Ever since the dawn of gaming it has been a staple in most homes. Gaming has evolved immensely throughout the years and not just in graphic quality and new gameplay and game mechanics but also in variety. Gaming is seen on multiple consoles and has religious followers around the world. Everybody has gamed something at some point and gaming spikes some of the core values of the human experience – joy, adrenalin and comfort. Much like going to an online casino gaming can evoke a lot of different emotions.
This article wants to explain how Riot Games changed the whole gaming scene and how Riot has made every right choice along the way. Read more about how the 2010’s became the era of the MOBA and maybe where the gaming industry and Riot is going next.
From a small MOBA to the biggest game in the world
The 27th of august 2009 was the date of the release of probably the biggest game of all time – League of Legends. League of Legends is the main reason Riot is where the company is today. The MOBA was inspired by the legendary game Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. In the game there is a map called the Defense of the Ancients and that map spiked ideas into the creators of League of Legends.
The game was initially well received and had good reviews on metacritic and IGN have it 8 out of 10, when it first released. This sparked the continuous success of the MOBA. The player base rose quickly, which gave Riot the opportunity and man power to continue to work on the game. The hard work put into the game won Riot and League of Legends the Golden Joystick for best game of 2010. The game continued to grow quickly and just kept going. The player base rose and the creation of multiple new servers across the world lead to a player base of 111 million players in 2018. The game had in 2018 a revenue of 1,4 billion dollars making it one of the biggest games in the world.
Big streaming personalities
So how did Riot manage to evolve the game and player base as they did. First of all, the concept of the game is simple enough for all to follow, play and become better fast. This makes it so that everyone can play the game and therefore making the possible target group even larger. Second of all, and probably more important, it coincided with the evolution of streaming. Mostly gaming have been streaming and watched through video content on different websites but watching it live wasn’t that popular. But with the dawn of Justin TV and Twitch gaming became something to watch live – just as sports. In the early days of League of Legends there were a lot of personalities streaming and a lot of early pro players who streamed League of Legends. This made it so that people had role models going into the game much like NBA players are role models to young basketball players.
Chaox, Reginald, HotshotGG, TheOddone, Dyrus among others kept people watching and playing and it made the game bigger and bigger.
Utilizing the competitive scene
One of the things Riot Games quickly realised is that a great pro scene can skyrocket a game. Looking at games like DOTA and Counter Strike 1.6, they realised that there is a market and potentiel in having a lot of pros and tournaments for people to watch and participate in. Dreamhack and other big events got big League of Legends tournaments.
With the evolution of the many servers Riot made different Leagues for pros around the world to compete in. This was the dawn of the LCS. The LCS is much like the NBA and is a tournament system that involves around big franchises. The franchises compete week to week to win the LCS and compete in the world championship. The world championship in League of Legends is probably the most watched gaming event every year and it is watched by hundreds of millions.
New games that competes with the competition
Riot Games have in recent years tried to evolve to become more than just League of Legends. First they wanted to take on Dota once more by creating their version of Autochess. TeamFight Tactics was born and was hugely popular taking all the glory from the popular Autochess.
Recently they created their first FPS in the attempt to compete with Counter Strike Global Offensive. The game is called Valorant and has great potential already in the games first month has received good reviews and spawned a pro scene with a lot of former Owerwatch and CS:GO Pros. The game is quickly evolving and might actually be able to outcompete Counter Strike.
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