The most popular PC game in the world has its world championship match set for October 19th. One million dollars are at stake. Just like I (and many others) predicted, League of Legends has been able to elevate and transform esports.

As someone who was once in front of my television every other night to catch professional and college basketball games, I can now confidently say that I get that same rush and experience from watching talented people play video games. It’s a real thing now, and esports has its amazing moments just like you’d see in any “real” sport. To get you hyped for what’s to come in October, let me give you a peek at five of the most incredible moments in this year’s competitive League of Legends scene thus far.

ZionSpartan’s Nasus Teleport Backdoor

Nasus is one of the few champions in League of Legends that scales infinitely as the game gets longer. Most champions are limited by ratios within their abilities that multiply off the damage that they acquire from purchasing items. Nasus has an ability that gets stronger every time he kills a minion with it, and it’s on an extremely short cooldown. This ability also happens to work against structures.

With that in consideration, what you get in a 55-minute game is a Nasus that has reached a level of power that is nearly unstoppable. Why kill champions when you can kill your enemy’s entire base?

Fnatic vs. OMG

Allow me to preface this one by saying that this is probably the most intense and incredible game of competitive League of Legends in its short history. This game lasts nearly 72 minutes and goes through intense swings and stand-offs before an ending that you’ll have to see to believe. If you haven’t got the time to watch it in its entirety, then at least watch a good five minutes of the game from where I’ve bookmarked it in the video above.

You will never see another international match like this one. I don’t even want to spoil it!

Even the casters were going nuts over this one, as seen above.

The Wildcard Win

Coming into the groups stage of this year’s championship, everyone counted out wildcard teams like Dark Passage and KaBuM! e-Sports. If you aren’t a Korean, Chinese, European, or North American team then the majority of the competitive community won’t take you seriously. Alliance made this mistake against KaBuM! e-Sports. In a match that puts the Brazilian scene on the map and makes a star out of one Ahri player, KaBuM! manages to pull out an upset over Europe’s #1 seed coming into the groups.

Alliance’s Perfect Game

Everyone knows that when it comes to international League of Legends competition, the Korean professional teams are the top dogs. However, they aren’t perfect. In fact, they’re so imperfect that they actually managed to give up a perfect game to Alliance: no towers, no deaths, and no objectives. This is one of the most shocking and convincing single-game defeats that the Korean scene has suffered. It sends a message that the rest of the world is catching up.

xPeke’s Huge Outplay vs. Dade

Many people will argue that the assassin vs. assassin fight is the most exciting in League of Legends. Zed and Talon make for some of the craziest finishes and most immediate executes in the entire game. When they’re pit against each other, it’s a pure skill match.

There’s a few things to really note about this clip (if you’re an experienced player). First is the fact that xPeke is immediately disadvantaged by having used his Living Shadow ability to get the golem camp. This puts him down one ability against Talon right from the start. The next thing worth pointing out is that, at around 0:08 in the clip, xPeke actually stops to attack the large golem a single time. This allowed him to finish it off at the same time as he kills Dade, giving him the immediate health from the golem that you get upon killing it and allowing him to survive the Ignite. Was that one auto attack a calculated move or a simple misclick? We’ll never know. What I do know is that this was an awesome outplay.

Conclusion

If these video clips got your blood flowing, check out some of our recommended documentaries on esports culture. I’ve written another article that outlines exactly how you can enjoy some of today’s most popular esports, too. Don’t be ashamed to get into this stuff! There was once a time when video games weren’t cool, too. Look where we’ve progressed with that. Esports is here to stay, and you should enjoy it.

Are you a fan of watching League of Legends or other competitive video games? Hit the comments section below and tell us which games are your favorite!