landon carroll - OKgamers.com

The League of Legends tournament will take place throughout the three-day convention.

Believe it or not, League of Legends wasn’t always the number one game in the world, and it definitely didn’t always share a spot at the competitive table at Tokyo in Tulsa.

Cody Willmon hosted online tournaments for the young game out of his home, cultivating up to 64 teams from across the country to compete for RP. Staff at HXC Gaming Events took notice of the huge turnout, eventually inviting Willmon to partner with them to help grow the competitive scene. After some successful online events, Willmon wanted something more “real” for the fast-growing game.

“I originally didn’t realize the potential, but once we saw the success, I wanted to bring the League tournaments to a LAN format,” Willmon said. “I joined an Oklahoma Facebook group for League that had maybe 200 people in it and hosted a lot of online stuff. Eventually, I split from that group with Landon Carroll to create the current Oklahoma League of Legends Facebook group. The biggest struggle was getting a League tournament set up at Tokyo in Tulsa due to the limitations of the venue. Finally, a vote passed to have League at Tokyo in Tulsa in 2013, and after experiencing some expected bumps and twists, the event was a success.” [Read more…]

Every epic tale has its beginning; a story of overcoming adversity and conquering challenges, a young hero realizing their potential, and the tale of the Oklahoma League of Legends community is no different.

In the beginning, there was chaos. A free-for-all forum with no sense of direction. Negligent administrators. A deprived player base. This was what the 600-member “Oklahoma League of Legends Players” community had been given. In an effort to bring League to the local scene, OKgamers and Cody Willmon, LoL tournament coordinator for HxC Gaming Events at the time, announced a gaming event and the first League tournament in the state at a small college in Tulsa, Okla., called “Saturday Reboot.” It was this event that would spark a change, all with the help of Landon “Deadi” Carroll, who would later become the head administrator of the new dawn.

(Top) United as [ONE] Gaming, (Bottom left) Mystik Gaming, (Bottom right) Insync

Only a week before the event, planning was thrown in to chaos by the hosting venue backing out. With Landon fielding two teams from his personal community, United as [ONE] Gaming, he couldn’t let his community’s first live event fall flat. He contacted the organizer, Saif Khan, who, by a stroke of organizational genius, managed to arrange a new venue by raising funds through a Kickstarter-style fundraiser. With additional help from a sponsorship from Tokyo in Tulsa, the event went off without any major bumps in the road. [Read more…]