Wander the halls of Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU) and you will find walls of flyers advertising clubs, jobs, and local events. If you have paid attention to these posters you would have seen one announcing a new SMSU club: The League of Legends (LoL) Club.
“The LoL club is for anyone and everyone who plays League of Legends and even those who don’t!” Joe Lilleberg, LoL Club President said. Lilleberg is an SMSU honors student and double majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. He is also a Diamond ranked LoL player, placing him in the top 1.5% of all North American players. “It’s a great way to have fun with friends, meet new people, and just mess around.”
If you walk into this club expecting a bunch of college students looking at Facebook, you’re probably at the wrong place. This club is more competitive than what it may sound like at first.
“League of Legends is a popular game on an international scale and is even considered a legitimate sport by the United States government,” Lilleberg said. “Right now, SMSU has a D1 team entered in Collegiate StarLeague, a national League of Legends tournament, where 230 universities are competing against each other. We play universities in the north for our bracket such as the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities), St. Olaf, and Carthage.”
How does one make a club like this? Lilleberg explained how he went about creating the club.
“I had initially approached Scott Ewing, Assistant Director of Student Activities, to create the club in early September,” Lilleberg recalled. “When I proposed the idea, he informed me of another student, Austin Nickleson, who was interested in creating the club. I contacted Austin and together we established the LoL club.”
While the LoL club hasn’t had too many bumps in the road yet, they are still waiting on financial status before they can plan on hosting any activities. Currently, the LoL club has 47 members on their Facebook page.
“I have high expectations for this club and want to see it become as successful as possible,” Lilleberg said.
