BBC covers League of Legends World Championships

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]tarting on 15 October, BBC Three teamed up with BBC Sport to live-stream the League of Legends World Championships. By covering this paradoxical new genre of sport, e-Sports, it seems the BBC is reaching further to gain the attention of young people – and, in line with ‘Make It Digital’, it may just work.

League of Legends, a competitive multiplayer online battle arena, pits teams of players against each other in a variety of battlefields and game modes. As a roleplaying game, it gives players the chance to level up their skills to become the best. These features have made the game so popular that, according to Digital Spy, over 27 million people play every day.

The Season 2 World Championships. Photo: Flickr / artubr

While it’s easy to dismiss League of Legends as just a game, it is far-reaching; with 16 teams from across the world taking part, it is an international event. The tournament is so serious that its prize pool totals to a whopping $2.13 million. To put that into perspective, the Women’s World Cup 2015 winners received $2 million.

Even if you haven’t heard of League of Legends, well-known American band, Imagine Dragons, clearly has. Last year, their song, ‘Warriors’, was the championship’s theme song.

As League of Legends garnered 27 million viewers for the grand final in 2014, the BBC would be amiss to ignore the championship when it’s taking place in the heart of London, at Wembley. This is especially true in the middle of their ‘Make It Digital’ season, dedicated to normalising the digital world in all its forms.

In some ways, presenting the championships live on TV will bring multiplayer online tournaments like League of Legends into the mainstream.

Who knows: perhaps League of Legends will become a household name

However, whether or not they’re necessarily meeting demand to stream the championships remains to be seen.

Photo: Flickr / BagoGames

Last year, League of Legends streamed the games for free to watch across the world, online, and even in cinemas. In this case, the BBC’s coverage would almost seem pointless.

The only saving grace for the BBC is that they also conducted interviews and commentated on the event, as with any sport; even the least clued-up of viewers should have been able to understand what was happening.

Regardless of whether you truly consider League of Legends a sport – and no matter how strange the concept of BBC streaming the tournament – it is refreshing to see another take on tournaments shared on a national level. If nothing else, it will normalise gaming beyond Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.

Whether this succeeds in attracting the attention of young people will only become apparent when viewing figures emerge

Either way, the BBC have taken a step forward in sharing a different type of international event, and extended their reach to the wonders of e-Sports and the online world.