Taiwan e-sports team readies for Asian Games

Taiwan’s League of Legends team is aiming for at least a silver medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with gold as the ultimate goal, head coach Chen “Warhorse” Ju-chih said yesterday.

Taiwan won silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, and Chen said he did not want the team to take a step backward.

“I hope we can at least win silver and then find a way to compete for gold,” he said.

Chen "Warhorse" Ju-chih, coach of Taiwan’s League of Legends team.

Photo: CNA

Although China is a formidable presence in the game, it is not competing in the League of Legends event. South Korea remains the team Taiwan wants to beat, but Chen said Vietnam presents a more immediate hurdle.

Four players on Vietnam’s national team play under Chen on Team Secret Whales, which has dominated the League of Legends Championship Pacific (LCP) this year.

The LCP brings together competitors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania.

“They have played together for nearly two years, so we have to get past Vietnam before talking about how to beat South Korea,” said Chen, who believes his familiarity with their playing style and strategy would benefit Taiwan.

League of Legends is one of the world’s most popular multiplayer online battle arena games.

Taiwan’s preparations are complicated by the club commitments of players Yu “JunJia” Jun-jia and Tsai “HongQ” Ming-hung, teammates at JD Gaming in China’s League of Legends Pro League.

The full squad might have less than a week to practice together before departing on Sept. 27, although available players have already trained at the LCP Arena for about two weeks.

The remaining four players, each from a different LCP team, are Chen “1Jiang” Yi-chin, Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-chuan, Lin “Woody” Yu-en and Liu “ShiauC” Jia-hao.

Chiu is the only player returning from the Hangzhou Games. Chen would coach Taiwan at the Asian Games for a third time, following a demonstration event at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games and the Hangzhou Games.

Eight teams play best-of-one round-robin matches in two groups on Sept. 29 and 30, with the top two in each group advancing. Best-of-three semi-finals are on Oct. 1, followed by a best-of-five final on Oct. 2.