League of Legends Wikipedia
League of Legends (LoL) is a multiplayer online battle arena video game
developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac
OS X, inspired by the mod Defense of the Ancients for the video game
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is a free-to-play game, supported by
micro-transactions. It was first announced on October 7, 2008, and
released on October 27, 2009. League of Legends was generally well
received at release, and has grown in popularity in the years since.
According to a 2012 Forbes article, League of Legends was the most
played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of the number of
hours played. As of January 2014, over 67 million people play League
of Legends per month, 27 million per day, and over 7.5 million
concurrently during peak hours. (Source by Wikipedia LOL)
Gameplay
League of
Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena where players take control
of a character called a champion, and are matched with and against bots
or other players in teams. As of December 13, 2013, there are 117
different Champions from which to choose. Players meet up usually in
"lanes", and gain levels from killing the opposing team's Champions
controlled by players and Minions that regularly spawn and attack the
other team. The player earns a small amount of gold passively, but gets
more by killing minions, towers that guard the lanes, neutral monsters,
and enemy champions. With this gold, they can buy items to strengthen
their champion for the duration of the game. On the classic Summoners
Rift and Howling Abyss maps, the game is ended by destroying the last
structure on the map, the enemies' "Nexus" from which minions spawn.
Other maps have variations of rules and objectives, such as Dominion
where the team's Nexus will lose health when the opposing team has at
least three of the five towers in their control.
| League of Legends | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Riot Games |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Director(s) | Tom "Zileas" Cadwell |
| Producer(s) | Steven Snow Travis George |
| Designer(s) | Christina Norman Rob Garrett Steve Feak |
| Artist(s) | Edmundo Sanchez Troy Adam |
| Composer(s) | Christian Linke |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, OS X |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Genre(s) | Multiplayer online battle arena |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
| Distribution | Download |
The player is
personified as a "Summoner" and acts as the persistent element in the
game, to be used to track statistics and scores for each player.
Summoners gain experience points and "Influence Points" (in-game
currency) for each battle they participate in. Experience points lead to
persistent level gains for the Summoner, up to a maximum level of 30.
The benefit of gaining levels is unlocking Mastery Points and Rune Page
slots (below) which improve the overall strength of the Summoner's
chosen champion in-game. The Summoner can also choose two summoner
spells.These spells significantly impact gameplay, and have a high
cooldown while costing no mana. All spells can be improved by masteries,
which are developed in a skill tree. Masteries are perks that affect
gameplay, structured in a skill tree. All of the masteries are passive
effects, although some augment items which can be activated. They are
grouped into Offensive, Defensive, and Utility categories. Masteries can
be re-distributed at will between battles.
Similar to
masteries, runes affect gameplay in minor ways. Runes are categorized
into Marks (offensive), Seals (defensive), Glyphs (magic) and
Quintessences (utility). They must be unlocked in the Store; it is
possible to own multiple copies of one rune. Summoners must arrange
their runes in the Runebook to benefit from them. The Runebook has
limited number of slots for each rune type, but more rune pages can be
purchased from either Influence Points or Riot Points. Combining two
equal-tier runes produces a random rune of the same tier, while
combining 5 equal-tier runes produces a higher-tier rune.
The
League of Legends Store allows players to purchase additional options
through Riot Points (RP) and Influence Points (IP). Riot Points must be
bought using real money, while Influence Points are earned by playing
the game.
Moderation is conducted through a democratic system
known as The Tribunal. In this system, player-submitted reports are
reviewed by other players on a case-by-case basis. The reviewing players
then submit their opinions on the legality of the behavior
demonstrated. A consensus renders the decision official. It is notable
that players are unable to be permanently banned through this system,
since "all permanent bans are distributed manually." Reviewers receive a
Justice Rating based on their accuracy to encourage thorough analysis
of cases.
Game modes and matchmaking
League of Legends is
a session-based game. Matchmaking creates teams with even average MMR
(Matchmaking Rating) of the constituent players. MMR uses the Elo
formula with proprietary adjustments.
- Tutorial mode is a set of two introductory games that teach the basics. It is intended to help new players learn important concepts, which might not otherwise be obvious.
- Custom mode allows players to create games that players opt into rather than relying on matchmaking to create the teams. In custom matches, the teams can be uneven (for example, 3v4 or 2v5) and may include a mix of players and bots, which are computer-controlled champions.
- Co-op vs. AI mode matches players against a team of bots. Similar to the Tutorial mode, it is also intended mainly as a way for inexperienced players to learn, but it also used by more experienced players as a way of experimenting with new ideas or getting an easy First Win of the Day.
- Normal matches are player vs player, and has either Blind Pick where both teams can pick whatever champions they want all at the same time, or Draft Pick where a randomly assigned team captain chooses three bans to disallow the enemy from playing those champions, and then players choose their champions in an ordered format. After champions are all chosen, players may trade with each other, allowing for players to pick for each other for strategic effect.
- Ranked mode is available to players that are level 30. Ranked uses the Draft Pick system exclusively, and players are seeded into a League system based on the outcome of their matches.
- ARAM (All Random All Mid) mode randomly picks champions that the players are able to play, allowing up to 2 re-rolls if the player is unsatisfied with their pick, and also may trade with others if both parties own the champions to be traded.
- One for All is a limited time game mode, first available during the Harrowing 2013. The champion selection works similar to Draft Pick where a randomly selected team captain picks three bans. The difference is that each team member votes for one champion that the entire team will play as.
- Showdown is also a limited time game mode, first available during the Snowdown Showdown 2013. Each team (either composed of 1 or 2 players) fight to be the first to achieve a goal; taking down the first turret, reaching 100 minion kills, or killing the opponent (two kills were needed in 2v2).
Tournaments
The
2010 World Cyber Games Grand Finals in Los Angeles hosted a League of
Legends tournament, at which teams from China, Europe, and the America
competed. The Counter Logic Gaming team from North America won the
tournament, earning a $7,000 prize.
The Season 1 World
Championships in June 2011, held at Dreamhack in Sweden, featured
US$100,000 in prizes. The European team Fnatic defeated teams from
Europe, the USA, and Asia to win the tournament and received US$50,000
of prize money. Over 1.6 million viewers watched streaming broadcast
of the event, with a peak of over 210,000 simultaneous viewers in one
semi-final match.
After Season 1, Riot announced that
US$5,000,000 would be paid out over Season 2. Of this 5 million, 2
million will go to Riot's partners including the IPL and other major
eSports associations. Another 2 million goes to Riot's Season 2
qualifiers and championship. The final one million goes to small
organizers who apply to Riot to host League of Legends tournaments.
After
a series of network issues during the Season 2 World Playoffs that led
to several matches being delayed, Riot revealed on October 13, 2012,
that a special LAN-based client had been quickly developed, designed for
use in tournament environments where the effects of lag and other
network issues can be detrimental to the proper organization of an
event. The LAN client was deployed for the first time during the first
quarter-final and semi-final matches played following the re-scheduled
matches, and was in use during the finals.
On October 13,
2012, Taiwan's professional team Taipei Assassins (TPA) triumphed over
South Korea's Azubu Frost 3-to-1 in the Finals of Season 2 World
Championship, and claimed the $1 million in prize money.
In
October 2013, Korean team "SK Telecom T1" and Chinese team "Royal Club"
competed at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. SK Telecom T1 won the
grand prize of $1 million, and Royal Club received $250,000.
As of 2013, League of Legends is the most popular e-sports game in South Korea.
On
March 23, 2013, the cinematographic studios in Rome hosted the Italian
launch of League of Legends; more than 1,500 people were present, along
with Riot Games developers, journalists and various guests. The show
schedule included a cosplay contest and a challenge match between two
Italian clans.
On July 11, 2013, one of the publisher's
managers Nick Allen announced that the United States Citizenship and
Immigration Services now recognizes League of Legends pro-players as
professional athletes and the visa application process is now simplified
for them. These changes allow professional players to stay in
the United States for up to 5 years.
Development
Riot
Games was co-founded by Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill. They partnered
with Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, the previous designer of the popular Warcraft
III: The Frozen Throne custom map Defense of the Ancients, and Steve
"Pendragon" Mescon, the administrator of the former official support
base for the map (www.dota-allstars.com) to develop League Of
Legends. Using the original DotA created by Eul (the original
Defence of The Ancients map for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos) as a base,
Guinsoo made DotA Allstars by inserting his own mix of content, greatly
expanding the number of the heroes, and adding recipes, numerous items
and various gameplay changes. Guinsoo then passed version 6 of the map
on to a new developer, IceFrog.
The idea of a
spiritual successor to Defense of the Ancients that would be its own
stand-alone game with its own engine, rather than another Mod of
Warcraft III began to materialize at the end of 2005. League of Legends
was born "when a couple of very active DotA community members believed
that the gameplay was so much fun and so innovative that it represented
the spawning of a new genre and deserved to be its own professional game
with significantly enhanced features and around-game
services."
Riot Games officially opened its
office in September 2006, and currently[when?] has over 1000 people
working on League of Legends, "including their robust technology
platform to service and operate the game as well as a team dedicated to
community relations."
According to Marc
Merrill, when creating the various champions in the game, instead of
leaving the champion creation to just a few people, they decided to open
up the champion creation process to everyone in the company based upon a
template where they could vote on which champions made it into the
game.
The game was in a closed beta from April
10, 2009, to October 22, 2009. It then transitioned to open beta until
release.
In March 2013, Riot Games released a beta version of an OS X client in addition to their Windows client.
Release
Riot
Games has signed deals regarding the distribution of League of Legends
in Asia, Europe, and North America. The game is expected to be released
in the rest of the world also. The game has already released and is
distributed in Australia, the United States, Canada, Europe,
Philippines and South Korea. No public announcements regarding other
regions has yet been made.
In Asia, Tencent Inc., China's
largest Internet value-added services company, best known for its QQ
Instant Messaging client will be in charge of the distribution to
Tencent's growing 300 million Internet user base through its leading QQ
Game portal. The deal is one of only a handful of partnerships to bring a
U.S.-developed online game directly to China.
In Europe, Riot
Games has signed an international licensing partnership with GOA, the
videogames department of Orange's Content Division and Europe's largest
gaming portal. On October 13, 2009, GOA and Riot announced that they
would start channeling server access for players located in Europe, to
GOA's dedicated servers. This restriction meant that players located
in Europe would not be able to play on Riot's servers in the United
States. Due to negative community feedback, the channeling decision was
rescinded October 16, 2009. In North America, Riot Games will
self-publish and operate the game and all of its customer service
aspects.
On May 10, 2010, Riot Games announced that they would
take over distribution and operation of the game in Europe.To do
so, Riot Games established a European HQ in Dublin.
On July
14, 2009, Riot Games announced that League of Legends will be free with
"no catch".There will be a digital copy for download, but there
is also a Digital Collector's Copy that will be available to purchase
that contains exclusive skins, $10 credit for Riot Points, and 20
champions to access without unlocking them normally via gameplay as well
as 4 "special" runes; the Collector's Pack is currently available for
$29.99. Even though the game is free, Riot Games "plan[s] to
continue to add content (characters etc...) with a full production team
at very frequent intervals." Using both free-to-play and freemium
models, the game is supported by microtransactions (see store) rather
than ads or boxed copy sales.
On February 25, 2010, Riot
Games announced that League of Legends would be distributed in Southeast
Asian countries by an unspecified publisher and blocked SEA IP
addresses pursuant to its distribution agreement. The community has
raised a number of concerns about the deal and the immediate IP block.
On July 16, 2010, Riot Games announced that Garena would publish the
game in Southeast Asia.Additionally, Southeast Asian players had
the ability "transfer accounts" to import their progress stored in North
American or European servers, into the Southeast Asian server.
Reception
Popular reception
In
a release published in November 2012, Riot Games claimed that League of
Legends had accumulated 32.5 million players, 11.5 million of whom play
monthly, of which 4.2 million play daily, making it the most played
online game in the world. In March 2012, League of Legends became
the #1 title in Korean PC Cafes. In Taiwan, it is estimated that
almost 5 percent of their entire population played the game, with almost
1 million players subscribed on the server.League of Legends is
also very popular in the Philippines, and it is the second most played
game in internet cafés in the country (just behind Defense of the
Ancients). As compared to fellow MOBA games Heroes of Newerth and
Dota 2, Mike Minotti of VentureBeat considered the game the easiest to
learn, and with the fastest gameplay pace of the three. According to
Riot in October 2013 the game had 12 million active daily players and
32 million active monthly players. In January 2014 the game had 27
million active daily players, 7.5 million concurrent players at peak
times, and 67 million active monthly players.
Reception
Reception
| Aggregate scores | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GameRankings | 78.72% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Metacritic | 78% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review scores | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication | Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1UP.com | A- | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allgame |    |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Eurogamer |   |
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| Game Revolution | B+ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GameSpy | |
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| GameZone | |
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| IGN | |
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| Awards | |
|---|---|
| Publication | Award |
| Gamespy | Gamer's Choice Award for PC Game of the Year (2009) |
| IGN | Reader's Choice Award for PC Best Strategy Game and PC Best Multiplayer Game (2009) |
| Gamasutra | 2010 Best Online Technology 2010 Best Online Visual Arts 2010 Best Online Game Design 2010 Best New Online Game 2010 Audience Award |
Critical reception
League of Legends has received generally favorable reviews, and currently holds a Metacritic score of 78 out of 100.
IGN
awarded League of Legends 8.0 out of 10, highlighting an enjoyable game
design, inventive champion design with good customization options and
lively visuals. However, the game's confusing launch was criticized: it
was felt that the title was released too early, with some features
missing and others to be removed. Finally, the reviewer noted that high
level players in the game have "little patience for newcomers," though
the reviewer believed that matchmaking (not implemented at the time of
review), would solve the problem by matching players of similar level
together.
The game has been criticized for server
unreliability and unmoderated gameplay (such as player grief and
harassment).A system to report players who misbehave
in-game has been implemented, allowing a player to report others for
undesired activities such as verbal harassment, intentional disruption
of the game (e.g., 'feeding' the enemy team, making them gain kills and
thus gold, by dying on purpose), staying away from the game for extended
periods of time, and leaving the game. Riot released a peer review
system called the "Tribunal" in May 2011.
As of October
2012, Riot Games claims League of Legends has over 32 million
registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day.
Global concurrent users online peaked at over 5 million players as of
March 2013.In July 2012 Xfire released a report stating that League
of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe,
with 1.3 billion hours logged by players in those regions between July
2011 and June 2012.
Awards and nominations
Read More...
