Convergence: A League of Legends Story – Preview Event

Hey hey lovely readers, it’s been a while (not really because I'm getting more consistent with blogging but you get the point) – life has been keeping me pretty busy recently what with MSI, the Convergence event (more on this later) and pretty much everything in between, but with a small break for yours truly – it’s called a 2hr long train ride. I’ve got some time to chat through how life has been recently (again sat on a 2hr long train ride with nothing better to do) and we are going to start with the event I have no idea how I was invited to. Literally no idea - am still questioning it while I sit editing.

Convergence art work - it was so pretty

 

For those of you who are not avid fans of League of Legends and or don’t follow League of Legends news particularly closely / have not been watching MSI where this has been advertised – there is a new video game from League coming out called Convergence: A League of Legends Story. The game which focuses on play as Ekko, exploring a city and fighting a boss level, with Jinx and other champions from League featured, is coming to Steam and other platforms on May 23 (by the point I post this it will likely have already been released). With this being such a big thing for League of Legends, there was an event hosted by Riot Forge and the studio - Double Stallion Games - who helped develop and create the game to what it is. Including all of the incredible features - such as the ability to rewind time.

Testing the game with an Xbox controller - despite never using controllers :) 

 

This is an event that I received an invite for – I am in no way clear on how I was offered it or even considered, I'm of course honoured I was invited but it still feels pretty unreal to me that just over a year into my esports career I was even considered never mind invited to the event. I’ll be honest with my wonderful imposter syndrome I did question if they’d sent it to the wrong person and why they were even asking me, but with the (very enthusiastic) encouragement of my family and friends, I went to the event. I did also get lost several times on my way there but that’s beside the point. So welcome to a blog from yours truly, expect plenty of pictures, probably some bouts of anxiety and imposter syndrome and a few giggles en route.

Side note - all photos are my own unless stated otherwise

 

Convergence event:

RedBull Gaming Sphere - a very cool underground location that I had no clue even existed :)

 

The event itself was held in a part of London I've not been to before (in case it wasn’t already clear, I am really not a Londoner, a fact I am more than fine with), so after some very tense route planning – by which I mean I asked Google and prayed it wouldn’t screw me over like it did when I went to the Apex Series; I had the delight of knowing vaguely where I was going. Vaguely being the operative word. Several underground, over ground and absolute bafflement at where the heck I was - let's just say I don't enjoy navigating when the public map is spray painted over. I managed to find the ‘space’ for those of you who don’t know – Redbull Gaming Sphere (the host venue) is an underground space, and yes that means and entails exactly what you think it does, some very steep stairs down a side street that could've been anywhere in the world, leads you down to this huge gaming space, packed with incredible equipment and lighting.

And people – a lot of people.

Little old me was looking at her surroundings totally overwhelmed questioning why she was even there – despite my mum’s best attempts to tell me I’d clearly done something right I was wondering how the heck I’d done anything worth inviting me too – remember what I said about imposter syndrome? Yeah, I'm good friends with her.

cute lil photo op - got a photo with sjokz in front of it hehe

 

So while little old me was having a wonderful internal panic and attempting to take in her surroundings while still having this wonderful little panic, I got to test Convergence on Switch. Honestly Switch is usually my go to for playing games (just take a look at my history of choosing Kickstarter game formats) so I was honestly expecting to be planning to give in my credit card before the end of the night. Playing Convergence on the switch was solid for sure, it was a good game mode and I would definitely take it on a plane to whittle away the hours as I'm convinced I could get through a long flight with this game – while I'm pretty sure the hours to complete the entire game isn’t supposed to be *that* long, I can almost guarantee that I would spend at least the first hour (and probably the second too) of a flight on level 1, 2, and 3 – before anyone starts questioning how I work in gaming and am not any good at games, I'm a little slow when it comes to figuring out this style of game. I'm more of an animal crossing girlie than beat the boss girlie. However, having said that, I could a hundred percent become a beat the boss girlie with this game, and could easily whittle away hours on a plane.

 

That being said, I find the game annoyingly irritating (in a good way I hasten to add) because I know while I would get so frustrated at not being able to beat certain levels, that it would keep me hooked and I would definitely procrastinate if I had other things to do – if only to beat a single enemy in game. The switch version was definitely good and something I could use to pass the time, and while I had been ‘playing’ Convergence on the switch – I'm not sure we can count dying numerous times within a short period of time as playing – the venue had filled up quite a bit. While I've definitely improved at talking to people over the years, and I’ll now happily go up to someone and tell them they have awesome style or their tattoo is really cool, I'm admittedly less confident in my work life for doing the same.

more gameplay images - the colour scheme is chef's kiss

My extrovert mask was firmly in place that night as I slowly went up to people, leading with a compliment and then chatting to them from there. Something I didn’t actually realise (though this could’ve been me being dense) was that a number of those invited who were around a similar age to myself, were streamers. So, while little old me was there like oh yes I'm a journalist ehehehe, there were a lot of streamers and animators – whose work is amazing btw, I follow them all on twitter and they are literally awesome I cannot say it enough. Mingling has never been my strength, but everyone I met across the event made it so easy for me to do it and feel at ease even though the significance of the event was huge for me.

 

Another thing about the event, was that although you had a ton of people who could be considered up and coming talent, you also had big names of broadcast talent. Among those I met, along with me too of course, we all looked ready to pass out. I mean seriously, breathing the same air as Sjokz for example??? I started following her back in 2020 from Worlds, so to see her in person was pretty wild to me. And because I truly didn’t believe it was real, naturally I secured a pic with her!

the queen that is Sjokz

The same with Laure too because I honestly felt like I was dreaming. They were both the sweetest, literally so sweet and lovely, and Sjokz really took the time to speak to me and answer every question I had for her, as well as give me advice, I literally could not thank her enough for how lovely and encouraging she was about following my dreams and being successful in esports. I think for me this was particularly poignant as to see someone as successful as Sjokz encourage me to follow my dreams, the dreams that had bought me this far, was so incredible. I cannot thank them both enough for how lovely they were. I could've sobbed - and to be fair, just thinking back on it now makes me want to sob slightly because they were both so lovely and sweet and honestly my heart was so full that night from meeting everyone and being able to chat with other people who love gaming and esports as much as me.

internally screaming at meeting Laure

 

Because I apparently hadn’t done a terrible enough job of plying the game on the switch, I went back for another attempt this time I had the sense to try a different game mode as on switch the small screen had been something I struggled with a bit – yes I have poor eye sight and what XD. Anyways, I got to try the game on a pc monitor with an xbox controller – which despite me literally never playing with an xbox controller, I found really enjoyable, easy and something else I was sure I could distract myself with as a means of procrastinating. On a monitor the game graphics were so impressive, especially the rewind feature which allows you to rewind time and game play if you were going to lose a life for example. I also proudly progressed a lot further with a monitor and xbox controller than I had on switch! Yay me! Did I still die a thousand times? Of course I damn well did, this is me after all. But having spent half my time chatting with streamers in between low key screaming internally, I honestly would love to give streaming a go – I even know the v-tuber model I want to use as I follow a store from etsy with it (spoiler alert – it is a boba sipping gekko wingman).

monitor and xbox controller setup - with a setup for streamers too to go live ;)

I’d like to add there was also a goody bag given out, I have zero pictures of it as by that point I was on a train and it was nearly midnight and yeah, I was not about to turn into a photographer but I can give a nice little summary of what was included. The goody bag included everything themed around Convergence – you know, in keeping with the theme of it all – and it featured everything from a wrist band, to a t-shirt which I will be using as one to sleep in for when the fire alarm goes off at my accommodation, as well as a yoyo and naturally a can of Redbull. Well what did you expect? The venue was called Redbull Gaming Sphere. Talking of Redbull, there was a range of Redbull cocktails – no idea how they tasted as I had a soft drink instead, but they looked pretty cool. What also looked cool was the number of cosplays of various champions. Sadly I missed an opportunity to get a picture of all 4 Ekko cosplays and label it an Ekko summoning circle – you win some you lose some. There was a ton of Jinx cosplays – including a few blue long wigs on several of the developer team staff, they absolutely rocked the blue braid I cannot lie.

And of course plenty of opportunities to meet people in the field - again to the Cloud9 staff members I spoke to, if you ever need that writer for a job, hehehe you know where to find me - I'm kidding, sorta haha.

the Ekko figure being shown on screen - it looked really cool I cannot lie

 

So there you have it, my first invite only event that I was somehow invited to – literally still cannot get over the fact I was invited but you know, we take those Ws. So big thank you to whoever it was who decided to invite me and allow me to experience this incredible opportunity. It was an incredible event to be invited to and I'm incredibly grateful for being considered and indeed invited. Onto the next exclusive event right ;) thank you so much for reading lovelies and being patient with me this last month and a bit - what with the lack of blogs. I promise I will be getting back on top of it, I’ve been watching a ton of video essays on YouTube as well so there is still a ton of things I want to write a blog about and talk in more depth – getting there slowly ;) but anyways, Imma wrap this up before I waffle any further, thank you so much for reading and see you on the next blog.

Thanks for reading and for being here, and see you on the next blog!

Byeeeeeeee ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ