Accessibility puts esports ‘ahead of the curve,’ says former professional gamer

Former professional gamer Carlos Rodriguez says the accessibility of playing League of Legends (LoL) puts it “ahead of the curve” in comparison to traditional sports.

LoL is already the most popular esport on the market, with more than 100 million players worldwide and with an ever-increasing audience.

Rodriguez says the game’s low-barrier to entry will only see its popularity grow.

“It only takes you to launch your PC, launch League of Legends and play a game. It takes you two minutes to do that and in two minutes you are already competing,” he said to CNN’s Alex Thomas, in an exclusive broadcast interview.

“There are not many sports that allow you to compete with such ease.”

League of Legends is ahead of the curve in comparison to traditional sports.

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Now the owner of G2 Esports, Rodriguez is excited for the launch of the League of Legends European Champion (LEC) which hopes to develop long-lasting ties with a multi-generational fan base.

Unlike traditional sports, LoL started globally. Only now is the game’s publisher – Riot – looking to build its roots.

“The future is about stabilizing the eco-system and growing as a sport globally,” said Alban Dechelotte, Riot’s Head of Business Development EU.

“We are already global, we are fundamentally digital and 85% of our audience is under 25 years old.”

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Updated 5:24 AM EST, Thu November 22, 2018

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More than 200 million people watched this year’s League of Legends World Championship Grand Final but Dechelotte believes this figure is only going to rise.

The industry is hoping to do this by bucking the trend of traditional broadcasting.

“We are not digital first, we are digital only. We have very few television companies that cover it and most of them request exclusivity,” he said.

“So we prefer to avoid it because we don’t want to force our audience to go to the TV when they want to watch online.”

Watch the whole of CNN’s exclusive interview on the launch of League of Legends European Championship in the video at the top of the page