Liquid Community Spotlight: Delfino

For those of us who’ve been around in esports for long enough to count ourselves veterans of this relatively young industry, it’s always exciting to see how esports fandom changes over time.

It’s usually a change for the better, as evidenced by the recent fan project Days Gone By, a fanzine celebrating the LTA, with writing and art contributed by a huge number of fans. This month in the Liquid Community Spotlight, we talked to co-organizer Delfino about bringing traditional fandom to esports, and why the LTA negativity is overblown.

Can you introduce yourself and how you got involved in esports fandom?

I’m Delfino, I am a college student, and I got into esports back when I was in high school. At first I was into Smash, but then I started playing League with my sister and we saw [a pro game] on the client. So we just started watching back in — it was either the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. Then I really got into it in 2022, especially with the EG roster at the time. That was kind of when I started being active on Twitter, and that's when I met all my friends.

That’s how I got into esports too, by seeing it on the game launcher.

People are like, “nobody starts watching off that.” I’m like, “I did, so…”

So in the lifespan of League of Legends, you’re kind of a late adopter. What was it about competitive League that made you want to be more involved in it?

A lot of my friends are fanartists, they were fanartists for other communities and fandoms before League, and I always liked writing about things I liked. I still do it now, a lot of think pieces and opinion pieces and stuff like that. So it just kind of started. We just wanted to do our own thing and appreciate the LTA in our own way.

What fan projects have you been involved in?

I guess you can call NAmen itself a fan project. We started with a podcast, but then the podcast became a lot, especially because we were all students. So, we ended up not doing the podcast anymore. But then we ended up doing probably my favorite thing out of everything I've done, which is LCS profiles. It's basically a comprehensive website with all the pros on it, and they have little profiles with some information and some fun facts about them. 

When it started off we would have fans of players fill out a form that was like, any fun facts, how old are they, what is their zodiac sign, all that kind of stuff. And then eventually, with the help of some other people, we were able to get the players involved, and they would fill out their own forms and try to provide a little bit of information about themselves. Then after the profiles, we were able to do interviews as media. That's my biggest and probably my favorite fan project that I've done. It was really cool to see it all come together.

Let’s talk about the LTAN Zine. What was your involvement in it?

At first the zine was going to be specifically a yearbook. Some type of LCS yearbook was something that I pitched to my friends three years ago. I was like, "Wouldn't it be so cute if we did a yearbook or something, where we could do all the teams and have a bunch of different pages?" We brought it up again, probably in March or so — this was a little after LTArt, which was the whole trading cards thing that Ruii and Elaine did. They were like, “if you wanted to do the fan project, we have a bunch of artists that would probably be willing to at least let us use their stuff for it.” And then we were like, okay, let's try making it a reality. 

Is the community you’ve formed through the LCS your main one right now?

Yeah, if I look at all the people I talk to most online, it's people I met through esports Twitter or through my other friends who I met through esports.

Is there anyone in your real life you can talk to about this stuff as well?

My sister doesn't really watch as much anymore, but I still tell her about everything that's happening. And she also goes to events with me. She just went to Dallas with me, and depending on exactly where the locations for road shows and Worlds are next year, we're planning on going to at least one of those.

Who are your favorite players and teams in the LTA right now?

Right now I'm wearing my TL and FlyQuest bracelets, so I think that's pretty self-explanatory. I really like Massu and Busio and Yuuji. All three of them, I've been watching since Tier 2, and it's really cool to see them grow and blossom into really good players, especially Massu and Busio, who are super popular even internationally now, because of how well they perform at international events. I'm like, “wow, it's crazy how that guy I was watching play on 130 ping in his house is now taking Gen.G to five games at Worlds.”

That’s something I think is really special about esports, especially when you’re around the age of the competitors. It feels like you’re all growing up together. What’s it been like for you to follow the journeys of all these players and teams, and did that sense of “growing up” inform the way you put together the yearbook?

When we were looking for titles, we wanted to do something that would match the theme, which is summery. We were suggesting a lot of song lyrics and song titles, and eventually Elaine suggested Days Gone By, and I thought it was really fitting. Obviously, the league is going through a lot of change, but we've all been here to watch it go through that change. And we're still going to be here before and after that. 

It felt like we all grew up with the league. When I met a lot of my friends, they were in high school or starting college, and now a lot of them are graduated. So it just feels like we're all watching the days go by, as we grow up alongside the people that we're watching.

I think a hugely important part of esports is the occasions where everyone gets together, and you're all in the same place, and you know that everyone is there for the same thing. What was your experience like at the recent LTA finals, and what do you think the value of continuing to invest in these live events is?

I really like road shows a lot. I went to both the Spring and Summer road shows in 2023, in Raleigh and Newark. I do talk a lot of shit about Newark because Newark is just not very fun to be in, but it was really fun. My very first esports live event was actually Worlds semifinals in 2022. It was in Atlanta, where I'm from. I flew home, because I'm out of state for college.

It was so fun, and I didn't feel out of place with my jersey and my Gen.G light stick, and when I was screaming for all the players. There were a bunch of people who had flown in from Korea and China to watch their team, so of course they were super enthusiastic. And I was like, everyone around me is just as passionate about these teams as I am. 

It was the same thing with Dallas, where I met so many people who were so excited to watch their teams, and there were a bunch of cosplayers and people who had been following the LTA for way longer than I had, and I got to see a bunch of my friends who I hadn't seen in two years. I think this was the highlight of my year.

I got to remember that a lot of people still love this product. I think it's really easy for people to forget that, because of all the negativity online, where it's like, “oh my god, LCS is dead,” or whatever. But when I go to Dallas, it's like, everybody here likes this thing. It's so easy to think that everybody hates LCS, whatever, just get rid of it. But everybody I met in Dallas was happy to be there and was excited to watch it.

I do remember a big talking point in 2022 was that Atlanta is kind of an underserved city when it comes to esports — the whole region is kind of underserved, really — so what was it like for you getting to watch League in your home city?

It's the first time I really remember State Farm Arena. I've gone more now, to Hawks games, but that was my first time that I really remember going to State Farm Arena, and it was insane. There were so many people. I wanted to get Riot merch — I think they were selling little plushies or something — and the line was stretched all the way across the floor.

But, yeah, it was really, really great. And they actually had the Friday night Fan Fest in the place where I took my prom pictures. So I was like, "I'm back, hello!" It was really cool to see so many people in my city for an esports event. I hope they have one in Atlanta again.

You mentioned going to Hawks games — can you talk a bit about following traditional sports in contrast to esports?

In traditional sports, obviously, there's a bigger audience, bigger brands, more money, everything. My favorite player in esports gets paid maybe six figures, and my favorite player in traditional sports is getting paid $14 million a year. There’s also a way bigger gap between players and fans when it comes to traditional sports. But I also think being creative in the esports space has allowed me to be creative in the traditional sports space. I've written articles, and when I went to games, I've made bracelets and stuff to hand out to other fans. Esports has definitely affected the way I interact with traditional sports, but also, the way I interact with traditional sports has affected the way I view esports.

Do you have any plans for future esports-related projects?

I don't know if you've seen the LEC artist alley at their finals, where they actually had a booth for all the art freebies and stuff that they made, but we were floating the idea around, of maybe doing something like that at the next LCS finals. We want to have more emphasis on IRL stuff. But, yeah, nothing concrete right now. I think we're all a bit of a cooldown period as the zine was very stressful to put together.