October 29th, 2016 was a night where the League of Legends team of SKT T1 made even more history by winning their third World’s LOL Championship in four years. Those in the know are amazed at the way this team has held up over the years. The final Championship series had SKT vs Samsung Galaxy. It turned out to be by far and away the greatest final of the six finals in World’s history. Each final is a best of five series. SKT had to win their last two games against a fantastic Rox Tigers team just to qualify for the finals … and they came out strong winning the first two games and built a $10k gold lead in game three ready to close out the series. But before anyone could cheer Samsung Galaxy one more time SKT gifted SSG a critical baron in game 3 and that led to a 70 minute comeback game of the ages and a victory in game 3 for Samsung. OK 2-1 no problem this Championship is over next game right? Wrong! Game 4 was a solid Samsung win. OK now 2 – 2 and all the pressure on game 5. The final game was a highly contested game with the title of World Champion on the line. In the end the experience and will of 2016 World’s MVP Faker took over game five of the series and in the end another huge game 5 win and another Championship for SKT. The fans saw the greatest final series of all time and SKT were crowned the best team of 2016.
SKT wins League of Legends World Championship 2016
LOL is not the only multiplayer video game that is doing fantastically well. Earlier this year Dota 2 had a prize pool in excess of $20 million dollars.
CS:GO tournament records are being broken as well.
The sheer volume of players who are participating in online multiplayer games is off the charts. No wonder television viewership is way down … who would want to watch TV when you can watch your favorite esports team live on Twitch or Youtube. I live with a millennial esports player / fan and he never watches TV … I mean never. I have heard the terms “boring” or “stupid” or “waste of time” as it relates to watching television. I can understand why.
Esports are here in a big way … and they are here to stay … no doubt about it.
Chris Grove of the esports betting report and organizer of the latest esports conference in Las Vegas (October 25th / 26th, 2016) will tell you point blank that all esports are growing at rates that make all other forms of entertainment envious. The esports fans are using technology to play, watch, interact, and enjoy their games. It is only a matter of time before the gaming industry wakes up to the needs of esports fans. We at Parimutuel LLC look forward to that day.