Introduction
Sbenu 2015 LoL Ladies Battle is taking place in Korea and we are getting close to the finals! The finals will be broadcasted live from the Nexon Arena on Monday, Feb 02 9:00am GMT (GMT+00:00). But first the two Semifinals need to be decided.
Thursday, Jan 29 9:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
Hide on Bush vs Secret Weapon
Thursday, Jan 29 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
IM# Athena vs Cuteness Away!
Hide on Bush vs Secret Weapon
Thursday, Jan 29 11:00am GMT (GMT+00:00)
IM# Athena vs Cuteness Away!
HyeRyung Jeong
Female Faker
A major development in the Korean League of Legends scene was the creation of tournaments for non-professional players who were looking to play competitively. In the spirit of this change, a female only league was created. The league hopes to create an interest within female players who want to play in a more competitive environment. The female teams are being coached by some famous League of Legends broadcasters on Afreeca, a Korean Internet streaming service comparable to TwitchTV. In addition, the league is being broadcasted by Afreeca and has been sponsored by Sbenu, which is also sponsoring the Sonic Star League Broodwar tournament as well as the LCK. It is the third major female league in Korea after the HOT6ix Amateur Challenger Ladies and Afreeca Ladies tournaments which happened last year.
For Team Grace, there were no plans to create a female only team at the start. They only had found players to fill the Mid, Jungle and Support roles. However, they managed to find a female Top laner, who was an acquaintance of one of the members, as well as another female to try out for the ADC position, whom they decided to accept after testing her out. This was the formation of all-female Team Grace, who managed to win the 2014 Amateur Ladies Challenge.
One player from Team Grace in particular gained a lot of attention, given names like “Ladies best mid” or “Girl version of Faker” by the Korean community. The player in question is “데빌령” - the name is a combination of devil and "Ryung", a part of her name. She started playing games in arcade halls when she was 5, by the time she was 8 she was already going to PC bangs. She tried many different games, but she said that her gaming path really began with Starcraft 1, then Kaos, and now League of Legends. She transitioned to League of Legends when her friends from Kaos recommended the game. This was roughly around the time Ahri was released, December 2011. Her first favourite champion to play was Orianna, and later Yasuo, and more recently Lulu in Season 4. When she received the title "female Faker" she was very happy because it showed that people valued her level of skill highly and took her as serious competition. She has also been a guest in a NiceGameTV show where skilled League of Legends player stream their matches and try to educate the viewers in playing a specific role.
As her nickname suggests she is a Mid laner, just like her favorite player Faker. In Season 3 she reached Challenger on the Korean ladder. Her top 3 most played Champions were Orianna (KDA 3.87), Ezreal (3.22) and Vayne (2.42). But as a mid laner, her top KDA’s were on other mid champions like Ziggs (3.45), Lux (3.38), and Nidalee (4.79). In Season 4 she was not able to reach challenger but was quite close to the threshold. At the end of Season 4 she was in Diamond I, with a similar mid lane champion pool as Season 3, but she had started playing more ADC champions like Kog’maw, Lucian, and Ezreal.
She was born with a love for competition. The thing that she likes most about League of Legends is the promotion series, especially when it comes down to one game to prove you can move up to the next tier. But she doesn't love everything about League of Legends. She hates people who troll and keyboard warriors.
"I just want to play LoL"
In addition she is often confronted with the typical “oh it’s a grill” experience even though she has proven herself in countless solo queue matches on the Korean server and with her team's performance. She also stated that if guys keep saying girls can't play at a high level, it will impact the minds of all the girls who play video games. The playing field is the same for both genders, and by saying negative things about the opposite gender you push them away from the game even if they are just as talented. This turns into a vicious cycle in which girls do not want to play competitively due to the negative environment and will therefore have less competition to grow their talent in the game.
She later became the Mid lane star player for Team Athena, who are currently in the semifinals of the Sbenu LoL Ladies Battle and are the favorite to win the tournament. If her team is able to win this year’s ladies battle too, then Hye Ryung Jeong is a strong contender for the title of “Best Female League of Legends Player in the World.”