Chapter 383: The Mass Foundation of Competitive Events
It wasn’t just Xu Xiaojun and Yao Bo, those heads of gaming platforms, who were puzzled; many game designers were also wondering why, before “League of Legends,” no esports game had ever achieved such a scale.
Previously, there had never been such a large-scale esports tournament, so many industry insiders believed that esports competitions could never reach the scale of traditional sports.
The root cause lay with the audience. Traditional sports were popular because they had many viewers. Take soccer, for example: there are countless soccer fans worldwide, and even those who don’t play the game still love watching matches.
It was precisely this broad mass foundation that allowed soccer tournaments to thrive. Whether it was the World Cup, the European Championship, the Olympics, or even a national or regional league, it could get massive crowds of fans excited.
But esports was different. The biggest problem preventing esports competitions from becoming widespread was the lack of a sufficient audience base.
Although the situation in this parallel world differed from Chen Mo’s previous life, there was one commonality: before “League of Legends” appeared, no game had ever achieved this level of popularity.
Most games had a lifespan of one to two years. And soccer’s history? At least several hundred years.
The unique nature of the gaming industry meant that most games were quickly replaced by new projects. A game that could remain popular for centuries like soccer? That was nothing short of a pipe dream.
In this parallel world, the mobile, PC, and VR platforms had all developed, but each had its own flaws. While many people played mobile games, their competitive nature was weak, making it hard to ensure spectator appeal. Some VR games, like FPS titles, could offer strong competitiveness, but the player base was small, and the viewing experience wasn’t great, so they couldn’t dominate.
For esports competitions, while higher competitiveness meant higher spectator appeal, all of this was predicated on players having actually played the game.
If players hadn’t played it, they wouldn’t even understand what was happening in the match. How could they enjoy watching it?
Thus, “League of Legends” was a game born for tournaments. Its features perfectly aligned with the needs of esports.
It had a massive audience base. The game itself had a huge player population, and every player was a potential viewer for the matches.
The spectator mode from a top-down perspective was perfect for watching. Most players could understand what was happening on the battlefield, and it was also suitable for commentators.
It offered high competitiveness and high spectator appeal. Although “League of Legends” was a relatively simple MOBA game, professional matches still featured many deep strategies and flashy plays, enough to distinguish the skill levels of different teams.
The data from the “League of Legends” Season 1 World Championship made all channel distributors and designers envious, because behind this popularity lay a very broad prospect.
But they couldn’t do anything about it. Even if they tried to dress other games in the skin of esports, it would be hard to replicate the tournament popularity of “League of Legends.”
Because, as things stood, no domestic or foreign game had managed to achieve the same characteristics as “League of Legends.”
In the end, Xu Xiaojun and Yao Bo submitted an analysis report, breaking down the reasons for the high popularity of the “League of Legends” World Championship. But a solution? They were at a loss.
Because the esports atmosphere built by “League of Legends” depended entirely on the game itself, and with its dominance on the PC platform, no other PC game could currently compare.
Emperor Dynasty Interactive Entertainment and the Divine Fantasy Gaming Platform had to admit that this was an unsolvable deadlock. And the “League of Legends” World Championship was merely the game’s backup plan.
……
After the first round of the group stage ended, the teams entered a three-day rest period.
During this time, the teams could do whatever they wanted. Some foreign teams chose to explore Magic City, experiencing the local culture and customs, while others continued to train hard, preparing for the second round of the group stage.
“Sharpening the spear on the eve of battle” was crucial in esports competitions.
Because before the different regional leagues clashed, no one could say for sure which strategy was the strongest, especially given the differences in skill and playstyle between regions. For example, European and American teams preferred stable early development and team fights in the late game. This approach worked fine in their own regions, but when facing Chinese or Korean teams, the opponents wouldn’t give them time to develop peacefully. They would snowball the game and crush them in the early phase.
So, after the first round of the group stage, it was common to see winning teams get complacent and overtaken, or losing teams ramp up their training, pull out new strategies, and stage a comeback.
In the hotel, besides the training rooms prepared for the various teams, Chen Mo had also set up a private lounge for himself.
Su Jinyu and the others had gone out to play. Since they usually worked in the Imperial Capital, they wanted to take the chance to visit some famous sights in Magic City, like the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Bund.
After all, they weren’t like the teams with training tasks; they were purely there for fun.
During this time, Chen Mo and Li Jingsi had been playing games in the lounge.
Chen Mo hadn’t played “League of Legends” in a while. Although his rank had dropped, his hidden MMR was still high. So, he and Li Jingsi duo-queued, once again wreaking havoc in the national server’s Challenger tier.
Maintaining a perfect win streak was now basically impossible. Since “League of Legends” was a five-player game, Chen Mo couldn’t guarantee that his teammates would always perform at their best. It was normal for them to underperform due to mindset or luck issues.
Still, Chen Mo and Li Jingsi maintained a high win rate.
After finishing a match where he went 8-0-3 as Diana, Chen Mo received a call from Sun Xiao.
Chen Mo answered: “Hello, what’s up?”
Sun Xiao said: “Boss Chen, it’s like this. A few club managers in Magic City came to me, asking for your contact info. They probably want to secure a spot in next year’s ‘League of Legends’ professional league.”
“Tell them the spots are taken. But the spots for the second-tier league are still available. If they submit the relevant qualification documents, I’ll arrange for them to play in the second-tier league,” Chen Mo said.
Sun Xiao hesitated: “Uh, but Boss Chen, several of these clubs are right here in Magic City, and the owners have come in person. Maybe you could meet them and tell them face to face?”
Chen Mo thought for a moment: “Alright.”
Sun Xiao: “Then, should I arrange a dinner?”
“No, no need for a dinner,” Chen Mo said. “Just have them come directly to me. I’m in the lounge right now. There are a few long sofas here, so there should be enough space.”
“Got it,” Sun Xiao said. “I’ll have them come over.”