Korea Day 20: LoL Park + JAG vs KZ (2019 LCK Summer)

Carol | August 8, 2019 | Featured, South Korea | No Comments

I promise–I do try not to put 5 million photos in every post but I just can’t seem to stop myself. This day was one of my favorites from my trip, possibly even my very favorite because I got to do something very personal for me — attend a League of Legends eSports match and explore the amazing LoL Park.

As I look back through these pictures I can feel the genuine fan-girl excitement bubbling off of me. I had a lot of great experiences while in South Korea but this one was personal. I’m so glad I was able to score a ticket before the last few sold out.

Day 20 Highlights

Kookmin University
- Language Class: Oral Presentations/Test
- Lunch at the Cafeteria
LoL Park
- Riot Store & Exhibits
- Dinner at the Bilgewater Cafe
- LCK Summer 2019 Game: JAG vs KZ
  - (Jin Air Green Wings vs Kingzone DragonX)
- KZ Fan Meeting
- Riot PC Bang
Cheong Gye Gheon Plaza
Board Game Cafe

Kookmin University

Our last day of class arrived too soon.

…

Tomorrow I will officially be a Kookmin Alumni

Lunch at the Student Union Cafeteria

A banana vending machine that also sells banana cases.

LoL Park

As some of you are already aware, I’m a huge League of Legends fan, so I was super excited when I found out about LoL Park, a Riot owned arena, cafe, museum, shop, pc bang complex located in Seoul. And I was even more ecstatic when I managed to score a ticket to one of the LCK (Korean National) games.

My classmate Kas accompanied me to LoL park in the afternoon and we ran around like excited school children taking photos with and of everything. Lots of people were looking and smiling at us and I didn’t mind one bit. I was way too happy.

LoL Park is located in the Gran Seoul Mall

Riot Store

The complex was super cool. It was my first time visiting an actual Riot store (Riot is the company that owns League of Legends). I bought a ton of stuff. I returned to the store to buy one more thing after attending the eSports game and the clerk teased me by saying ‘you’ve spent a lot of money here today.’ I don’t think I’ve ever been called out by a sales clerk before. lol.

Cafe Bilgewater

The menu was fairly limited and a bit pricey but the area was so cute I didn’t care. The dining area was filled with elaborate stained glass windows featuring League of Legends motifs, and the giant Baron and Champions sculpture at the far end was crazy detailed. My stroganoff pasta was quite good and the atmosphere even better.

Beef Stroganoff — if I remember correctly.

LoL ArtToy Exhibit

Re-imagining League of Legends champions as LCK fans. I wish these were available as actual champion skins in the game, especially the Teemo design.

eSports Exhibits

Jerseys, 3D Printed figures, and artwork of popular LCK teams and players.

Everyone that plays League has heard this name.

My first live eSports match:

Jin Air Green Wings vs Kingzone DragonX (JAG vs KZ)

This was my first ever in-person eSports game and it was so much better than I imagined. The atmosphere is just as great, if not better, than being at a traditional sports game. I know some will find that hard to believe, but it was. I was able to get a headset so I could listen to the English announcers which was great. The arena itself was amazing. Having such a cool space really adds to the experience.

Kaz was hoping to score a ticket to the game but they were sold out so we split up to do our own things after taking a few more photos.

I don’t know much about the eSports scene so both of these teams were basically new to me. I started the game off rooting for Jin Air Green Wings because they were the underdog, but King-Zone DragonX played really well and won the first two games.

Game 2

The winner is determined by best 2 out of 3. I was hoping JAG would win the second game so I’d get to see three matches. But King-Zone won the first two games so there wasn’t a third match.

King-Zone Fan Meeting

I heard about this fan meeting from a guy sitting beside me at the game. I didn’t have anything else to do so I hung around for it. It was almost an hour before KZ appeared and I was one of the last in line. It was fun to watch how the Korean fans interacted with the team. Instead of one high five, they all used two hands so I did the same thing when I got to the table. I just went down the table giving double high fives and telling them Good job! or something similar. lol

RIOT PC Bang

After the fan meeting I visited my first and only PC Bang while in South Korea. A PC Bang is a place where you can pay to use a PC, usually to game. Seoul is famous for it’s super fast connection speed and I could totally tell a difference. An English speaking clerk helped me figure out how to rent a PC for an hour, and how to set the computer to English instead of Korean. I played a game of League even though it was connecting to the NA server (and therefore laggy) just to be able to say I had played League in South Korea. I then played a bit of Apex Legends and that’s where I could definitely feel the advantages of having a super fast connection.

Cheong Gye Gheon

After leaving LoL Park I walked along Cheong Gye Gheon, a modern public recreational space in the middle of downtown, that I had passed many times before but never explored.

What a lovely place to spend an evening.

Game Board Cafe

I ran into Andy and some of the others when I hopped on a bus to return to Kookmin, and then met up with some of my classmates at the Game Board Cafe around midnight to hang out and play games till curfew. I have really loved getting to have this sort of college ‘dorm life’ experience. It makes me feel much younger than I am.

Reporting for Curfew

We left the Game Cafe right before 1 am so we would be back in the dorm by curfew. I was so hyped from the day that I was up till almost 4am unwinding, doing laundry, and some preliminary packing.