Cover-Credits:
There is nothing more torturous than having to stop playing your favorite PC games while traveling and enduring the long waits at airports. Riot Games has a sweet surprise for those of you who would love to play a few games of League of Legends or Valorant to kill some time while waiting for your flight. If you are flying through South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, Riot Games has a gaming lounge inside the airport. The dedicated gaming lounge built by Riot Games has been making the rounds on social media after Twitter user Gerald Lee posted about it first on 5th December.
Lee wrote, “Crazy, there's now a @riotgames booth at the Incheon airport where you can play Valorant/League or sit in a lounge area during downtime. @OOOD85 won some swag for getting a high score in an aim game, good job bro.”
What’s special about the Riot Games gaming lounge
Riot Games’ state-of-the-art gaming booth at the Incheon Airport houses an array of captivating League of Legends and Valorant-themed furnishings. It also has live-size statues of Ahri, Yuumi, and Jett. It even features photo booths, and locally sourced artwork, and has a number of PCs where you can play League of Legends and Valorant.
Notably, there are spaces where you can bring your laptop to play. Additionally, the video snippet posted by Gerald Lee also showed that the hub has figurines of champions including Braum, Lux, and Evelynn. From Lee’s tweet, it looks like travelers can participate in challenges like aim training in Valorant to win free swag and prizes.
According to a report by Korea JoongAng Daily, Riot Games Korea signed an agreement with Incheon International Airport Corporation to create a unique gaming experience zone for travelers. The publisher reportedly stated that the exhibit is targeted at both League of Legends and Valorant enthusiasts as well as those less acquainted with gaming culture and Riot Games’ titles.
In June, Riot Games Korea CEO Jo Hyuk-jin said in a statement, “We will provide a gamers’ lounge where visitors can enjoy Riot Games’ games and other entertainment such as Esports. We hope to bring more people closer to Riot Games’ content and experience through this opportunity.”
The experience zone is located in Terminal 1 of the Incheon Airport, in front of Gate 30 and it opened its gates in October.
While the community is extremely happy about this lounge set-up, many fans and players have been joking about North American (NA) teams not having to leave the airport now for League of Legends events in Korea. This could play spoilsport in NA’s “airport speedrun” attempts.
One Twitter user wrote, “Guys, my flight is boarding, can ya'll ff?"
Jokes aside, Riot Games has to be appreciated for the efforts it undertakes to make its games reach a wider audience.
Incheon International Airport is the largest airport in South Korea and is one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. The Riot Games gaming lounge or the experience hub is sure to bring more exposure to its game titles.
