Mention the words League of Legends, Legacy and Chiefs to most people, and a blank stare is likely what you’d get.
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But to a very dedicated and growing group of gamers and pop culture fans – many of whom will likely be at RahCon on October 15 – those words represent the rapidly growing world of e-sports, and the mainstreaming of video games and what others may deem “nerdy” pursuits.
Michael “Hingers” Hing, foremost League of Legends (LoL) expert, occasional Good Game host and all-round good guy, will make his second appearance at RahCon this year, not too long after returning to the country from the League of Legends world championships in Rio de Janeiro. And yes, his Brazil experience might’ve been as interesting as you’d expect from the recent home of the Olympics.
“I just got back a week ago, and I’ve been sick as anything since,” Hing said.
“I did the Good Game tenth anniversary show, and that was great and everything, but halfway through I ad to say to everyone, ‘Guys, I don’t feel real good’. I managed to finish, but I had to head to hospital the next day.
“Since I was coming from South America, I was told it could be a lot of things. ‘It could be Zika (Virus)’ was one thing I was told, and obviously that’s not the best news.”
Thankfully, Hing has survived, and apparently taken it in his stride. He does, after all, have a dream job: part comedian, part video game journalist, Hing has been following the League of Legends circuit for years now – as well as other professional e-sports circuits – as well as taking a general place of hosting duties in various video game and pop culture conventions, such as RahCon. It’s a novelty that isn’t lost on him.
“I’m doing it because… well, it’s the dream, isn't it?” he said.
“Ever since I was a little kid and I played games with my big brother, I wanted to be somehow involved in the industry. My brother grew up and got a real, adult job, but I never wanted any part of that.”
Instead, Hing devoted time to his passions – Starcraft and FIFA, i.e the indomitable game series based around Association Football – and while he may not have ever become the greatest expert at those games, it did lead to an understanding that there was something about video games beyond the tv screen.
“I used to play FIFA obsessively. I still do,” Hing said.
“One of my favourite parts about it is there’s this Podcast – it’s based in Europe – and they have this call-in section. They’ll get these people calling up, just ranting angrily for 20 minutes. About a video game. That, to me, proves there’s a lot of life in this.”
Hing will no doubt be validated in that idea when he heads to RahCon, the still-young pop culture convention built for Mandurah youth for Mandurah youth.
“Obviously it’s not as big as some of the cons you see in the capital cities, but RahCon has a really strong following, and it’s really inspiring to see that,” Hing said.
“Some of the bigger conventions, they’ve become these huge beasts that wheel out all these Game of Thrones stars or whatever, and have these huge television stars.
“That’s all fine, but when you have something like that, you can easily lose the community aspect. The guys behind RahCon, they’ve created something big, something that gets a lot of people from around the state attending. But there’s also this really strong community – everyone knows each other, or at least wants to. That’s something they should be very proud of.”
