With the Summer Split ending across the eastern regions, the LoL national terms are getting ready for the 2022 Asian Games. Here is everything you need to know to catch up on one of the first nation-based esports competitions.
Image Credits | Asian Games
The Asian Games is a continental multi-sport event held every fourth year among athletes from all over Asia. The Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and are described as the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.
The event was initially supposed to be in September 2022 but it was postponed for an entire year due to the health restrictions related to Covid-19 in the host city of Hangzhou.
Aside from traditional sports, esports has finally been recognized as a medal event starting from this edition (2018 was only featured in the demonstration event). Starting from this edition, there will be seven games being played in official competitions, including League of Legends, Dota 2, Street Fighter V, PUBG Mobile, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, Arena of Valor, and FIFA Online 4.
Image Credits | AESF
Hearthstone was initially part of the list but it was later eliminated due to the failed negotiations between Blizzard Entertainment and Chinese publishing partner NetEase. There will also be two Demonstration Events, the AESF Robot Masters and AESF VR Sports.
In the previous edition, China beat Korea to claim the trophy, even though it was only a demonstration event. Regardless, winning Asian Games is seen as a national-wide achievement and it’s a great way to spread the esports phenomenon among those who are not familiar with it. Now that the intro has been made, let’s go over the schedule and format for the 2022 Asian Games LoL tournament.
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The League of Legends tournament will last four days between September 25-29. It will be held at the Hangzhou Esports Center, an esports arena that can accommodate over 4,000 spectators. Aside from the competition, Hangzhou has always been a great destination for tourists.
The schedule can be found below:
On September 5, it was confirmed (info taken from the final version of the Sports Technical Book for Esports under 8.5 for League of Legends) that games will be played on Patch 13.12, which is quite an unusual choice, considering the fact that it dates to nearly 3 months ago. Additionally, the four winners from the Road to Asian Games (Malaysia, India, China, Saudi Arabia) have been seeded directly to the quarterfinals, giving these four teams a big advantage over everyone else.
The remaining non-seeded teams will be divided into four groups, with a single round-robin best-of-one to decide the top team from each group that will advance to the quarterfinals. After the group stage, there will be Bo3 elimination tournament with a third-place decider.
Compared to the regular tournaments and formats seen in the leagues worldwide, the Asian Games are much faster-paced. Bo1 matches can be a lot more flippy, potentially giving space for upsets and surprising results.
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The LoL tournament for the 2022 Asian Games will feature 24 national teams. Aside from the most famous powerhouses like South Korea and China, there will also be teams from nations like Bahrain, Kuwait, Audi Arabia, and more.
Among the favorites, South Korea and China are likely the favorites to win the title. The level of players they will be fielding is one or two tiers above everyone else. And given the South Korea vs China rivalry, the two nations have called up all the biggest stars of the esports scene, including players like Faker, knight, and Elk. The two teams will be respectively coached by Kim ‘kkOma’ Jeong-gyun for team Korea and Zhu ‘KenZhu’ Kai for the Chinese representative.
South Korea (mix of T1, Gen.G, JDG players)
China (mix of BLG, EDG, and JDG players)
Chinese Taipei
Vietnam
Japan
Hong Kong
Malaysia
Macau
Singapore
Thailand
Philippines
India
Kazakhstan
Myanmar
Sri Lanka
Kyrgyzstan
Bahrain
Jordan
Kuwait
Oman
Palestine
Saudi Arabia
Qatar
United Arab Emirates
The 19th Asian Games Hangzhou Organising Committee hasn’t announced a Western broadcast. If you’re looking to watch Asian Games, your best shot is by checking out some of the official national channels from one of the participating countries. For example, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has been granted media rights, which means that the competition will be streamed on Sony network channels.
South Korea is broadcasting its own national team through Kespa. Even though it only has Korean commentary, you can watch some LoL action on their Youtube channel.
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