LoL and Gaming Houses

The popularity of so-called “gaming houses” are picking up in the League of Legends community. With teams such as Curse and Solomid having established team living quarters and others such as Counter Logic Gaming (supposedly) in the process of doing so, one must wonder whether the benefits of such an environment are really all they are cut out to be.

It's well known that in the Starcraft scene, gaming houses have long been commonplace amongst teams from around the world. South Korea in particular is known to utilize such conditions for all its major eSports teams, with a recognized dominance in the Starcraft scene to show for it. While initially the prospect of such living is every nerd's wet dream, eSports teams often stick to strict practice schedules, only having break time to eat, shower, exercise and sleep.

Food and cleanliness is often not a concern, due to a live-in manager or frequent maid. Additionally, practices increase immensely with the approach of large tournaments, and team welfare is often based upon winning large prizes and keeping their major sponsors.

Close sleeping conditions? No problem.

Looking at the gaming houses currently in place in America or Europe, the regimes seem to be much more...relaxed. While players do practice or scrimmage a significant portion of the day, there seems to be much more time to watch TV, play other games, or simply relax doing other things.

There are rarely any (observed) strict practice times, and players often are only on together when a tournament match is about to be played or when everyone happens to be up after sleeping off a long night. Additionally, many teams rely upon fast food or snacking as a source of nutrition, and being neat is often not the strongest suit amongst the house residents. There are some cases of live-in managers who help out, but otherwise, living in gaming house seems to be much like a university apartment: dirty, bare-bone and hanging out with a bunch of friends with the added benefit of playing games for money.

So does this mean that any gaming house should revert to the Korean form of training in order to obtain results? Not necessarily, but some semblance of an organized schedule does help. Drawing back to the implications upon the League of Legends community, take for example a team like Solomid.

After having a schedule implemented by Andy “Reginald” Dinh's brother, Solomid went on to win IPL4 and dominate MLG Anaheim. While their results at MLG Anaheim could be partially attributed to a mostly self-driven effort, the nutrition, motivation, and cooperative attitude brought by Andy's brother many thought helped refocus TSM and lead them to such an impressive competitive rebound.

In real sports, teams often don't live together but still manage to come together to win championships or important games. So while eSports players do not yet have the incredible income of many big-name athletes, and hence don't enjoy the same overly-luxurious lifestyle, at this stage in eSports growth it seems that gaming houses present a convenient option to a more traditional weekly LAN center meet-up. With a proper schedule tailored to balancing practice and relaxation and complete adoption of healthy habits, LoL teams who choose to pursue gaming houses may find positive benefits while living together and living the eSports dream.

You need a maid, right?