The Nongshim Red Force League of Legends (LoL) team had a great time with local fans at the Red Force PC Arena (hereinafter referred to as Red Force PC Room) located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. At the ‘Spicy Happiness in Vietnam’ event held on the 21st (local time), key players such as Kingen (Hwang Seong-hoon), Sponge (Bae Young-jun), Scout (Lee Ye-chan), Taeyun (Kim Tae-yoon), and Lehends (Son Si-woo) all showed up and received enthusiastic cheers from fans.
The excitement at the scene was hot from the reservation stage. According to a Nongshim Red Force official, 150 tickets to the event were sold out in just one minute after reservations began. Fans who couldn’t get tickets watched the event from outside the PC room, and the inside of the venue was full of fans trying to get a good spot an hour before the start.
The sincerity of the fans who visited the scene was no less than that of Korean fans. Many fans waited their turn holding cheerleaders with cheering messages written on them. Some fans visited the site wearing Nongshim Red Force’s official uniform, and most of them had captain Lehends on them. In particular, photo card goods of players wearing ‘Non La’, a traditional Vietnamese hat, were popular.
The huge cheers that erupted the moment the players entered proved that this was their true ‘home stadium.’ In the small talk session that followed, there was laughter at the players’ light jokes, and during the event match against the local Vietnamese team, there was a mix of tense exclamations and cheers. In particular, it was impressive that when Nongshim Red Force was in crisis, there was a sad exclamation, and when a great play was made, there was enthusiastic cheering, showing a level of immersion as if cheering for a local team.
Even at the fan signing event, which had a long waiting time, local fans enjoyed the festival atmosphere to the end, and Nongshim Red Force players also responded with heartfelt fan service. The players attended the local Nongshim pop-up store autograph session the next day, on the 22nd, and especially expressed their gratitude to the Vietnamese fans who showed their passionate support by visiting the event site, which local fans had raised money for.
Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City) = Game Reporters Club Joint Reporter/Reporter Seo Sam-gwang (seosk@dailygame.co.kr)