“Today’s gonna be the day you notice…”
This line in the pre-chorus of Linkin Park’s song Heavy Is The Crown, the official anthem of the 2024 League of Legends (LoL) Worlds Finals, held true in London as a jam-packed O2 Arena witnessed South Korea’s T1 secure a record-extending fifth title by defeating China’s Bilibili Games (BLG) in a thrilling best-of-five series on Saturday.
The Worlds are the absolute pinnacle of esports, pitting two teams of five against each other in a vast virtual map with three lanes (top, bottom, and middle) and jungles. While it is an extremely convoluted game, quite simply, the team who make it into the other’s base and destroy it — after crossing several hurdles including the players, turrets, minions, and monsters, and collecting gold and experience points — win.
BLG held the early advantage, winning games one and three to take a 2-1 lead. They also seemed to be in control in game four, only for Lee Sang-hyeok, known as ‘Faker’ and viewed by many as the “Michael Jordan of esports”, to go on a kill spree to knock BLG back and push the finals into a decider.
A tense, risk-averse start to game five meant it took nearly half an hour for the first telling blow to fall, in contrast with the first three games, which were completed in less than 29 minutes. Faker’s rampage, which included a triple kill, saw T1 race ahead in both kills and gold and eventually break into BLG territory to secure the title.
What stood out throughout the day of the finals, as well as the fan fests preceding it, was the atmosphere, with London firmly establishing itself as one of the hubs LoL and other major esports should — and likely will — target in the future.
Worlds 2024 broke numerous records, with Esports Charts reporting it was the most-viewed esports match ever, reaching a peak of 6.9 million viewers, and being broadcast in over 20 languages. The on-ground spectacle was phenomenal too, with 14,500 fans (close to 75 per cent of capacity) making their way into the south-east London venue. The number falls well short of the highest ever attendance of 40,000 in South Korean capital Seoul’s World Cup Stadium in 2014, as per the Guinness World Records, but that was in an arena with 66,000-plus seats and in a host country which had already established itself as an esports leader.
The day before Worlds provided a glimpse into how esports has grown in the UK, with stalls by major sponsors, including Red Bull and Mercedes, attracting massive queues of visitors and residents alike. This was not too shocking, however, as Britain has had an esports culture for some time now, with UK-based Fnatic even winning the 2011 Worlds and finishing as runners-up in 2018. London also hosted the 2023 LoL Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), which repeatedly drew full houses to the Copper Box Arena in Stratford, the district that was home to the 2012 Olympic Games.
“It was important for us to go somewhere where we have a lot of players… Candidly, the city of London has been fantastic to work with. We’ve been having conversations with them, first for MSI, knowing that Worlds was behind it, so when you have this great fanbase with a lot of energy, in a region we know really well, and a city genuinely excited to have us, it makes everything so much easier,” Chris Greeley, the Global Head of LoL Esports at Riot Games (the developer of LoL and Valorant among other games) told The Athletic.
This sentiment was also echoed by Edward Gregory, the marketing lead for Fnatic, arguably the biggest players in the LoL arena from the West, during a conversation with The Athletic. Gregory believes, like in most other sports, hosting a major event is vital for cities to generate curiosity and awareness of the opportunities esports provides, even though Europe and the UK already boast a large number of LoL players.
Teams take the rooftop tour at the O2 Arena (League of Legends)
He added, however, that London has lagged behind other European cities and felt this tournament helps put it on the map.
“Katowice (in Poland) hosts major CS (Counter-Strike) events every year, Berlin (Germany) is the home for the LEC (the domestic LoL league for the EMEA) and VCT (Valorant Champions Tour), Cologne (also Germany) hosts major CS events every year and France have done a lot recently. London is now seeing the importance of it (in terms of) creating opportunities for businesses, individuals, and teams, all to see London as a hub of technology, talent, and sport,” Gregory said, before adding that esports are “the perfect mixture of sports and culture”.
Linkin Park perform Heavy Is The Crown at Worlds 2024 (League of Legends)
This year’s Worlds also tapped into the cultural aspect by partnering with a world-renowned band in Linkin Park at an incredibly opportune moment, as they are returning with a new album and tour after a seven-year hiatus following the death of lead singer Chester Bennington. Speaking with The Athletic, Maria Egan, Riot Games’ head of global music, explained how the plan came along — with a special nod to the band’s popularity in Europe.
“We had started talking about this earlier in the year. We’ve known Mike (Shinoda, Linkin Park’s co-lead singer) for a long time; our founder and Mike are actually good personal friends. Some of the earliest music moments in League involved licensing Linkin Park songs and Mike had worked on something else for us during the hiatus,” Egan said, adding that when those conversations began, the idea of Linkin Park going back on the road did not seem to be on the cards.
“For them, I would imagine it felt like quite a risk. (But) we are fans, right? It wasn’t like we were guessing; we wanted them to come back. We understand that there are eras… and evolutions, but we saw a path for it. We were excited when they started sharing music with us, so we could just trust that if we were excited about it, fans will be excited about it, and it was a mutual leap of faith,” Egan added. “They care about their fandom as much as we care about ours. And actually, in any of the moments of trying to negotiate it, that always brought us back together.”
Linkin Park are an obvious draw in the UK, with their show at the O2 Arena in September selling out in minutes. Egan also highlighted that, while they are an American band, their business in Europe and Asia is massive and stated that Riot’s music choice aimed to “honour the culture” of the European fans who had travelled to London for the Worlds.
From a fan perspective, Worlds 2024 offered varying storylines.
T1 had never lost to a Chinese team in the Worlds, even beating Weibo Gaming in last year’s edition. They had, however, been through a gruelling 2024 season that saw them defeated in seven of 18 summer games in their domestic league (LoL Champions Korea or LCK). T1 also lost their opener in the Swiss stage at Worlds to Top Esports but bounced back to beat BLG and G2 Esports and so reach the last eight.
BLG, meanwhile, were out to avenge that defeat, while trying to replicate their 3-2 win over T1 in the lower bracket final of the 2024 MSI in Chengdu, China. BLG went on to lose the MSI final to Gen. G, who were beaten by T1 in the Worlds semi-finals.
In the pre-match press conference, BLG’s bottom-laner Zhao ‘Elk’ Jiahao outlined his team’s mentality when questioned by The Athletic, saying “T1 haven’t lost to the LPL (China’s regional league, the LoL Pro League) in best-of-five matches. But the simple fact is we haven’t lost to T1 in best-of-five matches as well, so we have enough confidence (going into) the final.”
Meanwhile, in the Worlds’ preview video, aired before the start of game one, Faker said, “We came in as champions and we will leave as champions,” setting the stage for a final that promised quality, edge, and entertainment.
Anticipation was mounting before the game as well. Greeley outlined his conversation with a group of fans from Australia when on a rail journey from French capital Paris, which hosted this year’s semi-finals. “I took the train to London and the guy in front of me was holding a Worlds 2024 bag, full of merch. I asked him, ‘Oh, have you been to the show?’, and he’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, it was great,’ and we got to talking,” Greeley explained.
“He was with three of his friends, travelling from Australia. They were in the middle of a big vacation, for all four days of quarter-finals and both days of semi-finals in Paris and were looking for tickets for the Finals in London, which is where they were coming. And it was just a 20-minute conversation as we went through security about the teams, the event, past Worlds, past MSIs, and them and their friend group playing LoL.”
Tickets for the finals at the O2 sold out rapidly, both due to interest and the relatively small size of the arena, prompting some fans to voice their frustrations on social media in the build-up to Saturday. Gregory even suggested they sold out faster than the UK’s famous Glastonbury Festival, which featured artists such as Dua Lipa and Coldplay this year.
However, many fans told The Athletic they travelled to London from other countries regardless, hoping to snag a ticket or two before the big day — and willing to pay big bucks, too.
Alfredo Rocha, an ardent LoL fan from Portugal, was one of them. “This is my first trip ever to London (and it has been a) great first-time experience,” he said in conversation with The Athletic on the day of the finals. Rocha met up with his friend Simao Rodrigues, who moved to the UK from Portugal two years ago and now lives in Manchester. Rodrigues explained that Rocha made his way to London without a ticket, or any guarantees of getting one. “We got the ticket two days ago, from a random guy on Reddit,” Rocha explained.
Both Rodrigues and Rocha are fans of Linkin Park, which increased their interest and desire to make it to London. Like numerous other fans at the arena, their biggest takeaway from the event was simply getting a chance to speak to fellow fans who held similar interests in LoL and other esports, and take part in the similar feeling of hype that enveloped the crowds that graced the fan fests and the finals themselves, making it a phenomenal experience for first-timers and veterans who had witnessed previous Worlds.
One of Gregory’s parting messages to The Athletic was, “You will see the impact of an event like this will be felt for years and years to come.” There is enough reason to suggest that will indeed be the case.
The fact that League of Legends turned 15 less than a week before the finals added to the intrigue of Worlds and fan expectations over what the future holds. While the game itself offers updates virtually every two weeks to keep players on their toes, it has also built a loyalty that extends beyond new maps, patches, or skins, which brings players back even in an environment defined by innovation and difficulties in retention.
The foundation of it all was crystal clear just moments after T1 lifted the trophy on Saturday.
Faker, named the finals MVP, was asked what he would tell his 2011 self, who had just encountered LoL after its debut in Korea, and he responded, “‘Go ahead, have fun!’”
Amid the competitive spirit, uncompromising schedules and all-or-nothing mentality that often pervades sport — traditional and otherwise — the longest active esports player’s four-word line illustrated the simplistic aspirational angle that brings players at all levels together.
GO DEEPER
League of Legends Worlds: Can Faker build his Michael Jordan-like esports legacy?
(Top photo: League of Legends Worlds, London November 2024; League of Legends)
