What would motivate the mayor of one of the largest cities in the world to dress up like a video game character? Why, to support his League of Legends e-sports teams participating in the World Championship.  The multi-country, multi-city World Championship of the wildly popular online game League of Legends is held this month over four weeks. This year, ten teams originating from Europe, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Bangkok and North America will compete to win The Summoner’s Cup and $1 million.

The World Championship is sponsored by Riot Games, an American video game publisher that launched the League of Legends franchise in 2009. It is the most played video game in the world. League is a free-to-play, multi-player, online battle-arena game. Riot Games, partially owned by the Chinese technology giant Tencent, has invested millions of dollars into e-sports, making League of Legends an international spectator sport. This year’s World Championship begins in Paris. The quarterfinals were be held at the Wembley Arena in London, the semifinals in Brussels, and the finals in Berlin on all last month.

The Chinese and South Korean teams are favored to win. This is because the governments of these two countries invest tens of millions of dollars into the e-sports industry. In South Korea, a government agency has been created to oversee e-sport activity such as player salaries and making travel arrangements to competitions. In turn, South Korea dominates the e-sports industry in terms of millions of dollars of winnings. The League of Legends player who is considered the best in the world is on the South Korean team. He has been offered a $1 million salary from China to play on the Chinese team, but he refused. Clearly, the tactics and competitiveness of the e-sports industry mirror those of traditional sports.

The League of Legends matches are broadcasted live on several different media forms including Twitch and even the BBC. Viewership of the games is unexpectedly large. Although the numbers are not yet in for the 2015 games, viewership of the 2014 finals topped 32 million people worldwide.  According to one gaming source, over 40 million people around the world actively spectate e-sports events—that is more viewers than NBA Finals, MLB World Series and Super Bowl in some years.

At the time of publication of this article, the North American and European teams have already been eliminated and the Chinese and South Korean teams continue to dominate. Over the next few years, the popularity of e-sports as an international spectator sport will continue to grow. So don’t be too surprised when you see ESPN covering the most clutch moments from the most recent tournaments.