For the first time ever, Singapore’s Ministry of Culture along with MTV and Riot Games collaborated to bring us Hyperplay. It’s the first ever ASEAN League Of Legends tournament that will share the stage with MTV’s top performers and bands. Everyone enjoys music. Everyone enjoy games. Put them together and we have an instant classic pairing like salt and pepper, fries and ketchup, Mr and Mrs Potato head. It just makes sense.
Hyperplay brought together avid fans from both sides whereby music fans discovered the excitement of League of Legends and gamers discovered music like they have never experienced before. I personally am now a fan of The Sam Willows and CL.
“In celebration of our youths, fans got to immerse themselves in a range of esports action and music performances – the two key cultural cornerstones of the generation.” – Hyperplay
Day One
Hyperplay kicked off with the semifinals where AEX (Acclaim Empire X) of the Philippines and KLH (Kuala Lumpur Hunters) of Malaysia square off for the coveted first seat of the finals. After battling the many talents in their home country and the group stages, both teams emerged victorious and are now ready to take on each other. Who will win? Let’s find out.
Philippines vs Malaysia
Both AEX and KLH were not afraid to get bloody and fight. Game one was so fast paced and full of action. There were kills upon kills at almost every minute of the game and because of that there was very little breathing room between fights. There was almost no time to back up and buy items! These are the best kind of games to watch. The unsung hero of this game is definitely AEX’s Korosu as Morgana. His clutch black shield and the long range binds allows Klyde’s Jhin to stay safe, deal massive amounts of damage and take the victory from KLH.
Game two, KLH buckled down and decided to go with a double support composition, the bot lane duo and jungle mid duo. This is to set up KLH’s jungle, Qaspiel to carry on his favourite champion, Kindred, and on patch 8.14, Kindred is very strong. KLH’s Arrhedge has shown that he can not only be the solo carry but also step back and support his team members when it’s needed. In this game, he plays the supportive Lulu and got Qaspiel to a 7 kill lead at 20 minutes. From then on, Qaspiel is the lamb, making every member of AEX face death as wolf delivers the finality.
“Our jungler Qaspiel is sort of a dice player. If he rolls a one, we lose, if he rolls a six, he will carry us.” – OzoraVeki
Match point. This is it. Only the victorious stays, the loser has to go home. KLH’s OzoraVeki is having none of it. Time to bring out the daughter of the void, Kai’sa. With an early game kill onto Klyde’s Ezreal, OzoraVeki is poised to succeed. His confidence rises with every fight as he frontlines the battle and dares AEX to come after him. Alas,every attempt by AEX just ends with most of their members dead, mostly due to Kai’sa’s ability to reposition to the back line and after a game ending quadra kill, KLH of Malaysia will be the first finalist of Hyperplay 2018!
Intermission
As the crowd in the stadium cheered on the victorious KLH, something else was happening outside in the foyer. Crowds were taking pictures, mouthing silent oohs and aahs as they admired the talented and beautiful cosplayers. Thanks to Riot Games, many amazing cosplayers showed up and each one embodied their character perfectly. All of them showed their effort and time spent on creating the amazing costumes. Kai Craft came with his amazingly detailed Darkin Kayn while Khymichi and Aza Miyuko charmed the crowd with their Star Guardian Ahri and Star Guardian Jinx.
https://www.facebook.com/Khymichi/videos/906076006255196/
Source: Khymichi
In addition to the cosplayers, OfflineTv was also having a meet and greet session. Lilypichu, Sleightly Musical and Scarra were all taking pictures with their fans. It’s the first time that OfflineTv is scheduled to appear in Singapore so the line was so long that the Riot crew had to cut the line at some point. I am so glad that they cut the line right after me.
MTV Spotlight: The Sam Willows
MTV started off with one of Singapore’s best indie band, The Sam Willows. Discovering this band makes the trip to Singapore so worthwhile. The band comprises of siblings, Ben and Naralle Kheng, their best friends, Jon Chua and Sandra Riley Tang. The quartet started off their set with songs such as “All Time High”, “Baby Don’t Shy”, “Keep Me Jealous” and “Thirsty”.
All of these songs are happy, upbeat and just plain fun to listen to. The next time I feel down, I’ll be sure to put these in my playlist. Halfway done with their set, they turn to songs that are more mellow such as “Save Myself” and “Robot” which came from their very recent album “I Know, But Where”.
Following “Robot”, Jon took to the stage and performed a guitar solo which then lead to their current hit that’s “Papa Money”. Papa Money blew my mind. It is such a chill, calm song but the lyrics give a strong message which is the opposite of what I expected. It is not about taking the papa’s money, but a story about their hard work towards their goal and what the past looks like to some of them. Sandra used to be a waitress and this can be seen in the lyrics:
“Got my first job at sixteen
Serving coffee seventeen
Waiter, waiter, waiter
One black no sugar please”
The Sam Willows ended their set with “For Love” and “Take Heart” from their debut album and Sandra whisking Naralle off the stage on her back. I’d say that their music choice represents their band as a whole very well. In fact, these songs are good intro songs for newcomers such as me.
Vietnam Vs Singapore
Right after The Sam Willows, it’s back to e-sports. Vietnam SSD (Super Star Destroyers) and Singapore SOV (Sovereign) were preparing backstage for their ensuing battle. SOV was definitely the underdogs here as they were battling the most powerful ASEAN country.
Game one was short, very short. Just a mere 25 minutes long. SSD was aggressive, daring and constantly loved to fight, even without their entire team. SSD would take on a 4 vs 5 fight against SOV while Artemis pushes side lane. Even if SSD would lose the fight and many of their team members walk out limping, but in order to keep the pressure up, they would limp back into the fight. More often than naught, SSD would walk away with an advantage and those advantages build up very quickly. SOV could not control the snowball SSD was having and ended up with a loss.
Game two was long, very long, A whole 48 minute game. SOV was finally able to beat down SSD albeit just slightly. You can see the cracks in SSD’s team play and fights. Mistakes were happening, members were dying and it’s not looking good for SSD. SOV’s Yone was very confident about his Yasuo and this game proved it. Yone would be able to combo with Arykelic’s Galio, whereby Yone’s Yasuo’s Last Breath would go off and takes a member down.
SOV had the right idea against SSD, being hyper aggressive but as the game went on and each kill Yone obtain became less and less meaningful as every member of SSD reached their full item set. This was especially true with SSD’s Artemis. He was the only one who was able to escape Yone almost every time and each time, Artemis came back stronger as SOV could not close out the game.
Even with their backs to the wall, SSD would not give up and in the final fight, Artemis was able to wipe the entire SOV’s team and they ran down mid. Even if Singapore lost to Vietnam, Singapore should be proud because this is the first game where Vietnam sort of crumbled but has not fallen. They walked away bleeding, with cracks in their hyper-aggressive strategy and and I am sure Malaysia was able to learn from this fight.
MTV Spotlight: CL
Finally, one of the hottest appearance of Hyperplay is here. CL, the baddest female rapper in Korea has graced us with her presence at Hyperplay. Her fans were ecstatic and going mad with fervor by being so close with the star. The screams from her fans were able to rival the sound of the speakers from the stage. CL opened her set with the hip hop track “The Baddest Female”, a song in her 2NE1 days. A song which was sure to get the fans hyped up.
The songs that followed were “Dirty Vibe”, “Lifted”, “Dr Pepper”, and “MTB”. As each song was being played, the response from her fans just got more and more intense. Just when I thought the crowd could not get going any further, CL performed “Hello Bitches” and “₩1,000,000”. These songs pushed her GZB fans to high gear and boy, do they go wild for CL. CL finished the set with “I Am The Best”, a hit song from 2NE1 and fireballs going off at the stage. That’s just how hot her performance was.
