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The International 3 begins, prize pool over $2.8 million
Valve's The International 3 championships for DOTA 2 kicked off this week with a prize pool worth $2.8 million, the biggest for a single event in eSports history, Gamespot reported on Saturday. The event began on August 2 with a 1v1 Solo Championship and a Wild Card match. The roster for the Solo Championship and the upcoming All-Star match were chosen by fans using the Compendium, an interactive tool that rewards players with virtual item drops for predicting the outcome of matches. Each purchase of the $10 Compendium contributes $2.50 to the prize pool. Valve writer Ted Kosmatka tweeted that The International had 400,000 concurrent viewers during its first day. Riot's Season 2 Championship series for League of Legends peaked at 1.1 million concurrent viewers last year, making it the most-watched competitive gaming event of all time. The International's main event begins on August 7 and will conclude on August 11.
League of Legends steels itself for patch 3.10
How do you know when a patch is a big deal? How about when its designation ends with a zero and when it has its own seven-minute preview video. League of Legends patch 3.10 has both of these, and while it's not yet live, players can check out the full patch notes and patch video to prepare for the changes. Patch 3.10 begins with a nerf to Elise's spiderling pets and her rappel range. It goes on to make Twisted Fate's passive fit his gambling theme better, make a few jungle tweaks, take runic bulwark out, and add a new mid-level magic resistance item to the game. You can check out the 3.10 preview video after the jump.
Uncle Sam: League of Legends pros are pro athletes
"The United States government recognizes League of Legends pro players as professional athletes, and awards visas to essentially work in the United States under that title," Riot e-sports manager Nick Allen tells Gamespot. Allen says that international tourney organization is now much easier, though getting the initial batch of visas was a "lengthy process" that required a lot of legwork in order to provide enough proof to satisfy government officials.
Riot is apparently a really good place to work
Business Insider has teamed with Glassdoor.com to publish a list of the 25 best tech companies to work for, according to those companies' own employees. Reviews and ratings were compiled spanning the past 12 months, and only companies with more than 25 employee reviews were considered. Riot is the only gaming company on the list, but the League of Legends studio places a respectable fourth thanks to glowing employee feedback. "The company takes ridiculously good care of us, and tries every step of the way to make sure we're engaged culturally, intellectually, and socially with the industry and each other. It's by far the best place I've ever worked," gushes one staffer.
Anonymous donor posts 500K bail for jailed League of Legends player
Two weeks ago we reported that a teenager from Texas was incarcerated last March after his comments on Facebook during a verbal exchange with another League of Legends player were deemed terrorist threats by authorities. Jailed for months, Justin Carter has been in solitary confinement after repeated assaults by other inmates and on suicide watch due to depression. After reading about Carter's plight, numerous folks have stepped forward to sign the petition for the boy's release. Another anonymous donor has come forward and donated $500,000 to the family to meet bail, allowing Carter to return home until his court appearance on the July 16th.
The problem with F2P is dishonest product marking, says David Paris
Game developer David Paris has penned a new blog at Gamasutra focused on the stigma of free-to-play business models. Paris, whose bio lists him as the builder of the world's first subscription-based internet MOG (Valhalla), says that there's nothing inherently wrong with F2P that more honest product marking won't fix. And thus we come to the core of the problem - the lack of honesty about how much impact IAPs [in-app purchases] have on games. The truth is that F2P monetization is frequently very much about concealing exactly this impact from its players so that we will either play until we are so invested that we will cough up and pay, or so that we'll provide an audience for the whales to lord it over. Burying pay-to-win mechanics under an initial layer of skill-to-win, providing advantages that become required for competitive play, roadblocks or surprisingly reduced game functionality tucked underneath paid barriers that weren't obvious when you started. He cites League of Legends and Marvel Heroes as games that do it right and wrong, respectively, though he does criticize LoL for failing to offer an all-the-content-for-a-single-price option.
Dota 2 no longer in beta; Valve implements new player queue
Dota 2 has been in beta for around two years. In that time it became effectively the biggest game on Steam, with a monthly playerbase of over three million and a maximum concurrency of 300,000 players. There's even a $2 million tournament coming up in August centered on this game that's lived for so long behind somewhat closed doors. Every beta must end, of course, and Dota 2's is no different. Valve has announced that starting today, Dota 2 is officially out of beta and that all Steam users can now download the free-to-play game at their leisure. There's just one small catch: Thanks to what Valve is anticipating will be a sudden crush of new players, a launch queue has been established that will bring people to Dota 2 in controlled waves. To get into the launch queue, all you need to do is download Dota 2 on Steam. The first wave of new players should gain access to the game sometime this week. In the meantime, players can (and really, really should) play the game's single-player tutorial missions.
League of Legends video previews 3.9 patch
As is wont to happen, patches bring change. And League of Legend's upcoming 3.9 patch is no different. In the latest video patch preview, Riot Games highlights some of those incoming alterations to the popular MOBA. This time around Draven is the first in line for a nerf bat makeover. Deemed an unfair champion (thanks to his unmatched early game damage), the team toned Draven down by modifying his passive ability. Next up, LeBlanc is actually getting buffed up to improve her flexibility. And finally, Oracle's Elixer and wards are getting a few changes; kill gold for a ward will be split between the player that finds it as well as the one that kills it, and Oracle's Elixer will persist through death, but have a shortened duration and reveal radius. You can catch all the details in the video after the break. [Source: Riot Games press release]
Texas teen still in jail after February League of Legends argument
Texas teen Justin Carter has been in jail since March 27th due to comments he made on Facebook that stemmed from a February confrontation with another user in League of Legends. Carter, 18, reportedly posted "oh yeah, I'm real messed up in the head, I'm going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still beating hearts." According to his father, his next two lines of text were "lol" and "JK." After a Canadian woman saw the Facebook post and called the police, Justin Carter was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat, Gamespot reports. Carter faces up to eight years in prison. Family and friends have started an online petition asking for his release as well as adjustments to anti-terrorism legislation.
I went to a Dota 2 tournament and not one person called me a noob
There are many things you could say about people who play MOBAs. Most of those things would be negative. Games in the MOBA bracket, most notably League of Legends and Dota 2, have a reputation for being unkind to new players, both in terms of the mechanical skill required to play and the vitriolic communities that tear apart new players for not being instantly granted that skill upon downloading the game. Conduct in MOBAs is so awful that it has become a design issue. Riot Games created a Tribunal system that allows players to report the bad behavior of others, and Valve has done much the same thing. Every new developer showing off an in-development MOBA is at some point asked the question, "How are you going to deal with all the jerks?" Built-in mechanisms for handling abusive teammates and opponents are now considered mandatory features. There is no question that some MOBA players are bad apples. But something has always bothered me about the pigeonholing of these gamers into this negative space. Surely not all MOBA players are elitist snobs waiting to smack down any new player stupid enough to join a public match. Surely not all of these passionate gamers are horrible humans waiting in the dark to pounce on unsuspecting noobs with a barrage of verbal abuse; there have to be some friendly diamonds in the manure-piled rough. I swung by the first-ever Chicago Dota 2 Open, billed as the biggest open Dota 2 tournament in the Midwest, to find out.
RIFT tops Raptr's May most-played list
Is RIFT taking the charts by storm? At first glance when it comes to Raptr's most-played PC and Xbox 360 titles in May, it would appear so. However, just as with everything else associated with statistics, it's important to know the full story before jumping to conclusions. RIFT jumped up 13 spots to garner a 7.76% share of player hours in May, topping even League of Legends and World of Warcraft. This was largely thanks to a reward campaign that quadrupled the number of players from March. The company notes that Neverwinter was also a "big mover" in the month among Raptr players, netting 11th place.
Why MMOs stopped getting bigger
If after looking over the state of MMOs lately you've been left singing, "Where have all the big games gone?" to yourself, Ramin Shokrizade has an answer just for you. A virtual world economist, Shokrizade states that up until EVE Online and World of Warcraft, games grew in size and scope and then stopped. Why? Because it was never about getting big; it was about protecting and ensuring the equity of the gamers. Shokrizade delves into why equity -- the sum of gamers' in-game efforts, such as levels and possessions -- is so important in a game and why those games that ignore protecting this equity don't measure up when it comes to success. He discusses how microtransactions that deal in in-game content destroy equity as well as how expansions that make previous content (such as crafting tiers) obsolete do the same thing. He then goes on to discuss the games that get it right, like League of Legends and World of Tanks.
League of Legends reveals new cinematic trailer: A Twist of Fate
If you've been following the League of Legends competitive scene, you've probably noticed tiny cinematic snippets in promotional videos for big events. Those little clips have all been part of a huge effort at Riot Games spanning the past several years and aiming to create an epic cinematic trailer. Following last night's conclusion of the League of Legends All-Star event in Shanghai, Riot finally released its impressive four-and-a half-minute cinematic trailer A Twist of Fate. The video has been met with a huge response from fans, reaching over 1.2 million views in less than 24 hours. Continue past the cut to watch the full embedded trailer or head over to YouTube to watch the Behind the Scenes video on the making of the trailer.
LoL video previews 3.7 patch, introduces Custom Item Sets
Instead of just rolling out a wall of text to discuss the changes and updates hitting League of Legends in the 3.7 patch, Riot Games offers players a video preview to get a glimpse of what's to come. And among the goodies is one of the most player-requested features -- Custom Item Sets. Want to create a specific set of items, tailored to individual champions and/or maps before you get into a match and the fighting begins? Or how about just browse through the entire item shop on PVP.net just to see what's available? Both will be possible with the new Custom Item Sets feature. Initially, these custom builds will be stored on players' local machines only, but the devs plan on adding server-side storage in the future. The video also discusses some balance changes to the champions Rumble, Twisted Fate, Caitlyn, and Nunu. Check out the specifics after the break.
League of Legends player goes pro to pay rent
What would you do if you were kicked out of your house as a teenager with nothing but a bicycle, a computer, and a tiny bit of cash to your name? Most people would probably answer, "beg on a street corner" or "curl up and cry forever," but not League of Legends player Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng, who decided he was going to make ends meet by becoming a full-time pro gamer. Seems like a long shot, right? After all, pro gaming isn't what most people would call a reliable source of income. But somehow, he pulled it off, becoming an integral part of pro-gaming team Counter Logic Gaming in the process. Peng's story is so remarkable that the folks over at Machinima.com have put together a short documentary video that highlights Doublelift's rise to power in the League of Legends pro scene. It's something of a rags-to-riches story for the gaming generation, and whether you're a fan of e-sports or just a fan of uplifting success stories, it's certainly worth a watch. And as it happens, you can find the video past the cut, so why don't you check it out for yourself?
Research firm says Dota 2 tops League of Legends [Updated]
Look out League of Legends: You've just been knocked down to second place. DFC Intelligence has determined that Valve's Dota 2 is now the most-played online game in the North America and Europe, with LoL in the number two spot and World of Warcraft in a distant third. DFC made this claim based on its PC Game Meter service, which draws data from multiple sources. The service does not include browser and casual games in its report. Update: Riot Games contacted us to say that DFC has retracted the report press release. GamesIndustry also posted the following update: "According to a Riot Games spokesperson, League of Legends sees 'over 500,000 peak concurrent players every day on just the EU West shard,' which doesn't even touch on players in the United States. This is contrasted with the 325,879 players that Valve's Steamgraph shows as the all-time high for Dota 2 beta."
League of Legends turns the spotlight on Karma
A game like League of Legends relies heavily upon the ability to rebalance characters. Sometimes you'll wind up with a particular champion without the necessary abilities to really work in any role, obviating any serious use of that character. But the development team can always rework the character, which is exactly what's been done to the latest spotlighted champion, Karma. With a reworked set of abilities centered around her ultimate skill, Karma's got a new lease on life, or at least being a multi-role support character. Karma's new playstyle heavily revolves around use of her Mantra ability -- her passive ability reduces its cooldown, and all three of her other abilities are modified when Mantra is activated first. The focus of her abilities is on slowing enemies and protecting allies, but with careful use of Mantra and her skills she can hold her own in a straight contest. Take a look at the full spotlight video past the break for build strategies, tricks for the early game, and more useful information.
Riot rules on League of Legends Elo-Boosting, alleged DDoS attacks
Riot recently celebrated the five-million-concurrent-players milestone, but it seems that not all of those players are on the level. League of Legends' competition committee has dropped the smack down on a number of pro players due to Elo-Boosting. The company defines Elo-Boosting as "the repetitive and intentional act of an individual playing on someone else's account (a "client") for the purpose of artificially improving the client's Elo rating." Seven players and one coach, representing pro clubs that include Curse and compLexity, have had their accounts suspended for 14 days. Additionally, the cheaters have had their Season Two rewards revoked. Riot also issued a "first and final" warning to Good Game University general manager Sam "Hexo" Bouchard for allegedly using a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack to disrupt an opponent's internet connectivity. The LoL competition committee provides an example of Bouchard's antics and it also notes that he currently boasts the worst harrassment rating among all LCS North American players. [Thanks Officer Jenny!]
League of Legends hits the five million concurrency mark
League of Legends is a runaway success train with no brakes and millions of passengers, it seems. Riot Games announced that the title "regularly exceeds" five million concurrent players across the globe, which is an increase of two million since last October. "We're humbled by the support of players and now more than ever feel the weight of those expectations," Riot Games wrote on its website. "Good luck, have fun, and please have mercy on our servers." Of course, that number would be a little higher if all of League of Legends' 32 million monthly players would log in at the same time. If someone can organize that flash mob, we'll be first in line to salute the achievement.
Guardians of Middle-Earth: A fun game doomed by its business model
The MOBA genre has exploded in recent years, with global giant League of Legends becoming the most actively played video game in the world and competitive tournaments getting more viewers than some televised sports. Today's MOBAs appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike, but until recently very few had crossed the console barrier. Released on PS3 and XBox 360 last December, Guardians of Middle-Earth took traditional DotA gameplay and made the quite experimental leap onto consoles. I'm not much of a console gamer (you can take my mouse and keyboard away when you pry them from my cold, dead hands), but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see how Guardians of Middle-Earth stacks up against its PC-based counterparts. Monolith Studios has done great things in adapting MOBA gameplay to a console control scheme and audience, and the core game really is a lot of fun to play. But in charging an initial purchase price for a game that relies on having a large community, publisher Warner Bros. may have accidentally consigned Guardians to the scrapheap. In this hands-on opinion piece, I explore Guardians of Middle-Earth and ask why it's already a ghost town just three months after launch.
