Harriton senior Nathan Wagman organized a League of Legends (an online game that was first released in October 2009) tournament to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. This charity event took place from March 1 to March 2. Read on to learn how Nathan orchestrated the event—combining his love for the game with his passion for helping others!

Can you explain what “League of Legends” is? When was it first created?

League of Legends is what is known as a MOBA or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena style game. The objective of the game is to seize opponent objectives in order to finally seize the enemy “Nexus.” The player controls a “champion” in a Player versus Player environment. In the traditional setting, the teams are divided into 5 players a piece, however, there are other modes that deviate from this.

The game was first released in October 2009. However, it is receiving more popularity today than it initially did. In fact, last year Riot (the company that created the game) had a prize pool of about 2.05 million dollars for the World Championships!

When did you start playing it?

I started to play the game probably in Sophomore year (2012) when a friend introduced it to me. However, I wasn’t able to play it frequently until about last summer.

What gave you the idea for the tournament?

The basis of the tournament was to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (through Extra Life), while having a fun playing a game all of the participants could enjoy!

What are the guidelines and rules for the tournament?

The main guidelines that were created were restrictions to the max player “rank.” I wanted to make sure that in competition, there would be as equal an opportunity for winning available. The last thing I wanted to happen was for one team to absolutely dominate the tournament.

How did you get Riot to sponsor the tournament?

Well, we actually have to be extremely sensitive when we say the word “sponsor” here, as Riot wanted to make sure that I made it clear that they only provided prizes. I think that it has to do with the legal connotations that the term “sponsor” includes. In regards to how, Riot actually has a tournament page on their website for those who want to create one. However, the means of doing so aren’t the easiest.

How did you publicize it?

To publicize it, a couple of friends and I tried to utilize the Internet to the best of our extent! Mainly, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitch.tv were our main forms of publicity. Reddit in fact, was very open to helping us out, and we made a few advertised posts via Reddit. In addition, our competition was on the tournament forum on the League of Legends website, which generated attention as well.

Who participated? Was a district-wide, state-wide, or nation-wide tournament?

Many people participated! The tournament was open to all those who could play on the North American Server, which technically meant it was open to the whole world! However, the majority of the players were from the Lower Merion School District, however, we did have a team that participated from the Mid-West!

Were all participants experienced gamers?

A little more than 40 people participated in the tournament. They ranged in experience; however, it would be more than fair to say that they were all more than experienced.

What were the results of the tournament?

A team from Harriton won! They have played a few times together, which gave them an extra edge against the competition.

Do you see this becoming an annual event?

I don’t think there is anything preventing this from becoming an annual event. The acceptance of “eSports” is growing, so seeing more competitions in the future is to be expected! I would hope there would be interest next year to hold a similar event!

Do you have any closing remarks on the success of the tournament?

Obviously there were certain things I wish I could change. Because of the prizes provided, the competition became a lot more intense than I would have assumed. That isn’t a bad thing, but it isn’t exactly what I was expecting. In terms of overall success, I think that my friends and I were able to complete what we set out to do, which was create a competition to benefit charity, as well as have a good time with friends! In that regard, I think we were very successful!

Note: Photo was a screenshot taken from League of Legends during the tournament.