Live 'League of Legends' coverage is coming to BBC Three
The BBC will tap into the popular world of eSports next week by offering live coverage of the League of Legends World Championships for the first time. From October 15th, BBC Three will deliver action from all four days of the quarter finals at Wembley, with Radio 1 DJ Dev Griffin hosting proceedings. He'll be joined by gaming casters Leigh 'Deman' Smith and James 'Stress' O'Leary, who will offer additional context on the action as it unfolds.
League of Legends is a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game that pits two teams of between three and five players against each other. They start opposite sides of a map and are tasked with destroying their opponents' "Nexus." More than 27 million gamers play it every day and the BBC says over 70 million hours of last year's championships watched by fans from all over the world.
The broadcaster will use a system normally reserved for live sporting events and Glastonbury coverage to deliver live and pre-recorded video, text updates, audio and social updates. If you've ever followed Premier League updates on the BBC Sport website then you'll know what to expect.
In March, we posited that 2015 would be the breakout year for eSports. In the past six months alone, league organiser Gfinity opened its first dedicated venue in London, video game retailer GAME acquired Multiplay and has begun hosting tournaments in stores and even major bookmakers are taking bets on major eSports events. With the BBC behind it, the movement looks set to become even more mainstream, and that can only be a good thing.
