League of Legends: who and what you will see at the 2019 All-Star event
By s. samek
League of Legends hosts its annual All-Star event. Here is a rundown of which pro players are going and what can you expect from it.
The offseason is well underway and the focus of much of the League of Legends professional news is about players coming and going from team to team via trades and free agency and buyouts. However, there is another event coming up to give fans some more time to watch professionals play and that is the 2019 All-Star event.
This annual event is taking place from December 5th-7th and features many different professional players as well as streamers and League Partner Program members. This year will not only feature League of Legends in a variety of modes but also Teamfight Tactics. Let’s take a look into some of the different players and events that will make this worth watching.
The Players
An astonishing 64 players are participating in the event, coming from a mix of professional players and those in the League Partner Program. Each region of professional play is represented by at least two players that were selected to the event in a fan vote while the rest of the field was invited by Riot.
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As far as the voted in professionals from the LPL we have Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok and Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao. The LEC had Rasmus “Caps” Borregaard Winther and Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski selected in the fan vote while the LCS is sending Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in. LCK fans selected now-former teammates Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and Kim “Clid” Tae-min.
Though it is interesting to note that the LCS did vote in Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, but they declined to participate. Either way, there is plenty of star power attending the event. That also includes some of the players that were invited by Riot that you can see on this list.
Steamers are also a big part of this years event and you can see the list of the ones attending. Obviously, some of the bigger names in streaming like Tyler1, Yassuo, and WEIXIAO will be there to compete as well.
While I do think it has a place to promote the League partner program I’m not entirely sure it’s the best thing to have them there. To me, if you want an all-star event it should be about the all-stars themselves, the professional players. While it is cool to see a favorite streamer go head to head against the professionals, I don’t think this is the tournament to do it in.
This should be a bit more of an honor to get voted in and play against the best of the best. Players should want to go to this event. By adding the steamers it gives it a “let’s goof off a bit” kind of vibe and something professionals would be inclined to skip. Five players that were voted in took that option which I think could happen way more if you add too many streamers, or make them the focal point of the event.
It is a large player pool too with 64 total players. I do like how all regions are represented in that pool, but the more players invited the less of a big deal it is to be an all-star. So I would prefer limiting the all-star player pool going forward.