While a large portion of the League of Legends community will be focused on the League Championship Series this coming weekend, that might not be everyone's cup of tea. For those who's looking to settle their competitive cravings in a short burst, the After Hours Gaming League will be holding its grand finals on Saturday.
Instead of any of the professional teams we've come to know, the AHGL fields rosters from many of the biggest tech companies in the world, in a tournament for $5,000 - donated by Riot - to the charity of their choice. Many of these employees are gamers just like you or I, and it's kind of fascinating to see them pitted against each other like inter-office softball.
AHGL is the experiment of Sean "Day[9]" Plott, a name that'll be familiar to any of you who pay attention to competitive StarCraft. Plott is one of the foremost figures in that community, and extended the AHGL to League of Legends in an effort to expand the competition.
This season has seen teams from companies like Microsoft, Curse, Zynga, Epic Games, IPL and Electronic Arts square off; it only seems fitting that Google and Amazon will be clashing in the grand finals, as the top two companies on the Internet. The AHGL's B League will be also having its Grand Finals, as SecurityMetrics will be taking on Qualcomm, TSM Snapdragon sponsors and makers of phone processors.
“I’m still amazed to see the league grow from eight teams two years ago to 80 today,” said Plott, via release to the press. “The number of participating teams and their passion demonstrate the entrenched popularity of eSports as an amazing hobby, that gaming together is a fantastic way to have fun and bond with colleagues and friends alike.”
As far as we can tell, the series is going to be a best-of-three, with Amazon possibly having an edge due to being last year's champs. The stream can be found on Red Bull's web site for the event; the finals for League of Legends will be starting at 1PM PDT (4PM EST). Qualcomm vs. SecurityMetrics will happen later on in the day at 7PM PDT (10PM EST).
( This is a guest article by Matt Demers, a journalist and League of Legends columnist that has written about gaming for the Toronto Star, ggChronicle and Riot Games. You can find him on Twitter at @MattDemers, or check out MattDemers.com for more of his work. )
