I didn't expect to find a LoL post on ycombinator. I used to be a huge LoL and DoTA player as well, played moderately competitively, but I don't play those anymore since they suck too much time up.

A couple years back I went to The international Dota 2 in seattle for the first time with a buddy. Its a whole different dynamic actually playing DoTA / LoL vs watching professionals esports teams live with other attendees for 7 - 10 days in a row. The closest analogy to this is watching a football game on TV vs actually going to the stadium and seeing it live.

You get back into the spirit of competition there, since everyone else is, even if you haven't played in years.

Its only fun IMO if you don't go to an esports outing often though, otherwise it'd get dull after awhile.