League of Legends is that massive choo-choo train pulling free-to-play gaming goodness into the competitive sphere. Multiple circuits have been running across the globe, sponsored from not just the game developers themselves, but other technological and gaming giants such as Intel.
Major League Gaming has also stepped in, with multiple tournaments in the game’s history; the latest is the Summer League of Legends Arena. Topping off the summer Olympic week, it will be broadcast live from August 3 – 5 on three completely free-to-watch SD streams, with the option to upgrade to a crisp 1080p picture.
The biggest highlight here is the inclusion of Korean team Azubu Blaze, winners of OnGameNet The Champions Spring 2012, which marks the first time that a Korean team is competing in a tournament in North America. They will be competing against the highly popular — and LoL season one championship 3rd place winners — Team Solo Mid. In addition, Curse Gaming, the North American qualifying team, and Team Black, a newly formed team that rose to dominate the EU qualifying tournament, will both be seeing if they have the mettle to try and topple the big dogs.
The show starts tomorrow at 5:00pm Eastern and matches will be cast by the all-star lineup of Leigh Smith (Deman), Dan Dinh, and Trevor Henry (Quickshot). It’s going to be a real riot of a time, and with the high-quality announcers picked for the event paired with the improvements to the spectating systems released earlier this year, perhaps something that even those not nearly as familiar with the game can enjoy. At the very least, they’re better than the announcers we got for some other big competitive event in the past week.
