WCG Diaries: the most and least popular games in China

WCG 2013 is over and the results have been tallied, but the show was also a bit of a cultural event. For those who missed it, here’s what it was like on the ground:

If there was one game at WCG that stood out in its gravitational pull on nerds, it was League of Legends.

Because China is a dominant force in the game, it’s also one of the epicenters of League fanaticism. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Or maybe it’s that Chinese college students have a lot of free time on their hands.

“It’s simple, the graphics aren’t bad, the system requirements are low,” a young man named Li Dong told me when I asked him why LoL was so popular.

He and his five friends were huge fans and talked breathlessly about the Chinese teams. They recounted their experiences last year at the 2012 WCG finals, also held in Kunshan.

I asked if he still played.

“I did in school, but not anymore.”

Every fan I talked to in my two days in Kunshan, save for one, said they were primarily there to watch LoL.

Indeed, whenever an LoL match was on, that area of the convention center would swell until there was hardly any space to maneuver. Security would create exits out of emergency doors to ensure people could still move around. Even so, the air would stale, becoming a stifling mix of indoor heating and gamer sweat.

Even the quarterfinal match between Mexico’s Lyon Gaming and Korea’s CJ Entus Blaze was standing room only. Unless you got to the venue at seven in the morning, there was no way you were getting a seat. As the players were getting settled, crowds started forming around the perimeter of the seating section like bacterial cultures in a petri dish. Others grabbed seats from elsewhere — the exhibition booths, seating for restaurant customers — and made their own islands of chairs.

The next day, for the semifinal match between Team WE (which fell apart following this event) and OMG, both Chinese teams, Martin and Megan got there early to save me a seat. Excitement reached a fever pitch. Fans were standing in the aisles against the protestations of the security guards. There was no getting in or out.

When the teams marched on stage, the crowd went berserk. You might have been at a Justin Bieber concert. To draw out the excitement, the announcers introduced the players one by one.

“I think everyone here is quite familiar with these teams,” one announcer began. “So when we say their names, I want you to shout out their handles!”