League Of Legends

League Of Legends is an incredibly popular game which is played by millions of people on a weekly basis. Made by Riot games it has gone from being a tiny game with forty champions and a small player base, to a huge game with over one hundred and twenty champions and a fan base which could easily rival some popular sports such as hockey, rugby or perhaps even cricket.  One of the main questions that I want to cover in this article is, why is the game so popular.. how can people like a game that you repeat on only a few select maps? The best way to go about answering this question is to split the game into its main cores that help define what it is and how it catches people’s attention. The main sections of the game can be divided into:

Diversity

To people on the outside, League Of Legends just looks like a game where people constantly replay content over and over, however they could not be further from the truth. In all my years of playing games, League Of Legends definitely takes the crown for diverse plays and content. Firstly there are one hundred and twenty champions and counting currently in the game. Each of these champions then have a further four skills which are completely unique, therefore when you combine all the combinations for teams you truly get something special. Every team can have five champions which means that if players band together they can truly pull off some outrageous combinations for example take Thresh, a semi-mobile support champion who can hook enemies, provide a lantern that can allow allies to jump to thresh, flay enemies away or to thresh and even lock champions inside of a four walled box that deals a considerable amount of damage. When thresh is combined with others it really allows for experienced players to maximise potential by knowing they can get out or into fights safely and therefore the game opens up, it no longer becomes a linear, “use four spells, wait for them to come of cool down and repeat” it allows for teams to band together or even go solo if they wish, using a champion who has good duelling abilities. Therefore using diversity every game feels fresh and even though you have played on the same map thousands of times, the next time will always feel like your first time.

Content

The game always gets updated almost weekly allowing for new champions, skins, texture updates, map updates, icons, wards and even new items. This means that there is always something to research and learn, stopping the game from going stale. Content is added in the form of patches, each few weeks patches are released with all the new content for that month however before a patch gets released the content gets added to a public test server which can be accessed by a select few, this means that new content gets tested before being released, reducing the likelihood that bugs, unfair advantages or disadvantages are added to the game.

Skill Factor

No matter which champion you play it is one hundred percent certain that your skill will improve with every game you play. The first time you play a champion and your fiftieth time you play the champion will have a noticeable difference in not only skill level but decision making, one wise pro player once said, “knowledge of your champion is not crucial but knowledge of how to play that champion against other champions truly is important”. This really reigns true, as when picking a champion, there will always be match ups that are favourable for you or favourable for the enemy. Knowing when to exploit the advantage and playing safe when at a disadvantage can be the difference between winning the game and losing. Not only this but when you do badly there is always the feeling of how could I have done better in that situation?, could I have got out of there alive, with kills? it is through these questions that the game gets more addictive with players wanting to improve to become the very best.

Esport And Meta

The game has it’s own Esport division, with professionals battling it out every year leading up to the finals for the Summoners cup in Korea. Many people in the league community watch the Esports division and it has become a profitable part of League of Legends for not only the players but also Riot Games. The beauty of LoL Esports really comes with the meta which is essentially created by the community but mainly the pros. The meta is essentially the prime champion picks for the specific patch, as mentioned the patches come with buffs and nerfs to champions.. therefore champions go up and down in power level all the time so keeping up with the meta is pretty much essential to stay relevant in the game.

Colby Mort

I’ve been interested in gaming and computing for many years and using this knowledge I create videos for Dragonblogger.com’s youtube and occasional articles for the site. I’ve been writing for Dragonblogger for over a year and it’s been awesome. My content usually is around product reviews and gaming.