A video game review of League of Legends: Worth getting?

Nick Young | Staff Reporter
Photo courtesy League of Legends

Overview
Genre: Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA)
Console: Computer
Cost: Free
Difficulty to Learn: 10/10

Game Description
League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena which means each game has ten different players. Fighting on Summoner’s Rift, there are two teams of five with every player picking one of the 123 champions to play. Each champion has four unique abilities. Everyone starts at level one and can reach a maximum of level 18. Each level allows you to level up one ability. On Summoner’s Rift, players fight each other while also trying to kill minions and monsters for gold. Gold allows players to buy items and become stronger. The initial goal is to take enemy turrets, but the ultimate goal is to team up with your teammates and enter your opponent’s base and kill the nexus which ends the game. Once the game is over, none of the progress on that champion is carried over. What you do gain are influence points which you save up to buy more champions. Every game is different because you play with different people and have different team combinations.

My Thoughts
League of Legends is undoubtedly the hardest game I have ever tried to learn. When someone looks at the game, it’s just a confusing mess with projectiles and characters moving everywhere. It’s discouraging to new players which is why League of Legends isn’t the most popular game in America. The concept of the game is hard to grasp and the game description above probably doesn’t help too much. Despite that, I would encourage those that have the time to learn how to play because it is rewarding and fun once you understand how the game works.

I have also found that if enough of your friends also learn how to play the game, it is way more fun since you can play together and it is way easier to cooperate and beat the enemy team. This is opposed to playing and trying to cooperate with four other strangers.

A notable reputation for the League community is toxic behavior and is what can drive some people away. From my experience, people can be really passionate (to put it nicely), which can push them to be borderline offensive in game, but that’s why the game installed a mute button.

Interesting Side Notes
Something most people are unaware about the growing presence of e-sports in our world today. In the World Championships of League of Legends held in South Korea, more people worldwide tuned in than for the Superbowl or any game of the NBA Final.

Also on a popular streaming website called Twitch, really skilled players can live stream their games. It’s free to watch and in a way is like TV. League of Legends is Twitch’s most popular game and single streams can pull up to 40,000 viewers at a single point in time. Tournaments for League of Legends pull in approximately 150,000 viewers at a single point in time.