“Hey mister, that’s pretty cool! What are you drawing?” a young girl asked as she walked by our table. Hojin Chung 22, a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology laughs and picks up his tablet.

“This is Annie, and this is her bear Tibbers. They’re from a game called League of Legends.” The young girl stayed by our table watching as Hojin continued drawing. Eventually her mother called and she walked away slowly reluctant to leave.

League of Legends by Riot Games, currently the most played computer game has attracted all kinds of players around the world. But the thing that’s more interesting than the game, are the fans with a knack for creativity.

From the start of League of Legends in 2009 fan submissions were quite moderate and there was nowhere near the amount of players and supporters as there is now.

The game started gaining ground after the end of the season one championship held in 2011 and the player base skyrocketed. Fan submissions now come in by the hundreds. At first Riot amassed these fan submissions into what they called the “Summoner’s Showcase” where fan submissions were hand picked and featured on the forums.

Then in March 2011 Riot finally started a Youtube channel for the Summoner’s Showcase. There are now 104 episodes of Summoner’s Showcase to date and each episode features LoL fans with diverse skills doing their thing.

Artist Hojin Chung had his works of art featured in two different episodes and with the fame he started doing commission work.

http://youtu.be/9YvcENOvOCA

“I charge an average of $150 per sculpture but it still depends on the specifications the customer wants. They take me a while to finish since I’m quite busy but I spend around 2 to 3 hours a day working on it until I feel that its finished.”

With no formal art schooling, he started drawing cartoons characters that he liked and with perseverance he has become quite the artist today.

Hojin hopes that with the amount of viewers that watch the Summoner’s Showcase he can get his name out there. He dreams of starting his own company somewhat like Disney and is using this opportunity as a stepping stone for his career.

Another artist who goes by the name of “coconutjellies” draws for a different cause.

“I started drawing Leaugue of Legend characters because my boyfriend plays this game a lot. At first I wasn’t that interested but after watching him play countless times, I eventually came to enjoy the game myself. A Valentine’s Day card I gave him has Ahri on the front and his dorm room is pretty much plastered with my doodles.”

Unlike most fan submissions for the Summoner’s Showcase, user “Catalyyn” had crafted a fully edible League of Legends cake which features the champion “Fiddlesticks” with a group of minions confronting an enemy tower.

“Straube” created an appetizing yet cute Teemo lunch complete with green scallion as his blowgun. The fan’s creativity has really broadened the spectrum of mediums used in art.

One of my personal favorites had to be Fireball922’s Fiddelsticks cosplay at Pax East 2013. His recreation was spot on and even featured bouncy stilts which allowed him to hop around just like the character does in game.

Many submissions don’t make it to the Summoner’s Showcase but some submissions make it to the League of Legend’s Fan Creation Hall of Fame. Its not an easy feat competing against the myriad of skilled artists and its alright.

A simple search through Google, Devianart, Tumblr, or any art website is bound to turn up a handful of submissions you have never seen before.

League of Legends has brought such a diverse group of people together and within that group are hundreds if not thousands of unique individuals who paint, draw, sculpt, write, bake, and create things that truly demonstrate the community love and support of the game.

What’s certain though is that fans will continue to submit their work and there will always be new League of Legends submissions for us to drool over, sing along with, and even eat!