League of Legends: from the origins to LoL Wild Rift, the story of an epochal success
League of Legends
Almost twelve years have passed since the release of League of Legends. The MOBA of Riot Games was certainly not the first exponent of its kind: as many know, the successful season of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena originated from a custom map of Starcraft and later of Warcraft III.Sin since its release, League of Legends has established itself as one of the most popular games in the world. To Marc Merrill (one of the co-founders of Riot Games), however, it immediately seemed evident that all that success and that exorbitant amount of users had to be fed in some way. Indeed, they had to be channeled towards ever more ambitious goals: competition and entertainment.
Observing the data and noting the sudden emergence of the competitive nature of the title, Merrill was convinced that the right path could only be there 'export However, he had to overcome the general skepticism that reigned on the board and in the ranks of the development team at that time. No one at Riot Games believed that League of Legends could have a great chance or future in competitive gaming. Marc Merrill in the interviews still does not miss an opportunity to underline the hilarity that the idea of him aroused at the time. Yet, despite the opposition of a large part of the company, it was still decided to give that project a chance.
In all likelihood, it will be once again the export to consecrate yet another bet by Riot Games. Now the US company is a billion-dollar behemoth, a subsidiary of Tencent. The road map for 2021 already appears very rich in terms of content, not to mention the imminent foundation of a structured competitive scene. League of Legends Wild Rift has already gathered around it a large and heterogeneous community and more: although the application is still in open beta, it has already received a large amount of updates, themed events and Champions that help keep high the interest and enjoyment of users. If all goes according to plan, a period of consolidation on mobile is expected for Wild Rift and only then will the development team take care of completing the porting to living room hardware. A real challenge, the latter, as MOBAs have never had great luck with pads and consoles.
