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Gaming Fans Throng Seoul for League of Legends World Final

People walk in front of a huge temporarily installed “Teemo” at the “2023 Worlds Fan Fest” for the League of Legends World Championship 2023, also known as LoL Worlds 2023 or Worlds 2023, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on November 17, 2023, ahead of the grand final on November 19. (AFP)
People walk in front of a huge temporarily installed “Teemo” at the “2023 Worlds Fan Fest” for the League of Legends World Championship 2023, also known as LoL Worlds 2023 or Worlds 2023, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on November 17, 2023, ahead of the grand final on November 19. (AFP)
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Gaming Fans Throng Seoul for League of Legends World Final

People walk in front of a huge temporarily installed “Teemo” at the “2023 Worlds Fan Fest” for the League of Legends World Championship 2023, also known as LoL Worlds 2023 or Worlds 2023, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on November 17, 2023, ahead of the grand final on November 19. (AFP)
People walk in front of a huge temporarily installed “Teemo” at the “2023 Worlds Fan Fest” for the League of Legends World Championship 2023, also known as LoL Worlds 2023 or Worlds 2023, at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on November 17, 2023, ahead of the grand final on November 19. (AFP)

Thousands of fans from around the world have descended on South Korea's capital Seoul for the League of Legends world championship final on Sunday, widely considered the Super Bowl of e-sports.

First held in 2011, the League of Legends (LoL) world championship has rapidly grown to become one of the crown jewels of e-sports, which are globally forecast to attract audiences of nearly 1.4 billion by 2025.

South Korean powerhouse T1, who lost in last year's world final, will take on China's Weibo Gaming at the Gocheok Sky Dome, a 16,000-capacity baseball stadium.

"Every time the LoL world championship was held in South Korea, we were not able to advance, but this year, we've secured the opportunity to play... in front of our Korean fans," T1's Faker, a superstar often hailed as the Michael Jordan of e-sports, said at a press conference this week.

"I hope to end this rare... opportunity with a positive result."

Faker, whose real name is Lee Sang-hyeok, is looking to win a record fourth world title with T1. He won gold with South Korea at the Asian Games this year.

He has celebrity status in gaming-mad South Korea, where fans chant his name during matches.

At a fan zone set up for the final in central Seoul, people queued up to take photos with life-sized cutouts of Faker and his team.

"My favourite is Faker," said Park Jeong-hyeon, a 22-year-old student who said she has been playing League of Legends with her friends for three years.

She compared him to K-pop's biggest stars: "He plays so well, it makes me wonder how he does it! I'd say he's the BTS of e-sports."

Many in the fan zone were decked out in costumes and carried props as they posed for photos.

League of Legends involves two teams with five players each competing in a battleground where the goal is to destroy the opponent's base.

During competitive games, screaming and cheering fans follow the action on giant screens above the teams.

Tickets for the final at the 16-000 capacity Sky Dome sold out in 10 minutes when they were made available in August, according to League of Legends maker Riot Games.

Dozens of cinemas across South Korea will also screen the final live. Those tickets also sold out rapidly, according to listings on operator CGV.

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How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
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How the World’s Press Rated Paris’s Olympics Opening Ceremony

Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
Former French football player Zinedine Zidane holds the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Paris broke with tradition on Friday by turning the Olympic Opening Ceremony into a parade down the River Seine rather than a stadium-based show.

TV viewers around the world were treated to a spectacle performed on bridges, the riverbank and rooftops, culminating with French athletes Marie-Jose Perec and Teddy Riner lighting the Olympic cauldron and a performance from Canada's Celine Dion.

However, the 6,000-odd athletes, 3,000 performers, 300,000 spectators and dozens of world leaders had to endure heavy rain for much of the event.

Here's how the world's media judged Paris's ambitious ceremony:

FRANCE

Newspaper Le Monde wrote in a rave review that director Thomas Jolly "succeeded in his challenge of presenting an immersive show in a capital transformed into a gigantic stage".

Right-leaning Le Figaro said the show was "great but some of it was just too much". It said viewers "could have been spared" images including an apparent recreation of the painting of The Last Supper of Jesus and his apostles in front of a fashion show.

UNITED STATES

"Opening Ceremony Misses the Boat" headlined the New York Times's television review.

It wrote that the river parade "turned the ceremony into something bigger, more various and more intermittently entertaining. But it also turned it into something more ordinary — just another bloated made-for-TV spectacle".

The Washington Post was more glowing, noting that the organizer's "bold thinking" brought a shine back to an event that has seen its popularity wane in recent years.

CHINA

China's Xinhua state news agency said the ceremony succeeded in showcasing France.

"There were Can-Can girls, a homage to the reconstruction of Notre Dame and of course the French Revolution, with fireworks, heavy metal and singers who appeared to have lost a battle with the guillotine.

"If there was a downside to the ceremony, it is that any event performed over such a long distance has to struggle with continuity, and the big difference between this ceremony and others is that the parade of athletes was mixed in with the performances."

SOUTH KOREA

South Korean media noted the "impressive" imagination of using the whole city as the backdrop but the event was overshadowed by the country's team being misintroduced as North Korea.

South Korea's CBS radio said while the incident was no doubt an honest mistake, it was disappointing the Paris organizers failed at what should have been a very basic part of the event.

GERMANY

"As beautiful as it was mad," wrote Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine. "France revolutionized the opening ceremony ... by the end even the rain had been defeated."

Tabloid Bild was bowled over by Celine Dion's return to the stage after four years, defying illness to "sing just as in the best of times. She deserves a gold medal for this performance."

BRITAIN

British tabloid The Sun joked "Wet The Games Begin!" on its front page alongside an image of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by laser beams, and described the ceremony as spectacular.

The Daily Mail's headline read "La Farce!", mainly in reference to the train disruption earlier in the day, but the paper also judged Paris's gamble on the weather had "backfired spectacularly".

A writer for the Guardian newspaper described the parade of boats on the Seine as "like watching an endless series of weirdly nationalistic office parties" but concluded Celine Dion had rescued the event with a "jaw dropping" performance.

ITALY

La Gazzetta dello Sport said the ceremony was "something unprecedented, even extraordinary. A great show or a long, tedious work, depending on your point of view and sensibility."

The mainstream Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera likened the show to a contemporary art performance, noting that "some (spectators) were bored, others were amused, many found the spectacle disappointing".

The left-leaning Italian daily La Repubblica said the ceremony overshadowed the athletes.

"A lot of France, a lot of Paris, very little Olympics.... a mirror that the immortal Paris turned on herself and discovered that she was so much, too much and soaking wet".