League of Legends 2014 World Championship: Samsung White (SSW) Defeats China's Starhorn Royal Club 3-1 in Seoul
The annual League of Legends World Championship has just concluded. It was held at Sangam Stadium, the World Cup Stadium in Seoul.
The prize money ($1,000,000) may be a lot less than what the DOTA 2 champions received but the audience for the 2014 League of Legends World Championship was much larger.
It was estimated that about 40,000 Korean fans watched the games live. It was a sold out event, and doubly meaningful for the South Koreans, with Samsung White (SSW) being declared the winner, according to Forbes.
The runner up title went to Starhorn Royal Club of China. League of Legends (LoL) is considered the most popular video game in the world with approximately 67 million gamers playing the game each month.
The event, which is organized annually by Riot Games, had rented the Staples Center in Los Angeles last year, where 11,000 people were in attendance. This year, it was held in South Korea, which is the birthplace of eSports and where LoL is very popular.
Aside from the 40,000 game enthusiasts in attendance, the championship was streamed online via ESPN 3, Twitch and Riot Games' own website. The total online viewership has not yet been counted, but it is estimated that it will surpass last year's numbers, although the total might be affected by the time difference between South Korea and North America.
In the past, one team showed dominance early and the games ended in a clean sweep. This year, the SSW team seemed untouchable but did not manage to sweep the championship although it was still a mighty win, winning over the Chinese team in a best of five 3-1 finish. The audience was also treated to a performance by Imagine Dragons, the band that also contributed the song "Warriors" to the game's soundtrack.
Games 1 and 2 went to Samsung White. In Game 3, Starhorn Royal Club put up a big fight and won the game. Game 4 was very much like Game 1 and from the start it was clear that Samsung White had the upper hand.
Their performance during the whole tournament was solid and there was almost no weakness in the team. They only lost two games during the entire tournament. SSW's Mata (Cho Se-hyeong) won this year's MVP award.
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