SmolKoalaEsports: Introduction

 Hello lovely readers,

As this is my first blog post on my new blog (*screams*), I figured it would be nice to do a little introduction on myself, how I got into esports, a wider explanation on what will be on this blog/my ambitions for it, and a quick overview of the esports I work in – in case anyone isn’t fully versed on esports or the industry.

So hai! My name is Nia, if you are from Twitter, you may know me as smolsh0rtie or nee-nee from some Discord servers or just Nia! I’m a freelance esports and gaming writer, typically focusing on League of Legends competitive play at the highest levels and Valorant at highest levels of play. I am lucky enough to have worked for teams but am currently building up my portfolio ahead of Worlds 2022 and Spring split 2023, at which point I hope to be in a new writing role.

I first began my esports journey in 2020 (the year the world got even weirder), a friend from Discord introduced me to League of Legends Worlds 2020 – he was a League Twitch streamer and when I took an interest in esports he gave me a crash course in all I needed to know and would discuss the matches after with me. I had zero idea what was meant to happen, where any team was from and who I should be rooting for – as I am European. Nonetheless, I was hooked by the competition and watched from the group stage all the way through to finals and watched Damwon Gaming Kia swoop the victory from Suning – and thoroughly enjoyed watching history be made from the reverse sweep of Top Esports vs Fnatic.

As this blog is very new, I will be posting relevant pieces of my writing (that before now have not had a platform) as well as begin to write new pieces in a timely fashion – as I am a university student, I am hoping to post twice a month so as to balance my studies. I'm hoping to write coverage on a range of topics, including match coverage, hype around international events, and discussions of topics such as female pro players and minor regions in competitive play.

Because I have no idea who will be reading my blogs, a quick overview on the industry of esports is likely of some use – esports is professional gaming (electronic sports), where players play their respective game at competitive (international or regional – of which there are multiple layers) level and are signed to teams, it is rigorous, fast paced and requires total commitment no different to any other sport you can think of.

In League of Legends (the field I work in most), the highest level of competition is MSI and Worlds – international events that take place once a year, taking the best teams from across the highest level of play per region to compete internationally. In terms of European play this is the LEC which takes teams from across Europe to play at the highest level and compete against each other for the LEC title in two splits per year, with Spring split sending the winner to MSI (where only one team per region plays) and Summer split the sends the top 3 (or 4 depending on seeding) teams to Worlds (where multiple teams represent a region to win the coveted title).

Hopefully this was enough of an introduction to show you what to expect from my blog and get you interested to come back and read some more!

See you on the next blog,

Nia ヽʕ •ᴥ•ʔﾉ