This is part one of a two-part series introducing readers to watching competitive League of Legends. The first part covers the basics. Part two, on the strategy, can be found here.
What is League of Legends?
League of Legends is a 5 vs. 5 MOBA game developed by Riot Games and released in 2009. It is free-to-play and has a massive following -- in 2014, Riot estimated 27 million people play the game daily.
League also has an established professional scene with regional leagues set up around the globe and multiple annual international tournaments. Playing the game requires mental agility, mechanical skill and teamwork, and the top players can make a healthy living doing it.
Most pros retire around the age of 21. A 23-year-old player at last year's Worlds was considered a wily veteran (he retired after the tournament).
Many pros stream themselves practicing through video streaming services like Twitch. That's the best way to improve your own game as a player and learn about League -- imagine if Steph Curry or Cam Newton was able to broadcast a scrimmage live while giving commentary on strategies and decisions as well as live reactions to the game.
Then there's the drama. Take last year's banning of former Team Impulse star XiaoWeiXiao, for instance. A star player in North America, he was banned for "boosting" (leveling up) another player's account and also trying to sell the account Riot gives pro players with all in-game content unlocked. A year before, a player on another team, CLG, quit the team via an 18-page Google Doc.
What are the roles?
There are five positions on each League of Legends team, with one player per position. Players tend to stick to a single position at the professional level. They are:
1. Top: This position has the most variety of any. Top laners can be team fighters, tanks (defensive champions), split pushers (fighters who just want to pressure a lane by themselves as the rest of the team groups) or even supporting champions. Currently, tanks are the most common.
2. Jungler: Responsible for objective control, as well as helping the rest of the team win their respective lanes by ganking (surprising an enemy champion in their lane with the intent to kill them).
3. Mid: Usually responsible for dealing high amounts of damage, usually in the form of magic damage.
4. Marksman: Formerly called AD Carry, the marksman is another high damage dealer, usually in the form of attack damage. Highly vulnerable to enemies. Pairs up with support during laning phase in order to stay alive.
5. Support: Helps keep carries alive and/or serve up enemies for carries to kill.
What are teams trying to do?
Each professional game is played on the same map.
The map has three lanes (linear paths you walk down) with the areas between known as the jungle. Computer-controlled minions for each team spawn automatically and walk down the lanes into battle. Human players earn gold (which can be used to buy items) and experience for killing enemy minions (or other players, buildings, etc.).
The ultimate goal is to destroy the other team's base, the Nexus. The Nexus and the lanes are protected by towers, strong buildings that do a lot of damage and are difficult to take down, especially early on. Each team starts with 11 towers and they are worth a lot of gold if you can kill them.
The third tower in each lane protects an inhibitor. If your inhibitor is destroyed, the enemy gets stronger minions in that lane, so they are important structures to defend. You cannot attack a tower or inhibitor unless you've destroyed the previous buildings in that lane first.
Neutral monsters reside in the jungle and will not attack unless they are attacked first. It's generally the jungler's job to kill those to get gold and experience. There are two large neutral monsters -- Dragon and Baron -- that you can fight, usually as a team. If your team kills them, they provide global bonuses for all of you. Team fights often occur around these objectives because they are so important to winning the game. Baron does not appear until 20 minutes into the game, while teams usually start making plays for Dragon around 10-15 minutes in (it respawns every six minute after being killed).
Each game starts with the laning phase, where players go to their respective lanes and kill minions for gold. At the professional level, there are different early game strategies. The most common is a lane swap, wherein the two teams engage in a gentleman's agreement to trade towers. Sometimes we see standard lanes with the top laners in the top lane, the mid laners in the mid lane and the two bottom laners (marksman and support) in the bottom lane. That's very common at the amateur level, but less so in pro play.
No matter how a laning phase begins, it usually ends after two or three towers are taken. At that point, the game advances into the team fight stage, where teammates group up in order to force fights or contest objectives. Teams with a laning phase advantage look to expand that lead with good team fights and efficient objective taking, but many team compositions are organized specifically for success in the team fight stage.
Are athletes from traditional sports interested?
Definitely! Active pros like Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Lin are avid players, as is former NFL punter Chris Kluwe.
There's even a team named Echo Fox owned by three-time NBA champion and former iZombie guest star Rick Fox.
Co-owners of the Sacramento Kings own a team, too, and that team recently received investments from Alex Rodriguez, Jimmy Rollins (who also plays the game) and Shaq.
Can I play fantasy League of Legends?
Yes! Currently just for the North America and Europe leagues, at fantasy.lolesports.com.
Okay, I'm sold, how do I watch this?
All games are streamed online on LolEsports.com, as well as on YouTube, Twitch and Azubu.