With the League of Legends World Championship already underway, fans are excited. Worlds 2020 will prove to be a massive event this year, and plenty of organizations know it. One of these companies, the League of Legends Pro League (the LPL), is hyping things up by modifying the real world for this big event. The LPL, who is based in China, has made specific manhole covers for all teams’ logos in Shanghai.
For #Worlds2020, splendid plays and riveting storylines all leave the confines of the Rift and take to the City itself.#Worlds2020 teams' logos decorate the manholes of Nanjing Road Pedestrian Walkway, a cultural symbol of Shanghai.
The Group Stage will start on Oct 3rd! pic.twitter.com/0IZgzEU3aJ
— LPL (@lplenglish) October 1, 2020
LPL covering the road
As shown above, these specific covers are along the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Walkway, a cultural symbol of Shanghai, according to the LPL. For reference, this specific walkway is one of the biggest shopping areas in the world, akin to Times Square in New York. Especially with the group stages starting tomorrow, having the people of Shanghai able to walk around and see the teams is a cool addition. Security guards watch over the covers, making sure fans don’t mess around with them in a damaging way. Even with these manhole covers, the LPL made sure to warn people of crowding there.
[Friendly Reminder]
Nanjing Road Pedestrian Walkway is crowded in the national holiday, so kindly schedule your visit there at a staggered time. #Worlds2020 pic.twitter.com/9UCNR7XmO3
— LPL (@lplenglish) October 1, 2020
Although this was meant to spark interest in Worlds 2020, it was specific to Shanghai. Alas, it seems that general fan consensus was that this was awesome. Most responses were simply from Western fans hoping these concepts would find their way to North America. Hopefully, that does end up happening for the future of the leagues all over the world. But, as of right now, the cultural significance of esports is still much higher in Asia than in North America. Even so, with the pandemic still raging all over the world, the challenge of doing so in North America is simply tougher now. Every fan would probably agree that this LPL-decided real-world crossover of esports with teams’ logos is something we all hope to see more of in the future.
If you want to follow every match, hop onto the League of Legends website for Worlds 2020.
