It’s easy to criticize the UK League of Legends scene, what with all the drama and volatility, but for some other regions there are much fewer opportunities.
It’s sometimes easy to forget we have a range of tournaments here, from the ESL Premiership to the UK Masters, Insomnia, NUEL Live and the occasional one-offs like the Red Bull competition and the old 4Nations. Not to mention the UK takes part in the University Esports Masters.
And we have a handful of higher-level British players, including Alphari, Maxlore, KaSing and Caedrel.
For the likes of Lithuania, it’s a different story. They don’t have a national league as such, not one that grants them a spot in the EU Challenger Series Qualifiers anyway, like we do.
Aurelija Vaitkevičiūtė, from the GameOn tournament (outlined below) explains: “The League of Legends discipline is overwhelmed by other big fish in the Lithuanian esports market, which leads to wasted talent in our country who have all the features to compete on an international level.
“The sheer quantity of League of Legends tournaments in the Baltic states is rather underwhelming, so the most achieved teams in the countries have very little chances to compete, step up their game or get noticed by any of the larger esports organisations.
“This won‘t be just an ordinary League of Legends tournament – it will be a major step towards the international esports market for the country. Entry is free so anyone with a team can apply.”
“Most of the Lithuanians have their favourite teams and players, and you can usually hear people cheering for them in the rare tournaments that we have. And in GameOn this year we hope that many of the international team fans will also come by to support their own teams as well.”
GameOn is one tournament that hopes to put Lithuania and other Baltic states on the League of Legends map. And it hopes to attract a UK League of Legends team to take part.
It’s the biggest video game exhibition in the Baltic states and runs from September 16th to 17th September in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania.
One of the most important GameOn championships will be League of Legends.
“It won‘t be just an ordinary League of Legends tournament – it will be a major step towards the international market of esports for the country,” Aurelija adds.
“This year‘s League of Legends championship has caught the eye of a lot more people and thus, going into the open waters of the esports market, the prize pool increases accordingly. The best teams will compete for the biggest yet cash winnings of 2,000 euros and Riot Points with a total value of 750 euros.
“The entry for the tournament is free so anyone with a team can still apply and test their strength on an international level.”
Video from a Lithuanian LoL player
We’re told Saulius is the mid-laner for Iron Wolves, he put out this video on his playing conditions.
Further information
- Registration form to the League of Legends tournament: https://gameon.lt/en/lol/
- GameOn link: https://gameon.lt/en/
- GameOn Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/GameOnEU/?fref=ts
- Open registration link: https://battlefy.com/gameoneu/gameon-league-of-legends-tournament/5980ab9c6c59060332cf76ef/info?infoTab=details
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
