League of Legends (LoL) is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published

by Riot Games forMicrosoft Windows[1] and Mac OS X. It is a free-to-play game, supported by microtransactions, that was inspired by the mod Defense of the Ancients[2] for the video game Warcraft III:
The Frozen Throne.
In League of Legends, players assume the role of a character, called a "champion", with unique abilities,
battling with a team against other player or computer-controlled champions. In the most popular game
modes, each team's goal is to destroy the opposing team's nexus, a building which lies at the heart of a
base protected by defensive structures. Each League of Legends game is discrete, with all champions
starting off each game fairly weak and progressing by accumulating gold and experience over the course
of the game.[3]
League of Legends was generally well received at release, and has grown in popularity in the years since.
By July 2012, League of Legends was the most played PC game in North America and Europe in terms of
the number of hours played.[4] As of January 2014, over 67 million people play League of Legends per
month, 27 million per day, and over 7.5 million concurrently during peak hours.[5]
League of Legends has spawned a large, active competitive scene. In North America and Europe, Riot
Games organizes the League of Legends Championship Series, which consists of 8 professional teams in
each continent. Similar regional competitions exist in China, Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. These
regional competitions culminate with the annual League of Legends World Championship, which in 2013
had a grand prize of $1 million and attracted 32 million viewers online.