League of Legends Should Be Dead By Now

[@GoingIndie]

Do you think League of Legends will continue to be the most watched game? 🔵 Join our Discord to vote for the next indie game shoutout discord.com/invite/pHHhNwNzDu

[@an_insane_rogue_ai]

No

[@xbertron]

there are also some most viewed games out there like minecraft , among us ( probably ) , gta , fall guys , etc .

[@code066funkinbird3]

And there mlbb

[@ahriboy]

​@@code066funkinbird3nah it's declining all thanks of Moonton's betrayal of V33wise and V33's return to League community

[@gimmeyourrights8292]

League's lore will never die, but maybe its competitive scene will.

[@AtomicBoo]

As a league of legends player since early 2012 I can tell you the bigger reasons why league became huge in latam are that the game could be played on any potato pc (back in the day most of us had crappy pcs) and that it was free, add that they released dedicated latin american (not Spaniard) voice acting in 2013 with its own servers and it was destined to be huge in the region.

[@worldoftancraft]

Basically, the same recipe that worked for Russia, but for Latinskaâ Amêrika.

[@friedaliora5640]

8 years ago, my PC got broken and i've managed to make LoL work on an old winXP. We never needed a break, because my friends and me had a couple minutes to get food and go to toilet while loading screen. xDD

[@AtomicBoo]

@@friedaliora5640 back in the day loading screens used to take forever, I had a friend that fas infamous in the group for loading slow (back when you used to see individual loadings) once I was getting ready to go out and i took a quick shower while we loaded lol

[@nemothecollector7655]

agree, this is one of the huge reasons they made it

[@fleecemane2638]

For me it was the time it came out. I was waiting for Dota 2 like a child was waiting for his birthday. But league came out 1-2 years earlier. In this time they took all the people who never played moba games from the market and bound them to their product.

[@ZZValiant]

So heartwarming to see a small company like Riot Games being featured in a segment on a video about Super Auto Pets, one of the best and most hype games ever.

[@Youshisu]

and steal content and ideas? :D

[@kanabisssmk]

Best...?

[@Wilphart]

I see what you did there. But it was a good video, and so I appreciate the sponsorship of it. Does super auto pets feature any pet with a playstyle similar to Heimerdinger?

[@PlsDontReadThis123]

Juice me, squeeze me, roll me, roll me, freeze me 🥚

[@2ndintelligentWorld]

Super Auto Pets is literally getting out of hand. These too big to fail companies must be stopped

[@Realsupergingerman]

League will never die. You can hate the game but you will always come back for more. Sure some has left the game completely but most of us don't.

[@qawiemmt]

true.. not all people love that shoooting style kind of hype game anyway..

[@jondandavekinanahan7488]

_Stockholm Syndrome But Better_

[@taan4120]

@@jondandavekinanahan7488 _* Stockholm Syndrome But Worse_ lol, you're being held hostage *_by_* your own will

[@filipmuller2099]

Sadly, after riot started playing moral police and banning people in ranked for words taken out of context but not for inting made me quit, i don't have time to play 5 normal games because i wrote something to myself, and i'm not the only one

[@エレダー]

a few year late you change your comment

[@Bishlambo]

I’ve been resisting League for many years but they finally got to me with Arcane.

[@greenderp]

RIP

[@user-pv5hz5gz9e]

im about to make a bad decision

[@DaveCrazy-w5o]

@@user-pv5hz5gz9esame man, it can’t be that bad right?

[@Cal3000]

I'm on a 2 year break but Arcane probably will get me back

[@DaveCrazy-w5o]

@@Cal3000 I think they got me. I’m only level 20. I’ll get bored of it in like a month though right?

[@YenBi33198]

I quit playing league a long time ago, but I always watch the competitive scene. There is just something magical when Worlds comes around

[@Persona6Blue]

Script writers went wild this worlds I'm not gonna lie.

[@justinlizamor1541]

Agreed' Also some of their songs! KDA was my first K-Pop addiction

[@elleazharadam5612]

You can leave the game, but you can't leave the community inside it.

[@khang.ngtr487]

same 👊

[@arcmage23]

I freaking love this years worlds!

[@ThirdCultureChinese]

League is not just a game. It's a whole universe that offers something to everyone. You like the competitive gameplay? They've got ranked games. You like the art and lore? Check out Arcane. You enjoy the lore but prefer experiencing it yourself through a game? There's Legends of Runeterra. You are into pro players? They never disappoint with Worlds. It's a rewarding experience no matter which direction you go. I started playing League in 2012 (and developed a massive celebrity crush on Piglet lmao) but the art and lore kept me in the universe. Now I find myself traversing through the regions in Legends of Runeterra.

[@dailyfunnytv358]

nerd

[@sorari5474]

Omg Piglet fan like me!

[@lovell8983]

real lol even in LoR you get multiple directions to go. Feeling competitive? Play rank or pvp. Or if you are salty getting dominated by players (like me xD), play path of champions instead. I'm so invested in Vayne cards rn. My favorite interaction is between her and kind-hearted recruit. ("My sister's no monster, Vayne. You'll see" - "Is that so? Then where did you get that scar?")

[@Cp-yx4ci]

Wow...if those were the standards you set for everything the Riot Games have made with their product, I suggest you explore something else instead. Riot Games is a company that's promoting this toxic, addictive gaming culture and they want people like you to get drown into it. I hate to say this but you have to stop having this unrealistic vision of them, or else it will be too late for you to pull yourself out of this situation.

[@ren4383]

same with every company i mean look at blizzard, or much more extreme like coke, pepsi and every other softdrinks yet people drink it anyway even knowing that its bad for thier health in the long run

[@KienQuanCreates]

I remember randomly stumbling upon dota 1.0 in the custom games when I got bored of Warcraft TFT. I got instantly hooked. I never thought a custom mod would grow to a size this massive.

[@alinn.4341]

Did you even watch the video? its not about the mod, its about the accessability and brand.

[@grlt23]

Have you ever heard about other little mod called CounterStrike?

[@CyPhaSaRin]

@@grlt23 or DayZ- pretty sure half life started that way as well didnt it

[@MrIronJustice]

LoL is based on DOTA 1, which was a mod/custom map on WC3. That's what he's saying we never expected all this to come from it.

[@amiru1554]

@@alinn.4341 don't care dota best league trash

[@RandomCSGOVideos]

You are so nice for putting the ad in the end. Thank you for the video

[@Rerags_]

what a time to upload this, one hour before the finals of worlds 2023 xD

[@Mr.DISRESPECT]

they planned it all along

[@VikingGnomeAnime]

almost like it was the plan all along

[@shar3859]

love an underdog story! now the passion behind Arcane makes so much sense. it wasn't accidental, they knew the system and played it perfectly

[@CantoniaCustoms]

And they didn't ruin it! (Western TV tends to shoot itself in the foot)

[@elessal]

were where underdogs. now they are one of the many companies completely or partialy owned by the chinese dictatorship through Tencent. so damn tragic.

[@skibiditoilet-tu9bv]

Season 2 released

[@jonnywaldis8275]

@@skibiditoilet-tu9bv aaaaand it's ruinded.

[@skibiditoilet-tu9bv]

@@jonnywaldis8275 season 2 is sooooo much better than season 1. like jesus the visuals, the plot, the storyline (except sesbian lex)

[@AngelCopout]

Legends never die. Nah but seriously it's kind of crazy. I've had my account since S1 and kind of fell out of love a bit after S8 where I hit my all-time peak(D4). This is my first season going unranked. I will say though the memories I've had with this game are fucking crazy. I just don't think I'll ever go back to my prime. Probably just ARAMs every now and then.

[@uhmatcha1167]

aram is the retirement place

[@Made_In_Heavenn]

it wont die because people are so busy playing it, most of the time they do not share what happen

[@chestierre8785]

@@uhmatcha1167 IKR. hahahah. years ago, my friends were hard sweating in the game. now, we just chill in aram.

[@paulojose7568]

maybe they know that if you reach your ranking target you will stop caring about the game. So they make the climbing experience as much miserable as possible

[@SinNombreYQueWea]

Maybe you will. I've been playing for about 10 years since season 2/3, though I played casually at first. I peaked Diamond in Season 7 and I've been playing casually with just ARAM's since then, only playing about 20 ranked games a year to reach Diamond and get the border and then going back to ARAM. This year I decided to give ranked a go, and in just a couple of months I hit Grandmaster playing only Teemo because he's fun as hell. Top 300 of the entire continental ladder. Not that there's anything wrong with playing casually, I did that for years. But if you put some dedication to it, even without sweating it, you can get back to your prime and beyond pretty easily

[@brbdogking7643]

Just gotta say is what keeps league alive for me is ARAM, I don’t have to worry, strategize, worry about counter picks, long game unwinable commitments, autofills. I get the satisfaction of a fun character to play without having to grind and build correctly like other games.

[@seelefire4522]

Fantastic video. One small thing I'd mention is that HoN's downfall was probably more due to Dota2 than LoL. The video was focusing on LoL's rise so not a big deal. For anyone who doesn't know, HoN went with the idea that it was a true successor for the original Dota while LoL wanted to be its own thing. The true successor idea was crushed when Dota 2 came out and directly ported everything from Dota 1. HoN carried on for a long while (props to them for keeping going for so long) but the creation of Dota 2 effectively neutered HoN's main marketing angle.

[@jeremyjohn93]

yea the video is kind of based removing important context to make riot look more better. 30% of what was said is false in this video

[@LBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB]

@@jeremyjohn93 Yeah there are definitely a few things he says that are intentionally vague or just downright misinformation to make Riot seem more innovative than they really are. There were definitely tons of free-to-play MMOs when League dropped, mostly Eastern games, but there were still many successful western ones such as D&D online and RuneScape. He mentions competitive releasing in 2010 as a response to competition, but then shows HotS and Pokemon Unite, which didn't drop until 2015 and 2021 respectively.

[@AlbnS]

@@LBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLBLB Also the whole scandal when they took down the DotA All-Star forum while hiring Pendragon to redirect DotA players towards LoL, or the whole legal fight with Blizzard and Valve and the part they played in it. Agreed, the video looks good, but the content is far from accurate.

[@mariembuenaventura1278]

yeah make sense...

[@dolnaluca6684]

😅😅😅😅 I'm😅😅😅😅😅

[@MyFirstYoutubeHandle]

I haven’t played a single game if league in 3 years. I still watch streams and worlds. I hope it doesn’t die, it truly is a great game, even with all the flaws and toxic community.

[@laius6047]

Nothing connects more than toxocity

[@redpilledworld]

you stopped playing bc u suck at league

[@AsirIset]

Well. I don't know which competitive game doesn't have a toxic community, though. Of course the devs could do even more about it but Riot isn't the worst in giving out bans etc

[@Darwinedm]

Its not toxic anymore, they punish u for saying the word "nuts" trust me. As for great game that is debatable imo

[@Nhatanh0475]

Same. but I only hook with their pouring on budget for movies and music video. Someone gotta run the mouse wheel and I got more to wat ch.

[@55ziomal55]

Because Cancer is hard to kill

[@zulioner7880]

actual truth

[@player5969]

😂

[@michaelyoung1477]

was going to say the same thing.

[@Fabboi_unl]

🤣

[@TheGreatSeraphim]

🤣

[@quantumbyte-studios]

In short, Riot Games understands Loss Leader business model

[@thedoomslayer5863]

It wasn't that it was they understood Free To Play model. Their game succeeded off the model not its merit. As the video said heroes of newerth was just the objectively better game at the time. But merit lost to business strategy.

[@duckymomo7935]

They’re business majors

[@GamerBuffer-01]

Play to Earn! Gamer Buffer :D

[@kentaaplays]

When you think it's about to die, there will be a 6M+ peak viewers will pop-up. Largest ever in E-Sports history. Truly, legends never die.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Also a snorefest.

[@SedriqMiers]

Well China and the far east have enough young idiots willing to invest a half a decade of their lives into this mind numbing garbage because they have soo much free time and nothing useful to do to occupy their minds because of their current station in life - its a babysitting tool for asian parents.

[@Mark_1991_1]

"legends never die" I sang it, not read it

[@ChikoTheOGDog]

​@@HighLanderPonyYTWeibo wasn't supposed to be in the finals in the first place. It's not their fault their bracket had unbelievable chokers lol

[@arthuralmeida6049]

let be honest most of it was because of Faker, can say for my self, only watched the last match of last year and this year worlds because faker was playing, wanted to see the player I grew up watching dominating my generation getting another title, was a nostalgic experience, after he retires I think no more worlds for me probably, already skipping most of the matchs for 3 worlds in a row

[@nylana4552]

it will never die becuse like counter strike, it stuck in peoples culture of the esport genre so it is instantly looked at before anything else as it is the bigest one, while also rewarding people with alot money in competetive scene that no new moba could give to its playerbase, valorant also got people playing it becuse riot got the big budget from league since the release making once again competetive worth for people that go after the money and are intrested in e sports

[@paulojose7568]

It doesn't matter how much Riot shit on their playerbase, people will always come back to play it because they are stuck with their intellectual property: the champions, their habilities, summoner's rift map, etc. It's the game where their skill will best shine, despite the company's soul crushing neglect in maintaining a competitive environment in it's ranked queues. If pirating the game was legal and someone implemented a better queue system & voice chat with the same champions and map, riot would go bankrupt the next day

[@Cp-yx4ci]

​@@paulojose7568You're right. But I just wanna point out that the main problem isn't with the queue system, the game itself has massive flaws, and it cannot be fixed anymore. People still play it because they are still addicted to it and somehow couldn't snap themselves out of it just yet. The game will die soon enough, we just need to wait until it's official.

[@Cp-yx4ci]

@@Daofro00 I don't think I'm that great but thank you for your compliment, I appreciate that! Yup, Riot is an evil company and we have to stop promoting any of their games for the sake of the younger generation!

[@bullettime1116]

​@@Cp-yx4cior people like the game and dont hate it with a passion, maybe just maybe you stop being riots number 1 black knight

[@Cp-yx4ci]

@@bullettime1116 I'll say you stop being a fanboy of Riot Games and start waking yourself up from this nightmare!

[@fliphrrr]

I don't think the success of early League is ONLY due to being free to play, but it also had less system requirements than their competitors, allowing for people aside from America to play it easily (Same thing that happened with WoW before)

[@EntenschafDesign]

Honestly the worst thing for Riot are the League of Legends players telling their friends to not get into the game.

[@joenani]

This, I bet league could be the biggest in the world if not for the terrible pres they have. People that never played the game know it as the toxic game, imagine it was loved?

[@jcm2606]

I think this is part of the reason why they're expanding into other genres. They know that not everybody can be converted into a League player, not just because of the toxicity but also because not everybody enjoys MOBAs or PvP games, which is why they have a fighting game coming out later this year, an MMORPG in development (though it's stuck in development hell) and seemingly had a singleplayer ARPG in development back in 2020 (though the project lead left Riot like 9 months ago and we haven't received any news since). If they play their cards right, they could blow right past Marvel and become the largest multimedia company on the planet, because they not only have an incredible show that pulls a huge audience in, but they'd ideally also have a varied catalogue of games to engage the entirety of that audience.

[@troyschnierer2940]

I have played maybe two bot matches of LoL but I love watching worlds with my sons. The animation, Arkane, was also so good that it makes me want to know more about the world and lore.

[@izshtar]

yes! the eSport side of League is amazing, It's just like physical sports but more strategic. I just wished that other regions would really get into more the competitiveness of major regions.

[@HealthiestWellbeing]

@@izshtar as someone who watches both football (soccer) and league e sports it is not more strategic football has 1000s of diff strategies and formations and evolves BUT league e sports is the most strategic e sports and is the closest e sports to actual sports since each role is unique and plays diff purposes and roles which makes it more interesting to watch then fps e sports

[@izshtar]

@@HealthiestWellbeing that's true actually since you'd have to need your mind and physical body at the same time, I like to think of League as a Chess Game. I like FPS eSports as well but more on the Valorant Scene since i enjoy it watching more often than CS.

[@seaweedbanana4663]

The lore was better than MCU tbh

[@HealthiestWellbeing]

@@izshtar Yeh league is like a chess game since even the drafting stage is tense because you are trying to see what the other team wants while trying to set your team up for a counter draft all around a great e sport from the draft stage to the nexus siege

[@VeeZzz123]

I play since S5, and I don't think I will ever leave the game for good. (I've tried, but always come back) Even when I go months without playing, I never stop watching lol streamers and esports, and that (eventually) makes me want to play again

[@paulojose7568]

do you think riot neglects the competitive integrity in their ranked queues?

[@mnatu21]

same for me. started in 2016 but i was unable to match the skill of the other player and left the game and picked it back in 2020 during the lockdowns and actually enjoyed playing since then

[@henrikswanstrom9218]

How old are you?

[@SuperDinduSlayer]

I always regret coming back.

[@albertgomez3648]

@@SuperDinduSlayer Same yet I still keep coming back haha

[@VinceMouse]

As someone who started playing League in Season Two, it REALLY has come a long way, even if there's still some problems to this day.

[@aligmal5031]

oh yes season 2 when we used to unistall the game when we saw jax coming even if it was all 5 of us together when yi players hit W on ap yi and went to the bathroom when my teammate lux had 6 death cap when a game went 60 minute because both yi and jax's full build is 3 infinity edge and 2 phantom dancer yea great memories :D

[@maesterchris2120]

As someone who started playing League in Season 2, it really has most of what made it fun and challenging, I haven’t played in 3 years, and I intend never to play it again

[@AdamOwenBrowning]

@@aligmal5031 this gave me some nostalgia. I started playing in S2 and stopped at S5; terrible waste of college years lmao.

[@aligmal5031]

@@AdamOwenBrowning same i also miss the seasonal maps where it used to snow in the rift in winter they don't do that anymore :'c

[@laughingseal2282]

Dominion. Day 1 broken champions (Diana, Irelia, Etc). SivHD. Only one server, babel tower with Russian, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, etc all on same team. Busted champions that took long for them to patch (I remember hating riven for YEARS before they finally realized she needed her legs broken).

[@TacoBellCheatDay]

Never knew League of Legends even existed before Netflix debuted Arcane. At first i was like "blue hair with a major vitamin D deficiency. Might be fun" now i am actually considering playing League of Legends despite lots of people saying not to.

[@user-mq4vl7nq5o]

The learning curve is pretty steep, but IMO it's a fun game, despite what a lot of people say, especially playing with friends. There are sometimes idiots/mean people, like in every multiplayer game, but you can just ignore or mute them.

[@fqertexirte3054]

I dont recommend wasting time in competitive repetitive game, but sure, go ahead

[@jenoszkotar5189]

Dont try this shit its getteing really bad

[@CurtisJensenGames]

Great video. Probably the first time I've heard of business guys being the beginning instead of a designer or dev and it working out well.

[@cylindercycle4577]

They birthed the nightmare hell mobile game microtransaction world we live in today. S2 made the better game, but had no business sense. Shady dealings and ad money win out over transparency and good game design, it turns out..

[@catthebird]

The amount of memories I've made playing league with friends makes up for all the unpleasnt experiences I've had with randoms. Literally met some of the most important people in my life because I started playing league, that I otherwise wouldn't.

[@devilkingaming4619]

My brother and I actually flew out to meet some of our league friends in Chicago for LCS summer finals in 2022, one of my best memories as an adult.

[@catthebird]

@@devilkingaming4619 Good to hear you had fun! I feel like league gets a lot of slack for being toxic, but the few good people you meet are worth it. It's crazy to think that half of my friends wouldn't be my friends if I didn't decide to hop on one random evening and play solo. I even met my boyfriend on league hahaha. Hope you make more memories with your buddies, and hope they get even better next time! It's such a good feeling to meet your online friends irl

[@demonseed360]

This X 100. Even with all the hate League gets for having a toxic playerbase, TBH I've played a lot of games and never found it uniquely bad among other big PVP team-based games. What I do know about are the amazing friendships that I've maintained over the years by just hopping on my favorite game. In high school, I had a group of friends and we'd all procrastinate on our homework and projects, going on long losing streaks while playing, but having a blast all the while, trying to get our first win of the day. I even have a friend who met her husband on League and they recently had a child.

[@joshbrucks]

Why isnt chess dead? How come no one has made a chess killer?

[@catthebird]

@@demonseed360 Exactly!!! Plus all the funny clips of people being angry(even friends) still make me die of laughter everytime I see them. I'm really happy to hear these good experiences from people, it's validating that I ain't insane and that it's not actually that bad. Personally always felt way worse playing games like CS and getting flamed. I also feel like it helps you manage your emotions when dealing with unpleasant people. Also hope your friends are doing well with the new addition to their family:D

[@ladiesman-to2oy]

I haven't played League in a while but it's always going to be the go-to for me and my friends when we do get the chance. Truly a legendary game

[@bryonbos1077]

You should try wildrift

[@LunaticLacewing]

⁠@@bryonbos1077what‘s better about wildrift?

[@YourBew]

Not only that they made league of legends wild rift (the mobile version) where they're more brave to make changes because every update/patch is a whole different new theme so players can always enjoy a new experience after every 4 months or so and with it being a mobile game of course came with a gacha system but they also made free skins with a chest that you can open to get a random skin to epic tier and the one thing thats hyped is the Battlepasses because its cheaper yet gives more rewards so players keep buying it

[@jenoszkotar5189]

And they removed the free chest System now you cant get free skin it became a gacha game and theres the fakin gamble machine

[@YourBew]

@jenoszkotar5189 they didn't? Its wild rift mobile im Talking abt the free poro chests you get for getting 5000 ores

[@anonamos225]

I'm done with league but very interested in the expanded ip. Arcane, project L, the music, etc. The more they do with it, the better. So much potential and they're actually using it. Can't complain about the pace too much when pretty much everything they make outside of the game is gold. It's a crying shame that when arcane dropped league players everywhere was telling arcane hands don't play league. They need other projects to funnel new fans to.

[@Solarstormflare]

i tried league soley because of arcane. there wasnt really much of a good tutorial so i was so confused i gave up after like 2-3 tries, and i play games semi regularly. I think it'd be nice if they could toggle on a more explanative tutorial

[@chemicals8582]

Agreed. I'm actually of the opinion that the game itself is the worst thing about League of Legends. I played it for a while but everybody is such a tryhard on it; you get flamed for making minor mistakes and I'm like "I just created this account last week; of course I'm not good." Arcane, on the other hand, is a show that's so good I'd rate it higher than Game of Thrones. Riot knocks things out of the park, and even the game wouldn't be that bad if the player base wasn't as toxic.

[@kuroxell]

​@@SolarstormflareYes absolutely it's hard to begin with. I started playing back in 2014 and for me and my friends (this helps a lot) it was like an adventure. Finding new champions with different abilities and learning how to deal with them was very funny, finding things you didn't know you could do etc... But then your friends stop playing and you're in love with the game so you start focusing on ranked and getting better, you meet some awesome people in-game and one blink later you have a whole squad of very nice people who are willing to play together and grow as a team. Or you can find the most toxic players online that have ever existed, it's truly a matter of luck at the beginning but if you behave well you'll find more nice people than toxic people, I personally had no much problems with toxic or AFK people, and I think it all depends on your honor level, the people you play with, and your behavior obviously.

[@Rellikan]

​@Solarstormflare there should be an extensive tutorial at the ice map. You can play against bots or solo for a few games. It teaches last hitting minions, which gives you a lot of gold over time, so that you can buy items.

[@MaoTheMage]

I've already told several people who enjoyed Arcane to not bother playing League. League players can find League in Arcane, but don't bother looking for Arcane in League, because you won't find it. And the learning curve is way too steep to pick up casually.

[@ChattieCheeto]

I've always been interested in league since 2013 but 1. i didn't have computer and 2.I felt like it was too technical. Now there are thousands of online tutorials, tips and even gamers teaching. That's what makes league feel alive. If you go search any other game that came around that time or even after the communities are dead by now. Even though there's toxic players in the game, outside the game there are friendly ppl who are passionate and wiling to introduce you to the game.

[@Brohskey]

As someone who loves where business & gaming intersect found this insanely fascinating.

[@cylindercycle4577]

There's a lot more to HoN vs LoL in the shady business side of things that drives me insane. LoL was like a parasite that refused to die and has taken over its host and become a monstrosity. S2 (HoN) was made by a guy who won the lottery and wanted to make his dream games, so they had the cash to do good art, hire some decent programmers, create a polished product and sell it up front and honest, no microtransactions, no locked content, you buy it and you own the game, all characters, all maps, and all future updates, no additional charges. They didn't have to learn the ropes of business because of that initial money, but because of that, they didn't prioritize profit enough to stay afloat in the long term. Riot was able to gut punch and stab them in the back repeatedly; Riot paid tournament organizers to host LoL instead of HoN, insisting that only one MOBA could be at the event. Riot hired the DotA competitive community manager and he shut down the DotA community website and forums, replacing the site with a link to LoL's beta signup page, destroying a whole community and scattering them to the winds, leaving no access to archives of the forums, of friends talking, of games and replays recorded, guides posted over many years, it was like a gamedev war-crime. On LoL's forum meanwhile, all mention of HoN and DotA was banned, the words themselves were censored. HoN's best ideas, like Chipper, the rodent piloting a mech, with a line-targeted DoT AoE ult.. would become Rumble, for example. When HoN began, they were working with Icefrog to port over DotA heroes to the game, but before long, Valve offered him more money to abandon HoN. Later, HoN's most beloved game designer Nome, and community manager MsPudding, got 'sniped' by Riot, offered way more money to turn their backs on S2. That on top of Riot's presence at game conventions and paying for advertising over game development, is how they took over the market while honest, idealistic, naive and outdated S2 got left in the dumpster. Even today, HoN's original gameplay felt more responsive than LoL or DOTA2, I swear to god, and that's gotta be what putting all your advertising money into making a good game, looks like. It's up there with Starcraft:Ghost as my two most tragic videogame-loves-lost.

[@j4ize]

me watching this after falling right into their business coz of arcane

[@Darium856]

This is still crazy to me. I started playing League in 2011, and while I don’t play regularly today, it is still a wonder to watch and play when I get the time. They were way ahead of their time and the business model they had was outstanding. Legends never die, I will remember this game fondly (despite the rage) for the rest of my life.

[@krikukiks]

1:50 These are minor issues. Being randomly disconnected and not being able to rejoin were the greatest ones. If the game ended with all 10 players present it was a little miracle.

[@justforfunrobloxclub206]

Ok grandpa let's get you to bed

[@SergiXUP]

What was worse is that with Heros of the storm it still happened. If you lost connection for half a second then it had to resynch with the game and took minutes to recover. If that happened and the game finished in the period while the game tried to recover, you where flaged as having left on purpose.

[@pa1nted]

the load times were pretty average for an RTS at that time. also your explanation of dota as a "mod of one of the maps" is bizarre. it wasnt a "mod", it was a custom map. wc3 came with a built in custom map editor of which there were thousands

[@brendenwenhold7064]

I've literally played LoL since launch while stationed in Okinawa through today. Its really cool to see how this has grown from just a handful of champs to scrolling screens of choices. I've liked it mainly because it has a start and stop of each fight vs games like WoW and Warhammer that just go on and on.

[@jamesbiggs2745]

People that kept playing the game call that cool, but the majority of people that played back then have quit because it ruined the identity of league of legends as well as insane power creep. It's a constant new wave of players keeping league alive at least as far as NA goes.

[@Sc9cvsd]

​​@@jamesbiggs2745it is kinda funny how a lot of old favorites are now meta champions. Back in like 2013 I mostly played udyr, ashe and twisted fate, mid mostly ahri. They were kind of the free or cheap to play trash champs constantly beat by better pay to win champions. And now in world I'm seeing those picked or banned in many games and mostly it's top and support which are newer champs that didn't exist 10 years ago, most of the meta champs in worlds did exist back then

[@LifebyBrody]

League isn't a game, its an addictive substance

[@Brrrrman666]

is trash in the garbage bro

[@alaskanmalamute101]

1. The free to pay model 2. Worlds The pro scene exploded in 2012 with the tsm house, moscow 5 rivally and worlds got huge every year out doing the last and the league system in 2013 was the major change that riot pushed hard most likely at a loss that made them stand above everyone else. I've never been invested in any of sport outside of football until League game around which to me is really unusual to be that invested in a game but it's not so much the game but the great cast, crew, players, the events, music, special effects, they like the Walt Disney of online gaming lol Defo the best at making epic showcase tbh I'm not really interested in playing the game nowadays but I still love the passion for the competitive scene

[@Seroxm13]

3. Lore 4. Skins

[@daghetto101]

Riot Skins sucks, can't even customize or sell lol@@Seroxm13

[@Valorhammer]

@@daghetto101so you want to transmog sections of "armor" with different skins? I mean I guess that's a nifty feature, but just like how things get really tacky (cause not everyone has great fashion/aesthetic sense) in R6 and WoT, I'd rather just turn off skins of other people... which basically defeats the point of skin flex. and TBH, skins marketplace is a very toxic feature to me. I mean I guess people get a hard on with CSGO's system, but really I just want to play the game man, having to also think about a digital stock exchange is just... too much trouble?

[@Seroxm13]

@@daghetto101 as someone who have played many games and that mainly play them for the skins (there isn't someone as addicted to game skins and cosmetics as me), LoL by far has the best skins! They are that great, that you don't even have to customize them like others. When you have to cusomize it, it's because the original skin sucked. Plus LoL has chromas if you want a little change.

[@yabara_]

@@daghetto101 So they suck because they are not customizable and you cant sell it, not because they are artistically worse. Yeah, I dont want gambling in my game, keep your selling system.

[@TheRockNatural]

I associate this game with the fact that for a long time I didn't know what atmosphere this game was in, I had to ask if it was fantasy or sci-fi

[@Martin-yh7vi]

It's mostly fantasy. While there is Zaun and Piltover that has tech that's sci-fi. The source of it has always been magic like everything else in the lore.

[@TheRockNatural]

@@Martin-yh7vi Thanks

[@imbaby5499]

It's Warcraftverse

[@njrom2975]

It’s fantasy. The only sci fi it can have is because some humans in runeterra like piltover and zaun don’t have the gift of magic so they rely on science to make magic . But mostly fantasy ,

[@linkhaus7948]

meanwhile in SEA.. you can play DOTA easily on Computer cafes through cracked Warcraft III, either play LAN and play with your friends or another friend group to challenge them, if you don't have friends, you can play online through Garena servers. When Riot wants to get ahold of the SEA region, Garena stepped in to handle the servers for Riot's behalf but Garena milked the playerbase until recently when Riot finally stepped down their foot.

[@johnnybigoode]

Start @14:00 if you want the actual argument, without all the introduction and history

[@elinneshev338]

As a guy who has been playing the game for 10 years its truly nostalgic to me watching this. And I have felt the popularity evolving every year, the game was getting more and more famous and better. Riot really did a great job with the game and really killed the competition. The game has no competition in its niche.

[@piedrablanca1942]

dota2 is the lesser and boring MOBA

[@eyelesself3422]

@@piedrablanca1942 i wouldnt say dota 2 is boring its just slower, for some players they prefer that slow paced gameplay. I dont doe so thats why i prefer league

[@myst6387]

Are you challenger yet?

[@usernameluis305]

​@@myst6387 10 years still gold gg no re

[@skyisthelimit5078]

​@@piedrablanca1942LOL is easy. It's a baby game for normies hence they are popular. LMAO

[@ArekuMizuhara]

I stopped playing League, but I am looking forward to their MMO, watched Arcane, watched Worlds and played LoR. My heart will always be with Nasus and Shurima.

[@creamlass]

*looks at avatar* checks out

[@Upload-video-terserah-gue]

I just play legend of runeterra

[@Sergio-dn2hz]

"Perhaps Shurima was meant to fall"

[@JT-xn9ei]

One good reason I think is overlooked is the lower skill floor compared to it's contemporaries. It was much simpler as there was less things to worry about. No need to deny minions. No need to use carriers or the secret shop. Free recalls. Standardization of skill mapping to QWER. No turn rates. These and more were that accessibility which allowed more people to play. I'm not saying that League is easy to learn, or that it doesn't have a high skill ceiling (There was plenty of exiting high mechanical plays this recent Worlds). I'm also not saying that the simple approach is always better (plenty of MOBAs failed because they were too bare-bones, and DOTA 2 shows that there is still a market for more complex play)

[@chuntingli6559]

I would rather use the word systematic. But yeah you made a really good point.

[@ieatthighs]

its*

[@goranpersson7726]

no need to deny minions? my guy

[@pvshka]

@@goranpersson7726 denying is last-hitting your own minions, so the enemy doesn't get gold and gets less exp. It doesn't exist in League.

[@goranpersson7726]

@@pvshka you can still deny someone that xp. force them away from the minions with your pressure so they arent close enough to get it

[@cookiesleague]

League has this model where you have to buy champions before you can play it which was entirely a new concept in the dota scene but they still managed to convert a lot of people in my region. what a beast

[@geminix365]

Yes, first you play until the free rotation gives you the champ you like, then you play until you can save money to buy your favorites, then you play to wait for new rotations to try other champs you like, then you wait to collect them all. It's a big part too, indeed

[@eliteforce011]

I really appreciate you for making this video. It gives us a glimpse of the game's start and how it all came to be.

[@creepinwhileyousleepin]

Its how re playable the game is. League is very deep, even if on the surface it might not seem like it. I equate it to chess; the board stays the same but the possibility of moves and potential to outsmart your opponent is infinite. I took many breaks over the years but eventually find myself coming back because its the only game that can still get my blood pumping.

[@grumpyginger9783]

If its equateable to chess, people would play chess just as much. People play LoL more because of addiction. Funny how the addicts show all the signs of it, especially trying to "explain" why it's something else. (it isn't, everyone just sees and hears ur addicted, except for other addicts.).

[@summonerbraddysg51]

​@@grumpyginger9783sounds like cope to me. Would you say I'm addicted to playing football since it gets my blood pumping? Same with League, it makes me think faster for outsmart moments

[@grumpyginger9783]

@@summonerbraddysg51 No, you just say it gets your blood pumping. Thats a hobby/passion, not an addiction. When you start to try to explain to others and/or yourself why it's the best thing ever and why it's okay to spend all your time on it, even when it's clear that it's affecting you negatively, that's when it becomes an addiction. Football addicts do exist tho, I'm sure you know people like that.

[@grumpyginger9783]

@@summonerbraddysg51 "potential to outsmart your opponent is infinite" that applies to close to all forms of competition. It's not unique to league. When people think it's a rare thing, it shows that they have never seen any other competitive games, probably because all their time already is in LoL. It's literally how the game is designed to work, last hitting is the most addictive thing in gaming next to lootboxes and headshots. Riot won't even hide that if you look into it.

[@grumpyginger9783]

No hard feelings tho. League is a fun game. I completely stopped playing because of the community not accepting people who have good mechanics but didn't spend 1000 hours learning all champions (i'm lvl 40 and get matched with lvl 300+ constantly because of that. those games are extra toxic to put it lightly). I thought normal matches are for learning champions, well my teammates disagreed. So I played csgo instead and got addicted, am still bad but can't stop playing. I feel the need to explain to people that it equates to chess :p then my LoL addicted friend compares LoL to chess for the 100th time. Ur not alone buddy :D

[@Vin_Venture896]

It’s a shame that you didn’t mention how Riot Pendragon literally closed the DOTA all-stars forums permanently and made it so that the only thing visible on the page was a link to the League of Legends beta lmao

[@Etherkai]

Obligatory "fuck Pendragon"

[@DezZzO_YT]

Also how they stole champion ideas from these forums (like Rammus and Teemo) and then cleared their tracks by wiping the forum data

[@IronKurone]

in Vietnam, League was advertised as DotA 2. And I meant no joke. Back in the era where 90% of Internet coffe's pc in Vietnam is about playing DotA, and they advertised League as DotA 2.

[@youtubebob123]

Guess he owned those forums?

[@pvshka]

@@youtubebob123 Not exactly, but he did have control of them.

[@MaxNorris-jk1pi]

I feel like they’re missing a huge part of this. League of Legends was popular because it was MUCH easier mechanically. For a new player it was so much easier to understand the controls and gameplay than the competitors.

[@Kaspar502]

I remember back in 2010 when there was a champion suggestion board on the riot forum website. I remember Riot adapting tons of player suggestions including my idea of a vampire-like champion with a slavic name focused on life drain and with an untargetable W accompanied with a drawing I did during class. Those were the glory Days of League

[@wisnuwibowo5861]

now it is one of the most hated champion 😂

[@falajose3080]

So you were the culprit? Haha

[@Kaspar502]

You're welcome

[@pinkserenade]

Holy!! You are a legend bro 😂

[@wabbajack8283]

Thanks for giving me my main

[@battlecubes4762]

Thats actually an insane story. Heros of Newerth was nearly the league of legends of today, had they just chosen a different approach. Amazing story.

[@heavens_drive090]

I believe the issue with HoN wasn't just the business model, but the fact that it was an exact mirror-copy of Dota. What I mean is that one way or another, Dota 2 was going to kill HoN.

[@jigglypuxx2985]

@@heavens_drive090 I believe this legit would have happened. +there really was a lot of bugs.

[@davidblaine9795]

​@@heavens_drive090yes, it's funny how in the video he never mentions Dota 2, even though it was the game that killed HoN, even with better model it would still be worse than Dota 2

[@vlthk]

@@davidblaine9795 same, I was surprised how the video said LoL killed HoN when it was in fact Icefrog leaving HoN for Dota 2 led to the lack of direction of HoN.

[@HighLanderPonyYT]

Except it wasn't a mirror copy of Dota. Heroes had slightly different kits, for one. @@heavens_drive090

[@Don_DeMarco]

On top of this, the fighting game they are working on looks like it has strong potential to be a huge hit in the FGC and they are also working on an MMO too. I'm stoked.

[@nonsense0000]

By character design alone LOL is clearly way better than any moba out there

[@TheRopiak]

Your videos are like Jason Schriers book in video format I love it!

[@shadxwslash44]

4:51 Seeing these 3 questions today, knowing the "norms" of the gaming industry nowadays, is probably the most bizarre thing I've experienced this month. "Where's the singleplayer? Why is it free to play?" If only they knew that there will be a frickin Call of Duty game only 10 years later that completely lacks a singleplayer campaign, and then the next one would offer a multiplayer mode for free, which would later define Call of Duty for the youngest generation (which is kinda sad but this is not the point). And yes, I can always feel the slight tingle in my stomach every year when Worlds is right around the corner. The hype I get every time I listen to the new Worlds Anthem for the first time is bigger than any sporting event (except for F1 races). The lore is also very intricately written and well though-out. I'm so hyped for Hwei, the newest champion as of now, because he's connected to Jhin, one of my favourite characters, not just in League of Legends, but in the entire gaming history. And then Riot decided to skyrocket itself and develop another game which will draw in players through the lore and the world building, their MMO RPG. I can't wait to play it (although we might have to wait for a few years still).

[@janjannn05]

the first 5 seconds is literally the last time my Janna has been viable to the competitive scene :< she's like a forgotten champ on pro play now. I really hope she emerge again :

[@novy1198]

Stopped playing lol year ago but probably most important thing that keeped me playing, wasnt game itself, but whats gonna bappen next, its like a tv show, newest songs, world cups, lore, new characters, literally everything other than the game itself

[@mitchmcnair4222]

One thing that I never hear talked about is how much effort League puts into is community management. I remember devs building entirely new systems and tech that they gave seminars on to better manage the community and cut down on toxicity. Even today despite it's admittedly deserved reputation for toxic behavior the game has more tools then most to report and censor toxic behavior, it's just that the game is so big and so old at this point the community is nigh impossible to police and full of to many veterans unforgiving of beginner mistakes even in the low ranks and levels.

[@NortSeLayer]

They failed to cut down the toxicity. U can just team-report one player and system just hammer-reported player without context or a reason. And they "fix" most time the problems that doesn't exist. Like "spam-ping" or chat-restrictions. Veterans just can READ and THINK. They have experience. New players can't even choose masteries(runes) without porofessor or smt like that crap. No one likes a burden for the team. Now in league reality in 1 game with 4 good players and 1 bad player is equal to the lost game.

[@hachiko2692]

@@NortSeLayer found the dude who only just plays league of legends and is currently in a losing streak lmfao You see, unlike you, I've played tons of IPs and competitive environments, and none are even as remotely close as Riot is in terms of community engagement relative to size. Even Counter Strike fumbled because they were dumb enough to think "PS4 Graphics - better competitive game".

[@NortSeLayer]

​@@hachiko2692 Unlike you, i has around 4 hundred IPs only in my steam library, most of them are slashers/shooters, a bunch of RPGs, some old(or very old games) and a little of competitive RTS. and ofc Battlebrawlers (i sure u don't even know what type of a games is this) Unlike you i'v seen good and bad games. And i say to you, my little commentator, that Riot is one of the most incompetent, irresponsible and greedy company in this decade. Charges 2-3x$ price for a watermark in indie game that can be developed by a 10 good people instead of a 200 CEOs(these are not bad games though) They don't even want to fix problems in their own client "and none are even as remotely close as Riot is in terms of community engagement relative to size." - no one cares about bunch of apes. That's not an argument. Most of the "community" don't play their games. I appreciate the work(games), not media hysteria. "Even Counter Strike fumbled because..." CS if outdated. If developer can - he change, improve engine and fix the bugs. Visual clarity is by all means more important is Shooters, so they change how things look. U are not competitive. U are hypocrite.

[@kitothekito915]

@@NortSeLayer”my little commentator” why are you so corny?? 😂

[@revendax2584]

Honestly, I almost never run into toxic players anymore thanks to their reporting systems. No you wont get punished if just one person reports you. It has to be multiple people or multiple times and the few times i run into toxic players and report them i usually get a notification that my report resulted in punishment because that player was actually bad and managed to get multiple reports.

[@miyurumallawa1555]

I just saw this after riot announced they laying of 11% of employees and riot forge is dead but yes league will live for now

[@niupe705]

Totally didn't expect to see Super Auto Pets to be mentionned in a short analysis/story about League and it made me smile in the most wholesome way haha, great game !

[@leviotten]

SAP is probably the best mobile game Ive ever played.

[@RockEsper]

I'm so baffled at the mention. Did this guy make it or something?

[@reddieweeb]

Because even with the bad matchmaking, it’s still a very addicting game. The events and free stuff keeps pulling me in just when I’m trying to quit.

[@arth8360]

This video does a great job of highlighting a few aspects to LoL's success. But I think it left out a critical part of Riot's feat - which is to make the player(s) feel connected to the different kingdoms, heroes, and overall lore. DotA has an expansive lore, but we don't feel as connected to the heroes and one might ask: why is that? I think Riot has wisely invested in great looking CGI trailers, making small articles on the in-game board containing small snippets or paragraphs relating to the heroes/lands. And when a hero is about to be released, they would make a very nice little trailer to highlight it. Riot even went so far as to create a VTube group that combines English and Korean-speaking idols. Which other game has done that? If you invest in your fans, your fans will invest in you.

[@youtubebob123]

While i think that does apply in more recent times, the original game had pretty much zero lore, i played it in beta and it was a lore-desert pretty much. I'm trying to catch up to some of the lore now, but just saying, it has really changed, they fleshed it out over time

[@revendax2584]

This matters a lot. There are many of us lore nerds who love the world they have pain stakingly created. Originally the lore was kind of blah but theyve retconned/redid a lot of the lore. The media they created (cinematics, music, other games) also really helps you understand the world and the characters within.

[@jacobleboeuf]

So accurate. I’ve been playing league for close to 10 years now and I’m 20 years old. It seems like there’s no point in my life where I can leave League for long enough to forget about it. My friends and I all watch Worlds together every year, every game. It’s truly such a big part of my life. ❤ Thanks Rito

[@Slowp0w]

Your explanation with HoN vs LoL was on point. I was at a small "LAN" party with two friends and they insisted that we played HoN, didn't have any money to buy it.. Saw an ad for a free game called league of legends clash of clans and we decided to play that instead.

[@ghfiytdcoliuo8]

Don't forget that Riot shut down the DotA community forums and replaced the website with a redirect to LoL's download page, and paid DreamHack to not-allow Heroes of Newerth to compete, as well as banning all mentions of DotA and HoN from their forums. It'll always bother me that Riot became a titan off of a worse game than HoN, complete with spaghetti code that still plagues the game, through such scummy business practices.

[@NahrAlma]

Tommy Tallarico really immortalized himself with this one. I bet his mom is so proud.

[@Mr_Blacksmith]

I have been playing League since Season 3, I haven't touched it in a while (almost 2 years now), it was a love-hate relationship in the end. What I can say is it brought some of the best gaming moments with our community of friends while growing up, heck I still have a few of their Worlds songs on the shuffle for when I'm driving around, so much time has passed listening to the InstaLock songs, Tyler1, Trick2g, Necrit going through the LoL lore. There was a lot to be desired when playing league sometimes but you gotta admit they got a lot of things right. The community that was built around it was amazing. They often listened to the players and implemented changes to the system; especially with trolls and in game disconnections. I I have a wife and daughter now and we watched the Arcane series on Netflex when it aired, I really enjoyed giving the wife some back story on some of the characters and feeling somewhat proud to have been part of the LoL project. I think looking back I'd spent around $200-250 on the game in 7 years or so of playing. GG RITO.. GG

[@mariapaz6379]

A game that is both easy to play and incredibly hard at its highest level. Despite its millions of ups and down, you get updates each week and events each year. Anyone who tried going to another game know how rare that is. Apart from all of that, they have shaped the competitive scene of games. Everything is grand with worlds, there is cool new technology, live performances, top tier casting and the players are treated like gods. With so much investment in the player's experience, its hard to give up a game that makes you feel so seen at times.

[@geminix365]

I started playing in June 2010 with the release of Rankeds, Season 1 and Xin Zhao (which was my main since then), had been very active until I started college in 2017 What Riot does really well on top of what you said is listening to the community and giving the community what they want. Also balancing the game, and changing the meta with a looot of patches to keep the game fresh and you needing to adapt again, never reaching a predictable and boring point

[@MrKinglydude]

I think this video really showcases how important Ryze and Tryndamere are to Riot's success. Where a lot of gaming companies are either nerdy gamers scrambling to run a business or non-gamer businessmen looking to make a quick buck, Ryze and Tryndamere are gamers with great business sense, and they founded a model with global popularity and influence that has sustained League's life well beyond that of other games.

[@angel_of_rust]

and that "loss leadership" thing? i honestly never heard of that. i only ever hear about companies losing money after failing, or losing money because they gamble and lose. but i've never heard of a company spending at a calculated loss only to make tons more after.

[@NotChicoAndPico]

@@angel_of_rust It's actually a very well known strategy, though at the time it wasn't exactly a thing for the video game industry (though I'm no expert on that, so likely there are others that did it) Common one is cheap, or even free, salty snacks in bars and such; causing people to get thirsty and order more drinks. Another one is that amusement parks will generally try to get at least one 'expensive' ride as the flagship, so that people are coming over for the chance to try it out, while the rest are there to pad the time. Hell, the ticket price earns less than they get from all the other stuff (transport, hotels, cafes. etc.)

[@geminix365]

​@@angel_of_rustThat's literally Xiaomi and other Chinese brands strategies. States giving subsidies only has the point to cover those losses while they conquer other markets. Supermarkets do it with most demanded goods just to attract people so they buy all the other things also there (those one with profits)

[@willg3220]

That is a strong, strong mustache 💪

[@DeathRebel369]

People can hate all they want, nut you gotta admit that they are geniuses at getting the players to play their game. They are even expanding into other games with project L, valorant and riot forge. The MMO is also being made so they are pretty much on their way to domination.

[@SuperDinduSlayer]

In reality they are branching out in order to survive.

[@MyAmpWamp]

they know not to put all the eggs into the one basket

[@confusionz6212]

yea sure domination, meanwhile when you woke up you will c the reality that is valorant is full of cringe eboy/egirls, overpriced af skins, bad design overall but it is what it is, chinese companies have to copy ideas to survive. Project L - another fighting game what a surprise Riot forge and those indie games - let's be honest i mean come on the MMO - LMAO when the producer leave the project and the lead game designer leave aswell to make HIS OWN studio and mmo.. well... i guess the riot MMO is indeed in "good hands". League survive so long because is like a drug for teenagers, even for adults but mostly teenagers (and weebs) that s the only reason why this game is still alive and nothing else. Arkane, SOME music projects, cinematics are good.

[@dandydwi6_6]

The one who hate lol the most is lol player

[@Zer-mz4rw]

@@confusionz6212 Whatever helps you cope buddy.

[@soulfinder7]

I play because it's free to play. You spend your only getting skins. You can say getting characters but you can buy them all just by playing. You get no in game benefits from purchasing. Its not pay to win. Thats why this game won't die. People don't get financially burnt out spending just to keep up with general population.

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

Yep

[@sven1131]

I really would have liked you to go more into detail on your last part. Because Riot's decision to go into other games around Leagues world (excluding valorant) is quite recent. They are building a world only seen before by Blizzard with Warcraft and they are doing such an amazing job to show it in depth. Not even now but also the plan for the future. There has never been such a high quality cross channel game universe, different games, mobile apps, trailer videos, music, esports, series and more. Especially the quality focus where freedom of art is allowed that we rarely see today. Right now it all seems to lead to the creation of the MMO, which needs so much more preperation with world building and the combination with an actually extremely well made series on netflix focussing on in depth characters is pure genius for me. I'm very ecited to see whats coming over the next years, even though I'm not even playing their games anymore. Also: I think there is one big point missing in your analysis. The market thinking between the western world and china. There are definitely other reasons to criticise Tencent, but they play such a big part in this success story as they allow this freedom of creation and don't interfere how the game is made (in the market outside china) while also providing all the money that is needed. There are just sooo many bad examples of western stock corporations where the executives made decisions that harm the game, be that harsh deadlines, foced business models or other things where people made decisions who have no clue about the target audience. This never seemed to happen with Riot games, not even after such a long time.

[@Gomace]

If only other big games could do this. I want to be hyped about more franchises.

[@Seroxm13]

Mario & Pokemon!

[@junba1810]

@@Seroxm13 Pokemon? The game that demands 70$ each year for shit copy paste content? Come on. Pokemon is a hobby for the wealthy. League of Legends is for everyone.

[@Seroxm13]

@@junba1810 what? Pokemon has soooo many different games. Not all are the same smh. I love both, LoL and Pokemon, but Pokemon has way more diversity in games.

[@junba1810]

@@Seroxm13 Pokemon has so many different games that all cost 70$.

[@moonflowerpalace3872]

@@junba1810 "League of Legends is for everyone." No it's not lol. Not everyone wants to play a PvP game.

[@calebjohnson9406]

As much as it's "hated" it's always being worked and improved, actual feels like it's well maintained

[@ezmode946]

🤣

[@mosuke5123]

Yea especially the client. Its the same since 2009, just a new flashy ui was added. Thats why scripters have it pretty easy. This guy has no clue what he is talking about.

[@xXEGPXx]

@@ezmode946 I mean shit on league as much as you want but the updates are frequent

[@ezmode946]

@@xXEGPXx definitely needs it

[@nic.h]

@@xXEGPXx yes updates are frequent, that's not necessarily a good thing. Hey a new update that tweaks a bunch of stuff that I don't want to care about and releases a bunch of new skins or a new champ, when there is already too many.

[@waynefilkins8394]

Most people nowadays don't realize what it was like back then, all these random unique up and coming games and often they weren't so simple to play, or you'd hear of this amazing game and play it and be blown away and like 90% of gamers didn't even know it existed. Word didn't spread so fast back then, things didn't go viral. There was no social media so you'd just kind of maybe catch something on a forum somewhere and try it out and tell a friend or something. At my school (this was late 90s) we played Shilla, Earth, Utopia, a few played a text game called clandenstine, and then those of us who didn't grow out of online gaming eventually ended up on everquest, and later eq2 or wow. Meanwhile runescape was there the whole time and no one knew about it until this one kid was playing it but we just never really got into it. Later I found out it was huge and all these ppl were playing it...idk the world was just so much more interesting before social media and before everyone had smart phones therefor everyone was "online".

[@waynefilkins8394]

I want to add to this, I remember when I learned about league of legends I was in my mid or late 20s and the only reason I even found out about it was because I was obsessed with werewolves, and I asked my nephew for some good werewolf games and he's like "uh I think league of legends has a werewolf on it". That was how I started out on league and as a warwick main lol. Played it for years and years, still playing it, probably tens of thousands of games. Crazy how different your life might be just from one small conversation.

[@victim3492]

The absolute one thing I love about LoL community content is that for every champion no matter how unpopular, there is a youtuber/streamer out there who one tricks them and they even create interactive guides making a champion easier to learn and master. In Dota 2 I'm lucky if I find a hero compilation of a pro player using a hero, and some hero don't even get much recognition at all.

[@number9999]

Been a player for 8 years now and even though I've had my burnt out season with this game and don't play it as much as I used too, I do still keep tracked of what's going on. Whether if it's a new champion, items, maps, music videos and Worlds, League of Legends still manages to pull me in from time to time. The feeling of entering a match still gets me excited and this is the only game that really brings out the competitor in me, winning feels amazing but losing hurts like hell, It's really hard to just let go of League.

[@chaplin006]

that's called an addiction

[@solidwolf666]

After watching this multiple times, something tells me that Riot understands the business model. I could be wrong though

[@Jikuri]

Stockholm Syndrome takes time to develop but I do hope that one day, this blight in humanities history will cease to exist

[@yamiRic]

I don't have time to play League anymore but the competitive scene is always amazing. Because even if you don't understand the gameplay anymore, Riot Games is the best gaming company that built narratives around players and teams.

[@kiaravincent4638]

Have you tried wild rift, because its pretty solid once you accept its a mobile moba

[@nischalthapa2460]

what a well made and well structured video

[@CautionBarrier]

I was thinking this same thing. Clear ideas.

[@Nagaimba]

Idk, if you are making some kind of "history of" video how can you get your facts wrong? Coudn't bother watching this video more than 2 mins. Because MOBA "identity" was formed in Aeon of strife. Starcraft 1 map. Not Dota. The guy who "created" dota in warcraft 3 literally said himself that he just "adapted" AoS from starcraft to WC3 engine and editor.

[@TooShawn]

The intro itself is the answer. The league creators are not developers, they’re business men.

[@colonelphroggercroakinton3641]

Riot also did some really awesome things in other regions. Usually we, in Brazil, are somewhat forgotten and companies just do some mediocre attempts at getting our market which, although not the largest one possible, is still very substantial. Riot, on the other hand, provides exceptional translations and phenomenal voice actors, with excellent direction which completely fits our culture. More often than not, companies just go with South America or LATAM servers, and this sucks hard for all involved, because there are usually more Brazilians than any other SA country, and you end up in something like a 60/40 split, from my experience, though it could be even more skewed honestly, I am just guessing. That is mainly important because we do NOT speak the same language as the rest of South America! For games such as League, this is extremely important, and we can't even use a language such as English to unify the general communication because the vast majority of people do not speak English. Riot gave us specific Brazilian servers, and the community thrived. League is pretty damn big in Brazil, certainly one of the most played games, especially for being free to play and running in any potato pc.

[@thanhvanle3024]

As a business major, I find it interesting how "think out of the box" actually works for even the most unbelievable fields. As long as you have the right vision, things will go the right way.

[@KidBakz]

As long as the game is free to play, there will be more new players coming no matter what. Putting a price on the game will create a barrier since no one wants to pay full price for a game like this one

[@earlgrey2130]

But it's not free to play? What are you on about? If i wanna play all heroes i need to grind/pay for it. Either way.. you are paying for it.

[@weewoo9367]

@@earlgrey2130grinding is still free to play. you can purchase all champions and even get skins without spending a dime.

[@Hanzgraves]

since when does grind count as form of payment? @@earlgrey2130

[@moebino2685]

@@earlgrey2130 you said hero so I'll assume you play Dota2 (like I do and I prefer Dota2) but League is free to play, you can still get the champs you want overtime which became way easier than the old times (I do play league occasionally for fun sometimes I have fun more than playing Dota2)

[@SvenS2]

Usually when I see a video where they talk about the history of the genre, my finger itches towards the dislike button. I've been part of the AoS/MOBA community since the beginning and got to converse with a lot of the devs, so I get pretty fired up when misinformation is spread. With that said, you did a really good job, but you shared one very common misinformation(I don't blame you for that, people were very confused back in the day too). IceFrog never worked on Heroes of Newerth! Even though IceFrog was the lead dev of Dota, he had no IP control over the game, that was actually under Blizzard's hands due to the licensing agreement of their map editor. HoN in fact started drastically changing its direction from a Dota port to something different when the players found out that IceFrog was not part of the project, and they're just copying the game For the rest, you're right on the money why LoL succeeded. Despite Dota having a lot more content, the barrier to entry was very steep. The vast majority of users were from Europe and Asia, and none of the professionals played on Blizzard servers due to the load times and lag, as such they resorted to 3rd party clients like Garena, RGC, Headoff etc... Keeping up to date with versions also meant that you either have to download the map manually, or join a host with the latest map, so you can download it automatically. If it wasn't for internet cafes, it's quite likely that the genre wouldn't had exploded as it did, as its main source of advertisement was by word of mouth and eventually the countless montages. Something to note, HoN's betas were very closed off, so internet cafes didn't really host them, LoL on the other hand had been circulating internet cafes since the earliest of open betas. Something I'd like to give LoL credit as well, is for its simplicity. That put off a lot of people, however unlike Warcraft 3, you didn't have to worry about control groups, and navigating your character was a lot smoother. Riot also had pretty aggressive marketing which a lot of people seem to have forgotten. The aforementioned 3rd party clients ran ads where they would discourage players from playing dota and incentivize jumping to league(Garena did this for years). They also ran Facebook and Twitter ads, where if you share a post, you'd get a free skin. That automatically gave people an incentive to at least download the game, and get the rewards before they were gone forever, as free content just like that, was extremely rare LoL also had newbies, a lot of them. Even though a lot of the players who initially jumped to LoL were Dota players, they were relatively inexperienced or new players to Dota as well, so the fresh start meant they had an even playing ground. This is why people remember the first seasons so fondly, players were just discovering things and weren't following any strict mates. _______________________ Some fun bit of trivia, Blizzard was approached multiple times to invest into the Dota IP and adopt it as their own, as early as 2006. That however never came to fruition because they saw no value in it(despite 80% of Warcraft 3's playerbase playing only Dota). While Warcraft 3 Reforged was in development, we pitched a Dota Reborn AGAIN to Blizzard, but they yet again dropped the ball and didn't invest, believing that Reforged will do great on its own and that dedicated fans will make everything for free ______________________ Overall, very fun video!

[@ronaldroja3755]

Icefrog may not even be a real person, look at dota 2's patches in the last 5-6 years, most things come from frostburn studio hon implementations, like courier system, rosh system, item upgrades(kaya, aghs, travels) You said: "HoN in fact started drastically changing its direction from a Dota port to something different", which is completely true, but interestingly, alot of that direction has been followed by Valve in dota after Frostburn implemented them into HoN.

[@kuroro4958]

For someone who is in the esports industry - League of Legends and Riot Games is such a good case study for Business Development, Sales, and Influencer Marketing. It teaches you about longevity, proper marketing, and how to convert non-endemic brands to endemic brands for effective partnership/sponsorships. It's insanely interesting and fun, and all of it usually comes back to the rise of League of Legends and Riot Games. Truly Goated.

[@johnadams5694]

I have been playing League since season 2. I wish I could feel the experience of discovering League as what it is today. It would be mind melting.

[@AriaEmily]

I would honestly be completely overwhelmed by the amount of champs ^^' Playing since season 2, too ^^

[@minge9]

same but I stopped around maybe s5-6 due to lack of time. I do come back once per year and try the game out. It's honestly mind blowing how different the game is to be honest and the amount of new champs available. The last champ that came out before I quitted was Gnar lol and Fiora R was like Yi's Q

[@BigSmoke-dp4yh]

that's what im saying, league is like crack. u play it 24/7 even if u hate it like hell.

[@minge9]

@@BigSmoke-dp4yh yeah, I agree. Games like these make you want to play more due to the competitive aspect and the slight hit of dopamine when you win especially with "braindead teammates" lol It's more fun now due to the addition of group rank(?) and you can play with friends on vc. I stopped because well, everyone I played with became an adult with job. It's just not as interesting going solo

[@BigSmoke-dp4yh]

@@minge9 nah bro the fact that u stopped league just like that just baffles me, i only stopped playing league because back then, my monitor had a problem with league or idk, and thank god it did, because if my monitor was working i would look like a discord mod today.

[@clivedarvhinmontelora9437]

I never really give a thoughts about it but I can really use some of RIOT's business strategy in many areas. It's seriously amazing just how much those ideas can be use in any types of business.

[@sirdromos2769]

League of legends is a universe and a brand not just for videogames but in the culture of entertainment. This is the reason why it will never die. Especially with arcane s2 and the riot mmo. Can't forget LOR which is getting better and better and of course tft.

[@Brrrrman666]

your game is a trash bro

[@cattysplat]

Another aspect is being first to market, as the first free to play MOBA. People won't change even if you offer a better choice since they have sunk cost fallacy too.

[@Souhail.]

Very indepth and insightful video. I like your breakdowns of the video game industry, they're truyly eye opening. Keep it up.

[@Kaspar502]

Nothing will ever beat the experience of making an opponent rage quit in league of legends

[@night1952]

I stopped playing years ago but it was simply the best monetized game ever. Completely free and no mechanics that try to push you into paying for anything but with decently priced high quality skins that were often discounted. Basically the opposite of any other F2P game I've played that is desperate to get money from you.

[@SinNombreYQueWea]

Ironically this has led me to spend more money on league than any other game. Not that I've spent thousands of dollars or anything, but it just doesn't feel bad. It's not predatory, you know what you're getting and it's good.

[@OMGWhoAreYou3773]

@@SinNombreYQueWeagiven the quality of some skins, it was worth it. Compared to other games where skins are literally recolored versions of the original stuff for a hefty price.

[@rrod3602]

It’s because the game is too fun. Sure when it’s bad it makes you want to die but when it’s good.. oh boy when it’s good. I have never in my life experienced a game more enjoyable during clutch moments. The match is tight and it could swing either way, you or your friend makes one of the craziest plays you’ve ever seen because of an enemy misplay, and then it’s a race to get to their nexus as fast as possible to secure the victory. Sometimes when I’m playing I feel like I’m in worlds myself with some of the things I see from both teammates and enemies. I mean I’ve seen and preformed plays that just aren’t possible at all in normal games, only in mobas can these things happen. And since we’ve talked about esports, league has the best esports scene and funding and crowd in the world. Hands down I don’t even think this is arguable in any sense. Both of these things I mentioned combined with riot constantly adding new champions and changing the game every two weeks with consistent updates makes this game unkillable.

[@DCFanatic7]

I remember playing Warcraft 3 and trying out Dota, they even had a version that was strictly PVP without the waves of minions. That got me hooked. I tried League a few years after its release and wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I played Dota 2 and realized that League just felt more natural and fluid. Years later as much as we all can joke about hating League aggressively. We all inevitably love it dearly and can’t help but get that same feeling we all felt years prior and continue to stride to be better.

[@elksalmon84]

It's all regional. In Russia Dota 2 and CS are far more popular than any competitors. Valve and Xsolla (2Pay before rebranding in 2011) largely started of Russia 20 years ago, as CS was much more popular than Quake and Unreal in Russia back then.

[@henrikswanstrom9218]

Another major contributor outside of the excellent marketing and business model is how wel RIOT understood their clientbase. The models and aesthetics of the game is beloved by many fans and a major reason why so many people play it. Allowing its players to draw a parallell between the pretty low lesser graphics and character models with the stylized high definition wall papers representing their champions made it's players 'feel' like they're playing a very well designed and fleshed out character. Compared to other mobas, the visual representation of their heroes usually just is a snapshot of the actual character model or some low resultion picture of the face. Even if HoN and Dota2 as games may have had better graphics in-game with better defined models. This doesn't matter to many. When you look up champs in League or you're in the character selection screen, the brilliant art and pictures really give players the sense and illussion that they're playing extremely well designed and beautiful characters. This helps players, especially the more casual ones form a stronger bond with the champions they decide to main. Personally I much more prefer Dota2 to League, even if I play both. I just think it's the superior game by a wide margin. But I can recognize why League is so much more succesful. It's just a way more accessible game. It has rich lore, and an impressive universe which get people hooked, even outside of the gameplay. RIOTs strategy with making the game accessible through a F2P model and simple learning curve for MOBA standards and following it up by keeping people hooked through forming a bond to their main champions with lore, micro transactions and well designed art is the main reason why League has stood the test of time. The game is also very good. Sure, it has alot of problems. But even if people quit the actual game, many still remain in the universe and keep buying micro transaction while keeping the actual gaming to a minimum. I will say though, I don't think League will last forever. We already see the markings of it right now with League widely losing popularity in the west. Regions like China is growing rapidly offsetting the loss in players in the west. But even if people quit the actual game, people still remain in touch with the universe. I do think League will see a rapid decline in its playerbase in the future though. And it will eventually die out in the future as new games replace it. It's the inevitable fate of all games. Blizzard said it best: "No king rules forever."

[@alovant1878]

Honestly with how Riot Games has been positioning themselves in recent years, they are probably prepare to face the brunt of that reality by releasing new games like the Riot MMO or the fighting game that are meant to diversify / overlaps existing players into the universe. Riot MMO could even `save' LoL for quite some time due to many mmorpgs lovers trying it out and joining the Runeterra Universe, some would most likely go to League of Legends through that experience aswell, further maintaining League of Legend current playerbase.

[@nomooon]

Lol art is superior to dota2. Shapes are distinct and recognizable. Dota2 art is worse than Warcraft 3

[@LegendJoe3063]

West is THE WORLD buddy. 🤣

[@magoconcancer99]

@@alovant1878 All of the "new" games are a ripoff of other games, they will die in a week.

[@BigDaddyWes]

Great video. I'm glad people are seeing what Riot actually set out to accomplish with LoL. I've never heard anyone really express the difference between Worlds and other Esports events like this, but it's spot on. Riot wants League of Legends to be successful, not simply the eSports scene. Pretty much every other competitive game is presented in such a contrived, inorganic way that totally missed the whole loss leader strategy. While the business model and the brand are certainly the focus of Riot to a huge degree, I do believe it's very important to recognize that, despite what a significant amount of players may tell you, the game itself is VERY good. None of this would be relevant if the gameplay itself wasn't so appealing. It's an extremely well designed experience that's taken decades to hone. People will always have their complaints about specific things that they don't like about the game, but no matter what business decisions you make, you don't get so popular and remain so relevant for so long if your game isn't fun.

[@Iamthecrazyone]

At this point, I'd be willing to say a large percentage of the trash people talk about league is just a meme. People who've never played it and people who play it daily both, because, well, memes. As for the toxicity, I've seen worse in other games, and generally if someone is being really, truly toxic, it's easy enough to mute, block, and report them, and usually I get that juicy notification the next day saying that action had been taken. Besides, any competitive game, not just one with ranked but games where people are playing against other people, will always have some level of toxicity, because there are a lot of sore winners and sore losers in the world, and that's unavoidable.

[@davidbe3560]

great comments both of you@@Iamthecrazyone

[@Javlini]

The game have been way better in the past but then deteriorated heavily over time with certain decisions they made.