[Mayo]

Interesting article with no factual evidence but "Sponsors are sponsoring LoL"

http://kotaku.com/5893136/league-of-...ium=socialflow

Although, 225k spectators for the IEM Grand Final was absolutely astounding.

It says in the article that LoL is replacing SC2 in tournaments. Does anyone know what tournaments this is for?

[Snx.Mufasa]

'this is the age of the casual gamer'

[Champi]

the fact that the word 'replacing' is the most worrying thing for me.

i think LoL is a piece of shit genre PC game personally, but theres no harm in being included with sc2 in tournies... why does it have to REPLACE sc2? =(

Quick Comments

	ToRDjvillian:
	ToRPandarine:
	FvRsolis:
	Mayo:	Why brand a game like that. People like it for a reason.
	krycek:

[TAEdgE]

They mention it replacing SC2 in the current scheme of things but it's the new Brood War I think (the initial huge eSport)

[Daboo]

I think it should say replacing bw, but anyway,Lets see:
Good relations with the biggest e-sports channel in korea.
Did not get involved in controversial law suits with the governing organization.
Riot's responsiveness to the community( thats what I'm told).
Tons of features that attract casuals, and easy to pick up and play.

Quite frankly, watching it is so boring. Blizzard had their opportunity with sc2, but they sort of blew it with some things.
The kotaku article apparently contained many translation errors, the value of the tournament was 180,000 not 1.8 million.
Translation of the article from TL

With the establishment of an official league, LoL looks to challenge [BW] for the e-sports throne.

Many are speculating that esports affiliated entities are shifting focus to LoL from SC2 as well. For the first time in Korean e-sports history, a European media company is the official sponsor for the league, and with that it seems e-sports is branching out towards the foreign scene. According to the numbers, on the March 14th GameTricks, a PC-bang analytics provider, said LoL now occupies 12.45% of total playtime, close behind Aion which holds the title at 15.35%. LoL surpassed games such as Sudden Attack, BW and Fifa Online2, which have kept pace with Aion, over the course of four months.

Public opinion is that LoL is the most successful foreign game since Blizzard's WoW, and is now threatening BW for the throne of e-sports. According to reports from the end of 2011, Starcraft 2, which was once ranked at 12th in total playtime, is now down to 18th.

On the 14th, OGN held an announcement for the commencement of the official LoL league, and introduced its sponsor. Azubu, its sponsor, is a media group based in Germany, and has signed a joint-partnership with OGN on January 27th. The partnership plans to provide live streaming in both Korean and English, and VoD service.

Robert Sheik [No idea how it's actually spelled lol], representing Azubu, said "We hope to provide high quality e-sports content with this sponsorship and develop a solid infrastructure for the global gaming industry.

Starting on March 21, the league plans to cast matches biweekly, in which 16 teams from not just Korea, but NA and Europe will participate. The total prizepool will be 0.2 billion won (~$180,000) and starting from this fall, four seasons of tournaments are planned to be held.

Currently whether LoL will usurp BW for the e-sports throne is a hot topic of discussion. LoL has been registered as Kespa's 42nd official progaming title, and the producer of LoL has also shown great support in e-sports-ifying LoL. In the midst of events such as MBC game shutting down and the general decline in interest in the e-sports scene, LoL has garnered popularity from both native and foreign fans, and the question of whether it will succeed as an e-sports is gathering much attention.

[ToRVenom]

DAM IT! i dont like the idea of this! ... The League of legends community is trash! i dont usually like bad mouthing other gaming communities but surely anyone who has played LOL knows that it has issues. so the reason i ma saying this is that it is so stupid that something so basic ... so silly might even have a chance of replacing SCII or BW

[Bash]

didnt live on three talk about this?

[xpaperclip]

The Kotaku article is pretty poor quality. StarCraft II has never been the darling child of Korean e-Sports. Until now, that has remained Brood War.

However, I think the main contention of the article is the perception that a LoL tournament, The Champions, has displaced (I won't use the word 'replaced', yet) the next season of OSL, which is also reportedly having difficulty finding sponsors. Many people see this as confirming that BW is on its way out. Coupled with some BW pros saying they will switch to LoL instead of SC2 when this happens, this has led to the (possibly correct) belief that the next big thing will be LoL.

Quick Comments

Mayo:

[Xeen]

Title should be 'new SC'.

SC2 was never big there.

Quick Comments

	inFeZa:	...
	Ruscour:	evening this one out, he's right. SC2 was never anywhere near as big as BW or LoL in korea

[Fourby]

The fact that LoL is has expanded to this extent has really frustrated me. This game is such a joke compared to SC skill-wise. (and I'm not just one of those guys who played like ~10 games and was like yeh this game is bad- I have played over 2,000 games [yes, f*** my life right?])

Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but its a casual game and the fact that its going pro so fast and hard is just ridiculous to me.

But the fact is what can you do? With a player base of over 50 Million, it results in a MASSIVE fan base (as shown in IEM viewer counts), and most sponsors couldn't care less which game is harder to play, they just want the best exposure.
So even if sponsors did love SC more, deep down in their hearts, League of Legends being viewed by 10 times more people will still be the far greater investment of choice.

Quick Comments

nGenLight:

lol i love u

[CyniX]

I like to casually play LoL but to think that SC2 would just be dwarfed in comparison to LoL in terms of recognition and support makes me uneasy #Bias. I think of SC2/BW as such an art. Which takes so much dedication and training to learn and adapt to the metagame, more so than I feel for LoL because of it's lower requirement of multitasking and higher emphasis on micro.

SC2/BW just feels more mature and has such a legacy whereas LoL seems more casual and childish to me. It'd be sad (because I'm a bias prick) to have people new to eSports think of a game like LoL instead of Brood War or SC2 when they think of eSports.

Quick Comments

Fourby:

only bias to the truth

[ToRSpartaz]

This was interesting considering DaNoSauR and I were discussing this last night. LoL = skillless.

All the players not only pro players for Sc2 have considerable skill and amazing mechanics in such a diverse and amazing game. I really dislike LoL its a rip off of Dota imo.

[TCPKiaSu]

omg srs? i like LoL but like sc2 way more. LoL is waaaaaaaaaay too easy I mean cmmon my first game I got 5 legendarys -.-

[syfMiley]

Originally Posted by TCPDeathWing

omg srs? i like LoL but like sc2 way more. LoL is waaaaaaaaaay too easy I mean cmmon my first game I got 5 legendarys -.-

The game actually matches you up with people starting the game as well you know that right? Don't judge a book by it's cover.
Smurfing in LoL though is quite the experience I must say.

[ReverseCure]

doesnt the fact that the article got the prize money wrong , put 1.8m instead 180k ( lol ) show that this article is biased and probably inaccurate ? 180k is nothing compared to the current prize money in brood war

[iM yang]

That's like saying I went into 5 custom games on SEA and won 5-0, you can't judge a games competitive aspect from pub stomping randoms.

Quick Comments

Fourby:

the truth has never been so yAAANg

[ToRPandarine]

IMO games like LoL, DoTA and HoN are games that are just too casual. which is why it has such a massive fan base. I've had friends who tried to play SC2 after starting off with DoTA or LoL and they have just too much trouble getting into SC2 (not to mention this one jackass I though was a friend who said he wanted to get SC2 but blatantly declared LoL the better game. never have I ever wanted to hurt a person so badly)

SC2 or any RTS of equal quality requires a form of dedication to learn, perfect and master it. its like art not a lot of people want to put so much time in. if there's a game that they can pickup and play in the next 10-15minuts if it, to them it is good. the idea that it is the next E-sports games staple is a big joke and i seriously believe that games like these shiuld be left at home.

but that's just my opinion course.

[Rockstar]

Counter-strike was free... LoL is free... CS was pretty much the pinnacle of e-sports for some time. Coincidence?

For the life of me I don't know why companies like google etc. haven't jumped on the free game/advertising opportunity yet...

Create a viewer friendly game, make it challenging with a moderate level of difficulty to play (so anyone can pick it up) couple that with a high skill ceiling, (meaning you can always improve) make it free to play/DL and then make every load screen a 30 second advertisement coupled with tournament modes which have half time ad breaks etc. etc. Generate in-game billboards etc. etc. Charge companies for the advertising.

[TCPLemminks]

It's a shame that Blizzard doesn't support their eSports games as much as Riot games does.

However you do have to consider the fact that Blizzard are spending a lot of their resources making new games like D3 and HOTS, LOTV, whereas Riot games has only made LoL and are spending a lot more into growing it as an eSports (I'm pretty sure the IEM tournaments were slef sponsered by Riot games, where as the only SC2 tounraments sponsered by Blizzard are the Blizzcon invitationals and Blilzard Cup).

To be honest it will be a shame if people think LoL when they think eSports because as people have said, the online community is utter crap.

[yongming]

game companies create games. people create esports.

[Peleus]

Originally Posted by yongming

game companies create games. people create esports.

With respect, rubbish.

If LoL didn't have the backing / participation of Riot within the eSports community it would be significantly less popular / successful as what it is.

[yongming]

Originally Posted by PeleusSPR

With respect, rubbish.

If LoL didn't have the backing / participation of Riot within the eSports community it would be significantly less popular / successful as what it is.

the thing is riot did not create lol to be an esports title. they created the game as an alternative to hon and dota 1 at that time as there were hardly any alternatives to the emerging moba market. people played it and it got popular and the esports movement got its momentum. thats when riot comes in.

blizzard right from the start shoved sc2 down the community throats. they focus too much on the esports aspect and neglect that what the community really wanted in the game. more so since the game is a supposed successor to bw.

[BordZ]

Originally Posted by PeleusSPR

With respect, rubbish.

If LoL didn't have the backing / participation of Riot within the eSports community it would be significantly less popular / successful as what it is.

But thats the thing, riot needs these numbers to make the game profitable (they want you to keep coming back to buy more skins, champions etc etc) wheras you just buy your lisence from blizzard and they have their money. So saying that without the backing of riot is completely irrelevant.

There is also another apsect that people ignore and that is with 32 million active accounts that lol is a cash cow. They can easliy afford to sponser so much. Every patch (which is every 2 weeks, and they balnce the game every 2 weeks as well) they add new skins and champions that cost like $10 each which the community eats up.

Is lol more casual than sc2, no imo. Everyone wants to win and gets very agressive when someone messes up even in normal queue.

[EveLoire]

i saw this on tl.net yesterday and died a little inside. Still dying even more today.

[Another]

but lol is SO bad...

[SungInSPR]

I can say LoL is replacing Starcraft1, just like someone said SC2 was never big before, and LoL is so popular in korea now. lol

[JoFritzMD]

Originally Posted by PeleusSPR

With respect, rubbish.

If LoL didn't have the backing / participation of Riot within the eSports community it would be significantly less popular / successful as what it is.

Agree with this so much. Riot has thrown so much money into making it THE moba game in the esports community. Why do you think HoN isn't at IEM. I think valve will probably try to do the same with DOTA2.

[Meatex]

yeah but if people do not embrace it as an e-sport that its wasted money
So I feel like both those statements are correct

But blizzard do need to take note of this and probably has some plans to improve sc2's standing as an e-sports with HotS.
Heres hoping they don't try to emulate LoL by making the game more casual friendly

[ToRDarKnoob]

blizzard needs to clean up their act with the community (somewhat with patch 1.5)
and somehow make the game more appealing to lower level players such as custom map, clan support to keep people in the game and blizzard run tournaments for each league. (just my take on things)

[FS.Kezz]

There is no way StarCraft will ever be replaced.

[dKiWi]

LoL and fps games are more about teamwork and communication. SC2 is more towards mechanics.

Teamwork and communication are not easy skills to develop. If lets say im looking at recruiting someone for my fps/LoL clan i'll ask him specific questions relating to communication.

There is also the hidden side of communication which is trust, which is very difficult to build up as well. I would say this is the most important element that makes or breaks amateur teams, but pro teams should not have this problem.

These factors would be what possibly makes LoL appealing as an e-sport compared to SC2, where these factors are absent. I have not really analysed the current situation in detail but I would think it is an exaggeration to say that LoL "replaces" SC2.

The problem with Kotaku is that they actually have good info, but they choose to post some sensationalist pieces from time to time. I've gradually developed a love-hate relationship with Kotaku as a result.

[CZE]

Erm. If anything Riotgames shoved LoL down everyone's throat (in major competitions). The game was hardly popular in the esports scene when the company was throwing wads of cash at IEM/DH/IEM etc. People couldn't resist the ludicrous amounts of prize money being offered. This coupled with it being free to play and the stream links to competitions being embedded in the game caused it to grow a viewership. SC2 did none of the sort.

Why people rage (I'm one of these people) about LoL getting an audience size it may not possibly deserve is because the other two alternatives in the same genre (DotA 2 / HoN) are JUST as entertaining to watch and have a much higher skill ceiling. Sure LoL offers a great test of team-work but as does Dota and HoN. It's stupid and I can sympathise with anyone naysaying toward LoL: It's gotten to where it has for all the wrong reasons.

[Cute]

Originally Posted by CZE

Why people rage (I'm one of these people) about LoL getting an audience size it may not possibly deserve is because the other two alternatives in the same genre (DotA 2 / HoN) are JUST as entertaining to watch and have a much higher skill ceiling. Sure LoL offers a great test of team-work but as does Dota and HoN. It's stupid and I can sympathise with anyone naysaying toward LoL: It's gotten to where it has for all the wrong reasons.

You could say the same about BW and SC2 though. BW has a much higher skill ceiling, and is just as exciting to watch, if not more so, than SC2. But ultimately, more people play SC2, so that's where the competition is (outside of Korea, of course)

[rizE]

My input on the situation is LoL is ******* terrible

Good Day

[Akilos]

Well all we can probably agree and say is that LoL is a little...bit... too scrub friendly, You'll see lots of kids with big egos there occasionally did not enjoy my 1 year in that game.

Quick Comments

ToRPandarine:

indeed

[Mayo]

I don't understand why all of you guys are raging at LoL as a game.

It has it's niche in the gaming community, learn to live with it and get over it.
Hell, I think cod4 is a dumb fps game, but I still sponsor tournaments and gaming teams.

People need to learn to appreciate a game for what it is.
If LoL can bring 225,000 people to watch an IEM steam at once, I applaud it for helping grow eSports as a whole.

All of you guys are just getting super defensive and attacking it as a game.

[ToRVenom]

Originally Posted by Mayo

I don't understand why all of you guys are raging at LoL as a game.

It has it's niche in the gaming community, learn to live with it and get over it.
Hell, I think cod4 is a dumb fps game, but I still sponsor tournaments and gaming teams.

People need to learn to appreciate a game for what it is.
If LoL can bring 225,000 people to watch an IEM steam at once, I applaud it for helping grow eSports as a whole.

All of you guys are just getting super defensive and attacking it as a game.

Everyone has their own opion, im not to sure what you were going to expect when posting this thread. i guess the name of the thread is going to encourage this kind of response from the community that this article detrimental towards it .

What did you expect when posting to a SCII community that it is dying out in it main country.
They will defend it to extremes.

[Fourby]

Originally Posted by Mayo

I don't understand why all of you guys are raging at LoL as a game.

It has it's niche in the gaming community, learn to live with it and get over it.
Hell, I think cod4 is a dumb fps game, but I still sponsor tournaments and gaming teams.

People need to learn to appreciate a game for what it is.
If LoL can bring 225,000 people to watch an IEM steam at once, I applaud it for helping grow eSports as a whole.

All of you guys are just getting super defensive and attacking it as a game.

If esports just becomes a bunch of free to play games that were made to be noob-friendly, just... how could that not make anyone angry? let alone posting this in an SC2 webite stating that its taking over SC2............................................... ............................................ btw i heard koreans are really terrible at LoL in comparison to the (chinese?) or something

[iSt]

i believe sc2 > lol.

however, as a korean, i cant deny the fact that lol is likely to be the next bw in korea.

[inFeZa]

There can be more than 'one eSport'

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by SQL.inFeZa

There can be more than 'one eSport'

Read this then read it again.

Then re-assemble all of the letters in order of A-Z. Put them back into the normal form and read again.

What's the point of raging at the game? Why not respect it for what it is? It's bringing a ton of exposure to eSports in general.

You don't need to get mad at it for 'taking over'. It just makes you look immature.

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by Mayo

Read this then read it again.

Then re-assemble all of the letters in order of A-Z. Put them back into the normal form and read again.

What's the point of raging at the game? Why not respect it for what it is? It's bringing a ton of exposure to eSports in general.

No one except the "LoL is bad" people are raging at the game. Those "LoL is bad" people are being defensive and are frustrated that a game that is conceived as "easy to play" is doing better than SC2 which in a lot of people's opinions is a harder game and much more entertaining to watch. It's their opinion, whether they back it up with facts or not. The fact that LoL could be replacing SW:BW in Korea which is even harder than SC2 to play but arguably more rewarding when you win is also frustrating people here I'm sure. My point is; take it with a grain of salt, most of these people are just voicing their opinions as you are right now. Not sure why you're quoting inFeZa and having a crack at him though, not sure it's necessary.

My thoughts regarding the LoL / SC2 thing in Korea:

A lot of people here have played LoL and enjoy it. I'm fine with the fact that it's successful, but obviously the SC2 community is frustrated that their game isn't the most successful as I'm sure Blizzard is too. I'd like to remind them to keep in mind them that expansions are on the way which will only improve the game and every Blizzard RTS never hit full success until their expansions. There are also talks Between Blizzard and KeSPA again regarding the death of SC:BW and taking up SC2 as a replacement. No doubt exciting things on the horizon.

Quick Comments

CyniX:

[Mayo]

Originally Posted by Maynarde

Not sure why you're quoting inFeZa and having a crack at him though, not sure it's necessary.

I didn't have a crack at him, I told everyone to read what infeza said multiple times, therefore agreeing with him 9001%.

Quick Comments

Maynarde:

Shit sorry man I misread, all good <3

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by SQL.inFeZa

There can be more than 'one eSport'

You don't realise it yet, but that statement is the sole reason why e-sports is always going to be a fragmented society. Every single game that gathers a following adds very few new players, it just displaces the current e-sports followers, weakening another game/genre.

If there were 70 different variations of Cricket, for example, how popular would a test match be?? I mean we see with cricket right now that 20/20, one dayers and tests are competing against each other, weakening each other... That's only 3 variations.

[TAhackdZ]

I've been playing LoL on and off with some RL friends for about a year.

I wouldn't say that it's a bad game. Obviously it's not, since it pulls in amazing amounts of sponsorship and viewers. But it is certainly more casual friendly.

Unfortunately though that is the direction the gaming industry is heading IMO. Games are more about people being able to quickly jump into the action and have some fun.

The fact that SC:BW/SC2 may be harder games to learn is probably part of why we're seeign this shift to more casual friendly games. Not to mention the team atmosphere of LoL can make for some amazing matches to watch.

SC2 is still a better game though IMO ;p
/2c

[Maynarde]

Originally Posted by TAhackdZ

I've been playing LoL on and off with some RL friends for about a year.

I wouldn't say that it's a bad game. Obviously it's not, since it pulls in amazing amounts of sponsorship and viewers. But it is certainly more casual friendly.

Unfortunately though that is the direction the gaming industry is heading IMO. Games are more about people being able to quickly jump into the action and have some fun.

The fact that SC:BW/SC2 may be harder games to learn is probably part of why we're seeign this shift to more casual friendly games. Not to mention the team atmosphere of LoL can make for some amazing matches to watch.

SC2 is still a better game though IMO ;p
/2c

A lot of the reason LoL gets amazing viewer counts and player numbers is due to a few things in my opinion.

Firstly, because it's HUGE in Asia and moderately popular in Western countries as well. Asia has a LOT of people I think you'll agree. Why is it huge in Asia etc?

It's FREE and you DON'T need to upgrade your PC to play it.

Plus it's a moba which is a genre that does well at PC Bangs. Koreans have been playing Brood War all this time, why would they want to upgrade and pay for SC2 when they can use their old PC and play a Moba for free? :P

Quick Comments

	ToRPandarine:	this
	iSt:	agreed except for pc bang stuff. pc bang computers are super good nowadays.

[inFeZa]

I said there can be more than one eSport.
There is more than 1 sport.
It's like arguing that AFL is more popular than Soccer or something.

Quick Comments

NOM:

AFL is poo, to much but sex for nom's eyes

[Akilos]

meh I'll have admit though that game can be entertaining. If your looking at the good players.

[ZiggyD]

The average age and income of LoL players in the west is quite low (f2p) so there isn't much call for sponsors here but I imagine with a larger age and income bracket in Korea LoL could become quite popular as an eSport.

[DtorR]

LoL isn't that bad, can be frustrating and I am jealous that it attracts more viewers than sc2. One of my lady friends never really plays games until her bf introduced it to her and she loved it. The game itself is appealing to the casual player, it is straight forward and simple but can get quite boring after some time.

In Sc2 there is room for creativity in terms of playstyle however LoL lacks that quality. Have to admire that Riot are better marketers than blizzard to promote the game as an esport. Nothing wrong if LoL becomes the main e-sport in korea but we SC2 can become the main e-sport in the western world.

[ke_ivan]

the fact is that LoL is free and less complicated than sc2, and therefore more popular. even fxopen esports is going to expand into that. spoke to unstable about two weeks ago and he said, there will be new stuff coming for the LoL community. it makes money. sc2 on the other hand doesn't. don't worry, fxopen is still continuing the invitational series and *drumroll* SEA WILL HAVE QUALIFIERS FOR OPEN BRACKET TO THE NEXT INVITATIONAL! I think tthat's how it is. anyway working on the article now.

p.s. might have been a month ago actually lol

[yongming]

i always encounter unstable playing graves if that is really him.

[Akilos]

I love using Sejuani xD

[ThatGuyDoMo]

Well, with Mike Morhaime confirming the possibility of a SC2 Proleague this year I am hoping sc2 will make the big splash it was always meant to

In terms of LoL...yea I'm sorry, I've played multiple MOBAs and LoL is the most noob friendly + easiest. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with that, I'm just disappointed that it isn't DoTA.

[Antel0pe]

In my honest opinion this (http://armorgames.com/play/5395/raze) is the best game out on the market right now