The League of Saratoga

Junior Andrew Chang, eyes glued to the screen, pounds the keyboard buttons  furiously in an attempt to overtake the enemy team. Chang, a League of Legends player, is one of many participants in Saratoga High’s League of Legends tournament which began in March and will probably continue through May. 

When students think about competition, sports or academic contests come to mind, but the computer game League of Legends (LoL) has now become a source of competition as well. At Saratoga, students have established the school’s first LoL tournament, inspired by Monta Vista’s LoL tournament.

LoL is a free MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) game in which teams of five compete against one another in an attempt to destroy each other’s bases. It is currently the most played computer game in the world with over 1 billion hours of play a month in over 145 countries. In addition, around 12 million players play each day and around 32 million active players log on each month. 

Last year, the world tournament had over 8 million viewers online and awarded an unprecedented grand prize of $1 million. 

Competition in “e-Sports” has been increasing, and with all this rising competition, it’s no surprise that colleges and high schools have been establishing LoL clubs and competing against each other.

This year for the first time, Saratoga students have organized their own LoL tournament. There are 12 teams in the double elimination tournament, each team consisting of five main players and up to two substitutes.

 In total, there are 73 players signed up for the tournament. Each weekend, different teams will play one another and advance through the brackets; as a result, the tournament will span several weeks. The winning team will receive $125 worth of RP, the in-game currency used to purchase new characters. 

 “The [idea of a] tournament isn't something that is new to us. We always arrange matches amongst ourselves for fun,” said Chang. “The only difference in this case is that there is money [as a reward to the victor].” 

The tournament had some time conflicts, especially for busy upperclassmen. 

“It is a good and fun idea, [but] it would have probably been executed better if it weren't the middle of April, right before AP testing,” said Chang.

While there is a stereotype that competitive gamers are usually nerds or geeks, the Saratoga LoL players range from football players to math team members to History Day participants and include students of all grade levels. 

“There is no ‘typical’ League player,” senior Patrick Pan said. There are a lot of people in the tournament I didn’t expect to play at all.”

According to Jiang, the game allows many diverse groups of students to come together. Many participants hope that the tournament will inspire more students to play LoL and eventually lead to the establishment of a LoL club at Saratoga, similar to the one at Monta Vista.

“I think that this tourney is a great way to get people into the game. If future tourneys are more organized, then I think the game could get a lot bigger at SHS,” said Jiang.