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News
Garena League of Legends Turns 1!
22/6/2012
by Lee Zhi Xin
The party of all parties
In the legends and lore yet to come, many would speak, awe-struck, about that one party that blasted all other parties off the face of the Earth simply by happening, because no other party could call itself one anymore.
Until the next time Garena organises another party, of course.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you obviously weren’t there at the Garena League of Legends First Year Anniversary party on Wednesday in Funan Digitalife Mall.
“But what could I have missed out?” you ask, bewildered.
Let me enlighten you.
Up close and personal with the Singapore Sentinels
Ever wondered whether you had what it takes to be part of a professional eSports team?
A few lucky individuals got the chance to find out when they played alongside the Singapore Sentinels.
If you still don’t know who the Singapore Sentinels are, shame on you. For the hundreds of fans present at the party though, they had no doubts about that: the Singapore Sentinels, or SGS for short, are the hottest team in the League of Legends, all set to win the Garena Premier League.
When asked who their favourite SGS players were, the audience chirped a variety of answers: “ToFuBoi!” “Chawy!” were among the names tossed out, despite the two players’ absence.
We caught up with SGS after the exhibition matches which had the audience holding their breaths. The team was in high spirits, pitching jokes and countering mock insults from each other. SGS Kailing, the strategist of the team, answered some of our burning questions: what is it like to be a professional eSports player? What does a typical training session comprise of?
“Basically we just play the game, and discuss about it afterwards regardless of whether we won or lost,” he said. “It’s actually very intense, especially when your manager breathes down your neck—often we have no breaks, because he’s such a slave-driver,” he said, to a chorus of agreements from the team and the bemused smiles of their manager.
Any tips for gamers interested in joining competitive gaming?
“I think it’s more of the attitude. You must strike a balance between play and work during training, you have to go further and play more than the others, you have to watch the better players. So previously the team watched a lot of live streams of overseas competitions, just to analyse their strategies.”
You know what to do gamers.
We posed a final question: did ToFuBoi’s absence last weekend affect them? Here, HarLeLuYar chipped in with a joke: “No, in fact our team has improved.”
“Quote that,” Kailing told us. “Tell them HarLeLuYar said that.”
Onto it, Sentinels.
Girlaxy takes the stage
As any football fan will tell you, watching matches with a crowd of people can be a very intense experience. It’s like being in a theme park, except the things riding the roller coasters are your emotions.
It’s no different with a LoL match. Just ask any member of the audience for the exhibition matches with SGS and Girlaxy, Singapore’s very own all-female eSports team.
Just for those few hours, the entire atrium was transformed into a stadium as the audience gasped and cheered for the 2D heroes they have grown to love. Ambushes stopped their hearts for a few moments. Team clashes restarted them and sent them into a sprint against Usain Bolt. And Aces had them throwing their arms into the air whooping.
Members of the audience were eager to have a match with Girlaxy
Hosts Aaron ‘Djehuty’ and Elliot were flawless, pumping the crowd with their shoutcasting during matches and keeping them entertained with their sharp wit for the rest of the time. “I’ll give this prize out to whoever knows my name!” Elliot hollered. “Handsome!” someone in the crowd screamed. He got the prize.
And if you think gamers can only excel behind the computer screen, the champion dance and mimicry competitions proved you utterly wrong. Members of the audience gamely went up on stage to imitate their favourite LoL heroes dancing. Particular favourites were Kog’Maw’s “Hello, My Baby” and Viktor’s “Keep it coming” shuffle, and the two winners who won the most cheers from the audience even had a dance-off with SNSD’s “Run Devil Run”, earning the ultimate winner a Steelseries headset.
For everyone else, mini games kept them busy until the end of the party as they fought each other tooth-and-claw for an Ace within twenty minutes, had a game of Dominion and wove their way around the Twisted Treeline with special rules picked out of the mystery box.
Lee Sin and Miss Fortune came out into the real world to meet their fans, and goodies, inclusive of free skins, LoL posters and keychains, and Steelseries products, flowed freely.
Just kidding, of course we will throw one soon. We hope you had as much fun as we did, and if you aspire towards gaming on a worldwide arena someday, follow the Sentinels’ advice: watch our live streaming of the Garena Premier League here at our official website.
