Basketball meets E-sports and "Linsanity" ensues as sports jocks and pro-gaming fans alike witnessed Brooklyn Nets' Jeremy Lin display support for the Road to the International Dota 2 Championships ELEAGUE (Electronic League), an international tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) "Defense of the Ancients 2" or "Dota 2."
A disclaimer is in order, though — Lin did not join the $24 million-Esports tournament; he only attended the event.
It was not his first time, however, to attend The International, (TI) a "Dota 2" grand tournament, as Lin stated in his ELEAGUE interview that he was completely awed by the first TI he attended three years ago. What he liked the most was how hyped and energized the crowd was and how their cheers made him feel like he was also in a major athletic event.
Lin also did not pass up the opportunity to talk about "Dota 2" and even mentioned that his favorite "hero" in the game was "Phantom Assassin" since he deals a lot of damage, something Lin's fans might want to keep in mind in their next "Dota 2" game.
In general, he said his favorite hero was "Leviathan" while pointing at "Dota 2" hero "Tidehunter," since a lot of people also like playing him. This could indicate that Lin's participation and patronage in MOBAs existed even before "Dota 2" as "Leviathan" is actually "Tidehunter's" old name in the first "Dota" game that came out several years prior.
In one of the interviews of Lin for ELEAGUE called "defining moments," the basketball player expressed, "My favorite memory of 'TI' was probably being here physically in the building, you know, I would compare it kind of, to listening to a song on the radio versus being in the building watching that performer perform live and in concert and having thousands of other people enjoying that music with you."
He added that watching the tournament live and hearing the crowd was the coolest part for him.
After extending support for the cyber tournament, Jeremy Lin then expressed his excitement for the next season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). This was as seen on the NBA star's Instagram post where he shared a photo of him and teammate Sean Kilpatrick in the basketball court.
