Riot Games

Before getting into the why, I want to explain just how Riot Games has put Esports in the forefront of their attention since the beginning of League of Legends and how it has manifested itself into one of the biggest Esports to date. For reference, the events that League has put on boast three of the top 10 largest prize pools ever for an Esport (dotesports.com). This is of course, a single metric, but it also immediately puts League into the conversation of biggest Esport.

So what did they do to get here? 

League of Legends, since the beginning, has developed a game that excels in holding Esports competition by any metric you may look at it from. First of all, they have always held the philosophy that investing in Esports is the same as investing in their game. After all, Esports are another way gamers stay interested in a video game title far after the initial spurt of fun you get from playing a new game fades. In addition, it's a way to keep them further engaged in a game they love. Certainly, there are times when you come home from work and don't feel like queuing up for a game yourself. Watching however, via twitch streams or broadcasts, is a much less intensive, more relaxing form of engagement with the game you adore. But what specifically is Riot doing to facilitate this?

Since day 1, or should I say season 1, Riot has been holding a year-end event called Worlds. This event brings together the years best teams to compete against each other in international competition. In fact, since season 2, they have been committing at least $5 million to be paid out in prize pools over the course of the year. With $1 million up top for the team that would eventually be crowned World Champion. That monetary commitment alone, demands attention from big names. In fact, I had a back and forth email exchange my freshman year of college (2015) with Marc Cuban (IU alumni and business savvy owner of the Dallas Mavericks) about purchasing the then-for-sale, Team Impulse. And all the way back in 2015, he had already been eyeing League of Legends organizations while looking for his in to investing in this new space. 

What else makes Riot and League of Legends, so valuable to Esport investors? The League Championship Series (aka the LCS aka the North America governing body for League of Legends) was one of the first leagues, along with the Overwatch League, to franchise. This meant investors could put money into a team, knowing down the line, that team would still be competing. Prior to this it was a promotion/relegation system to ensure the quality of competition stayed as high as possible.

In addition, Riot Games remain one of the few video game developers to consistently patch (minor changes to the game in order to keep it fresh and fair) their game with Esports front of mind. As an old Call of Duty fan, I know the struggles of not having a developers support for Esports. One day the game is being played with certain well thought out strategies and the next those are tossed by the wayside due to the balance changes. Essentially, the same issue Fortnite is having right now. Professionals across Esport titles all sympathize with Fortnite players who complain about Epic Games implementing items that alter the state of the game so immensely with such a high frequency. Where all professionals originally relied heavily on their skill to build, the value of said skill has been diminished consistently since the games release. The transparent, consistent way Riot Games outlines patches allow for professionals to know the time they are spending will not be wasted.

Other notable Riot Games initiatives include: the founding of a governing body for collegiate League of Legends, the development of products such as Pro View (something I touched on in my last post), and their recent partnership with Nielsen to properly record and issue data regarding the viewership of their games.

So why is Riot Games so good at keeping fans engages and investors happy in the realm of Esports? It all starts with the two creators of this game, Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck. Both of them grew their interest in video games from Starcraft, a title that is -- amazingly enough -- still around today. Video games are infamous for having small stretches of play and then dying off when a new title arises. Starcraft is one of the first to truly put an emphasis on Esports and with that, the two of them immediately saw the value in having a strong Esports scene. Of course, this is just my take on how Riot Games grew to be one of the stronger supporters of Esports in the entire industry.

As always see you later,

Billy VA

Pro View

For those unaware, Riot Games recently announced and implemented Pro View into their LCS portal. Pro View is a brand new point-of-view stream that viewers can customize to watch every player's exact screen. You hear the sounds, see the mouse clicks and even more importantly, the decision making of up to four players during each step of the game.

What is so exciting, as a fan and as an aspiring professional, is that Riot continues to develop and invest in their business of Esports. At an InvenGlobal Esports conference I recently attended, I got the pleasure of hearing Chris "Chopper" Hopper, head of Esports in North America for Riot Games, give a keynote speech. During this speech, he spoke to the many things Riot was doing in order to continue extending the life cycle and fan engagement of a game that has -- by almost any metric you look at it -- already exceeded all expectations. 

Due to the nature of the video game industry and their fast paced environments, players are always searching for the next fun game. Entire player bases have come and gone within the span of a few months, especially when it comes to titles released on console. League of Legends is a game that has now been around for almost 10 years. Since its release in October of 2009 it has seen an ebb and flow of old and new players, but one aspect that never fails to continue growing is its Esports. 

Something like Pro View is the next step in that growth. As Riot is able to monetize this audience rather than it's time, I believe that will help push the entire scenes presence further into mainstream focus. With that said, Pro View isn't there yet. What Riot released, albeit a really great start, was just the barebones of what Pro View and other Esports viewing services have to offer. My dad and I recently went to a mall in Santa Monica where a shop called The Void was offering a VR experience. We signed up, got suited up and were in and out in a little over 15 minutes. And while neither of our minds were blown by this again, barebones project - we obviously saw the potential of VR and what it could bring to the gaming world. Imagine if Pro View had an option where you could put on a VR headset and stand behind your favorite team while they all play their worlds final best-of-five series. Better yet... what if you could walk around on the rift during the game. Pro View is the future I'm not only excited about but knew was coming. As Riot spends more time into exploration, Pro View could be the Sunday Ticket that was so desperately needed for the LCS. And what's Riot good at if not patching and re-patching the same software time and time again.

As always see you later,

Billy VA

7 Years in the Making

7 years.

No, not the song by Lukas Graham.

But rather the time it has taken Team Liquid's Doublelift to get out of the group stage at an international event. That said, if you asked him right now, I think he would say it was worth the wait. In what is deemed the most shocking upset in League of Legends international history, Team Liquid (TL) defeated Invictus Gaming (IG) 3-1 in this years 2019 MSI Semi-Finals.

What makes this win so astonishing is the fact that IG is coming off of a 2018 Worlds Championship, dominant 1st place in LPL's Spring Split and debatably more dominant 9-1 group stage performance at MSI 2019. Their roster houses big names like Rookie and TheShy. Who are widely agreed upon to be, respectively, the best mid and top laners in the world. In addition, each and every time this team won a match it was far from competitive... instead it was in commanding fashion.

On the contrary, it was just any other year for NA. Business as usual, where fans were widely prepared to be let down yet again. The casters, prior to the start of the match, said it would be a "huge success for NA" if TL were to take a single game off of IG. What happened instead was the second chapter to the book of success NA fans got a taste of when Cloud 9 made semi-finals at Worlds last year.  

In addition to this being such a monumental upset, the timing could not be any sweeter. In what has been a dominant 6 years span for the two major eastern regions of China and Korea, finally the west was breaking through on the backs of Europe. Fnatic had recently made Worlds finals before inevitably being swept by this monstrous IG lineup. Followed up by G2 Esports who have and still are competing like world class athletes. NA, on the other hand, was being left in the dust. The top 3 teams: IG (China), G2 (Europe), and SKT (Korea) were all in talks for teams who might have a real shot of winning MSI this year. NA was the first team left out of that discussion. 

To have an idea of how dominant China and, most notably, Korea have been in the past 6 years one must understand that there was a time when if any Korean team was pitting against any Western team they would have been favored to win. For context, a region sends 3 teams to Worlds each year. If the 3 seeded Korean team was facing the 1 seed in any region other than China it was fully expected for them to not only win, but to win in style. In fact this most recent 2018 Worlds was the very first time since 2012 Worlds that a Korean team lost a Best-of-5 series to anyone but another Korean team.

China. Korea. Europe.           North America. 

Everything seems to be scrambling together. Regardless of the result at the rest of this years MSI, international competition going forward will be less and less about which specific region a team is representing and more about the team itself. 

Finally, I'll leave you with this. Parity is good for sports. It makes competitions exciting to watch and hard to predict. Suddenly the four regions don't seem nearly as far apart as they have in years past and I for one am excited for more. Tune in to watch G2 Esports vs. SKT in the second MSI Semi-Finals tomorrow, May 18th, at 12am PST. Don't forget, winner plays Team Liquid. 

Here's to adding a few more chapters to NA and the rest of the worlds storyline. 

As always see you later,
Billy VA

The Future of Esports Playoffs

First, I'd like to begin with a small note to everyone reading. I have finally made Platinum rank in League of Legends and can now die happy. Whenever that day comes, of course (hopefully in 60+ years *knocks on wood*.) Onto today's subject, I wanted to do a little theory crafting to find the system of playoffs that best fits the LCS. So I'm gonna... right here, on my blog.

The key here is to try and find the paradigm for airing League of Legends playoff matches that will not only receive the greatest amount of revenue, but also enjoy realistic expectations of players, teams and sports venues. Certainly, the most important factor for how and when big sports like the NFL and MLB broadcast their respective games is revenue. It's the reason we see the Super Bowl lasting a whopping four hours, when most NFL games only last a little only three. Similarly, it is the reason MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred, is considering adding a 20-second pitching shot clock in order to cut down game time. So why is it that when TL completed their reverse sweep of TSM it took a whopping 5 hours and 20 minutes long. Of course, there are many reasons for this result. None of which are completely impractical and strike me as heinous or wrong but let's list them anyways. Each game takes about 30 minutes which already makes up about half of the show's run time. Then throw in 5 minutes on either end of the game to cover pre-game discussion and post-game analysis. A filler 4+ minute musical break after the post-game analysis but before the pre-game discussion adds even more run time. Finally, the opening show and closing ceremony leads us to our grand total. 

The question in my mind is... can this be a practical for mainstream tv or will people simply not be able to sit through an entire best-of-five (Bo5) finals without already being a diehard League of Legends fan? And if this isn't the best system for playoffs, what is? 

To answer these questions I think it is important to first compare League to the traditional sport it is most similar, Basketball. Basketball and League are similar because they both hold playoffs not in a winner takes all, single match format, but rather in a series where teams battle in out in grueling Bo7 matchup. Sure, the MLB and NHL both similarly hold Bo7's for their playoffs, but I recently read a scholarly article that states the NBA and LCS have similar requirements for lighting and equipment. This way if anyone in the Staples Center crew reads my blog they can appreciate the link. Also I know more about the NBA so I'll stick with that for now.

With that said, I think we can all agree League shouldn't be decided by one game as the better team, on any given day, can make plenty of mistakes between champion select and the destroying of a nexus. Furthermore, best of one's offer the viewer close to a maximum of 60 minutes in terms of actual gameplay and wheres the fun in that? So with the understanding that multi-game series are probably the way to go, is an entire Bo5 on a single day the best way to broadcast League of Legends playoffs? Basketball, in contrast, plays their Bo7 series over 7 different days. While there are certainly many reason they do this, above all is the fact that fatigue limits players. One constraint League of Legends producers and players, do not necessarily have limiting them. But does this mean we need to just get it all over with over the course of a single day? The way I see it people constantly want more entertainment, but in shorter, small pockets of time. This is why Netflix is thriving, while Blockbuster is down to its last remaining store. So does grinding out an entire Bo5 series make the most sense? And sure, while all the games VODs are up on lolesports.com immediately after it ends -- who is really going to go back and rewatch games after they know the result? Not me.

"Billy it sounds like you're going to propose something... so can you just get to the damn point?" 

 I thought you'd never ask inner mind. 

What I suggest is splitting the Bo5 into 3 parts. Holding games 1 and 2 on Friday, games 3 and 4 on Saturday, and game 5 on Sunday. Of course, this is all based on the results and in some cases the series will end 3-0 after the first game on Saturday. However, at least this way you spread that Bo5 over two days. There are a few key points I would like to make in defending this proposal. First, it makes more sense than splitting each game into a separate day as renting out a venue or even setting up your own already purchased venue for just one hours worth of broadcast just simply isn't worth it. Second, can you imagine the hype leaving game 4 knowing everyone has to come back the next day for a final game. Third, this allows for more entertainment in the form of talk shows or musical guests to be shown before and after the broadcast as the entire show may only last a couple of hours on any given Friday and Saturday, while taking even less time on Sunday. Fourth, it enhances the role of the coach tenfold as they get more time in between games to plan out their pick/ban strategies and attack any holes they can point out in the enemy team's strategy.

So that's my grand plan. Let me know what you think and if you have any better ideas!

As always see you later,

Billy Von Arx

Toxicity

toxic (adj.) - extremely harsh, malicious, or harmful

What does it say about the human race when you put a large sample of us behind a screen and in an intensely competitive environment, that it results in the League of Legends community. Personally, I think it speaks to our limitless flaws and a deep resistance to all things kindness. Well, maybe I'm confusing the latter with the time I tried to get girls. Either way, without being too cynical and grim, the world inside Summoner's Rift can be a nasty one full of racism, excessive forms of mockery and much more. The thing I care about however is why.

I'm pretty sure we've all been insecure at one point or another. Had a few bad breaks that lead us to lashing out at those we might not otherwise have lashed out at. Well this doesn't come close to explaining the culture that is in our little chat box in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. I get it, you've worked really hard to improve your mechanics on Vi. You spent countless nights in normal games trying to perfect your flash q in order to surprise a squishy. Finally, the night arrives where you feel ready to take her into your promos and carry your team to victory. But what happens? A mixture of nerves and adrenaline course through your veins ruining your one opportunity to kill the opposing team's fed Vayne. And to make matters worse, your Teemo has been on a long losing streak which, to his infinitesimally small ego, could never be his own fault. So he decides now is as good a time as ever, not to bring you up, but to kick you while you're down. 

"Thanks Vi, way to lose us the game." "GG, better jg wins." 

Being the responsible role model you are, you decide not to fight back but instead use logic and reasoning to explain why Teemo is wrong.

"Your mom."

And here you have it, the very definition of a toxic community. But don't take my word for it, hop into a game of League of Legends and try to go three whole games without being scrutinized for "the worst play anyone has ever made." Everyday. 365 days a year. Welcome to our community. 

I'm not gonna pretend like I'm above it. In fact, I believe there was a moment in high school (realize I'm not even THAT young at the time) where I was chat banned for over two months. I literally had to go 60 days without being able to say so much as good luck, have fun to my teammates at the beginning of the game. And you know what? I deserved every second of it. But I have since served my time, growing up (at least a little bit) to the extent where I'm able to recognize how angrily yelling at my teammates through a keyboard won't make me feel better and more importantly, won't help my team win. So how in the face of logic and sound rationale, do human beings still let their emotions get the best of them? Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers would argue it is deeply entrenched in a southern culture of Scotland, where those who succeeded were the same herders who killed anyone that tried to steal their livestock. In fact, this held up in a 1990s study conducted at a university, testing college students and their reactions to being bumped in a small corridor.  Students from southern states reacted to the insult with more aggression, hostility and anger then did those from northern states. 

So I guess the conclusion is... everyone who plays League of Legends is from the south? Of course not. Sure, I think Outliers explains some situations and at the end of the day its all a mix of many different factors (all of which we can't possibly ever fully understand in each unique situation). But if you ask me, I'd just tell you it is part of human nature to want to do the wrong thing. Its the same reason we like to eat food even though we're full or talk badly about someone who isn't even around to defend themselves. Its not funny or fun to tell someone they're having a rough go at it but that they will turn it around soon. Yet, you know what? It's downright rewarding. And when you come back from an open nexus to win your penultimate promotion game into gold, there's very little that can touch that feeling. Anyways, here's to a species wide character shift in the next year. 

🍻

As always see you later,

Billy Von Arx

UPDATE: I HIT PLAT 😅

more to come...