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Nick Lam
Professor Michael Flower
UNST 134E: Life Unlimited
5 October 2014
Esports: League of Legends
When I think about League of Legends or LoL, I think about the tens of thousands of fans
cheering their favorite team at the Staple Center, during the Season 3 World Championship. Over
the past five years, League of Legends has grown from having a few player playing the game to
27 million people playing daily, and it is one of the most popular games in the United State and
Europe. You may be wondering why so many people play this game? The most simplest answer
is because it is a lot of fun.
League of Legends was released on October 27, 2009 as a MOBA (multiplayer online
battle arena) style gameplay. Players are split into two even teams of champions, as 3 verse 3 or
5 verse 5. There are 121 champions to choose from and the developers of League of Legends are
still making new champions. At the beginning of the game, players are located on the opposite
side of the map. The objective is to push and destroy the enemys base or Nexus. To destroy the
enemys base or Nexus, players have to communicate with one another and must work as a team
to push through the lanes where turrets are placed. Turrets protect the base and players must
destroy the turrets in order to get to the base. As time goes on in the game, players gain levels
and gold to purchase items.
The backstory of League of Legends is located in the magical world of Runeterra in an
island called, Valoran. During the past 20 years, the people of Valoran had created two Rune
wars. Demacia and Noxus were swore enemies. Demacia are the heros and the example of
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humanity and are devoted to justice and morality. Whereas Noxus are the evil race that is power
hungry to rule over Valoran. After two Rune wars, the landscape of Valoran has changed to like
more hellish than before. Due to the results of the war, people of Valoran created the League of
Legends to solve political disputes in the arenas called the Fields of Justice.
I have been playing this game since I was in 8th or 9th grade. In high school I use to play
everyday after school. At that time all my friends were playing that game too. Even though Ive
been playing this game for about four years, I still think the game is fun. Each game of League of
Legends has a different outcome every time you lose or win. Sometimes it can be easy or hard.
You will never know because each game you will play against random people every time, and
you have no idea what their skill level. Another reason why League of Legends is fun is because
it is very complex than it looks. You have runes, masteries, spells, and etc. League of Legends is
not easy either because fights are hectic and very dependent on execution and skill shots. There's
a lot of strategy and thinking involved, because you dont want the other team to get ahead of
you.
If you havent noticed yet, League of Legends created their own terminology. In the
League of Legends community, you must know all the terminology to understand what is going
on. For example, you must know what adc, apc, top, mid, jungle, baron, or ect means. If you
dont know what they mean than you are at a disadvantage. As you communicate with your
team, it is quicker and easier to know all the abbreviation because it is faster to type it out.
The main reason what separates insiders from outsiders is that you need to know your
limits in fights. What limits mean is that you need to know when to go in or not. You need to
know if you can get a kill and not die at the same time. Believe are not but there a lot of people
that dont know their limits and just go in and die. Another reason that separates people is
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positioning, Positioning is very important in teamfights, because you dont want to stay in one
area and keep getting attacking while standing still. For example, as a adc or marksmen (range
character) you need to always stay in the backline of your teammates. You are a marksmen and
there is no reason to get up close and personal with your enemies. People can easily spot a good
player from a bad person, and you can do the same from a good player to a great player. As for
me, I still have a lot of improve.
There are many style or gameplay when you play League of Legends. You can play
passive or aggressive. Players can farm all day (collect as much gold as possible in a short
amount of time) or turtle under their tower (stay under the tower for a long period of time
because the enemy is stronger than them).
In a few weeks or so, League of Legends will host another World Championship to find
out who are the best teams in the world. The Season 4 World Championships will be hosted in
Korea and the viewership will be higher than ever before. It will create another history for the
game and it will continue to improve along the way. As for me, I will continue to enjoy the game
as the next season of the game is around the corner.