“Welcome to Summoner’s Rift.” Mean anything to you?
If it does, you’re part of the fastest growing MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game in the world, League of Legends. You’re one of 70 million registered users, including 32.5 million daily active users.
Inspired by the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients, Riot Games developed and published League of Legends for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X on October 27th, 2009. Ever since, the game has gained popularity worldwide, exploding in recent years to become the most played game in North America and Europe.
Players form two teams of five, and face off in a three pronged map. The game objective is to destroy the opposing team’s Nexus (base). This may seem like a completely mundane task, however, what makes League of Legends so magical is that it incoorporates lots of strategy.
So who do you play with if you are really, really good? Every year, there are numerous major tournaments across the globe, such as Intel Extreme Masters and Major League Gaming, for sponsored teams of players. But the biggest event, the World Championships, were held in the Staple Center in Los Angeles, California. The event sold out in two hours. The winning team takes away one million US dollars, which means 200,000 USD per player on the team. That’s a lot of money! Two months ago, the Korean team SKT T1 won – however, last year, the Taipei Assassins took away the championship title.
eSports in general has grown substantially over the past year, enough for Riot Games, the company which produced League of Legends , to convince the US visa bureau that the League of Legends is a professional sport. The professional players who travel into the United States now have the visas equivalent to pro athletes.
For 2014, the world championships will be held in Seoul, Korea – the global epicenter of eSports.
So, if you’re looking for a casual game to play on the weekends, or if you’re going to hardcore-play this game, League of Legends is the game for you. Sign up now at http://tinyurl.com/legoflegend