[OGN] A Personal Finals Review

Let me start with the most recent OGN Champions Finals, roughly one year after I attended my first live OGN Finals. The Summer was incredibly hot this year in South Korea and luckily the temperatures went down a little bit at the end of August so we could attend the Finals without risking sunburns or heatstroke. However, Janna’s wrath about being not picked anymore summoned a rainstorm over the Jamsil Auxiliary Soccer Stadium. I arrived at the stadium just before 17:00, right before the crowd started streaming into the venue. Some dark clouds were in the skies but they didn’t cause any problems until right before the broadcast started and the OGN technical crew had to assemble the tents once it started raining. It was a rush to turn off the monitors and the save the internet routers in the press area from the rain. The rain came down pretty hard but the Korean League of Legends fans, equipped with raincoats and umbrellas, were not discouraged by Janna’s fury and sat through until the rain cleared and the sun lit the stadium in all its glory. It was an awesome view when the light hit the stadium and the green floor and grass sparkled from the residual rain. This view might have been the deciding factor to give SKT T1 the strength to come back after falling behind 2:0 and everything pointed to another 3:0 finals in Champions. Eventually SKT T1 managed to turn it around and everyone could feel the side of the stadium with the SKT T1 supporters got stronger and louder with each win.



Since it was a Saturday, the subway closed one hour earlier than usual and as we closed in on the subway deadline the audience didn’t show any signs of leaving early because nobody wanted the to miss the deciding game between two rivals which have such rich esport histories. In the end SKT T1 was able to defeat KT Rolster Bullets in an awesome series which had stomps, comebacks, and amazing plays from both sides.


When I attended the Spring 2013 Finals at Kintex and saw the huge crowd of 10,000 esports fans, it was amazing. It was a huge hall filled with chairs from the front to the back and OGN had placed screens in the middle so the people in the back could still watch the game. In addition, the kickass intro and the player introduction was mind blowing. But the best part of being there is when the lights went out and the show started with Jun Yong-Joon introducing the players. The cheers from everyone in the hall gave me goosebumps.



Jun Yong-Joon is a caster who is extremely dedicated to esports. To give you an idea how long he’s been in esports, he was casting Starcraft 1 for over 10 years. If you watched the last Starleague finals and saw how sad he was when it was over, you will agree with me that this man lives and breathes esports. It is nice to see that he found a new passion with League of Legends which you can experience when he starts the games.

The production was flawless, the hall was completely full and this was a big surprise since the tickets were ~$20-25 USD when many previous esports events were free. The only thing which was a little bit sad was that Blaze couldn’t deliver a close match between them and MVP Ozone.



Winter 2012 was held at the Hanyang University and even though it was freezing temperatures, the gymnasium was completely packed and had a great atmosphere. One bonus of a smaller venue is that the boomsticks are way louder than compared to bigger halls or the open air. This season saw Najin Sword win convincingly 3:0 against Frost and it happened to be their ticket to participate in the World Championships. The KDA and MVP Awards were introduced this season, which have been continued since and both are highly contested. Size-wise, Winter 2012 was similar to Summer 2012 in front of the War Memorial.

The War Memorial was often used as a stage for Starcraft: Brood War matches. This was one of the earliest signs that League of Legends has the potential to be Broodwar successor in South Korea. Following the debut of foreign teams in Spring 2012, CLG, Dignitas and Na`Vi traveled to Korea to measure their strength against the Korean scene. CLG.EU conquered many Korean teams and were finally stopped by Azubu Frost in the Finals in a close 2:3 match. Since it was during the summer people camped 10 hours before the ticket booth opened at 10:00 AM. I arrived around 07:00 AM and there were already 4000 people before me according to my ticket number. Nonetheless it was an amazing evening for my first open air Final.

In addition I was able to meet the CLG players and got to known them a little bit after a night at Yongsan where we went together for chicken after the games were finished.

What changed over this one year?

One major point is that the number of viewers increased significantly. When OGN started in Spring 2012 I can remember that the stream had less than 10k viewers. Now OGN can average 60k viewers for any night and even higher for highly anticipated matchups. The quality of the broadcast increased and we have now true HD after the Yongsan studio got upgraded between Winter 2012 and Spring 2013.

Then the coverage about the Korean LoL scene also improved. In the beginning Teamliquid was the only website which reviewed OGN to any degree but now various other esport websites and Reddit users are contributing to make OGN more known in the western world. The World finals and the all-stars event were both two important reasons for the increase in visibility and recognition.

But one of the biggest improvements made by OGN is the acquisition of Chobra. Since Chobra joined the OGN Global team and got used to the Korean working environment, the content for the English speaking viewers increased. We are now treated to the MVP/Winner interview translations, short banter between the games, introductions, and other other funny elements that Chobra thought the viewers would find interesting. This content is not only entertaining but also allows the viewers to sympathize with the Korean players.

I can't wait for the announcement of the Finals location (where it will be, what the stage will look like, how many people, etc.). Along with actually attending the event, waiting for this annoucement if one of my favorite parts of the OGN season. If you can, I highly recommend attending at least one major Live event in person. Try to get some other LoL friends and attend it together. It will be a whole different reception of a League of Legends event.

Future for Teamliquid

The Korean team and I will continue to try to bring more content for the English speaking audience, be it translations, reviews, previews or our own interviews with Korean teams and players. I have some things in my mind but it is not always easy to get a hold of the Korean teams. I hope you enjoyed the first year of Teamliquid OGN Champions coverage. Feel free to join our discussions and live report threads on Teamliquid!

Here are some photos which I took with my crappy camera

• Summer 2013
  
• Spring 2013
  
• Winter 2012