BUSAN -- The Mid-Season Invitational, one of the most important international League of Legends tournaments, kicked off at Esports Busan Arean in Busan on Tuesday. Coming from competitive League of Legends regional leagues including South Korea, China, Europe, and North America, the 11 spring season champions are set to clash for the prestigious MSI Championship. Starting with the congratulatory speech from the legendary Korean esports caster Jun, the opening video introduced the tournament p

Two Korean League of Legends powerhouse teams -- T1 and Gen.G -- are set to face each other for this year’s spring title, with esports fans and spectators excited to watch the two battle it out in the first in-person showdown in almost three years. “In accordance with the government’s COVID-19 measures, a total of 3,500 seats will be available for the upcoming finals. We hope to bring a stadium filled with the crowd’s chants this summer,” said the secretary-gener

The Korea e-Sports Association on Monday named five coaches to lead its esports national team for the upcoming 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Of the eight medal events at the 2022 Asian Games, South Korea is set to compete in five -- FIFA (by EA Sports), HearthStone, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile and Street Fighter V. The legendary LoL coach Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun, who won 10 domestic titles and 3 international championships, is expected to lead the national team in winning

The League of Legends Champions Korea 2022 Spring final returns to esports fans and spectators face-to-face at the country’s largest convention center, Kintex in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, just northwest of Seoul. In compliance with social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the last five final matches have been livestreamed. LCK announced it would close this year’s spring season at the No. 1 exhibition center in Kintex on April 2, where the first LCK final was

Pro gamer Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok of T1 made solid his position as an undisputed superstar and a living legend of the decade-old League of Legends Champions Korea, reprising his former LCK winning streak and setting a slew of other remarkable in-game records. With T1 reaching 14 consecutive victories after defeating KT Rolster in a match Sunday, Faker repeated the winning streak record that he set with then-teammates Jang “MaRin” Gyeong-hwan, Bae “Bengi” Seong

Korean game developers are seeking to follow webtoons’ successful jump to films and global streaming platforms. According to South Korean game developer Krafton, “Bystanders,” a short film based on the company’s renowned battle royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, recorded over 1 million views on the “PUBG: Battlegrounds” YouTube channel as of Monday. The two-part project surprised both local and global viewers when its first short film, &ldquo

Krafton’s battle royal shooter “PUBG: Battlegrounds” topped the most played games chart on Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC gaming, Thursday. According to Krafton, the number of concurrent users doubled after the game switched to free-to-play mode Wednesday, recording a maximum number of 660,000 users. “Under the new theme of ‘Battlegrounds for all,’ we believe that the switch to free service allowed many users from various backgrounds to enjoy

AfreecaTV will aim to expand communication with global users through esports content, the Korean video streaming service said Wednesday. According to the company, AfreecaTV currently operates a total of six firms in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the US, Thailand and Hong Kong to provide various streaming content in different languages so that overseas users can watch it without any communication barriers. The Korean video streaming service has held a number of esports competitions abroad, with

Attempting to excite fans and elevate the level of play in League of Legends Champions Korea, one of the changes for this year’s upcoming season is the reopening of LOL Park for fans, audience and spectators, said the secretary general of LCK Aiden Lee in a press conference at CGV Yongsan, central Seoul, Wednesday. “A total of 10 teams -- T1, Gen.G, Damwon Kia, Liiv Sandbox, Nongshim RedForce, Hanwha Life Esports, DRX, KT Rolster, Fredit Brion and Kwangdong Freecs -- are scheduled

Riot Games made a successful debut on Netflix with the League of Legends-themed animation “Arcane,” soaring to No. 2 on the service’s official weekly chart. Riot Games released its animated series Nov. 7 after the Worlds 2021 Championship, one of the most popular global esports events. “Arcane” ended the historic 46-day reign of Netflix global sensation “Squid Game,” topping the chart within a few days of its release. The series has made the top 10

South Korean major game developer NCSoft has global ambitions for its new massively multiplayer online role playing game Lineage W, set for launch Thursday at midnight. Lineage W will first be available in 12 languages for users in South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. NCSoft then plans to expand its service to North America, Europe and South America. Instead of operating separate servers for each country, NCSoft has created the Global One Build service that allows

As Gen.G Esports triumphed over Cloud9 of the US, the last remaining hope for the West, in a clean 3-0 sweep Monday, three of four slots in the semifinals are now occupied by Korean teams: Damwon Kia, T1 and Gen.G Esports. The first game of the semifinals for the League of Legend World Championship will feature a clash of LoL giants Damwon and T1. The two teams, considered the two strongest teams in this year’s tournament, seek to cement their respective legacies by hoisting the Summone

The chances of Korean teams facing each other in the semifinals -- or even in the finals -- of the League of Legends World Championships have increased, as the Korean teams qualified in their respective group stages. The eight teams that made the quarterfinals are: Damwon Kia, T1, Hanwha Life Esports and GenG Esports of Korea; Edward Gaming and Royal Never Give Up of China; Cloud9 from US and Mad Lions of Europe. Damwon Kia, T1, Royal Never Give Up and Gen.G Esports topped their sections in th

Once ignored and disdained by older generations, esports has now become a mainstream activity for many South Koreans. Starting with the first Starcraft Pro League in 2003, esports has long sought to be recognized as an official event in the South Korean sports industry. While South Korea is widely known as the home of esports, games, especially computer games, were long regarded as harmful for youngsters. For Korean parents wanting their children to be academically successful, games were an ev

T1’s bot-laner Park “Teddy” Jin-sung is ready to give his all at the prestigious League of Legends’ world championship. After his latest appearance at the LoL Champions Korea summer season finals on Aug. 28, Teddy, 23, says he feels both mentally and physically prepared for the big stage. “After securing the spot in the group stage of Worlds 2021 as third seed, a short vacation was given to the players. With the extended COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to relax and

Teams from South Korea, Japan and China are set to clash at Esports Championships East Asia 2021. The three-day event organized by the e-Sports Association and Korea Creative Content Agency will kick off Friday with live online matches for five games -- League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Clash Royale, PES 2021 Season Update and Dungeon Fighter. ECEA 2021 will be accompanied by the Game Culture Festival, which is to offer various programs for esports fans.  There wil