Interviews with Worlds 2024 fans and personalities ahead of London O2 finals

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London’s O2 Arena hosted the biggest League of Legends esports event of the year earlier this month – and we caught up with Worlds 2024 fans ahead of the grand final.

14,700 fans descended on the O2 to watch the finals live, and the atmosphere was buzzing inside and outside of the arena. A Fan Fest area allowed visitors to grab merch, meet and greet personalities like Caedrel, thebausffs and others, get photos taken next to an inflatable poro and with Viego’s sword, witness the Bridge of Progress exhibition pod, all while several cosplayers showed off some excellent creations.

Sponsors including Mastercard, Omen HyperX, Oppo, Secret Lab and Red Bull also ran activities, with Mercedes-Benz showing off the Summoner’s Cup in its custom-designed electric G-Class Worlds Trophy Carrier.

Esports News UK editor Dom Sacco asked fans what they thought of Worlds in London, just like he did back in 2015, the last time Worlds took place in the UK.

Armed with his trusty old microphone, and the help of Jonathon Yau with the camera, Dom asked fans who they thought would come out on top between T1 and BLG (T1 of course went on to win Worlds 2024).

T1 fan Ash (aka Cax) said: “With T1 winning [a lot], it creates arguably the best storyline in esports history, and this industry runs on good storylines. There’s no better than T1’s comeback and pure reign.”

However, UK Valorant host Yinsu interjected, saying: “This industry runs on money, and money is not going to come from Faker forever. So I think it’s better for the game if BLG win.

“So when it comes the day when Faker steps back, we need other reasons to keep this game and the viewership going, so I think it’s a good time for the LPL, for Bin to come in, and rustle that a little bit, and set up a more sustainable platform. That’s why I’m supporting BLG.”

Jasper aka Pixie dreamed about what could’ve been, saying: “It would’ve been Capsolute cinema if we managed to get G2 to the final. But it’s going to be a banger series today, it’ll go to five games, we’ll get the Silver Scrapes! I can’t wait to see the game today.”

Another fan, a BLG fan, bantered with his T1 friend, comparing T1 fans to glory hunting Manchester United fans of old.

Several fans correctly predicted a 3-2 win to T1 on the day, showing off their game knowledge.

Charismatic and cheeky interviewer DonJake also told us what he thought about Worlds in London.

“It’s wonderful, it’s great to see things in the cathedral of my design really, London has been my stomping ground for many years now,” DonJake said. “Having something local is nice, I just think we really need to stamp out the American journalists that come here and get Uber Eats and complain about the food being bad. Well of course it is, you ordered it on Deliveroo!”

DonJake also visited the Worlds 2024 chicken shop ‘Baron’s Bites’ with fellow League personality and caster Jamada.

We also spoke to several fans who had flown to London all the way from China and South Korea and around the world to watch their favourite teams play.

One BLG fan said: “I’ve watched so many BLG games in China, and now it’s my first time I’ve flown abroad to watch them play, and it’s the first time they’ve got to the highest point, the Worlds final. Just one more game and they could be the strongest team in the world!

“Many people think T1 will be a nightmare for them, but I believe in them, I believe BLG can make it.”

And made it they very nearly did, taking T1 to a full five games.

Another T1 fan, from Belgium, said T1’s final win was for Rekkles: “I’m a massive Rekkles fan, and the fifth trophy is for him, that would be beautiful.”

Casters Nymaera and Initialise also offered their thoughts, with the former saying:

Initialise added: “I think we’ve been lucky with the two teams that made it, an LPL/LCK rivalry, T1 running back the same players.”

Another caster, BrackishBrit, added: “It’s fantastic to have Worlds in London. The last time was in 2015 at Wembley, I was there with my schoolfriends. As soon as I heard it was coming back, I said I’d be coming down, even if I couldn’t get tickets. There’s a lot of people here, which is really sick.”

Pixel Bar co-founder Craig Ryan commented: “I’m really excited for another UK event, we had Valorant and Rainbow Six events in Manchester, it’s really good to get these on the map and the energy of the crowd, hopefully we get more.”

Dutch LoL player Furuy, who has played in the NLC on various teams in the past, caught up with us at the Team Liquid Worlds 2024 pop-up store in London. He said: “I like Worlds in London a lot here, I like it more than Paris, actually. I picked for my pick-ems for T1 to win, and I think they will win 3-2.”

A couple of Hungarian fans also said: “Hopefully Riot can repeat it and we can come again [to Worlds in London] in the future, and not have to wait so long next time!”

You hear that, Riot? Give the fans what they want!

Could we see an LEC 2025 event in the UK? We ask Riot

Dom Sacco

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.