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I guess Koreans are finally starting to get sick of StarCraft II and Fifa Online 2, because League of Legends (LoL) has made its way to the top spot in e-sports tournaments, replacing StarCraft II. Professional broadcasters as well as sponsors are now supporting LoL, which may be an effort to improve stagnating expansion of e-sports.




Korean cable television company, Ongamenet (OGN), showed its support by becoming an official sponsor at the Yongsan e-sports stadium. Starting March 21, OGN will show live, twice weekly broadcasts of League of Legends tournaments with 16 participating teams from Korea, USA, and Europe. The winning prize money of these tournaments will be 200 million won (about US$ 180,000). [Sorry about the mistake. Won to dollar conversion is my weak point. It may not be $1.8 million, but as reader "otacon" points out, it's still a lot of money.]

Honestly, I have to say this is great news, if only to dispel the stereotype that if you're Korean and you like video games, you must play Starcraft. Starcraft isn't some kind of digital kimchi on which Korean gamers subsist. I've never beaten the original Starcraft, which seems to amuse some people. Then, I say I'm Korean-American, and they realize I was being serious.


League of Legends Number 1 e-sport [Ruliweb]