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
