League of Legends season 2 $5 million Prize pool

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 15 2011 22:41 Ryhn wrote:
Valve: 1.6M~ for a three day invitational tournament

Riot: 5.0M~ for a 365 day worldwide scene spanning multiple tournments.


I think Valve still has a record, guys.

On August 15 2011 22:41 Ryhn wrote:
Valve: 1.6M~ for a three day invitational tournament

Riot: 5.0M~ for a 365 day worldwide season, spanning multiple tournments.


I think Valve still has a record, guys.

Steam is an online video game distribution program owned by Valve; it controls an estimated 50-70% of the $4 billion per year market for downloaded games. Valve’s founder, Gabe Newell, says that the 250-person company brought in “high hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2010. Although, they have not released their financials, over 30 million people using Steam so it’s easy to assume they are doing as well as he says.

The company is valued at $2-4 billion which is reasonable considering Zynga’s value of $4-6 billion – and they got that just from some farm game. However, it’s funny that a company that isn’t dealing in advertising or shiny gewgaws is actually making the most cash per capita.

via gamrfeed

On August 15 2011 22:44 OooLong wrote:
I lol at LoL trying desperately to compete with Dota2. LoL probably have the worst graphics I ever seen for a game, look like it's made for 13 years old and under.

On August 15 2011 22:39 Goshawk. wrote:


Valve has 1 million in one tournament Riot has 5 million over a year over a world wide LoL scene.

On August 15 2011 22:45 FieryBalrog wrote:

Uh....

Riot: $5 million for an actual functioning tournament scene
Valve: $1.6 million for pre-selected teams for a marketing hype

Valve's prize pool isn't actually supporting the scene yet. It's no different from Black Ops hype prize pools of $1 million. It's part of marketing.

On August 15 2011 22:44 BLinD-RawR wrote:


but the still made shit get real.



why the fuck do people give a shit about graphics..:/

On August 15 2011 22:49 OooLong wrote:


because it matter?

On August 15 2011 22:56 klops wrote:
Throw a 5 million dollar tournament.

Still don't have spectator support.

wat.

On August 15 2011 22:50 kethers wrote:
More prize pool does not equal better tournaments

On August 15 2011 22:58 Moosai wrote:

The LoL season 1 championship had about 250k people watching.

On August 15 2011 22:56 klops wrote:
Throw a 5 million dollar tournament.

Still don't have spectator support.

wat.

On August 15 2011 23:00 klops wrote:


that has nothing to do with what i said. not to mention i know because i watched it.

i'm saying if they have as much money as we now think they do, where is a non 3rd party spectator mode?

On August 15 2011 23:01 Essbee wrote:
lol at people speaking about graphics. If anything, League of legends has the type of graphics where you can see what's going on compared to HoN for example. Imo LoL graphics are the best for all the games of this style (and all the games for that matter).

Seriously graphics making a game? Brood war? StarCraft 2 on low? LoL? Quake and CS 1.6? These are not games with ground-breaking graphics and still are the most popular. Graphics are for kids (or teens), no offense but veteran gamers knows that graphics doesn't matter. It's all about the gameplay. I seriously never played a bad game and pretend to have fun just because of the graphics. Sorry but that makes no sense.

On August 15 2011 23:04 Muki wrote:
Valve threw out 1 000 000 $ just to build some hype. They probably didn't intend to set a new trend.

Riot on the other hand is so nervous about DotA 2, they think throwing more money at a tournament means it'll make their game better. It's obvious DotA 2 will offer a better experience, and they don't realise it's not primarily the prizepool that matters but how well they organize the community.

While Blizzard hasn't been very active either, the SC2 community for example is very autonomous and built it's esports scene pretty much from the ground up, without 1 mil $ tournaments, and see, the competitive scene and it's followers' spirit are great.

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 15 2011 23:01 PrideNeverDie wrote:
5 million dollars
no pause button so matches are decided by disconnects

On August 15 2011 23:01 Essbee wrote:
lol at people speaking about graphics. If anything, League of legends has the type of graphics where you can see what's going on compared to HoN for example. Imo LoL graphics are the best for all the games of this style (and all the games for that matter).

Seriously graphics making a game? Brood war? StarCraft 2 on low? LoL? Quake and CS 1.6? These are not games with ground-breaking graphics and still are the most popular. Graphics are for kids (or teens), no offense but veteran gamers knows that graphics doesn't matter. It's all about the gameplay. I seriously never played a bad game and pretend to have fun just because of the graphics. Sorry but that makes no sense.

On August 15 2011 23:17 Jakkerr wrote:
I don't think Riot should be scared of Dota2 at all.
The game is probably gonna cost ~$50USD, I dunno about you guys but I'm not gonna pay that money for a MOBA game, we all saw what happened to HoN who pretty much did the same.
Also the leaked screenshots of Dota2 don't look impressive at all.
But i'll draw my conclusions after the tourney this week.

On August 15 2011 23:19 Cevari wrote:
I'm curious, does LoL have any kind of tournament scene outside these events directly sponsored by the developer and if it does what kind of money moves in those tournaments? Just wondering because despite how enormous $5 million in prizes is, it's not actually in a different scale of magnitude when compared to the entire sc2 competetive scene since release. A very fast guesstimate derived from sc2earnings.com would put the total prize money distributed in sc2 competetions over this past year and a bit at somewhere around $2 million. And there's no reason to believe that figure won't go higher this coming year imo.

The sc2 scene is just extremely different in structure. I expect Riot to be organising more events than in the past but it feels like they're still keeping the numbers relatively low, so what I see happening is a lot more centralised scene with the top teams competing at pretty much every event, instead of the extremely decentralised sc2 scene. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up for debate, though for the spectator it's probably a good thing since it limits tournament overflow and creates storylines that are relatively easy to keep track of. From a business point of view I can't imagine it's a good thing the entire scene is sustained by the developer though. Afaik Blizzard accounts for a fairly marginal piece of the sc2 prize money pie at least for now, with almost all of the money coming from sponsors. This seems the better option to me.

On August 15 2011 22:58 Moosai wrote:

The LoL season 1 championship had about 250k people watching.

On August 15 2011 23:22 Looky wrote:
all pro dota players pick this game up take the money and go back to playing dota2. ez. even one of the best hon players got ranked 1 on solo ladder for playing it only a month.

On August 15 2011 22:45 FieryBalrog wrote:

Uh....

Riot: $5 million for an actual functioning tournament scene
Valve: $1.6 million for pre-selected teams for a marketing hype

Valve's prize pool isn't actually supporting the scene yet. It's no different from Black Ops hype prize pools of $1 million. It's part of marketing.

On August 15 2011 23:26 Trizz wrote:


As said before, the stream numbers were bugged out.
250k is far from the actual number, it's much lower.

On August 15 2011 23:26 Trizz wrote:


As said before, the stream numbers were bugged out.
250k is far from the actual number, it's much lower.

On August 15 2011 23:26 Senx wrote:


ESL runs quite consistantly tournaments and cups, MLG will also be starting with LoL at Raleigh.

There is a LoL scene, its just poorly covered, we also have no good commentators like SC2 has.

On August 15 2011 23:29 Jakkerr wrote:


idd m8 get ur facts straight.
Cuz ur Dutch I'll explain it to you.
They added a link to the stream into the gameclient, this link didn't autoplay and you had to click on it to go to the stream.
If it would have autoplayed the viewernumber would have been much much higher since LoL's daily playerpeak is usually around 500k.
so Yes the viewernumber was legit.

On August 15 2011 22:47 GTR wrote:
i just see all the chinese dota teams just picking up lol for a few days then taking all the money.

On August 15 2011 23:26 Senx wrote:


Yeah bro chu8 and his team just dominated the shit out of the LoL scene, oh wait they havent won anything..

Derp?

On August 15 2011 23:26 Senx wrote:


Yeah bro chu8 and his team just dominated the shit out of the LoL scene, oh wait they havent won anything..

Derp?

On August 15 2011 23:26 Senx wrote:


ESL runs quite consistantly tournaments and cups, MLG will also be starting with LoL at Raleigh.

There is a LoL scene, its just poorly covered, we also have no good commentators like SC2 has.

On August 15 2011 23:43 busbarn wrote:
Just throwing money wont make it a better game and I doubt more people will start playing because of it. In the end the better game will have more players, and I think that'll be DotA2, considering how much Valve rules the PC gaming with Steam.

On August 15 2011 23:22 Looky wrote:
all pro dota players pick this game up take the money and go back to playing dota2. ez. even one of the best hon players got ranked 1 on solo ladder for playing it only a month.

On August 15 2011 22:44 OooLong wrote:
I lol at LoL trying desperately to compete with Dota2. LoL probably have the worst graphics I ever seen for a game, look like it's made for 13 years old and under.

User was temp banned for this post.

On August 15 2011 23:27 saint_d wrote:

Stop spreading false information.

On August 15 2011 23:39 skrotcyk wrote:
lol ezcash to the hon/dota players if they switch over to LoL

On August 15 2011 23:45 Trowa127 wrote:


Yup. Throwing money at it won't solve the massive balance issues the game faces either.

On August 15 2011 23:39 scintilliaSD wrote:

It's not "poorly covered." It's covered fine for the people who play it. Riot does a good job of notifying everyone of pretty much every tournament everywhere, including things such as Go4LoL. It's not unreasonable to consider that people who don't actively search for a scene won't hear about it regardless of how competitive it is.

On August 15 2011 23:49 CNLL wrote:
Who cares about the money they throw at the game. Its the game that matters.

Not even 15 milions are gonna make that game decent.

On August 15 2011 22:44 OooLong wrote:
I lol at LoL trying desperately to compete with Dota2. LoL probably have the worst graphics I ever seen for a game, look like it's made for 13 years old and under.

User was temp banned for this post.

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 16 2011 00:02 Earll wrote:



Wait. Are you seriously saying that Valve is not going to be able to Outdo riot because they lack funding compared to Riot/don't have as much "spare money" to throw around?

On August 16 2011 00:06 OdnoB wrote:
i played my first game of LoL yesterday and was quite unimpressed =/ However I cant speak for what their competitive scene is like but with so many escape mechanisms, no ability to deny, and towers doing a million damage, seems like the game would be even more of a farmfest than HoN atm, and thats a bad thing. Game doesnt get me excited while playing it, but grats to those who enjoy it quite the prize pool up for grabs :D

On August 16 2011 00:06 OdnoB wrote:
i played my first game of LoL yesterday and was quite unimpressed =/ However I cant speak for what their competitive scene is like but with so many escape mechanisms, no ability to deny, and towers doing a million damage, seems like the game would be even more of a farmfest than HoN atm, and thats a bad thing. Game doesnt get me excited while playing it, but grats to those who enjoy it quite the prize pool up for grabs :D

On August 16 2011 00:10 Jswizzy wrote:

That's because LOL is streamlined to be fast paced. Think of it as the COD of MOBA games.

On August 16 2011 00:10 Jswizzy wrote:

That's because LOL is streamlined to be fast paced. Think of it as the COD of MOBA games.

On August 16 2011 00:12 alkow wrote:


LoL fast-paced? LoL is the slowest paced MOBA out there.

On August 16 2011 00:10 Jswizzy wrote:

That's because LOL is streamlined to be fast paced. Think of it as the COD of MOBA games.

On August 16 2011 00:12 alkow wrote:


LoL fast-paced? LoL is the slowest paced MOBA out there.

On August 16 2011 00:15 BlueBird. wrote:


Yeah Idk where your getting LoL= fast paced, towers hit really hard, so it's easy to just get into free farm mode. The game has no gold death loss, etc... I really wish they didn't take out deny, since you spend so much time in lane farming with most heroes, would give me something else to do.

On August 16 2011 00:16 Shikyo wrote:

True for competitive games but it's the fastest-paced casually imo. You rarely get the 2-3 kill/min games in HoN or DotA from my exp, in LoL it's like that every other game

On August 16 2011 00:15 Alaron wrote:


Fast paced? Why do people that have no clue of the current state of any games competitive state feel the need to make comments like this.

There is only one way this game can be played at top level and that is passive farm-lane-entire-game, with its metagame heavily reliant on a stupid free blink that probably plagued that game since the beginning of time.

Former #1 solo queue player in LoL.

On August 16 2011 00:18 Alaron wrote:


Are you watching the same High level LoL games I am? This never happens.

On August 15 2011 23:10 BLinD-RawR wrote:


I honestly doubt thats what they are trying to say.

On August 16 2011 00:18 Alaron wrote:


Are you watching the same High level LoL games I am? This never happens.

On August 16 2011 00:21 Redox wrote:
Why is it important anyway if DOTA2 or LoL make it? Seems to be basically the same game.

And I believe most people here have neither a stake in Riot nor in valve, so why care?

On August 16 2011 00:18 Alaron wrote:


Are you watching the same High level LoL games I am? This never happens.

On August 16 2011 00:22 NeoIllusions wrote:


http://www.youtube.com/user/colbycheeze#p/u/8/9FiacuSDHb0



You're on a gaming website and you're asking people why they care if a game they play other than StarCraft gets popular/mainstream.

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 16 2011 00:25 InfC.AnatoLiy wrote:...
You know Valve developed Steam right?

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/02/04/steam_revenue_nearly_hits_1_billion

Almost hit 1 bil off 2010 alone. Riot is nothing more than a moth flying around in the bright light that materializes from Valve's aura.

On August 16 2011 00:22 NeoIllusions wrote:


You're on a gaming website and you're asking people why they care if a game they play other than StarCraft gets popular/mainstream.

On August 16 2011 00:24 Alaron wrote:


Even if it is one of every 10 games all the channel does is prove my point.

On August 16 2011 00:32 Redox wrote:

The point was that both are the same game. Its not like a question of starcraft vs dota or something.
Its dota vs dota.
And people havent even played dota2, so its impossible to have informed opinions about which dota is better.

On August 16 2011 00:32 Redox wrote:

The point was that both are the same game. Its not like a question of starcraft vs dota or something.
Its dota vs dota.
And people havent even played dota2, so its impossible to have informed opinions about which dota is better.

On August 16 2011 00:31 Mikejonez wrote:
I am glad that Riot is supporting their title and esports in general with some serious $$, setting the bar high...

Very cool that a free-to-play business model can afford expenditures like that

On August 16 2011 00:40 Judicator wrote:
I have to say it's kind of hilarious that anyone thinks that the 5 million prize pool will attract more players in the face of their shitty business model.

On August 16 2011 00:32 Redox wrote:

The point was that both are the same game. Its not like a question of starcraft vs dota or something.
Its dota vs dota.
And people havent even played dota2, so its impossible to have informed opinions about which dota is better.

On August 16 2011 00:37 Logo wrote:


Actually I find it incredibly sickening. If they have $5mil laying around then it's because they've milked so much money from their customers through runes, new heroes, ip/xp boosts, and other grinding elements that they have a ton of disposable income. Lol is actually one of the most expensive games on the market, but people are just so easily fooled by F2P or willing to grind that they overlook the costs.

Personally no matter how big it gets I won't watch or support LoL competition because I really really don't like their style of F2P. HoN's I don't like either, but I find it more acceptable given that a free account playing a free hero is the same as a legacy account playing the same hero right from the start.

On August 16 2011 00:43 Mordiford wrote:


The business model seems to be the future for this genre... So... Yeah.

On August 16 2011 00:46 NeoIllusions wrote:
Isn't DotA2 expected to be f2p as well...?
Is Valve following Riot's shitty business model then?

On August 16 2011 00:37 Logo wrote:


Actually I find it incredibly sickening. If they have $5mil laying around then it's because they've milked so much money from their customers through runes, new heroes, ip/xp boosts, and other grinding elements that they have a ton of disposable income. Lol is actually one of the most expensive games on the market, but people are just so easily fooled by F2P or willing to grind that they overlook the costs.

Personally no matter how big it gets I won't watch or support LoL competition because I really really don't like their style of F2P. HoN's I don't like either, but I find it more acceptable given that a free account playing a free hero is the same as a legacy account playing the same hero right from the start.

On August 16 2011 00:46 NeoIllusions wrote:
Isn't DotA2 expected to be f2p as well...?
Is Valve following Riot's shitty business model then?

On August 16 2011 00:25 InfC.AnatoLiy wrote:


...
You know Valve developed Steam right?

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/02/04/steam_revenue_nearly_hits_1_billion

Almost hit 1 bil off 2010 alone. Riot is nothing more than a moth flying around in the bright light that materializes from Valve's aura.

Riot is a joke in the eSports community. Their business side of things they get the job done. Luckily for them that they struct gold as they were the first F2P MOBA game (I think) with micro transactions in a period where MOBA games were dying.

Anyway, my post in response to Riot announcing the S2 prize pool:

+ Show Spoiler +

On August 16 2011 00:21 Ryhn wrote:


Graphics are merely the medium through which game developers present aesthetics.

I highly doubt that the guys in this thread are whining because they hate games without uber tech behind them.

That would mean they automatically hate SNES games, Genesis games, Minecraft, Starcraft, Diablo II, and so on.

What people care about is that their games look visually pleasing, above all else.

These people who hate League's visuals are likely not even /thinking/ about poly counts, or theorizing over the resolution of the textures.

They dislike the cartoony, exaggerated proportions that are a fundamental part of it's aesthetic.

On August 16 2011 00:50 zachMEISTER wrote:
The only reason people dislike LoL is because they haven't given is a real chance. Play your Summoner to level 30 and see how much you dislike it. League has been great to their community, and the community is paying them back for it 10-fold. I think it's awesome they've gone from launch to 5 million tournament prize pools in just over a year.

On August 16 2011 00:46 ondema wrote:


Is it not a good thing that they are willing to give 5 million of the money that they have "milked" from the players back to them through having a robust season? The concept of F2P didn't start with LoL and it won't end with it. Judging a game based on its model is a pretty flawed view.

The real issue is LoL's priorities lie with the casual players as they've openly stated over and over. No replays, pause and spectator mode make the game a joke competitively and if they don't add them soon (i.e. significantly before the release of DotA2) LoL will be completely forgotten as a competitive esport.

The only reason people dislike LoL is because they haven't given is a real chance. Play your Summoner to level 30 and see how much you dislike it. League has been great to their community, and the community is paying them back for it 10-fold. I think it's awesome they've gone from launch to 5 million tournament prize pools in just over a year.

On August 16 2011 00:25 InfC.AnatoLiy wrote:


...
You know Valve developed Steam right?

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2011/02/04/steam_revenue_nearly_hits_1_billion

Almost hit 1 bil off 2010 alone. Riot is nothing more than a moth flying around in the bright light that materializes from Valve's aura.

Riot is a joke in the eSports community. Their business side of things they get the job done. Luckily for them that they struct gold as they were the first F2P MOBA game (I think) with micro transactions in a period where MOBA games were dying.

Anyway, my post in response to Riot announcing the S2 prize pool:

+ Show Spoiler +

On August 16 2011 00:15 Alaron wrote:


Fast paced? Why do people that have no clue of the current state of any games competitive state feel the need to make comments like this.

There is only one way this game can be played at top level and that is passive farm-lane-entire-game, with its metagame heavily reliant on a stupid free blink that probably plagued that game since the beginning of time.

Former #1 solo queue player in LoL.

On August 16 2011 00:50 Mordiford wrote:
I would certainly love it if I could purchase all the heroes in Dota 2 for a reasonable price, perhaps that would be great in addition to an unlock mechanic for people who want to play for free.

However, considering the current state of these games, micro-transactions seem to be the future. I particularly don't like the Rune system in LoL very much, I feel like it's kind of unnecessary and a distraction from the champions necessary to get people to spend money on the champions so they can buy the Runes with their IP.

On August 15 2011 22:47 GTR wrote:
i just see all the chinese dota teams just picking up lol for a few days then taking all the money.

On August 16 2011 00:57 FawkingGoomba wrote:

This exactly. If China gets wind of this they'll come take all the money.

On August 16 2011 00:55 Jswizzy wrote:

Is it streamlined or not? If it's streamlined from other MOBA games than my point still stands.

On August 16 2011 00:57 Judicator wrote:


No, there shouldn't be any of that bullshit. One of the reasons why DotA's scene has grown like the way it did is because anyone can pick up the game and learn the game in it's entirety without worrying about access to a item/hero. This feeds the competitive scene as players are only bound by their own skill and not because they don't have access to a certain hero or item.

Why is this important? Because if you have friends and they want to play, they're not stuck playing a limited set of heroes at the start due to some dumbshit unlock system that's there ONLY for the sole purpose of making money which from the community perspective is a piece of shit.

TF2 does the microtransaction system well where it doesn't gimp the fuck out of the player because they didn't put (additional) money into the game. However, HoN/LoL's systems doesn't do that, rather it does the exact opposite.

On August 16 2011 00:57 Judicator wrote:


No, there shouldn't be any of that bullshit. One of the reasons why DotA's scene has grown like the way it did is because anyone can pick up the game and learn the game in it's entirety without worrying about access to a item/hero. This feeds the competitive scene as players are only bound by their own skill and not because they don't have access to a certain hero or item.

Why is this important? Because if you have friends and they want to play, they're not stuck playing a limited set of heroes at the start due to some dumbshit unlock system that's there ONLY for the sole purpose of making money which from the community perspective is a piece of shit.

TF2 does the microtransaction system well where it doesn't gimp the fuck out of the player because they didn't put (additional) money into the game. However, HoN/LoL's systems doesn't do that, rather it does the exact opposite.

On August 16 2011 00:53 Polskaa wrote:
So is blizzard going to step up and put in a million into SC2?





its a joke guys.

On August 16 2011 00:34 NeoIllusions wrote:


Point remains that blanket statement tend to make poor arguments. "Slowest paced MOBA" isn't something quantifiable, so let's not use it as a comparison.

But I digress... this thread isn't another LoL vs HoN thread. You've had plenty of warnings. Must you come into yet another LoL thread just to put it down? I think people understand your disdain for LoL by now.

On August 16 2011 01:00 scintilliaSD wrote:

There is nothing you can do in LoL with money that you can't do without except make your characters prettier. Sounds like TF2 hats. Doesn't TF2 also have buyable weapons that can't be found via normal pickups?

On August 15 2011 22:40 OooLong wrote:
[...]If Valve decide to make Dota2 free, [...]

On August 16 2011 01:03 Judicator wrote:


So you have access to everything straight up with LoL?

TF2's weapons aren't used very often in competitive play and you can unlock or craft them yourself. The point is that TF2's system lets you be competitive with the standard unlocks or layouts.

LoL/HoN's system doesn't let you do that. You can't say you're competitive when your hero pool is X% of someone with money.

On August 16 2011 00:58 Mordiford wrote:
Having a flat price-tag can be even more restrictive. If they manage to execute cosmetic cash shops with a completely free game, then I'll be absolutely blown away, but right now, I don't know if standard retail is the best option in terms of mass market appeal.

On August 16 2011 01:09 Novalisk wrote:


Regardless, you get access to a ton of content for free, which is why LoL got so popular. By the time you're level 30 you should have a lot of characters unlocked, and level 30 isn't enough experience to be considered in any way competitive.

On August 16 2011 01:11 Judicator wrote:


...What?

Keep in mind what platform they're distributing the game on...Steam...which has sales...

Also keep in mind that...people bought the original Xbox at 300 bucks just for Halo...people bought Warcraft 3 Battlechests with the dumb Brady Game Guide at 40 bucks just for DotA and you think they won't buy standalone DotA 2?

Flat price-tag has nothing to do with it, when you're friends start playing it, people will want to play it and buy it. It's the WoW effect and it applies even more here in a team-oriented game.

On August 16 2011 00:52 Logo wrote:


I don't think it's flawed at all. F2P previously was mostly for MMOs which are built based on people being imbalanced against each other, so the F2P situation there doesn't mean much.

In DotA/LoL/etc. there's supposed to be a perceived balance on entering a match where the best team comes out and wins. LoL bends that by having F2P features. Hero unlocks are bad (prevents counter-picking and stuff), but it's actually the levels and the runes that are worse because they just create a flat imbalance for people depending on how long they've played and how they allocate their IP.

So in Lol you can't state that two teams going into a match (as in pre-hero selection) are even and the result is purely from their player skill. Instead until you get to the suckers... er people who've grinded out a ton of stuff... you have to add a ...but X team has better runes/levels or Y team doesn't have access to suddenly OP hero.

If LoL only had hero unlocks and skins I wouldn't like it, but I could grit my teeth and accept that business model. But when you add in the fact that you have to grind runes and levels and the fact that heroes are pretty expensive unless you buy them via IP I can't support it at all and it's enough to make me never do anything associated with Lol if I can help it.

Also another big issue with LoL is the community can't really get that well involved in running their own stuff as there are some important stuff that is missing or only recently implemented by Riot (spectating and ability to play a 100% sure to be even match with full hero unlocks and runes). So even though it may be good they're involved in esports, they HAVE to be doing it because no one else has the ability to do it for them.


Don't tell me what I don't like. I played beta LoL and did hit level 30 on my account and have all the runes I needed before I decided that I no longer wished to support this model. Basically once HoN became a reasonable option with a better business model I got the hell out of there. I really only played Lol at the time because it had easier match making and a better UI than DotA. Lol has also been out for about 1.5-2 years if not longer.

On August 16 2011 01:11 Judicator wrote:


Alot isn't all, thanks for proving my point. There shouldn't be a "by the time I am 30", it's like saying hey you know that 30 levels of grinding? you weren't playing the game actually.

Also thanks for proving my other point, why is the game limiting my abilities? If I am good enough to play competitive why do I need to grind 30 levels and then some to be competitive?

Time invested != True skill.

On August 16 2011 01:02 Alaron wrote:


You really going to pull that card? I don't turn threads to crap everyone on this forum does. I never turn a thread into this crap, I come defending every other MOBA when LoL players talk all the smack they want just because their name is in the title. Every single thread I have ever posted in, with any relation to an argument has been nothing but a response to someone else being aggressive and bashing something that isn't LoL. There is a reason my last ban wasn't a full length ban and it leads me to believe there are biased mod's. If you don't want me posting here why do you put the thread in your subforum?

EDIT: Also 3-12 final score how is that not slow paced man? Every competitive game of LoL plays out like that.

On August 16 2011 00:46 ondema wrote:


Is it not a good thing that they are willing to give 5 million of the money that they have "milked" from the players back to them through having a robust season? The concept of F2P didn't start with LoL and it won't end with it. Judging a game based on its model is a pretty flawed view.

The real issue is LoL's priorities lie with the casual players as they've openly stated over and over. No replays, pause and spectator mode make the game a joke competitively and if they don't add them soon (i.e. significantly before the release of DotA2) LoL will be completely forgotten as a competitive esport.

On August 15 2011 22:39 Goshawk. wrote:


Valve has 1 million in one tournament Riot has 5 million over a year over a world wide LoL scene.

On August 16 2011 01:31 Klaca wrote:

LoL is bigger than basically all Valve games put together currently.. The point is, this is good for esports, so it is worthy effort by riot.

On August 16 2011 00:46 Judicator wrote:
Uh future for HoN and LoL which are 2nd tier (don't even bothering trying to argue this, they both had chances to take over as THE title for the genre but haven't) games maybe.

On August 16 2011 00:46 Judicator wrote:
Let me ask you something, how dynamic is LoL metagame at highly organized and competitive levels?

On August 16 2011 01:42 KiLL_ORdeR wrote:
what I want to know is when will season 2 actually start

it's been "about to start" since the end of sc2 season 1

On August 16 2011 01:46 Gantzie wrote:



Apparently End of August. So not long to go. After PAX?
Big patches coming up soon, with Dominion to start aswell with season 2. i think...

On August 16 2011 00:46 NeoIllusions wrote:
Isn't DotA2 expected to be f2p as well...?
Is Valve following Riot's shitty business model then?

On August 16 2011 01:20 Novalisk wrote:


What game gives you full access to everything for free? If you think 30 levels is grinding then maybe the game isn't for you? And you didn't have to waste a cent while figuring that out.

Fact is that in a team game, it's hard to know how good you are. Limiting ranked play to level 30 means that you can rely on the fact that your teammates won't suck in ranked.

On August 16 2011 02:05 taLbuk wrote:
My biggest problem is LoL has seriously 4 "world class" teams, and only 2 of those are even sponsored by actual eSports teams, while the other 2 are homegrown. Riot can throw money at eSports all they want, but it's not going to suddenly get the big names to play the game OR the big teams to go to Lan events unless they are going to keep paying the tab for it.

On August 16 2011 01:59 OdnoB wrote:


i seriously hope this isnt the case. Playing HoN pre and post free to play there have been a serious increase of people trolling and ruining games as they have unlimited accounts since free to play was implemented. Especially in a MOBA game where it only takes 1 person to trap you in a ruined game for an hour.

On August 15 2011 22:37 Senx wrote:
Silly people thinking valve were actually going to outdo riot games in the esport department.. I dont think people realize how much spare money this company has to throw around.

GG no re valve.

On August 16 2011 02:06 Zirith wrote:
when is blizzard gonna start caring about its games again?

On August 16 2011 02:06 Zirith wrote:
when is blizzard gonna start caring about its games again?

On August 16 2011 02:05 taLbuk wrote:
My biggest problem is LoL has seriously 4 "world class" teams, and only 2 of those are even sponsored by actual eSports teams, while the other 2 are homegrown. Riot can throw money at eSports all they want, but it's not going to suddenly get the big names to play the game OR the big teams to go to Lan events unless they are going to keep paying the tab for it.

On August 16 2011 02:09 NeoIllusions wrote:


I stand corrected. I googled DotA2 and free to play and apparently it's just all speculations right now. There's a Kotaku article about it. As well as an interview with Valve's PR stating they are working on a F2P game. But officially, there's is no word on DotA2's business model.

But food for thought, most gaming developers look at F2P as tomorrow's way to do business. Remember that despite all of SC2's popularity and fame, Activision didn't consider the game to be too profitable. The way Riot is making money is something other companies will try to imitate. Not to mention it's a viable way to combat online game piracy. To a company's bottom line, there are more reasons to use the F2P paradigm than not to.

On August 16 2011 02:12 jstar wrote:
Haha LoL is such a try hard.

Top HoN/Dota teams are just gonna take 20 mins to "learn" the game and roll over every single top LoL team (Haha) to loot the prize money and go home.

On August 16 2011 02:09 NeoIllusions wrote:


I stand corrected. I googled DotA2 and free to play and apparently it's just all speculations right now. There's a Kotaku article about it. As well as an interview with Valve's PR stating they are working on a F2P game. But officially, there's is no word on DotA2's business model.

But food for thought, most gaming developers look at F2P as tomorrow's way to do business. Remember that despite all of SC2's popularity and fame, Activision didn't consider the game to be too profitable. The way Riot is making money is something other companies will try to imitate. Not to mention it's a viable way to combat online game piracy. To a company's bottom line, there are more reasons to use the F2P paradigm than not to.

Rinoaaa Neha
The $5 million will be spread out throughout the season to a variety of events so that many teams have the chance of winning prizes #eSports