I came, I saw, someone else conquered. Last weekend, I attended League of Legends’ Championship Series finals, which – in an undeniably historic moment for eSports – were held in Los Angeles’ Staples Center, a venue that’s played host to thousands upon thousands of fans through countless professional basketball games, boxing matches, and hockey games. Also, er, WWE Summerslams. League has, in other words, entered The Big Leagues. Even the US government recognizes it as a sport, and it is a body literally incapable of agreeing on anything else. But, as Korea’s SK Telecom T1 absolutely shut out China’s Royal Club, I bore witness to both glorious, beautiful triumphs and worrisome failings. I’m no League of Legends eSports expert, but perhaps that enables me even more to say this much: the sport still has a lot of important growing to do. Here’s what I saw.

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