15 October 2023
By Hyeonseok Choi
From this Asian Games, the League of Legends game was adopted as an official event. As a result, it has attracted great attention from Korea and China, which are major sports powers. In particular, South Korea drew much attention as it received a great benefit of military exemption when it won a gold medal.
The South Korean national team advanced to the quarterfinals by beating the Hong Kong and Kazakhstan teams in the group stage on the 25th and advanced to the semifinals by beating the Saudi Arabian team 2-0 in the quarterfinals on the 27th. The Korean national team faced off against the Chinese national team, which is considered the strongest opponent in this tournament, in the semifinal match held on the 28th. The Korean and Chinese teams advanced to the final after a close match, with the Korean team beating China with a set score of 2-0. And lastly, Team Korea beat Taiwan with a set score of 2-0 and clinched the championship.
Except for China, which met in the semifinals from the perspective of the Korean team, all of them were ahead of the prediction of the match, so in fact, they were very close to winning the gold medal by beating China in the semifinals. As the Korean team won the championship, the five main players were exempted from military service, and as a whole, Korea was recognized as an Esports powerhouse.