It’s Saturday night. The music is picked, the TV is connected, and the athletes are ready; but these three are not your typical athletes. These are League of Legends players.
League of Legends is an online multiplayer video game where players battle each other in teams of either three or five. However, it has become much more than a game; it’s a competitive sport that brings together many people.
Thanatos Reaper, Boo the Goo, and GMechs Epsilon, better known as University of Texas students Grayson Northcutt, Eric Martinez and Eric Le, choose their champions to play a round of League of Legends.
The goal of the game is to destroy the enemy’s base on the opposite side of the map, while facing enemies and turrets that are attempting to kill you.
Northcutt said, everybody tries to pick different roles in order for the team to be spread out among the map. There are different positions that people take in order to best combat the enemy. Northcutt said he prefers the role of support, which watches the map and takes care of the other players.
“I like it because I feel most comfortable making sure everyone else is doing what they’re supposed to,” said Northcutt.
Northcutt, Martinez and Le met last semester at UT and have been playing League of Legends together since. The community aspect of the game is a reason many people enjoy League of Legends.
One of these people is Katherine Fan, a fourth year public relations major at UT who has been playing League for about two and a half years.
“I like the social aspect of it, so I always play with a group of friends,” said Fan. “If I don’t see any of my friends online, I most likely won’t be playing.”
Fan also runs Austin Pub Stop, an event that goes to local bars and plays League of Legend matches on the television screens instead showing sports coverage. She said they’ve had several hundred people come out to their event.
“It really breaks the gamer stereotype that you have about people staying in and being really reserved,” said Fan. “I feel like it’s a really social community.”
Mufeng Zhu, a UT marketing and pre-med graduate who has been playing since League of Legends was originally released, also enjoys the social aspect of League.
“I actually don’t like playing by myself that much,” said Zhu. “I think part of the reason that League is popular is because of its community.”
Zhu, who created a League of Legends league for UT, said he also enjoys the competitive aspect of the game as well because it’s like another type of sport.
In fact, League of Legends is considered an e-sport. Players compete internationally at the hopes of winning the world championship through one of the six regional series.
Currently, League of Legends is in its fourth season, which started in January. People are able to watch the professionals play through live streams of the tournaments on services like YouTube and Twitch.
Northcutt said, he enjoys watching the online streams because he sees things that he can incorporate into his own game.
“It’s a good way watching the professionals play to get an idea of things you should either try or just pay attention to in your game,” said Northcutt.
League of Legends is a demanding e-sport with a steep learning curve. The length of a match can be as a short as 20 minutes to as long as an hour and a half, said Northcutt.
Northcutt, Martinez and Le yell and curse at the computer screens as the match continues. A loss seems inevitable, but somehow the team is able to claim victory in the last moments as they destroy the enemy’s base.
“It’s play to win,” says Northcutt, “but if you’re having fun when you’re doing it, a lot of the times when we’re just screwing around not really caring, we usually win.”