Seoul pulls out all the stops as LoL Worlds reaches grand finale

Seoul City is going all out for this year’s League of Legends World Championship as the tournament takes over Gwanghwamun Square ahead of a highly-anticipated final showdown.

Chinese LoL team Weibo Gaming, left, faces Korea's T1 in the final round of the 2023 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul on Nov. 19. [RIOT GAMES]

Seoul City is going all out for this year’s League of Legends World Championship as the tournament takes over Gwanghwamun Square ahead of a highly-anticipated final showdown.

A yearlong LoL season will culminate in a single best-of-five match between Korea’s T1 and Chinese team Weibo Gaming at a sold-out 18,000-seat Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Sunday.

The final of the 2023 LoL World Championship is set to take place at Gocheok Sky Dome on Nov. 19. [YONHAP]

The build-up to the biggest event of the year for a franchise that exists around fantastical battles in an intricately designed online world is set to be just as flashy and over-the-top as the final itself as the tournament comes back from the semifinals in Busan to Seoul.

Between Thursday and Sunday’s final round, visitors will see Gwanghwamun Square transform into a “mecca” for fans of Esports across Korea and the world, according to a release by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Cosplayers donning pink, blue and other brightly-colored wigs decked out in costumes to varying degrees of design are set to take over one of Seoul’s highest-traffic areas.

Esports cosplayers attend the League of Legends World Championship 2023 semifinals on Saturday in Busan. [RIOT GAMES]

Square-goers this weekend can also expect to see a giant “Teemo,” a perpetually smiling LoL character that looks like a cross between a chipmunk and a dog with fox-like features.

Gwanghwamun Square — which of course is actually a rectangle — has a similar feel to the national mall in Washington or the Champs Elysees in Paris.

And like those sister plazas, the Square in recent years has become a central gathering ground for protests and parades, a locale for street cheering during last year’s World Cup and even a music venue for the infamously disastrous World Scout Jamboree this summer.

It’s significant that League of Legends, which has amassed a user base of more than 150 million monthly players worldwide, will take over one of Seoul’s most central spots. Since the game first launched in 2009, Esports has increasingly grown on the international stage, becoming an official medal category at major sporting events and the inspiration behind an animated Netflix series.

LoL is especially big in Korea, home to one of the game’s most popular regional pro circuits, League of Legends Champions Korea, better known as the LCK. Seoul is also home to LoL Park, the LCK’s training grounds and a popular tourist attraction, which occupies the third floor of a corporate office building steps away from the Square.

“We hope that Gwanghwamun Square will become an open space that conveys the charm of Seoul to people around the world through the ‘LoL World Championship,’ where games, sports, and culture become one,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said. “We will do our best to ensure that game fans from all over the world visiting Seoul and Seoul citizens can safely enjoy the event.”

The city is planning to deploy about 330 safety personnel to manage congestion on Saturday, when a concert will be held in the square and traffic will be cut down to a single lane in each direction. Since the tragedy in Itaewon last Halloween, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has increased security presence at events expecting to draw large crowds.

Safety measures have been present at other LoL events throughout the month-long tournament in Korea.

At one planned LoL-themed drone show in October, which was canceled due to the weather, dozens of safety personnel donning bright yellow vests stood inside and around the metro stop near Ttukseom Hangang Park in eastern Seoul, shuffling people around invisible stanchions — the retractable line dividers at airport TSAs.

The Worlds event at Gwanghwamun Square is expected to draw 50,000 people over the four-day event, the Seoul City said in an announcement on Monday.

Here’s what’s happening at the Square and when, according to a calendar released by Riot Games and Seoul City.

Thursday and Friday, Nov. 16-17

The Worlds “Fan Fest” festival will kick off at Gwanghwamun Square on Thursday and run until Sunday. There will be player booths and merch stands galore.

Saturday, Nov. 18

Riot Games is planning a concert with a number of international artists in some way associated with LoL. The lineup includes European DJ Alan Walker, Korean girl group (G)I-dle, Korean boy band F.T. Island, Korean rapper Mushvenom and streamer-singer Nicki Taylor, according to Riot Games’ official website. The concert is set to take place from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time.

Sunday, Nov. 19

While the live final at Gocheok Sky Dome has been sold out, Gwanghwamun Square will again see a cheering fest as fans can watch the round — and a NewJeans performance before it — on a screen much larger than their computers at home. The viewing party is set to take place from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time, and the final is set to begin at 5 p.m.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]