I don’t know how many of you know, but China has just ruined its eSports industry (it was by no means a small one). They’ve enacted a law whereby teenagers under 18 years old are only allowed to play for 3 hours a week. Of course, that’s going to become noticeable in the next few years when the talent that’s already in the scene will run out, and I’m strictly talking about League of Legends, because that’s what I’m following. There’s going to be a gap and a power vacuum left in the future. However,t let’s look on the bright side of things: this opens the door for countries like Romania to get a larger piece of the pie. This journey will begin tomorrow, with the start of Digital Crusade’s League of Legends event.

This is the fourth edition, but I hope this will be the event that strengthens esports and especially LoL, in Romania. What’s this upcoming year’s addition? Well, the rivalry, because it is an international event, four of the eight teams will be from our immediate neighbors. There will also be a prize pool of 10 000 euros, or as a former Romanian mayor would say, TEEEEEN MILLION EUROOS. Which is neither a lot nor too little. It seems enough to convince players from about eleven countries to participate, and that’s something to take into consideration. Because there will be good players, EU West Challengers like LaMzes, the Midlander for R5 (Random 5) team from Bulgaria. In jungle, for the same team, they have Spooky, a player who spent the summer split in the Spanish league. Last spring he was part of the crazy SAIM SE SuppUp team, which after winning the EBL, has disbanded, as all the players left for major leagues in Europe. And this crazy beautiful team from the spring split is no stranger to opponents like  Nexus, which these days go by Nexus KTRL. So yes, the competition is going to be stronger than ever.

Now that we have mentioned the Nexus team, they are the winners of last year’s edition, but I noticed that there will be a roster change. Half smiling, half frowning here, as Mărăciucă, as the retired Maraciuca is going to be replaced by the man with the best nickname ever, the one and only Vioreleee. I totally like Mărăciucă from the El Patron thing and Vioreleee needs no introduction. Even with Maraciuca retiring, I don’t think the guys are going to be too affected, and I think they have enough practice to be a team and not just a mix of players on the Rift. The core of the team should be well welded together by now.

Another name I’ll be glad to see again is Khantos. A solid ADC who unfortunately didn’t find his place in any of the teams from larger regions, and I think that was just bad luck, since the man knows his stuff and in the EBL spring split he was pretty much the best at his position. Another name I’m waiting to see is Coatpustmain aka CPM aka Tank of Romania. This time he’ll be playing under the Urban Esports brand  and I hope he’s ready to tank well, because they’re going up against some really strong damage dealers, such as the ADC (-xDrop) and midlander (-Gaaloul) of Lenovo Legion Honved, the team from Hungary, very high rank players. Much higher than Wunder from G2, for example. You will say, how can you make that sort of comparison? Well, it seems like I can, so get over it.

Neither the Ukrainian team – RACQUESTAI, nor the Moldavian team – CYBER.MD, nor OneTap from Romania are doing any worse. Teams from five countries, players of eleven different nationalities. I look at their op.gg’s and think that one is a higher rank, that another has an interesting champion pool and I realize that I could probably spend all night calculating who and how will win. Dopa said (if you don’t know who Dopa is, shame on you) that solo duo and pro play are two different games and he’s absolutely right. I hope that every player will overcome their condition by having access to this competitive environment. I hope that each team will be smart, will discover their strengths and play around them. I hope to see a Fizz, I hope to see a River Shen, I hope to see people pick champions they are comfortable with, and I hope to see them have a good understanding of the meta and I hope to see them playing in accordance to their team’s needs, because they must do the hard work when the situation calls for it. I’m sure we’ll see a lot of kills and entertainment, but I want to see us going on the path I mentioned at the beginning, the one filling the void that China will leave. Even if we don’t make it, at least we can dream, and have great aspirations. And you, who are reading these lines, maybe you are a bronze like me, at least let’s support the future of Romanian esports by watching the event, as they’re  doing it for the future, not just for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s just the beginning.

Don’t forget to buy your tickets for the event here: https://www.kompostor.ro/evenimente/11620-digital-crusade-2021?lang=en_US

Written by LolRN