Renown.

League of Legends, the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (or MOBA) game released by Riot Gaming in 2009, has been shaping the way the world sees games from the casual player to the competitive scene. Along with games like DOTA2, Overwatch, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League has been a massive influence across the world in spreading gaming to the professional sports community, which in the gaming realm is Esports. Esports has come from a realm of small tournaments (remember those LAN days in college?) to a massive worldwide arena, with the 2017 World Championship Series being watched by a peak of 106,210,010 viewers across multiple streaming platforms.1 This is an insane amount of individuals watching any type of entertainment, whether it be a TV show, sports game, etc; this number is incredible.

It has come to the attention of many traditional sports teams that League of Legends and other like Esports games are a gold mine, especially for young audiences. Where traditional sports have lost viewers in upcoming generations,2 as seen in the previous stat, there is no shortage of viewers in the digital and gaming realm. There are currently 3 NBA teams that have bought NALCS (North American League Championship Series) teams: Houston Rockets who own Clutch City Gaming, Cleveland Cavaliers who own 100 Thieves, and FlyQuest who is co owned by the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks. This is not including the personal venture of former NBA player Rick Fox who bought and fathered Echo Fox, which the New York Yankees recently added a large investment into.3 But what causes this desire for investment? Why has a game changed so much about the investment of time, energy, minds of expertise? I believe this starts at the core of the game itself. Let’s dive in to what League of Legends is, at it’s very heart.

Victory.

This is what every player strives to see after 20, 30, even 50 minutes on Summoner’s Rift, the battlefield of champions. With 141 currently released champions, since starting with merely 17 available to play, League has grown substantially over its nine years of existence. The ever-changing landscape of the game, constant altering of champions, of the jungle (the section of the map where monsters live to kill and grant experience, buffs and gold), and of the number of characters one can learn and master creates an exciting, malleable world to explore. One of the pitfalls of a game that has been growing for so many years is the amount of content available for someone that starts in its veteran state. How can a player expect to jump into a game people have already spent nine years playing hundreds of hours a week and thus mastering, and expect to play well enough to succeed against them, with no prior knowledge? Forbes announced in 2014 that “27 million people play the game daily, while concurrent players peak at 7.5M. In total, 67 million players play the game every month”.4 This has grown to the numbers reported by Riot in 2017: 81,000,000 players monthly logging on. Astonishing numbers to be sure, and I think that from their humble beginnings, Riot is brandishing that Victory symbol in their 23 development studios across the world.5

Continuity.

I merely scratched the surface. I don’t think there is any way someone could cover every admirable aspect of League of Legends in one small blog post. From the monthly events Riot puts on for their player base, to the constant streams from players worldwide, to the incredibly supportive (though troll-filled) community of the game, League of Legends has no end in sight. While the player population of any game fluctuates as the older player grow into adulthood and spend less time fighting dragons on Summoner’s Rift and more time with families, jobs and commutes; League of Legends has the incredible ability to draw former players back for years. I, personally, have logged exceedingly more hours on League than any other game in my library, and most likely will continue to. There’s nothing like playing games with guys from college that live across the country, and meeting someone at a new job that also plays League, and growing a new community from that. A staple to the community of gaming as a whole, League of Legends shows us the power of multiplayer and interactive gaming. I will most definitely return to this game and pick parts of it that require deeper digging: the developers’ engagement with community, the strength of special events, Esports, Art in Character Design, and more.

Thanks for reading, as always I’m here to answer any questions, field any comments, and just chat if you’d like! Meet up with me on any of the places below, and be sure to check out our own Game Development studio 1037 Studios!

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