Worth - 30%
Words 800-1000 (Exact: 857)
Topic – League of Legends
Written by – Joshua Driver (Student No# s3369703)
League of Legends nicknamed “LoL” is in basic sense a remake of a well-known game called “Defence of the Ancients”, after seeing the success of other clones made of this un-trademarked game, League of Legends was developed by Riot Games™.
Created by “diehard gamers” Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill, Riot Games Inc. was founded as an independent game(Indie-game) studio in 2006, known only for its’ first and only title “League of Legends”, they obtained the initial funding of $7 million US in 2008 to create League of Legends from Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital, which gave them the money the needed to start building the game, in 2011 Tencent Holdings bought a majority stake in Riot Games™ confirmed to be $231,465,000US and naming Tencent Holdings as the Parent company to Riot Games.inc.
Announced as “League of Legends: Clash of Fates” in October 2008, and released as “League of Legends” on October 27th 2009, at the time it was launched the Santa-Monica based company had nearly 100 employees and has since grown to having 1,000 employees with offices all over the world including in Dublin, Istanbul, Moscow, Sao Paulo, St Louis, Seoul and Sydney.
In 2011 the game was released in China and had recorded more than 15 million registered players, two years later the game had exploded into more than 70 million.
Each month players around the world play for an approximate combined 1 billion hours playing League of Legends; at its highest peak of game play, it is recorded that that 5 million players were playing the game at the same time. Analyst David Cole of DFC Intelligence – Expert Video Game and Entertainment Industry Research stated “It is a true example of global success”.
League of Legends has since been credited as one of the largest growing online games of our time, with now having over 32 million monthly players (statistics off what was shared in 2012, no current statistics available), and generating over US$200 Million(2013 Estimate) in micro-transactions, League of Legends quickly over-took one of the biggest online games of our time “World of Warcraft” that had been credited as the most played online video game, the title has now been handed down to League of Legends.
Riot Games™ has always had hopes for League of Legends to make it in a competitive online gaming environment, with the help of eSports in 2013 the game was kicked into a professional career with the League of Legends Season Championship having a prize pool of $2,000,000US, “Pro gamers” and their teams of 5 or 6 from around the world competed against each other in front of a 8.2 million viewers worldwide on stream and 13,000 fans seated in the arena at Staples Centre Los Angeles, Calif for the chance to be crowned the World Champions.
A brief overview of the game is to proceed in your team of 5 players against the enemy team of 5 to quickly destroy their objectives while keeping yours and yourself alive, so that you can destroy their base, during which maintaining many other objectives that are in the game such as Baron, Dragon and many other creatures (nicknamed “minions”) that grant special buffs, gold or otherwise beneficial attributes once slain as well as help your team get the edge over the opposing team as you level in game and try to over power or outsmart the opposing team to maintain this advantage with pre-game modes to choose from, to play in either a casual or a ranking game with friends or alongside random other players that are online on the server you choose to play on, in a ranked game depending on how you and your team play and your personal skill level you can climb the ranks with a possibility to get into a professional team.
I personally play, and I love the strategic elements of this game, it offers a huge strategic field of mind that one can delve into that can offer key decisions that at any point can win or lose the game making it competitive and intellectually challenging.
League of Legends may have had a highpoint at Staples Centre in 2013 but judged on the continued growth of the game it does not mark its final destination.
REFERENCE LIST:
'League of Legends' makes big league moves. 2014. 'League of Legends' makes big league moves. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/07/11/league-of-legends-at-staples-center/2504935/. [Accessed 06 April 2014].
League of Legends has 32 million monthly active players - Destructoid. 2014. League of Legends has 32 million monthly active players - Destructoid. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.destructoid.com/league-of-legends-has-32-million-monthly-active-players-236618.phtml. [Accessed 05 April 2014].
Riot Games Get a $7M Launch. 2014. Riot Games Get a $7M Launch. [ONLINE] Available at: http://kotaku.com/5023761/riot-games-get-a-7m-launch/all. [Accessed 06 April 2014].
Tencent 2011 Interim Report". Tencent. p. 44. Retrieved 29 Jan 2014.
League of Legends 2013 World Championship winner crowned | Polygon. 2014. League of Legends 2013 World Championship winner crowned | Polygon. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/5/4805468/league-of-legends-2013-world-championship-winner-crowned. [Accessed 06 April 2014].
Interactive Timeline. 2014. Interactive Timeline. [ONLINE] Available at: http://timeline.leagueoflegends.com/. [Accessed 06 April 2014].