League of Legends Worldwide Championship brings top video gamers to Detroit

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The 2019 League of Legends Worldwide Championship came to the home of the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings on Sunday and pro video gamers showed off their skills as teams competed for a $100,000 prize.

The two-day competition at the Little Caesars Arena, drew an estimated 12,000 attendees, according to Christina Kelly, communications strategist for the Story Mob. 

Fans from across the country attended to see team Cloud 9 and Liquid compete. Cloud 9 includes players Eric “Licorice” Ritchie, Dennis “Svenkeren” Johnsen, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer, Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi and Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam. 

And for Liquid, the team members are Peng “Doublelift” Yiliang, Eonyoung “Impact” Jeong, Jake “Xmithie” Puchero, Nicolaj “Jenson” Jensen and Yong-in “CoreJJ” Jo.

League of Legends (LoL), designed in 2009, is a highly competitive online game where teams try to protect their territory while battling and invading the opponent's land. 

LoL is categorized as an eSport. What are eSports? They are professional video game competitions. Some popular games include Fortnite, Call of Duty, Madden NFL and LoL.

ESports have gained notoriety with streaming services like Twitch that allow fans from around the world to watch players compete live. 

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As eSports continue to gain momentum, LoL fans want to break stereotypes surrounding the industry. Although they have been traditionally seen as a male-dominated industry, women are starting to break through. 

Hailey Boyler, a LoL gamer, traveled from Bloomington, Illinois, to "rep (her) boy Jensen for team liquid."  She started playing Lol at 16 to help fulfill the fifth spot for friends, but ended up falling in love with the game.  

With three years experience under her belt, Boyler said she's proud to see the game represent the diversity of women.

"A great majority of support is women but they also started to incorporate different types of women in each role," said Boyler. "It's definitely growing and starting to become more diverse in sense of sexuality."

Boyler mentioned LoL introduced their first lesbian character, Neeko.

Another diehard fan, Jasmine Phompheng from Ames, Iowa, said while she has seen diversity integrate into the game, there are still times where female players feel excluded. 

"You get those trolls online where they don't like playing with girls just because of the fact that you have a vagina," said Phompheng. "Other people are very accepting that you're a girl and you play video games."

While the eSports industry continues to promote diversity, first time attendee Tariq Elhassan of Detroit said he wants the video game industry to be viewed in a new light.

"A big misconception with eSports is that it's for strictly nerds and people playing dungeons and dragons in their basement," said Elhassan. "If you take a look around, it's so diverse."