Interview with Wingk, Diamond Collegiate League of Legends Player

Alongside the ever-growing professional League of Legends scene, League has been growing as an e-sport on college campuses as well. ADC for a team at Northeastern University, Wingk, takes some time to tell us about his experience in IvyLoL, CSL, and a number of LAN tournaments.

 

How did you first start playing League of Legends for your school?

Wingk: Coming into college in the fall of my freshman year, I knew about the online collegiate league called Ivylol. I was contacted by some people who were looking to make a team to compete in the qualifying tournament for Division 1. Unfortunately, our team fell short in the qualifiers and were set to compete in the Ivylol Open League. We performed decently well throughout the season. Online leagues were (and still are) sometimes very hard to have a consistent schedule of matches. However, it was a great experience to play under the Northeastern name.

So you've played in Ivylol and CSL, both online leagues, and at LAN tournaments. Which did you like better?

Wingk: Of all the collegiate tournaments and leagues I have particpated in so far, the most pleasant experience was CSL. CSL was able to provide a representative to help facilitate the Northeastern-wide tournament which took place to see which team would represent NEU in the Division 1 league. CSL officiators were also readily available to answer any questions on game day which helped solve disagreements. The drive to make playoffs provided an incentive for each team to perform well which created a positive competitive atmosphere. Ivylol lacked that incentive and staff structure. LAN tournaments are incredibly hard to pull off successfully at the collegiate level. In the few I have participated in, there have been connection, hardware, or communication problems which seriously hinder the playing experience. Like I said, I don't blame the organizations for that - without serious amounts of funding and experience it is hard to deliver a perfect LAN experience.

 

What kind of conflicts do you have being students and playing League competitively?

Wingk: The obvious answer here is having to balance schoolwork and practicing with the team. Although that is problematic sometimes, I feel like the biggest conflict is finding players with the same amount of drive and commitment that you have. I have had some teammates who are willing to practice all weekend playing ranked 5s, and have also had some teammates think a few games a week of solo queue are enough to get by.

Finding a group of 5 skilled players that get along together well AND have the same drive and commitment level is not an easy task. On top of that, finding time to practice together is even more difficult as everyone's schedule is so different. At a school like Northeastern where nearly half the student body is on co-op, scrims and ranked 5s have to end around 11 or 12 because people have to go to work the next day. Balancing schedules and finding a solid team have been the biggest struggles. Every semester has been a different team so far for me.

 

What kind of support does your team get from the school?

Wingk: All of the support my team has gotten from the school has been through the NEU LoL Club here at Northeastern. They have been really on top of their game in terms of organizing tournaments (whether competitive or qualifying) and raising awareness of the team to the members of the club. They'll watch our streamed matches or go to PAX to cheer for our team. They also provided us with some club shirts to wear during our matches at PAX. Having this support from the club really helps get our team into certain tournaments or leagues which is really great. It's awesome to represent them as a team.

Do you think schools and teams should be working towards making League a recognized sport (at least a club sport?)

Wingk: Promoting League to become a competitive sport has always been an interesting topic to me. To us gamers, League seems like it's becoming such a big thing with all the articles and TV features on Worlds and top streamers. To non-gamers, this is simply another article about a hobby that a small percentage of people partake in. Being part of the rising e-Sports scene can create some bias that e-sports are actually bigger than we think. Of course, this discussion cannot occur without bringing up RMU, but I'll refrain from talking about that because it is such a controversial topic in itself.

I think that support from Riot is absolutely necessary bringing League to become a club sport for colleges. I think there are enough players and it's just a matter of showing people that League is popular enough to warrant a club team for schools. I think a more realistic solution would be a Riot backing of a current collegiate league such as CSL to make it more reliable and incentivized. Since games can be played online and not in person having the backing of the school is not that important. Expanding upon the online leagues can be just as effective without having to go through the administration of every school.

 

What changes would you like to see come to the collegiate scene, either from Riot, tournament/league organizers, or your own school?

Wingk: The biggest change would be infrastructure. We've seen LCS teams such as TSM who have a deep support staff constantly achieve sucess in the LCS despite a changing roster. We've also seen teams (see: EU LCS) whose organizations have inhibited talented teams from performing well.  In order to grow the collegiate scene to be more competitive, there needs to be a stronger relationship between the school's league club and the team. As of now, most teams are groups of friends that happen to be the strongest team at the time.

There are some schools like UCLA who have a deep infrastructure of dedicated players and managers. They hold tryouts and the team is the best possible players in the university rather than a group of friends. Don't get me wrong, playing with friends is very fun and rewarding but in order to breed competitiveness, having a system of tryouts and coaches and managers can help ease the burden of the players. The league clubs have a relationship with Riot and can help bridge the gap between the team and Riot. Having a deeper infrastructure of people dedicated to seeing their school perform well at the collegiate level will definitely help.

 

Do you have any final remarks or shout-outs?

Wingk: Shoutout to my team, CkLegend, Miles993, Nubcakes and the legendary K Hasu. Thanks to the NEU LoL club for organizing tournaments and everything.

I also wana do a shoutout to the general league players at NEU. Hopefully we can grow it into something bigger.