During the League of Legends World Championship finals, the Taiwanese Taipei Assassins defeated the Korean team Azubu Frost 3-1, winning the $1 million dollar prize. It was watched by ten thousand fans in the the University of Southern California’s Galen Center with millions more watching the event live-streamed, quite possibly making it the largest e-sports event ever held, both in terms of the audience and the prize money.
While Riot admits that they lost money on the event, it can be seen as a major marketing and PR investment, with thousands of players considering becoming future Taipei Assassins. There were also over 100 reporters from around the world covering the event, giving it larger than average exposure for a video game tournament.
The average League of Legends pro event now attracts more viewers than the average Major League Baseball game, according to Riot. The company also claims that the streaming video of the semi-finals was watched by so many people it took up 5 percent of the total internet bandwidth of North America.
Source: GamesIndustry International
