Esports news: League of Legends Worlds 2024 breaks record; T1 win back-to-back titles
Sports News Blitz are dipping their toes into the world of esports thanks to writer Sam Condy.
Close match-up
It was a fantastic month for esports fans, the yearly League of Legends World championships finally climaxed at the weekend, culminating in a much closer match-up than many had anticipated.
Bilibili Gaming (BLG) started the match strong, securing an early first blood in the opening minutes of the game.
BLG effortlessly snowballed this early lead, crushing T1 in the opener to go one up through the best of five showdown.
While T1 clawed a win back, their success didn't last long.
BLG once again came out aggressive, with another stomping victory to leave them just one win away from their first World Championship victory in the outfit's history.
Unfortunately for the Chinese side, the Korean giants had warmed up, leading to two cagey games, where T1’s discipline allowed them to edge ahead.
With the win came a whole host of records.
Legendary mid-laner and T1 superstar, Faker, became the first person to lay claim to five World Championship wins as well as the first person to hold two Finals MVPs.
READ MORE: Man Utd analysis: The forwards likely to play in Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 formation
Graceful in defeat
Speaking on the loss, the BLG team were graceful in defeat.
“So for today, we just finished the game and we’re not sure what will happen next year. We will try our best on the same stage [in the future],” BLG’s bot-laner Elk stated.
“I have some regret on stage, but all the players and coaching team have put a lot of effort into this.
“We try our best to showcase our talents on stage, but T1 are a great team.
“Some decisions in the final have a huge influence on the result of the whole game. We trust being ourselves, but T1 did better.
“We lost to our ourselves and there are so many things we can learn from. We’ll try our best to stand on the big stage again and do better.”
Audience breaks records
On a larger scale, the tournament encapsulated the massive growth of esports over recent years.
The 2024 tournament final broke the record for the highest-viewed esports event of all time, reaching a peak viewership of over 6.9million, a 230% increase in viewership from 2017.
League of Legends features the highest production standard of any esports event, only further helping to catapult its success in recent years.
With the finals housed at the 02 Arena, London, a sellout 14,700 fans watched live, while 72 cameras were on hand to broadcast the event to its record-breaking audience.
The event is estimated to provide a £12m boost to the London economy.
Europe will next host T1 and other top sides in November in December, as they travel to France for the 2024 Red Bull League of its Own tournament.
READ NEXT: Coco Gauff and Simone Biles leading the way as women’s sports booms in 2024
