the European league of League of Legends in the sights of French clubs

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Impossible to miss them. The real stars of this Paris Games Week are the professional esports players, welcomed like rock stars on stage. It must be said that game developers have not skimped on decorum to welcome them : special effects, large screens and merchandise in team colors make the show spectacular.

On Saturday November 3 and Sunday November 4, two League of Legends French Cup semi-finals will take place live, under the eyes of thousands of video game enthusiasts gathered at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles. If this MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena for battle arena game) is highlighted this year, it is not by chance. Since 2019, a whole competitive ecosystem has been set up, and French clubs are now projecting themselves on the European scene.

“Playing on stage with the public, knowing the expectations of the fans, is a first for me but I will approach it like any competition. It is sure that the feeling is special”, says Jules “Hantera” Bourgeois. At 23, he is one of the best League of Legends (LoL) players in France. The aim of the game ? Destroy the opposing base in a 25-40 minute clash between two teams of five players.

Engaged in the most prominent team in the French league (LFL), the Karmine Corp (KCorp), “Hantera” will play its semi-final of the Coupe de France on Saturday against LDLC OL, the esports team of Olympique Lyonnais . “For us the Coupe de France is a bit like the last dance of the season. It allows the teams of division 2 and 3 to meet the teams of LFL, the first national division. The format is quite nice. Our goal is of course to win.” An opportunity for pro teams to establish their notoriety and advance a few pawns in the middle of the end-of-season transfer window.

Elias, 19, with a “KCorp” t-shirt on his shoulders, came with his friends from Dijon to attend the championship. “It’s the first time I’ve come to Paris Games Week, what interests me above all is the esports part. I really got into League of Legends during the lockdown and I wanted to see the players in person.” Audiences for the game have accelerated further since the Covid-19 crisis, where the other sports championships were at a standstill.

League of Legends was thus the most watched esports game in 2021 with more than 664 million hours of viewing and 180 million active players, according to its American publisher Riot Games. In France, the level of play has also experienced a leap forward. “On the European scene, France has an interesting position. The league is higher than in Germany or Spain”, explains “Hantera”, who notably left to train at the UCAM Esports Club in Spain.

But this weekend, during the Coupe de France, no qualification issue in sight. It is above all an honorary championship. Because the European scene, the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), has been governed since 2019 by a franchise system. To access it, you have to buy a place at a club. Karmine Corp, on the strength of its good results since its launch in 2020 (victory in LFL in 2021), did attempt a breakthrough this summer, without success.

The French streamer Kameto, co-founder (along with entrepreneur Amine Mekri, nicknamed Prime) and CEO of the French structure Karmine Corp, thus announced, in tears, on a Youtube video on October 26, to abandon an entry into LEC for 2023 for lack of agreement.

Because playing the European scene is a financial question while the endorsement of Riot Games, game developer and tournament organizer, remains an essential component. “The goal for us is clearly to join the LEC, that’s the ultimate prestige. It didn’t work this year but next year we hope to go there. You have to train a lot of hours, be patient, hardworking, and competitive.” adds, confident, “Hantera”.

Only one French team has managed to join the European league, the LEC, from 2019: Vitality. This esports club, founded in 2013, is the most important French representative on the international scene and is considered one of the three most powerful structures in Europe with G2 and Fnatic. The team employs a hundred people – including around forty players – and has an annual budget of more than 10 million euros. With its own demonstration stand at Paris Games Week, the French flagship of the sector sports the club logo everywhere, in the shape of a bee, taken up by many fans on T-shirts, jackets and caps.

“The European League is still a level above the LFL”, abounds Louis Victor “Mephisto” Legendre, coach of the team’s first League of Legends team. “The LEC consists of eight weeks of the regular season, where you have to put in a lot of work not to lose. The objective then is to beat our rival teams to have a good place in the playoffs and then to reach the final. is very demanding, you have to establish a good understanding and above all an identity. In the space of a week, everything can go up in smoke: it’s long and intense”. describes the French coach.

“The progress comes on the one hand from Riot, with a studio and a production worthy of certain traditional sports. The teams, of which we are a part, have also evolved enormously: having dedicated offices, a nutritionist, a personal coach and state-of-the-art equipment dedicated to a single team would have been a bit of a crazy dream in 2015. It is our reality today”adds Anne Banschbach, Head of Esports at Team Vitality.

Mephisto, however, qualifies the European progression of French clubs: “I don’t know if we can really say that France is investing in European esports. Vitality seeks to have an international identity, competitive in the LEC, and the academy in the LFL is more national in scope, to develop talents”. If the aim of European progress is real, the objective is first tobe among the best teams in the two circuits on which Vitality competes: the LFL and the LEC. VSIt goes through the semi-final of the Coupe de France on Sunday for the Vitality.bee Academy, which has French and international players in its ranks.

For Mephisto and for the main team of the stable, the objective is now to qualify for the “Worlds”, the Worlds of the discipline, by appearing among the three best European clubs. The European league could also see its format evolve next season, enough to redistribute the cards on the Old Continent. “And at this level, there is still a march as the Asian teams dominate the championship”. The French league will resume in January.


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