The Australian Football League "officially joined forces with one of the world's leading video game developers" to help bring a state of origin esports tournament to Melbourne in late '18, and to "extend footy's reach in the esports world," according to Anthony Colangelo of THE AGE. League of Legends developer Riot Games and the AFL will hold an esports tournament in November, "potentially at Etihad Stadium." The tournament will see the best LoL players from the Oceanic Pro League represent their states and territories in a "short, intense competition." Essendon and the Adelaide Crows already own esports teams that compete in the Oceanic Pro League while Collingwood, Geelong and Greater Western Sydney "have shown interest in getting involved in esports in the past." Through the announcement the AFL "has shown it also remains interested in hosting tournaments at Etihad Stadium and building a high performance esports facility" at the league-owned venue (THE AGE, 5/7). In Sydney, John Stensholt reported while critics will note the AFL is "more keen on state of origin matches" in esports than it is when it comes to traditional Australian rules football, AFL GM of Growth, Digital & Audience Darren Birch said that there are "compelling reasons for the AFL to tap into the expertise of a digital-savvy partner" that produces a game that has well more than 100 million players around the world each month. Birch: "If you look at our audience they are often engaged early in their lives, they play Auskick then, but we lose some of them when they became teenagers and we have to compete for their time with other things. League of Legends is something that has a lot of engagement in that 13 to 39 year old market, especially 13-24 year olds" (AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW, 5/6). THE ESPORTS OBSERVER's Thiemo Bräutigam reported the League of Origin event is a weekend-long All-Star format tournament in which players from Australia’s OPL, which is sponsored by Hungry Jack’s, "get drafted to represent their states, battling out well-established sporting rivalries between the country’s different territories" (THE ESPORTS OBSERVER, 5/7).
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