by Harold Goldberg

To create the New York Game Awards, thousands of emails and texts go back and forth with scores of people. One of those emails threads included questions on how to create the right poll for eSports fans to vote on their favorite team. That was the easy part. One thing I knew going in was this: if SKT wins, how on earth do I get them to New York City? There’s no budget for that, that’s for sure.

SKT did indeed win the Ebbets Field Award for Best Esports team. But they couldn’t travel to New York City to accept. It didn’t make good economic sense for them. But how would I even get in touch with them to ask for a video of acceptance? I had Faker’s contact information from the story I wrote for Playboy magazine. And I had his translator’s info, too. I guessed they wouldn’t remember me. It is, after all, a fast paced League of Legends world and the guys meet thousands of people in the course of a season.

But after a dozen or so emails back and forth, Riot Games and SK Telecom T1 sent over this fun acceptance speech. Riot was even kind enough to translate and subtitle the video. If you didn’t see it during the New York Game Awards, here it is now, short and sweet.

Harold Goldberg, the Circle’s Founder, writes for Boys’ Life, Playboy, The Washington Post and others.