The Rise of Riot Games: How They Built a Thriving Esports Ecosystem
Back in 2006, Riot Games saw the light of day. Since then, the company has become one of the most flourishing in both the gaming and esports space. Their unique strategy had only one goal: to make League of Legends a booming success by uniting two diverse ecosystems.
Due to their success, it is worth taking a closer look at Riot Games. We will discuss the goals of the company, its strategies in making League of Legends, the LoL game design, and their business model.
• The goal of Riot Games was to create a new MOBA game with more services (maps, modes, champions, skills) and making it accessible to a wider audience.
• League of Legends is designed require various individual and team skills, as well as easy to understand for viewers, and hence attractive to casuals and pros alike.
• In the LoL Tribunal, players decide if and how players with negative in-game behavior get punished.
• Riot Games stabilizes its professional scene by providing special contracts and guaranteeing a minimum wage for team members.
• Players are encouraged to stream and seek sponsors.
• Streaming, storytelling, and in-game purchases help Riot Games bring the casual and professional ecosystems closer together.
👨💻 From Modding to MOBA
In 2006, two DotA Allstars players founded Riot Games. DotA Allstars is a mod of DotA, which itself is a mod created in 2003 by the WarCraft III community, based on another mod called "Aeon of Strife". Easy, right? 😅
"The initial idea of Riot’s founders was to create a new game based on the success of DotA Allstars with more services (maps, modes, champions, skills) and [making it] more accessible to a wider audience [2]."
The goal was to create a game that was engaging to players, required skill to be good at, and wasn't pay-to-win, while fostering monetization. League of Legends (LoL) covers the first aspect of a "good" game by constantly releasing new champions with different skills and updates, making it highly engaging. (If you want to know more about how the methods used to make video games more engaging to players, you can read about it in this episode and in this episode.)
🎲 The League of Legends Game Design
👾 Catering Casuals and Competitors
In tandem with the esports hype, starting back in 1997 (Quake, and later Counter-Strike and StarCraft), Riot Games managed to implement League of Legends as one of the major esports titles due to its game design and features.
- Players need individual and team skills like strategic thinking, coordination, and communication. The game becomes challenging and attractive enough for casual players to consider becoming professional players a realistic job choice.
- The game is appealing to viewers. It is visually easy to understand and caters to an audience that enjoys bright and colorful games.
One crucial aspect of any competitive game is balance. In Riot Games' case, the casual and professional scenes strongly depend on fair competition. In League of Legends, with its high dynamics and frequent updates, a preseason exists to ensure confidence and sportsmanship in the upcoming season. The preseason is a phase before competition (tournaments and in-game ranking).
👨⚖️ Facing the LoL Tribunal
Another factor is toxic behavior, including aggressiveness, racism, and negative actions like griefing and feeding. To address this, Riot Games created a Tribunal where players can report such behavior. In a second step, independent LoL player decide on the validity of the report (did he do it?), and on what the punishment should be (ranging from warnings to access restrictions or expulsion).
"By imitating general rules of sport, Riot takes care of its players’ base and the general atmosphere in its game is important for players’ retention [1]."
In the professional space, anti-sportive behavior can result in players having to pay fines or being banned from future competitions.
🥊 League of Legends Championship Series (LCS)
💰 Stabilizing the Professional Scene with Money
In 2012, Riot Games created the LCS (League of Legends Championship Series), organizing weekly worldwide competitions where the best teams qualify for the World Championship Series (WCS).
"... it had a great impact on the casual dynamics (explosion in the number of player’s base) and on e-Sport dynamics (explosion in the number of viewers) [1]."
Riot Games was the first developer to provide financial stability to players, including a minimum salary of $25,000 per year for each player and manager and contracts that benefit top pro gamers.
Enabling professional players to have various income streams acts as a stabilizing factor for both competitive and casual scenes. It encourages casual gamers to try streaming (making a living off of it) and making going pro a less risky job choice.
🔗 Connecting Progamer and Viewers
Pro gamers were encouraged by Riot Games to earn additional money through streaming and sponsorship deals. This not only advertised the game but also brought the professional and casual scenes closer together. As a fan, you now get to watch your favorite player(s) on a more regular basis and in a casual environment.
We humans like a good story, and Riot Games knows that. Riot Games knows the power of a good story, investing in the "starification" of pro gamers. For their biggest tournament, Worlds, they create stories around players to forge an emotional connection with fans.
During the early years of StarCraft 2, Korean players were called "faceless Koreans" because fans knew little about them. Later, Blizzard and ESL used storytelling to connect both, the casual and professional, ecosystems.
"Riot succeeded in creating win-win relationships between e-Sport dynamics and casual dynamics [1]."
🌌 Conquering all possible Distribution Channels
Besides the mentioned approaches above, Riot Games seeks support from outside the gaming industry to bring in new viewers and potential players. Famous music artists contribute songs or perform live at Worlds (e.g., Imagine Dragons). Today, you can even get LoL gift cards with Microsoft services.
"The growth of the media ecosystem has boosted the growth of the game in fostering relationships among players [1]."
🪙 Let's Talk Business...
Besides collecting revenue with their streams and sponsorship deals, Riot Games implemented the Free-2-Play business model, alongside specific monetization mechanics. For instance, playing the game is free and spending real money only leads to saving you time (e.g., faster leveling, or more champions) or having a more diverse gaming experience (skins).
Furthermore, offering a free trial for 10 different champions each week encourages players to buy champions they like but don’t own yet. Similarly, weekly discounts for champions and skins are another strategy to get players to spend real money.
"[However], even spending [a] fortune in bonuses will not guarantee victory since it is based on the quality of the strategic play and synergy within a team [1]."
Players can also buy champions, skins etc. using Riot Games' in-game currency Riot Points. Being just a few RP short of purchasing an item is not a coincidence but clever price setting.
In their endeavor of bringing the competitive and casual ecosystems closer together, Riot Games has special and limited offers during Worlds, including five champions and skins inspired by the winning teams, usually combined with other items and/or discounts. During that time, they use the hype and the fans' emotional involvement created to increase sales.
"[The game design and] the F2P business model helped to build a large players’ base multiplying the chance of monetization in the casual dynamics [1]."
Enjoy your Sunday (and/or week) everyone. Till next Sunday.
Christian 😃
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"I love this type of content, thank you Chris."
