For more than a decade, Riot Games has been synonymous with their MOBA League of Legends (LoL). We have heard about every single negative thing we could about its community, yet long-time players seem to never want to leave the game for long periods of time. You’ve probably come across this game through their other media projects such as the massively popular K-pop group, K/DA, and the acclaimed Netflix series Arcane, or perhaps you are even familiar with the name Faker, whose name is almost synonymous with the game itself.

Riot Games has long since passed the meme of only actually having one game. With their huge successes such as Valorant and Wild Rift, and even their massive MMORPG currently in-development and upcoming fighting game, codenamed Project L, what’s the deal with this 14 year old game and why is it still clocking in 100,000,000 players monthly?

1. Ranking system and competitive nature

First of all, the game is free to play (some would say, at the sake of your sanity), which immediately brings eyes to the game. It’s an online 5v5 game wherein everyone selects a character called “champions”. It’s a pretty typical premise, so what’s so bad about it? The game has a ranking system just like other games, but you can only queue up with 1 other friend until you hit the Master tier. That means you are playing with, at least, 3 random players that will try to backseat you for 30 minutes. Fundamentally, gamers are always trying to be the best player they can possibly be and achieving a higher rank is the most tangible way to prove it, hence, the toxic behavior in a team setting.

This year, they introduced 2 splits for the ranked season, spanning half a year each, as an attempt to have more players throughout the year and to discourage those who only come back for the end of season grind. They have traditionally rewarded players who have reached certain ranks at the end of the season with an exclusive skin and a chroma (a recolor) of the skin that matches with their rank. With this new 2 split system, they will be rewarding a skin for each split. During the second split, they have introduced the Emerald rank with the purpose of decongesting the high platinum to low diamond rank, which has players with too varied of a skill level.

There is also the esports scene, wherein the Worlds 2022 finals was the most watched esports event last year and top 2 all time. The League of Legends World Championship also holds the top 3 and 4 spots all time. With names such as Faker and Uzi, who are now massive celebrities in their respective countries. The World Championship also has a tradition of having its own anthem and animated music video, along with a live performance for the finals and generates a lot of views to the game.

2. Other game modes

The League of Legends client also has other game modes other than playing in Summoner’s Rift. All Random All Mid, also lovingly abbreviated as ARAM, is one of the most popular game modes for casual players. It is a game wherein everyone plays as a randomized champion while playing in a single lane map called Howling Abyss, which removes the complexity of map movement.

The client also hosts Teamfight Tactics, an autochess game starring champions from League. This is a game on its own that doesn’t necessarily need knowledge on LoL itself and this game is kept fresh by having new “sets” every few months which changes the synergies and champions within it. It also has an emerging competitive scene with its own tournaments.

There is also the newly introduced Arena game mode, which is a 2v2v2v2 (yes, you read that right) game wherein you can play with a friend. This is a temporary game mode that accompanies the newly released champion skin line “Soul Fighter”, which is inspired by retro fighting games.

3. Re-acquisition of the Philippine and SEA region by Riot Games

In late 2022, the Riot servers opened in every country in the SEA region in a move that was met with excitement by old players and on-lookers. This was a long awaited move ever since Valorant and Wild Rift came out which were already hosted by Riot themselves. LoL was formerly hosted by Garena, a Singaporean company who held the distribution rights in Southeast Asia since 2012, as Riot was still a small indie company who didn’t have the resources to do it themselves. This brought a lot of players back into the game as they gave incentives to those who migrated their accounts into the Riot client from the Garena servers, as those accounts would have been lost forever.

4. Criticisms

With everything said, League isn’t really considered mainstream anymore. Outside of China and South Korea, where PC bang or “computer shop” culture is still massively popular and comprises most of the game’s population, LoL isn’t really a game sought after by new players anymore. With 164 current champions (including the newly released Naafiri), entering the game as a new player is a daunting task. Mobile games are also the norm now with its convenience and easier barrier for entry, unlike desktop computers. The competitive scene also didn’t improve for Southeast Asia, as each region’s player pool is still too small to make globally competitive players and the scene is still clumped in a singular SEA league called the Pacific Championship Series (PCS), which is hosted in Taiwan.