With the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series (PCS) Grand Finals unfurling at Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium on Saturday, the executor of the pro gaming league said it is time to "find back the fans."
Jerry Yen (顏宥騫), CEO of Carry International Co., Ltd., which has been executing the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game's Pacific pro league since 2021, told CNA that the offline PCS Summer Split finals featuring PSG Talon (PSG) and CTBC Flying Oyster (CFO) marked a significant step in the company's bid to boost the esports market that has declined due to the pandemic.
The PCS entered its fourth year in 2023, but Saturday's event was the pro league's first match held at a venue instead of online.
"People were saying that the tickets were priced too high, but we still sold nearly 95 percent of them," said Yen, who is also known as "Po11" among netizens.
He said those who played the game as children have grown up and become financially capable.
According to the marketing staff at the Taiwan-based company, fans filled 90 percent of the approximately 5,700 seats in the gymnasium.
Yen said the next step for the industry is to have a high-level gaming house, where the PCS and other categories such as Valorant and Pokémon Trading Card Game can hold their games regularly and make esports a regular part of the public's life.
For the love of the game
Yen's remark received support from David Liu (劉), a die-hard fan of the game developed by Riot Games. Liu spent NT$1,800 (US$56) on the highest-priced ticket, even though he stopped playing the game about four years ago and the Hell Pigs (HPS) -- the team he rooted for -- did not make it to the playoffs.
"League of Legends has been part of my life after I played it for six years," said the 28-year-old engineer, who added that he will continue supporting esports events in Taiwan with cash, now that he has started earning his own living.
A similar sentiment was shared by spectators such as 22-year-old Carrie Chien (簡) and 28-year-old Pana Tsao (曹), two PSG fans who have been summoners for at least seven years. They said they will continue attending PCS events despite the declining competitiveness of the region.
The PCS, which has been allocated two World Championship berths yearly so far, saw both teams advance to the group stage in the Worlds only once in 2020, its inaugural season.
Whereas only one of the PCS teams had to play in the play-in stage for a group stage berth, this year teams from the region had to vie with two League of Legends Circuit Oceania (LCO) clubs for only two Worlds play-in slots as the PCS teams remained weak internationally.
But there are also fans who think a region's international success matters.
Frank Lin (林) told CNA he pays more attention to stronger regions now and he attended Saturday's event mainly for the love of the PSG's veteran mid-laner Huang "Maple" Yi-tang (黃熠棠).
When esports meets cheerleading squads
Saturday's event was unique also because of the performances of two cheerleading squads that took turns to grace the stage during the break between games.
While CFO has Passion Sisters, a cheerleading squad that frequents the home games of pro baseball and basketball clubs owned by the banking company CTBC, the PSG was joined by the Rakuten Girls in response, making the Grand Finals probably the first time when esports united with cheerleading, a culture that has been an essential part of Taiwan's baseball and basketball industries.
Liu and baseball fans such as Lin and Tsao believe that the appearance of cheerleaders could draw more people to an esports event, but said there is room for improvement.
Tsao, for example, pointed out that cheerleading in a baseball game usually has walk-up songs for different players, but that connection was absent on Saturday.
Similarly, Liu said a cheerleading performance during a baseball game can rally the spectators, but the cheerleaders took to the stage Saturday during the interval between two games when many spectators had left to use the restroom.
Maple considering hanging up his keyboard
In Saturday's best-of-five match, PSG took the last laugh on a 3-2 victory to hoist the trophy and bag US$30,000 in prize money, whereas the CFO was granted US$14,000 as runner-up.
The championship was the sixth split title netted by the Hong Kong-based club, whose jungler Yu "JunJia" Chun-chia (余峻嘉) was awarded the Finals MVP.
However, the loudest cheering after the match took place when fans yelled "One more year!" to Maple, who revealed in a pre-game video that this is likely to be his last dance due to the tear and wear he accumulated over his decade-long career.
"Like tendinitis, [and] I can't stretch my arms fully straight now, and my eyes suffer as well," the 25-year-old pro gamer explained after the game. He added that it is extremely hard for an esports gamer to return to the level he was once he leaves the pro stage.
Describing the moment he heard the crowd yelling as "very touching," Maple thanked fans for all their love and support along the journey and said that he will aim for the round of eight in the Worlds.
What to expect from PCS?
Also confident is CFO jungler Huang "Gemini" Chu-xuan (黃楚軒), who will soon head to South Korea to attend the Worlds for the second straight year.
Despite Saturday's loss, Gemini said the bumpy road they have taken this summer actually made the team much stronger, and they will play well to "let oysters fly higher" than they did last year.
Given its PCS No. 5 regular season record in the summer split this year, CFO started from the Losers' Bracket in the playoffs automatically and has stunned Team Bliss from the LCO, Double Cross Gaming, Frank Esports and Beyond Gaming to secure a slot in the upcoming World Championship in South Korea.
The club recorded 1-5 in the group stage in 2022, winning only the opening game before it got eliminated.
Asked to comment on the two teams' chance at the Worlds, analyst Lin "Nash" Wei-hsin (林煒昕) told CNA the PSG can play a wide variety of compositions and that the CFO has "made surprising progress with unique comps and games."
However, the PSG will have to play more aggressively particularly in the mid-game so as not to be punished for their slow tempo, while the CFO will have to excel in more team compos to avoid falling behind in the mainstream meta then, Nash added.
Speaking of the development of the game in Taiwan, where the overall competitiveness has been declining, Nash said the number of amateur players has decreased compared to its peak a few years ago, but he found that the viewership of the game has been climbing steadily.
"If we can cultivate a group of viewers [huge enough] for the game and make it similar to traditional sports such as basketball and football, ... it is still worth us feeling happy about."
