Chapter 327: Holographic Projection Match
In Chen Mo’s previous life, Riot Games’ method for seizing market share with *League of Legends* was simple: rely on an incredibly fast update pace.
In the initial beta version of *League of Legends* (2009), there were only 22 champions. Over the following six months, Riot maintained a pace of updating 1–2 new champions every two weeks. By the time the first season ended at the end of 2011, over two years, the champion count had grown to 87.
Moreover, after entering seasons 2 and 3, Riot largely sustained this high-speed update rhythm, stabilizing at one new champion every two weeks to a month. Among these were classics like Blind Monk, Orianna, and Zed.
It was precisely this high-frequency update speed that kept *League of Legends* consistently appealing to players, steadily boosting its popularity.
In Chen Mo’s previous life, part of the reason *Overwatch*’s popularity declined was its slow updates—only one new hero and one new map every six months, which simply couldn’t meet player demand.
Of course, different game types have different hero creation difficulties, and the required development speed naturally varies. But the problem is that players don’t care about your difficulties; they only care about how fast you update and whether there’s new content to play.
Updates too slow? Then goodbye—I’m off to play another game.
So, Chen Mo placed great importance on the update speed for new champions. In his view, speed was the most critical factor.
Fortunately, developing new champions was relatively easy. Once the champion’s appearance, skills, and numerical strength were clearly defined, creating new champions was essentially an assembly-line process. Chen Mo no longer needed to oversee it constantly.
By rapidly expanding the champion pool, the game could get on track more quickly. Once the champion count reached around 100, the pace could be slowed down.
…
Additionally, the overseas version of *League of Legends* was also in preparation.
In China, *League of Legends* had already essentially crushed *S Within*, making a global server impossible. Servers had to be set up by region.
Even with the internet speeds of this parallel world, achieving a global server with under 10ms latency was far too fantastical.
Moreover, Chen Mo had no intention of creating a global server, partly for future strategic planning.
In terms of server setup, Chen Mo prioritized three major regions: the North American server, the European server, and the Korean server. These regions had the largest player bases, decent skill levels, and strong economic capabilities, making them key areas to focus on.
Separate servers would have some impacts, such as a lack of cross-region communication, differing tactical preferences, and widening skill gaps.
Chen Mo’s previous life was a good example. The regional server system led to a lack of interaction between teams from different regions, widening the gap. By the time the annual S-series World Championship arrived, each region’s true strength would be exposed, making it hard to stimulate players’ sense of regional pride.
Within their own regions, teams seemed like gods battling it out, feeling great about themselves. But once they hit the world stage, their true colors showed, and they got crushed by other regions. This was too disheartening for players.
However, this approach also had many benefits. The biggest was that it could conceal the true strength of each region, on one hand ensuring the popularity of local leagues, and on the other hand giving players something to look forward to before the World Championship began.
It was precisely because everyone was unsure of the inter-regional strength before the World Championship that anticipation was created.
As for the situation in Chen Mo’s previous life, where the Korean server dominated *LoL*, the factors were complex. There were issues with the game’s inherent characteristics, as well as problems with the esports industry, club management, and the broader environment.
Chen Mo also hoped that by changing the game’s characteristics, each region could showcase its own unique style, rather than having one playstyle unify the entire world.
Of course, that was all in the future. First, *League of Legends* needed to become popular worldwide.
…
In the experience store.
The PC experience area had been almost entirely taken over by *League of Legends*. Players playing other games were rare.
Moreover, the entire PC experience area was particularly lively, just like internet cafes in Chen Mo’s previous life, with players shouting everywhere.
“Kill that Demacia!”
“Teemo is in this bush, he’s not moving, go kill him!”
“Haha, this Ryze got outplayed by me!”
“Save me!”
Although it was a bit noisy, as long as the players were happy, that was fine. Besides, when the entire PC area was noisy, it created a strange atmosphere that made everyone play with extra enthusiasm.
On the second floor of the experience store, the holographic projection viewing area was even more popular than the PC experience area on the first floor.
The earliest viewers had already surrounded the holographic projection equipment. Those who arrived later took the nearby seats and the massage chairs in the mobile game experience area. Those who came even later could only stand at the door and watch.
It all stemmed from Chen Mo’s announcement that today, a *League of Legends* match would be held in the holographic projection viewing area.
Many players had already seen the holographic projection equipment; it was very interesting. But playing *League of Legends* with it? That was something they’d never seen before.
The holographic projection equipment was troublesome to maintain, so it was only opened periodically. Not everyone could play it. As soon as they heard that *League of Legends* would be played with the holographic projection equipment, all the players got excited.
Many players also heard the news and specifically took the subway early to come over.
In two small soundproof rooms, the players were ready.
These ten players were all selected from the PC experience area. The lowest rank was Platinum 5. Chen Mo divided them into two teams based on their ranks and positions, representing the red and blue sides.
Today’s match was a Bo3, best of three games. The five winning players would each receive a Katarina figurine, while the five losing players would each get a Teemo hat.