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2023 trip to South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore

Two weeks to visit my mom's hometown, to better understand why people care about Esports, to catch up with friends, and trends.

Busan ➀

Busan → Da Lat → Ho Chi Minh City → Singapore → Seoul

Image courtesy of Goodoldays Hotel




To better understand Esports, I chose to go watch a Worlds 2024 match in-person. I had done my research, but was definitely the most ignorant person in the stadium that day.




Realised only hours before the match that one of the teams had a pop-up store set up in a nearby mall.




Ran there and bought a few things to bring to the match. Back then I knew next to nothing about T1. I picked a Jersey at random, began to notice something interesting about the people around me, and ran to the subway.




Arrived in time at the stadium (capacity: 14k seats)

Here, like at the pop-up store, I realise that the majority of the audience are women. Stark difference from how it's like in Europe, afaik.


Video courtesy of @singmasta

Da Lat ➁

Busan → Da Lat → Ho Chi Minh City → Singapore → Seoul

Image courtesy of The Note Da Lat



View on the way to Truc Lam Buddhist Monastery





(struggling to find the words to explain how it felt to visit my mom's hometown)


Ho Chi Minh City ➂

Busan → Da Lat → Ho Chi Minh City → Singapore → Seoul

Image courtesy of The Myst Dong Khoi


A few folks spotted me walking around wearing the T1 jersey, leading to nice chats about LoL and their hopes for the tournament finals






Singapore ➃

Busan → Da Lat → Ho Chi Minh City → Singapore → Seoul

Image courtesy of Hotel Mono









Image courtesy of GR.iD

My stay in Singapore was short, but I did briefly check out the renovated shopping mall GR.iD (and got to watch the JDG vs T1 match at a friend's place)


Seoul ➄

Busan → Da Lat → Ho Chi Minh City → Singapore → Seoul

Images courtesy of Mangrove Dongdaemun and The Chae Dalro



Spent a week checking out interesting retail spaces (this is a bakery, btw)









I also interviewed a group of players, to better understand the local scene. We chatted in a room at T1 basecamp



For the grand finals, I met up with League fans. We watched the game together at an outdoor viewing party that Riot and the city of Seoul had organized:




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I kinda did a 180, and became a Esports fan, that night

2024 update: 10 months later and I'm now watching matches from the Korean league on a weekly basis - and praying for a fifth trophy for T1.