Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and notorious Shark Tank investor, took on Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in a game of League of Legends in San Jose, California this past weekend as part of IEM San Jose, a tournament organized by ESL. This is the world we live in now.
Specifically, Cuban and Krzanich faced off in a charity match to raise money and awareness for the Cybersmile Foundation, a cyberbullying organization. They weren't alone, however. The two captained their own teams with four current and former League of Legends pros each in an ARAM (All Random, All Middle) match on the Howling Abyss map. What does this mean? It means that the players were given random champions to play on a map with a single lane, making the whole thing an absolute bloodbath.
Unfortunately for the two of them, neither seemed particularly good at the game. Mark Cuban landed with Ziggs, a ranged mage favoring bombs, and Krzanich received Ashe, a frost-favoring archer that slows enemies. Both are really meant to poke from the background, though it's hard to say whether this was understood. Krzanich specifically gave up several early kills to Cuban's team by simping walking into the fray - the pros showed no mercy on either side. In the end, Cuban's team outmatched the heavily melee Krzanich team, pushing Krzanich and company back to their Nexus several times before finally closing out the game.
Prior to the match itself, Cuban spoke briefly in an interview about what brought him to the event in the first place. Publicly, he'd been seen challenging Krzanich to a game after the charity match announcement, but it was unclear exactly why he decided to do so in the first place. When asked whether he'd be buying or investing into a team, Cuban said, "You're just going to have to stay tuned." He followed up with praise for the game, referring to it as "a real sport" and more.
