League of Legends Collegiate League 2015 Season Opens Tomorrow
The League of Legends Collegiate League (LCL) kicks off its 2015 Spring Season tomorrow, Dec. 14, 2014. Sixteen teams from colleges and universities from around Metro Manila will battle on the Fields of Justice to take the title of the best League of Legends collegiate team in the country.
Over the next three months, the 16 teams will divide into four groups of four to compete in a round-robin format tournament. The top two teams per group at the end of regular season will proceed to the playoffs.
Check out the teams and brackets for the 2015 Spring Season LCL:
The champion will receive P20,000 in cash for the team, with Garena donating P15,000 in cash or items to the school they represent.
In addition to the cash prize and school benefits, participating players will receive 500 Riot Points (RP) for every month of the competition.
Asked about the goal of the LCL, Garena eSports Philippines said that the league was done to support eSports and its recognition by schools and universities as a worthy endeavor.
“Collegiate leagues had always been a big thing in the Philippines. From sports leagues to cheerleading competitions to quiz shows, students always find it exciting to throw in their support for their alma mater,” said Garena. “This is our main goal, to bring the fun and excitement of cheering for your favorite university/school into League of Legends. In the process, of course, we aim to hopefully gain the recognition and support of schools/universities for eSports.”
According to Garena, the video game publisher and tournament organizer for the LCL has yet to coordinate fully with the athletic and faculty departments of the schools involved, but steps are being taken to work closely with the schools’ administration for future events.
“We haven’t actually directly coordinated yet with athletic departments and faculties of these schools but we hope that this become a stepping stone towards that. We just want them to see first that eSports/gaming will not directly interfere with the students’ studies and that they can balance out their priorities,” Garena said.
“We’ve also seen school organizations and faculties showing support for our various eSports activities in the past like tournaments in some of these schools and hopefully, through the Collegiate League, we can take it to the next level.”
With schools in Korea, China and even in the United States offering varsity scholarships and college courses for popular eSports titles such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, Garena hopes that the LCL will pave the way to bring the trend into Philippine tertiary learning institutions.
“We know that gaming per se is not really a very widely accepted topic when discussed together with academics but through the LCL,” shared Garena. “We hope that we can eventually get there in the long run.”
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
