Esports on HBO's Real Sports

Esports has finally made it. HBO's Real Sports show has shown off a professional Collegiate League of Legends team from Chigaco.


Published: October 22, 2014 1:00 PM /

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Chicago Eagles logo showing a metalic eagle head underneath the words "Eagles Esports"

When it was announced earlier this year that Robert Morris University, a small private college in Chicago, would be handing out hefty scholarship to professional League of Legends players, we all knew it was only a matter of time before the sports media would give these aspiring 'athletes' some slick 30 for 30 inspired coverage. Cue Bryant Gumbel, who else? And his ongoing HBO series Real Sports, which took an in depth look at the Robert Morris squad on Monday night.


This will be the second report that Real Sports has done on the growth of the E sports scene. Last year Soledad Obrien reported on the spectacle that was the 2013 World Championship. That year a crowd of over eight thousand packed into a staples center usually reserved for fifteen thousand stick and ball sport fanatics. That seemed like a big deal at the time, but it pales in comparison to the forty-five thousand seat stadium in Seoul Korea that was sold out for this year's finale.

 

League of Legends Esports Final 2014 photo showing a huge stadium filled with esports spectators

 

That final between South Korean team Samsung White and China's Star Horn Royal Club can be viewed in full below. And how 'bout those Robert Morris Eagles? They just picked up their first victory of the season. It came in just fifteen minutes at the expense of the University of Kentucky Wildcats in week one of the Collegiate Star League, one of several collegiate level leagues that have sprung up in North America.

 

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