League of Legends is the most played video game in the world, which, considering it's
only been around since 2009 is quite an achievement.
League of Legends has over 32 million active players and 12 million people play on a daily
basis.
If you've never played League of Legends before let me give you a quick rundown.
LoL, as it's commonly referred to, is a MOBA which stands for "Multiplayer Online Battle
Arena", developed by Riot Games, a company started by a couple of entrepreneurial gamers.
MOBA's are a sub-genre of real time strategy games, based off a custom map for StarCraft
called Aeon of Strife.
There are a handful of popular MOBAs, namely Defense of the Ancients and Heroes of Newerth.
But none come close to the popularity of LoL.
A typical game in a MOBA consists of 2 teams of 5 players who battle it out on a map containing
3 lanes.
The goal is to push the 3 lanes all the way to the enemy base, eventually invading the
enemies' base and destroying their nexus to win.
Each player chooses a unique champion to play as.
In League of Legends there are over 100 champions to choose from, each with their own set of
attributes and abilities.
Players can gain an advantage over their enemies by last hitting minions, securing kills and
assists, and slaying the various monsters scattered around the map.
All these give you and your team bonus gold, which can be spent on better items to make
your champion stronger.
More than 10 new League of Legends games start every second and the LoL servers regularly
support over 5 million concurrent players globally.
To put that in perspective, the top 100 games on Steam have an average of 650,000 concurrent
players, all put together.
But the numbers get even more mind blowing: Every single month, League of Legends players
play well over 1 billion hours of LoL.
That's rather incredible, considering that since 2004 Halo players have played a cumulative
2 billion hours.
Over 90% of LoL players are male and 85% are between the ages 16 to 30.
Teemo, the ever so annoying Yordle, dies 6.5 million times a day, that's 75 deaths per
second.
The chance of you getting a Penta Kill is just 0.05%, that's only once in every 1,500
games.
Above Penta Kill, there once was Legendary Kill, awarded for getting 6 or more kills
in a row.
Which is possible if the enemy takes revive and teleport, but it has since been removed
from the game.
Riot is constantly adding new easter eggs to the game, such as:
Your team will lose the game if they surrender after the enemy has surrendered.
There is a cupcake inside Caitlyn's trap.
Destroying the enemy nexus grants you 50 gold, but it's completely useless because the game
is over.
The in game clock skips from 0:07 to 0:11 every game.
Vladamir has been nerfed more than 10 times since his release, whereas Trundle has never
been touched.
Between 8-10 new champions are in development by Riot at any given time.
Leona's passive "Sunlight" does one less damage to champions wearing sunglasses, such as Vayne.
When Fizz uses his ultimate Chum the Waters if the enemy champion is small, like Annie
and dies from the attack, their body gets eaten by the shark, instead of leaving a corpse
on the ground like normal.
There are 4 ninjas in the League, Shen, Akali, Kennen and Zed.
All of these champions have a special buff called "Ninja" which reads, "This unit is
a flippin' ninja!".
Ninjas are more effective on their own, so for every ninja on your team beyond yourself
you lose one health.
Nidalee can turn into a cougar, she has a hidden passive which grants her the power
of the "cougar".
This passive grants nearby allied champions +5 experience every 5 seconds, if they are
a lower level than Nidalee.
Riot is constantly releasing new champions.
For two years in a row Riot played an April Fool's Day joke on their players by announcing
the release of a new champion, Urf, the manatee.
The legend of Urf became so popular that Riot released a new skin for Warwick, Urf the Manatee
Warwick.
The skin was such a success that Riot decided to donate the proceeds from the skin to the
Save the Manatee Club.
That's about it for easter eggs but here's some things you might not know about the game
that might help you out in solo queue:
Turrets do more damage to champions with each successive hit.
Starting at 105%, up to a maximum of 225% on it's sixth hit and beyond.
Making a mental note of when buffs such as Golems, Elder Lizard, Dragon and Baron Nashor
respawn can help you secure the buffs before your opponents even realise they're there.
The blue and red buff respawn every 5 minutes, the dragon every 6 minutes and Baron Nashor
every 7 minutes.
Many champions have auto attack timer resetting abilities.
Meaning you can auto attack, use an ability then auto attack again in quick succession
for tons of damage.
A good example of this is Vayne's tumble.
Most beginners under appreciate the value of last hitting minions.
But perfectly last hitting one minion wave gives you 124 gold, that means last hitting
3 minion waves is worth more than a kill.
And here's some fundamental tips that will instantly improve your gameplay:
Maintain constant map awareness, in between last hits and whenever else you can, you should
be looking at your mini map.
If an enemy is missing from the map, there's a reason for it, they're either dead, jungling
or coming to gank you.
A handy tip is to press tab when you see an enemy missing to bring up the scoreboard,
this will tell you two things very quickly, how many enemies are dead and how many are
visible on the map.
The greyed out champions are MIA.
Play for your team, not yourself.
This is one of the major factors that separates gold players from platinum and diamond players.
You should have the mindset that everything you do in game is to aid your team and not
improve your KDA ratio.
LoL is a team game and the pros didn't get where they are today by playing for themselves.
Learn how to counter pick and counter build.
Some champions are inherently weak against others, instantly giving you the upper hand.
So instead of complaining when the enemy picks Kassadin, play as Pantheon or Talon mid and
get an early Null-Magic Mantle, then watch as you wreck his face.
This leads me onto my next tip, don't play a champion you're not good with, just because
you think they're overpowered or counter another champion.
The best way to get good at the game quickly is to choose one champion and only play that
champion.
You're a lot more likely to win a game if you know your champion back to front than
if you're playing a supposedly OP champion you're no good with.
Use wards, lots of wards.
Wards aren't just for supports, every champion should buy wards throughout the entire the
game.
Don't go mad, but a well placed ward around your lane or in the enemy jungle will save
your life time and time again and get you free kills you wouldn't have otherwise got.
Don't forget objectives such as towers and dragon, they all give global gold to your
entire team.
But learn which objectives are most important and when you should take them.
Here is a general tier list of objectives, from most important to least important: Nexus,
Inhibitors, Baron, Towers, Dragon, Champion Kills, Buffs and finally smaller jungle camps.
Constantly find ways to counter the enemy team's plays.
For example, if the entire enemy are trying to push bottom and 4 of your teams mates are
defending bottom, solo push top and try and take a tower.
Most likely your team can defend bottom 4 vs 5 and your team got a free tower.
If the enemy send more than one person top to kill you, then simply recall, you've wasted
the enemy team's time which is a big advantage in itself.
Has the enemy mid laner gone to gank top?
Try to take the middle tower whilst they're away, towers are worth a lot more than a kill.
But don't forget to warn your top lane that's there's a gank incoming.
But League of Legends isn't just for fun, it's serious business.
eSports is one of the fastest growing sports and LoL has overtaken Starcraft as the world's
biggest eSport.
The 2013 League of Legends World Championship drew in an astonishing 18 million unique viewers.
Which is more than a lot of traditional televised sports.
Riot Games offered a handsome $2 million prize pool which 14 of the world's best teams competed
for a share of.
Eight thousand fans showed up to cheer for their favourite team at the live event, which
was also broadcast all over the world via the internet and on national TV in South Korea,
where eSports is taken very seriously by the majority of the population.
When asked, many League of Legends players reported that they actually prefer watching
professionals play than playing themselves.
It is rumoured that eSports could become an olympic sport, as soon as 2020.
League of Legends as a competitive sport is making a big splash in North America and Europe.
Pro gaming houses are popping up all over the world.
A gaming house is a special house where a professional team and their management lives
permanently so they can practice together around the clock, it may shock people that
so much time and money is put into professional gaming.
But nothing compares to the game's impact in South Korea, where eSports is nothing short
of a cultural phenomenon.
Professional teams in South Korea are backed by multi-billion dollar sponsors, professional
League of Legends can earn close to 1 million dollars a year, that's more than some premiership
football players in the UK.
But playing at that level requires over 8 hours of practice every day to stay at tournament
level.
Korean teams are strictly controlled by their management to ensure they get the best out
of their players.
Players must wake up early, workout at the gym daily and go to bed at specific times.
Teams also have a handful of player coaches, as well as nutritionists and personal chefs
to ensure they are eating a balanced diet.
It's an awful lot of dedication but for many people playing games for a living is a dream
come true.
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