SNL Pokes Fun at League of Legends With Chance the Rapper Esports Sketch

Never let it be said that Saturday Night Live isn't timely! If you weren't already aware, the [...]

Never let it be said that Saturday Night Live isn't timely! If you weren't already aware, the biggest annual esports tournament for the popular MOBA video game League of Legends is currently taking place in Europe and is scheduled to run through early November. In fact, as of writing, the 2019 League of Legends World Championship is playing through its quarterfinals. And SNL's latest episode took the opportunity to poke a little fun at the video game and esports in general with Chance the Rapper, who served as both host and musical guest.

The premise of the sketch, which you can check out above, is that Chance portrays an on-camera host that typically covers basketball, but has to fill in at the last minute for the normal esports correspondent who is out... taking the PSATs. Poor Lazlo Holmes, as Chance's character is named, is mostly just confused, and while he tries to make sense of what he's watching and participating in, it's just about impossible.

While the sketch absolutely hits several jokes that could be categorized as low-hanging fruit, there is absolutely something incongruous about covering esports in the same way as you would sports. While the two share a number of characteristics -- including the word "sports" itself -- they are vastly different beasts, and Chance and the supporting cast absolutely hammer this home time and time again.

What do you think of the sketch? Are you a League of Legends fan -- or fan of another popular esports game, for that matter? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Saturday Night Live regularly airs at 11:30/10:30PM Central every Saturday on NBC. Next week's host will be Charlie's Angels star Kristen Stewart. Other announced hosts for upcoming shows include Harry Styles on November 16th and Eddie Murphy on December 21st. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Saturday Night Live right here.

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