Why is Mobile the future of League of Legends?

SEA Games 30 goes down in history as Southeast Asia’s first sporting event to feature competition content Esports in medals. However, when the organizers were still engrossed in choosing the names in the competition list, they were surprised Tencent gives an answer that will surprise anyone.

Initially, the organizers expected the Chinese giant to suggest bringing League of Legends (League of Legends) into the medal set. With League of Legends being developed by Riot Games, which is a company under Tencent, this is a perfectly reasonable thing. But strangely, Tencent suggested giving Arena of Valoralso known as Arena of valorinto the official competition of SEA Games 2019.

While Tencent has always been known through popular Mobile Game titles, League of Legends on PC is still a Game title MOBA most popular today. But it seems that from Tencent’s point of view, the future vision is very clear… and it’s called Mobile.
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Experience MOBA on Mobile brings a very special feeling. A lot of “hardcore” League of Legends gamers often look down on Game titles MOBA Mobile as an inferior product, believing that the complexity of a strategy game series like this is difficult to reproduce on the mobile platform. And they were right… but even that couldn’t stop the Mobile Game from attracting millions of gamers, creating the two main MOBA players in the world today.

In general, MOBA Mobile and MOBA PC gamers in Southeast Asia are separate groups. Mobile gamers may not play MOBAs on PC and PC gamers may not play MOBAs on Mobile – Mr. Darang S Candra, an analyst at Niko Partners let me know.

Typically, League of Legends was brought to Mobile, Riot had to tweak the game time to half while the gameplay system was simplified. This cut causes the MOBA gaming community to be divided and Game Mobile’s high accessibility is gradually transforming in the current gaming village.
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At its peak, the Chinese version of Arena of Valor had 200 million gamers and became the most popular and profitable name in this country for 4 consecutive years. Since its release in October 2015 until now, the game’s total revenue has reached 4.5 billion USD, combined from the App Store and Google Play according to the data of the company. Sensor Tower.

But ironically, Arena of Valor is not the MOBA Mobile Game that Tencent originally wanted. According to some sources, Tencent asked Riot Games to develop the version League of Legends Mobile but then this US-based game team refused, saying that the experience of the PC version could not be brought to the mobile platform. So Tencent decided to develop its own game Arena of Valor, which we later know under the name Arena of Valor.

During the time that followed when Arena of Valor achieved countless successes, Riot could not turn away from the potential of the Mobile realm for much longer. And in response, Riot officially announced League of Legends Wild Rift – League of Legends Wild Riftpaving the way for League of Legends to conquer the mobile platform.
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Looking at the control system, Gameplay as well as the game tempo, we can see a lot of similarities in the two names LoL Mobile and Arena of Valor. However, instead of looking deeply into the differences, we should focus on how Riot has finally become a prime example for the future of MOBA. That’s Mobile.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is also another MOBA Mobile name that has seen more or less success in the Southeast Asian market. Not so that since its launch in 2016, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has had 500 million downloads and 75 million active gamers in the game.

Jeff Chau – Co-founder of GameGether, thinks that MOBA Mobile games offer a simpler and more fun experience.

MOBA plays faster on Mobile with an average duration of only 10 to 20 minutes while the champion’s ultimate can appear after only 2-3 minutes of playing the game. It spins immediately into the action element.

He commented that this key not only helps gamers but also viewers feel more excited when the combat, coordination and counter-attacks take place continuously on the screen.
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But how competitive will Esports be if people only need to use 2 fingers to control it? Mr. Chau said that although MOBA Mobile has many big barriers in terms of control, it is the inaccuracy of that individual that helps gamers focus more on making macro decisions at the level of Team, themselves. was also an image boldly challenging and entertaining.

“Although a player can take on multiple enemies at the same time, it doesn’t happen often. Teamwork has far greater rewards than individual handling – which we do. we see more in PC.”

Besides the Gameplay section, Mr. Chau also pointed out that the “Push Notification” feature is also a strength when reminding gamers to come watch and pay more attention to the matches.

“Arena of Valor’s concurrent in-game viewership in Esports is often higher than the viewership of all Livestream platforms combined.”

In the gaming world, more views means more influence.

While both gamers and streamers of Esports titles on PC are considered as stars in Southeast Asia, Esports gamers on Mobile often have more views, and therefore have a greater influence on the world. the entire gaming community. – Mr. Candra from Niko Partners commented.
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Even when many MOBA Game developers have begun to put their hopes on Mobile, not all MOBA Mobile games have been successful. Even 2 big names like Arena of Valor or Mobile Legends Bang Bang are all facing declining popularity.

Vainglory – The 3rd largest MOBA game on Mobile, also witnessed a 62% decline in revenue, earning only 420,000 USD in revenue last quarter. At the end of May, the Super Evil Megacorp development team also announced to withdraw from the Esports segment to focus on the development process, much to the disappointment of the gaming community.

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