As the world’s finest League of Legends players clashed to prove who was the best, Binghamton University students gathered to show their pride and love of the game.

League of Legends (LoL), a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Riot Games, attracts nearly 32 million players per month. Millions of “summoners” play every day internationally, and the game has a sizable following at Binghamton University; the Video Game Association (VGA) has a subgroup devoted entirely to LoL.

The Staples Center held the World Championship Finals and was sold out of live audience tickets within an hour of their release on Aug. 24. Beyond live viewers, more than one million people in North America followed the finals through various streaming websites. Among these viewers were the 60 BU students watching from Academic Building A during the VGA’s viewing party.

“We wanted to host an event because we thought there were a lot of people who were going to be watching anyway,” said Kyle Yee, president of the LoL segment of the VGA and a senior majoring in engineering. “We wanted to sort of bring the community together all in one place. I think the event went really well.”

The championship matchup featured SK Telecom T1, a South Korean team, pitted against the Chinese underdog, Royal Club, in a best-of-five tournament. As the event began, a countdown from 15 boomed throughout the room, and the crowd burst into applause as the first round got under way.

While many fans cheered for their favorite team, some viewers came simply because they were players.

“I wasn’t really rooting for either side,” said Kelly Martin, a junior double-majoring in geology and biology. “This is the first Video Game Association event that I have been, but I would like to go to more League of Legends events. I’ve been playing League for about a year now, and it’s great.”

Others in attendance felt stricter allegiances. According to a poll conducted by applause volume, most of the room was supporting Royal Club.

“Even though SKT won the first two rounds cleanly, I think that Royal put up a really good fight,” said Alex Krupski, a freshman majoring in engineering. “SKT is definitely the favorite, but I just want to see a good match.”

The match ultimately ended in a 3-0 sweep for SK Telecom T1, who won the $1 million prize. The crowd erupted into applause for the victors as they won the last round in a stunningly quick 20 minutes.

“I’m very happy SKT pulled it out in the end, even though a 3-0 isn’t all that exciting,” said Steve Florentino, a senior majoring in mathematics. “League [of Legends] is very big at this school, and it’s cool to see a lot of people come out to watch.”