It’s October 2023, and it’s the time of the 13th League of Legends World Championship.

I watched my first Worlds tournament in 2012 with my high school friends, sitting in a skype call as we waited through the endless pauses with the sound of silver scrapes. I was barely 18 at the time, just graduated from high school and starting university.

Today, I sit in my room, in the early hours of the morning watching the tournament from the comfort of my room, new friends from recent years on Discord as we watch the best teams and players put their best efforts forward to declare themselves World Champion.

I watched the Korean legends lose their first championship in 2012 only for the Korean Dynasty form one year later around the legend Faker. There were so many of us stuck in a little auditorium as we watched the 17 year old hoist his prize. The sound of train whistles and hype trains exciting us all around. I would watch with excitement as he continued tackling legends. Until he would soon become a legend — an unkillable demon king.

Every year, regardless of the time zone, and regardless of how it affects me, I match my schedule to watch as much of worlds as I can. To me it’s an annual tradition as much as it is my love of the game. The evolving the game does, the complexity of the strategy and the changes in the way people play — it’s as organic as can be and it still invokes an excitement that I simply cannot explain.

It doesn’t matter if I have to wake up at 5 in the morning, if I’m sleep deprived or rescheduling an event with a friend. You might say that it’s not worth it, that I can just watch a VOD or see the replay but it’s hard to explain that excitement — as if I’m a part of the crowd as I watch from halfway across the world.

Every year a new story is written, where new heroes grow to tackle demon kings, where old veterans play and build rivalries over the years, where the storylines are as beautiful as the game we play. There’s something special about our united journey to chase the beauty in the game and the people that play it. And that’s why I’ll be here, year after year, taking in the beauty of the worlds before me.