[Well-curated] Treats for esports fans, galleries and gingko trees at Samcheong-dong

Explore 2024 League of Legends champion's merch shop

For those who are still excited about South Korea’s League of Legends team T1’s victory at the 2024 LoL World Championship Finals last week, a visit to T1 HQ Shop may swell their pride even further and give them the chance to dwell a bit longer on the miraculous story that the team has written.

Located in Gangnam, southern Seoul, on the first floor of T1's headquarters -- where the T1 esports players are -- T1 HQ Shop is the team’s merchandise shop.

The shop may be small, but it still has many things to thrill T1 fans.

Though the players’ jerseys have all sold out, fans can still buy pants, sweatshirts, jackets and hoodies. Other items like handheld fans, tumblers, stationery, photo cards, keychains and mouse pads are also available.

The highlight, however, is certainly the display of some of the championship trophies won by the team not only in League of Legends, but also in Starcraft and Dota 2.

Visitors are free to take pictures in front of the players' jerseys as well.

The shop is open from noon to 8 p.m. every day.

If the T1 HQ Shop is not enough, visit T1 Cafe and Arena, a coffee shop with even more T1 player-themed goods.

The coffee shop, located behind the T1 headquarters, opens from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Hide and Seek, offline esports to enjoy indoors

As the weather gets colder, you might be looking for something fun to do indoors.

If you like to play online games but also do something active with friends, Hide and Seek is a perfect place to visit to play an offline "esports game" based on hide-and-seek.

Up to six people can take part in one game.

Only one person gets to be the tagger, while the others are "survivors" whose goal it is to fix three power supply units that can be found in three different rooms to supply power to an escape device and win the game.

Every participant must wear a high-tech glove to play.

Survivors’ gloves vibrate to signal when the tagger is getting closer. They also have a life chip on their gloves that must be turned in to the tagger once they are found.

Survivors can "resurrect" by finding a resurrection device, but if the tagger collects 10 life chips, the tagger wins.

Participants can use the gloves to tag open doors to different rooms.

It costs 26,000 won per person to play the game, which takes about an hour.

There are two locations in Seoul — one near Hongik University Subway Station and another in Insa-dong.

Each location has a different theme. Reservations must be made online.

Fall foliage, gallery shows at Samcheong-dong

The season has come to stroll around Samcheong-dong, a popular ginkgo spot in Seoul in the fall where you can enjoy art at galleries and museums.

A new show at Gallery Hyundai entitled "Lucid Dreams" is a solo exhibition of works by Lee Jin-han, who captures “untranslatable” moments that only painting can articulate, from fissures between individuals and language, between cultures and between each painting. The exhibition is a comprehensive overview of her 15-year career.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea is showing two must-see exhibitions that are also new this fall: "Korea Artist Prize 2024" and "Lee Kang So: Where the Wind Meets the Water."

Between gallery visits, drop by one of the numerous cafes in the area to give your feet a rest. Close to Gallery Hyundai is O'sulloc Tea House, Cafe Cordialement, Hoard Cafe and Fou de The, the last three being hanok buildings.