Jenji Becomes Champion
The mid-season Invitational, a LoL e-sports competition held by Riot Games in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 19, set the highest ever viewing record. All the games held at the Chengdu Financial City Performing Arts Center were sold out. "The number of seats was slightly different for each game, but there were no vacancies," a Riot Games official said in a local interview. "All 9,500 tickets were sold out for the finals and there was no room to join." It is the first time since 2017 that a large-scale LoL e-sports competition has been held in China as well. During the COVID-19 pandemic, spectators continued to participate except for 2020, but admission was limited. Especially in China, the country where LoL fever is the hottest, the thirst of e-sports fans was especially high. For nearly three weeks, Chengdu was rocked by fans from all over China. Even if they did not enter the stadium, they enjoyed MSI by participating in cosplay, taking commemorative photos and visiting related pop-up stores. Global fans are also paying keen attention online. "The average number of viewers per minute (AMA) has increased by 29 percent compared to last year, even if the number of viewers in China is excluded," John Needham, president of Riot Games, told reporters on the last day of the tournament. "We need a little more time to count the number of viewers in China, but this figure seems to have increased dramatically." In particular, the showdown between Korea's T1 and China's Bilibili Gaming, which took place on the semifinal stage on the 18th, drew great attention from across the sea due to its peculiarity of the match between Korea and China. "The highest number of PCUs in the game reached nearly 3 million, excluding China," Needham said. "It is the highest record in the competition." The Korean professional game team T1, which is also a member of "Faker" Lee Sang-hyuk, attracted more attention than Chinese teams in Chengdu, just like the world's most popular team. On the day of the T1 match, fans could easily see Lee Sang-hyuk, "Kuma Yushi" and Lee Min-hyung wearing uniforms with the names of T1 players near the stadium. On the day of the Korea-China match, the cheering sound for the Chinese team was not inferior to the Chinese team at all. T-shirts with the team logo printed on them and souvenirs were sold like hot cakes at a T1 pop-up store near the stadium. Gen.G, a Korean professional game team, won the title. It is the first time in seven years that the Korean team has won an MSI championship. Gen.G, who is also the Korean champion, went straight to the final stage with all three wins. In the final match on Wednesday, he beat China's Billie Bilibili 3-1 to lift the trophy. Son Si-woo, dubbed "Lehenz," was chosen as the MVP of the final match. "I did my best until the end, and I got a good result," Son said. Coach Gen.G. Kim Jung-soo said the secret to winning the championship was to practice various strategies inspired by practice with overseas teams. "I was influenced by seeing overseas teams play various numbers without hesitation," he said. "Some cards were not taken out of the final." LoL esports is about to enter its next season without a moment to breathe. Riot Games is hosting its own regional league summer season from the middle of next month. Some teams are preparing to participate in the esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia in early July.