September 22nd, 2017 marked the start of the electronic sports or “esports” World championship in China. Since 2011 League of Legends (LoL) has held a tournament placing several teams against each other. This year 24 teams from different regions, North America, Korea, Europe, China, Taiwan, and other wild card regions are all in attendance.

LoL is a multiplayer online battle arena, in which a team of five players takes on five from another team with the main objective of destroying the enemy base. Defensive structures such as towers and smaller computer controlled units that try and protect their base.

The game consists of three lanes,  mid, top, and bot, and “the jungle” or space between the lanes, to move from your base to the enemy base. 138 unique characters options also known as “champions”, each with a unique skillset, can destroy structures and fight other champions.

For the past three years, Korea has dominated the tournament with Korea’s Samsung Galaxy White winning the 2014 tournament. Korea’s SK Telecom has won the past two tournaments, three in total, and their dominance is expected to continue.

North America has historically struggled with the international tournament, never winning a major tournament. This year three teams represent our region, 2017 NA LCS Champions Team Solo Mid, one of the oldest teams in LoL, Cloud9, and rookies on the international stage, Immortals.

The format for this tournament is simple. Four teams play against each other in four groups, A, B, C, and D. The group stages are single game series and each team must compete twice. The one and two seeds from each opposing bracket play against each other, i.e. A and C and B and D play a best of five series. The winner advances to the semifinals and the winners of those move on to the finals.

This year third-seeded teams in their regions played a smaller tournament, called the “play-ins” in order to enter the group stage. Cloud9, the NA representative, had to go through the play-in stage and breezed through going 4-0 and easily securing a spot in the group stage. China’s team WE, Europe’s Fanatic, and a Turkish team 1907 Fenerbahce, all qualified for groups.

The first week of worlds was hectic. Defending champions SKT are 3-0 and completed one of the craziest comebacks in world’s history; defeating the hometown favorites Edward gaming.

LongZhu gaming, another Korean representative, is also 3-0. LongZhu has been crushing their opponents in 30 minutes or less. The average game time for a professional LoL game is 35 minutes.

The other Korean team, Samsung Galaxy, is 2-1 and looking for another chance to win the tournament after a second-place finish last year. China’s representatives, Team Royal Never Give Up, is undefeated at 3-0. Team WE are in a three-way tie for first with TSM and Misfits from Europe, and EDG has yet to find a win going 0-3.

Europe’s Fanatic is struggling as well going 0-3 and Taiwan’s Flash Wolves are also searching for a win.

North America is turning heads with impressive week one records. Cloud9 is 2-1 only dropping a game to defending champions SKT. TSM is also 2-1 and is looking like a favorite to reach the knockout stage. The other NA representative Immortals are going into their first international tournament but are playing like seasoned veterans going 2-1.

In the past two tournaments, NA has struggled, sending only one team out of group stages. If the teams continue to win this could be the first time NA has sent all three representatives out of groups. For years our region has been viewed as a weak “meme region” because our teams were international jokes. Our region has historically never come to play during international competition but this year things are looking different.

Week two kicked off October 11th,2017 and ends Sunday, October 17th. Can North America finally prove to the world that they are a region to be reckoned with? Will Korea continue its dominance over the world? Or is this the year David defeats Goliath? All of these questions will be answered soon by early November when the tournament is set to end. If you want to be one of the 14.7 million viewers watching around the world tune into Twitch.tv or youtube.com/lolesports.