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LD Systems provides sound for the League of Legends World Championship in Seoul

LoL in clear sight

LoL – these three letters stand for the most popular eSports game in the world: League of Legends. The hype is particularly high in South Korea. Nowhere else do eSports enjoy such a high status. No wonder the League of Legends World Championship was held here in 2023. At peak times, up to 6 million viewers watched the matches online, while thousands also headed to the KBS Arena in Seoul to watch the players live on stage via large LED screens. For the sound reinforcement in the audience areas, the integrator in charge, Sonic Value, had to take a special approach and opted for a combination of LD Systems MAUI 44 G2 column PA systems and CURV 500 portable arrays.

For Sonic Value, who were responsible for planning and setting up the PA system as a subcontractor of the general service provider Omega Media Group, there were two decisive reasons for opting against a large, flown line array: firstly, the positioning of the presenters and commentators in the venue and secondly, the audience's clear view of the LED screens. "With a conventional line array, interference between the main PA and the commentators' microphones could hardly have been avoided," confirms Jusung Kang, Brand Manager bei Sonic Value.

In contrast to live concerts and other major events, the focus at the LoL World Cup was less on high, powerful volume levels and more on good speech intelligibility so that the audience in the hall could understand every word the commentators were saying and follow the highly tactical matches at all times.

MAUI 44 G2 as main PA

Sonic Value placed two MAUI 44 G2 column PA systems to the left and right of the stage as main speakers. "The MAUI 44 G2 have the ideal dispersion behaviour for this job. In addition to the wide horizontal dispersion angle of 120° for the audience in the centre of the hall, the focused vertical directional characteristic of 25° was particularly important in order not to negatively affect the microphones at the commentators' seats in the second gallery."

"Thanks to the tweeter array, we were able to adapt the CURV500 precisely to the conditions and challenges in the hall and ensure optimal sound while maintaining a compact size."
Jusung Kang, Sonic Value

CURV 500 in the upper gallery

Sonic Value also had to go off the beaten track for the sound system in the upper gallery: "The KBS Arena is an old hall. For this reason, we couldn't suspend speakers from the ceiling," explains Jusung Kang. "At the same time, we had to ensure that the audience had a clear view of the stage and the LED screens." The solution: ten CURV 500 D SAT duplex satellites with CURV 500 SmartLink adapters, which were attached to the railing in the upper gallery using CURV 500 TM B truss mounts.

"The organisers and the developer Riot Games were delighted with the sound and compactness of the LD Systems solutions in the KBS Arena."
Jusung Kang, Sonic Value