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All-Stars recap and the LIVE experience

With the League of Legends All-Star Paris 2014 event finished, it is time for a recap of the invitational tournament, the show matches and most of all - the live experience in Le Zenith hall in Paris.

The madness began on the 7th of May and continued for 4 full days up until 11th. The whole event was held in Le Zenith arena in the beautiful la Villette Paris. The first day began with a lot of anticipation and excitement in the air. The French crowd was ready for 4 days of highest class of League of Legends games.

The day started explosively with team Ice, lead by Froggen,  facing team Fire, with Diamondproxx as captain, in a crazy URF mode game, where Bjergsen dominated on his Ezrael. The day presented 5 games from the invitational tournament, which did not go as expected by the crowd as the home favourite team Fnatic lost both of their matches to the Chinese OMG and the NA C9.  Luckily FNC were not quite out of the tournament as the TPA also lost both of their games. After all 5 matches were played SKT T1 and OMG lead the group with 2 wins and 0 loses each, followed by C9 with 1 win 1 loss and at the bottom were Fnatic and TPA with 0 wins and 2 losses.

Day 2 started with a contested Hexakill game, where team Ice lead by Froggen on Irelia and the super motivated to win Doublelift/Madlife combo destroyed team Fire, equalizing the score.

The invitational tournament started with the most anticipated match facing SKT and OMG. The Koreans won and went on to be the favourites to win the tournament. It was a great day for C9 as they won both their games against TPA and OMG. Meanwhile Fnatic showed signs of life when they faced SKT, even though they lost, their performance was much better. The last game of the day faced Fnatic and TPA in a direct fight for the last spot in the playoffs. Every successful move of the Europeans was cheered by the home crowd, which seemed to give them strength to take the game and qualify for the semi finals.

Day 3 faced team Ice and Fire in a standard game, with the champions being preselected by the fans.  Team Ice came out on top as Cool in the jungle on Lee Sin performed better than Diamondproxx on his Lee Sin, but the real star was Froggen going 10-0-14 on Anivia, proving he is still the best Anivia player.

The semi finals kicked off with OMG seeking revenge on C9 for the lost in the group stages. The first game C9 had an early advantage, but after continuous misspositioning they managed to throw the game.  Game 2 however was not even close - OMG stomped the demoralized C9 team.  Even with the loss, it should be noted that C9 played amazingly, having in mind CLG Link came into as replacement of Hai, who was having health issues and could not fly to Paris.

During the group stage Fnatic showed resistance in their game against SKT T1. However in the semi finals SKT T1 came out for blood. Right from the start they destroyed the small confidence Fnatic had left in themselves and by 10 minutes Piglet on Twitch was a monster that could not be stopped. Game 2 was not much of a difference and SKT went to easily win the best of 3 series. The crowd however never stopped cheering for the Europeans, even when they were losing badly. The home favorites even took a bow to the fans after their loss to SKT, while getting a standing ovation from the amazing crowd.

The final day of the tournament started with the three 1vs1 and one 2vs2 games that team Ice played against team Fire in order to determine the champion of the tournament. Riot made the final day even more exciting as the players were sitting among the fans and were coming on stage for their games. The crowd was getting more and more excited as Doublelift/Madlife's Varus/Kennen lost to Bjergsen/Diamond's Annie/Brand which lead to an 5-5 result between the two teams. Everything had to be decided in the last Superstar game which faced Froggen on Yasuo againt Weixiao on Jarvan IV. After series of favorable exchanges, Froggen managed to destroyed the tower of Weixiao, winning the tournament for team Ice.

The final of the invitational tournament faced the Koreans from SKT T1 against the Chinese OMG. During the whole tournament those were the teams pointed out by both fans and analysts as favorites to win it as SKT are S3 world champions and OMG are the current number one team in China. In game one SKT allowed OMG to pick their favourite champions including Syndra, Renekton and Twitch. The match was extremely close as both teams had a small lead at one point or another. However after a successful baron fight, SKT pulled ahead and could not be stopped which lead to a 1-0 lead. After losing on their best champions OMG looked demoralized as game two was much more straight forward win for SKT, while game three was total destruction, bordering on humiliation. In that way SKT T1 won the tournament without losing a single game.

 

THE LIVE EXPERIENCE of All-Star Paris 2014

League of Legends All-Star Paris 2014 was a thrilling event. Everybody from the fans, through press, to players were having fun and enjoying themselves in the unique environment created by Riot and the fans. While the games on the stage were the main entertainment the fans in Le Zenith arena never got bored. During the breaks the fans had fun taking pictures with different pro players such as Diamondproxx, Yellowpete, Froggen, Bjergsen and others. Others were lining up for autographs from SivHD, Dan Dinh, Madlife, etc.

As with most events, cos-players were everywhere around the arena. Some great costumes could be seen such as Riven, Lee Sin, Annie, Shyvana, Fiora, Janna, and more than one Nidalee. The fans could not only take pictures with their own cameras, but Riot provided high quality pictures of the fans and the cos-players on their Flickr. In addition Coca Cola had a booth where people could win pictures with Fnatic. As it could be seen from the stream, there was a wall, where all fans could write on as a memory of the event. Last but not least, in the breaks the staff was throwing toy "Ziggs' bombs" around the crowd to keep them entertained.

When it comes to the organization of the event, it seemed as Riot have done a flawless job. The access to the arena was easy and well organized, huge queues were avoided. The usual bag of goodies (including a team Ice/Fire t-shirt, a Riot skin code and some extras) was given upon arrival to all of the fans. There seemed to be no problems with the seats or any of the required for such type of an event facilities. The press was also taken good care of, as special rooms with proper conditions were provided. Last but not least the players had their own room, where they were not disturbed by fans or press.

As final words all that can be said is that All-Star Paris was more than a worthwhile experience. The crowd became louder and louder with every passing day. The French commentators encouraged the fans to go wild. They sang "Happy Birthday" to Faker, cheered on every successful team move and on every minion CS at the final Fire against Ice fights, screamed "This is Sparta" during every OMG Pantheon fight and much more, creating an unique atmosphere that is going to be an example for every other crowd around the globe. I can give only one advice to the fans of League of Legends - "When there is an live League of Legends event near you, go, participate, be part of an unforgettable, once in a lifetime experience".

Author
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Atanas "bloodyrose" PlachkovAtanas "Bloodyrose" Plachkov - Tourism Master Graduate in real life, gamer & nerd online. Curently playing LoL, HS and D3. Former WoW addict with a couple of world firsts in Ulduar with Inner Sanctum.

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