League League is a side group of the larger organization ABXY, a group built upon socializing through the common interest of video games. Though ABXY plays many games every week, League League takes its name from its sole focused game: “League of Legends.”
“League of Legends” is known as a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short. In “League,” players are split into teams of five to destroy the enemy’s towers. Doing so is not an easy task, as the players must collaborate to fight through the arena, known as ‘’the jungle,” to gain experience and gold to prepare for the final strike. If so much as one player in the team makes a mistake, the entire team could be overwhelmed and killed, costing them valuable time.
Huston Rogers, a senior majoring in electrical and chemical engineering, is an avid player and coach for the three competitive teams on campus. Rogers claimed a lot of the game is focused around the first six minutes of the game. Players must work on their “creep score,” which is the amount of computer-controlled enemies the player has killed. Having a higher creep score rewards the player with gold, items and experience and could control the tide of battle.
“When you watch what wins you a game [and] what loses you a game, hitting 50 at 10 minutes generally means you’re going to stay even the entire game,” Rogers said. “Hitting 70 means that you’re probably going to have at least some small advantage if you’re not going to win. Having less than 40 means you’re probably just not going to win the game, because that’s how you get gold, that’s how you get items, [and] that’s how you build a lead, come from behind, [or] do anything.”
If the above sounds complicated, that’s because League of Legends is full of small intricacies like this. The game contains over 120 characters to play as, each with their own play styles and skills. Currently, Lucas Urbi, a junior majoring in nursing, and others like Sarah Cottingham, a junior majoring in psychology, and Brendan Greenwell, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering, are preparing for the southern qualifiers for League of Legends’ North American Collegiate Championship, though with a few difficulties.
“It’s really badly set up right now,” Greenwell said. “There’s four qualifiers to get in. You compete in different places. Right now, one of the qualifiers is actually canceled, so there’s only three now. Basically we’re trying to qualify, try to get in one of the top spots, and compete against everyone in the region of North America, including Canada and Mexico.”
The White team is currently training for Division II of the Collegiate Star League, while the Crimson team is competing in Division I in hopes to enter a larger elimination bracket. The White team recently beat North Dakota State in two games, advancing forward in their division. While Crimson and White are moving forward in their respective brackets, the Gray team in Division III did not fare as well.
“The Gray team lost to Sam Houston State, who is one of the best contenders in the Division III group right now,” Rogers said. “We tried. It didn’t go well, but we tried.”
League League meets at 6 p.m. every Tuesday night in 109 Graves Hall. The group is looking to set up coaches to ease new members into the game and teach them more advanced strategies. Rogers is currently working on coaching the more competitive players on increasing their creep score. Despite the competitive nature of the game, the group always welcomes new players.
“We’re here every Tuesday,” Rogers said. “We play a ton. I play once a night from home. Most people in the group play at least once a night from home, so just show up. We’re all here, we all play, and we’re all friends. That’s the goal of this: make friends, [and] have fun playing a game.”
