyll-pick

This article explains how League of Legends has raised six million dollars to donate to charity. League of Legends players can vote to pick which charity will receive half of the funding, while the remaining funding will be split among the rest.

Riot is boosting League of Legends server capacity to handle increased demand
https://www.pcgamer.com/riot-is-boosting-league-of-legends-server-capacity-to-handle-increased-demand/

This article explains that because the coronavirus and quarantine have increased the amount of people staying at home, more people are playing League of Legends. The League of Legends servers could not keep up with the load, so queues to log in to the game were added while the servers were being upgraded. The time taken to find a game also increased during this time.

Fnatic Bwipo explains how playing the LEC online affects matches, benefiting teams like MAD Lions
https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/10961/fnatic-bwipo-explains-how-playing-the-lec-online-affects-matches-benefiting-teams-like-mad-lions

This article interviews a professional player known as Bwipo about his team and some of his teams recent games. However, the most interesting part of the article was about the difference between playing from home vs playing on stage. Due to the corona virus, all professional League of Legends games have the players playing from their homes, instead of all of them traveling to the same location to play on a stage. Having a large crowd behind you creates a lot of pressure, which can make rookie players play worse. However, experienced professional players are used to the crowd already, and are less affected. This means that moving from playing on stage to playing from home benefits the rookie teams over veteran teams.

Gordon Hayward: League of Legends Gamers '100,000%' More Toxic Than NBA Players
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2882960-gordon-hayward-league-of-legends-gamers-100000-more-toxic-than-nba-players

This short article simply includes a statement from NBA player Gordon Hayward that League of Legends is much more "toxic" than NBA. This refers to the amount of trash talking and insults between players, and as an online game with anonymity, players insult each other very frequently.