– What surprises me the most is the atmosphere – said Alba.
–What did you expect? - asked.
– I don't know, but it looks like a football match.
Alba came from Madrid with her mother Luz and her brother Héctor. The three of them got up early in the morning and arrived in Barcelona by Ave. That morning, Saturday August 12, they were still not very sure how the afternoon would unfold or what exactly they were going to see. The final of the League of Legends Super League, okay, but what does this string of words mean? Alba was surprised by the atmosphere and I am not surprised: for the first time, the Professional Video Game League managed to place almost 3,000 people in a face-to-face final of the Super League.
But before continuing, a brief context: the League of Legends Super League is the most important electronic sports competition in Spain. It is organized by the Professional Video Game League, a Mediapro Group company, in collaboration with Riot Games, the company responsible for the video game in question: League of Legends. To keep it simple: two teams of five players face off on a map divided into three lanes. Each team has its base in a corner of the map and its objective is to destroy the enemy's. This, broadly speaking, is League of Legends or any video game of the MOBA genre and as in soccer or basketball, each member of the team occupies a specific position and the star is usually the shooter, the player in charge of doing the maximum damage. possible to the rival.
The Palau Blaugrana, headquarters of the Barça basketball team, opened its six doors at three in the afternoon. Without tails. The sun beat down relentlessly on the Rambla del Barça, a prefabricated street with the club's official merchandising store, a cafeteria and even a scale replica of the Canaletes fountain. There, on this concrete street that could well have been built of papier-mâché, there was a contrast: the almost 3,000 League of Legends fans and hundreds of foreigners and tourists browsing around the Camp Nou.
To appease the heat – 30 degrees and 62% humidity – there were water sprays on the central lampposts of the boulevard and small puddles accumulated at each of the bases. But there were no queues. There were a lot of people between fans and tourists, but the logistics worked perfectly. That happened between three and four in the afternoon, but the grand final of the Super League would not start until six. So the LVP started the event at five o'clock – and the live one on Twitch – with an exhibition match between the local team – League of Legends Barça – and Factor K, a team made up of streamers and commentators.
If the final in Zaragoza in April was a League of Legends party, the one in Barcelona was trying to be a serious sporting event. With all of the law. From an auditorium with plastic chairs in Zaragoza to the Palau Blaugrana, a stadium conceived and designed for this type of event. Although there was no ball on the court, only 10 computers and two giant screens. And the environment. The screams and the fans. The fans of the Bisons – the people's team according to many – and Movistar Riders – the reigning Super League champions.
– Bisons are a younger and smaller team, that's why they are the people's team – Max told me between the third and fourth maps.
Bisons were also the favorite team. They came from sweeping their last match with Movistar Riders just two weeks ago, in the playoffs, where they won 3-0. But the riders are very good at exceeding expectations and sailing against the wind. In Zaragoza they were not the favorites either and they crushed Heretics with the fastest 3-0 in the history of the Super League.
And that's what happened. This time Movistar Riders ended up winning 4-1. They won the first two maps at once – in League of Legends maps are like sets in tennis –, they lost the third and consolidated their victory in the fourth. David Martínez – Supa for his followers – recovered his title as MVP of the final and was crowned the best shooter in Spain.
Alba's phrase blew up in my face at the end of the third map. Movistar Riders are a fast and aggressive team, but if they don't prevail in the first 20 minutes of the game, things get complicated for them. And that's how Bisons, the Basques, won the third map. Resisting and wearing down the riders. When the Bisons destroyed the nexus – the base – of their rival, the stadium erupted in shouts of “Sí se puede!”. Emotion flooded the Palau Blaugrana and illusion was drawn on the faces of the fans who saw in that victory a small chance of a comeback.
– What surprises me the most is the atmosphere – said Alba.
–And did anything else surprise you? - asked.
– Yes, there are no women playing.
There are more and more women in esports. They do not reach 50%, but in games like Valorant they are quite close to that percentage. Not in League of Legends yet. But in the Palau Blaugrana there were quite a few women. There were certainly more than might have been expected five or six years ago. And that's a good sign. Although this parity is still further away on the pitch. There was no trace of women among the ranks of Bisons or Movistar Riders, only as companions of the starting men.
The sports director and project manager of the LVP, Aitor Álvarez, in the press conference prior to the final said that his bet was for face-to-face events. And it is quite a success. From the LVP they managed to get almost 3,000 people into the Palau Blaugrana on a Saturday of the August bridge, a figure that could be far exceeded at any other time of the year. But as Alba pointed out, perhaps the focus of the LVP should also be directed towards improving parity statistics. They are achieving it among the public, but it remains to be transferred to the Summoner's Rift, to the field of play.
And neither the heat nor the humidity nor the foreigners in the Barça store managed to dilute the success of the grand final of the Super League. Through Twitch, more than 200,000 people followed the live with a maximum peak of 30,000 simultaneous viewers. And it was also a great personal success for Supa and Álvaro, who after accumulating another victory with Movistar Riders could make the leap to European competitions.
At the end of October, League of Legends will be 14 years old and far from exhausting itself, it continues to establish itself as the largest electronic sport in the world. If in mid-August, almost 3,000 people have spent a Saturday afternoon at the Palau Blaugrana watching the Super League final, what can the LVP consider for the 2024 spring season? Perhaps the numbers are still far from those seen in traditional sports, comparing League of Legends with basketball or soccer is risky. But its growth is solid and sustained, so it's important not to lose sight of it. The next big date for esports is the Valorant World Cup, which, in fact, is being played right now and the grand finale will be held in Los Angeles on August 26.
