The year was 2003, and a popular video game at the time called, “Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos,” was being heavily modified. One of these modifications, “Defense of the Ancients,” (DotA), became so popular it sparked a new genre of video game: the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena or MOBA.

Six years later, in the year 2009, a small game company, at the time, released their very own MOBA: “League Of Legends.” This was intended to be a more creative and open minded twist compared to the original DotA. Little did Riot Games know, their game would soon become the most played game in the world. 

League of Legends currently is the most played game in the world with 115 million monthly players. Junior Arjun Kunver recently started playing “League of Legends” in May of 2020 and hasn’t stopped playing the game ever since.

“All of the 150 champions in League have different play styles which can suit most players’ needs,”  Kunver said.

The meta in “League of Legends” is constantly evolving as Riot Games patches and updates the game in two week intervals. This helps keep the game fresh and interesting for the players. Junior Joshua Sun has been playing “League of Legends” for around four years and has learned a lot about the game in his time playing.

“One reason I keep coming back to League is that Riot does update the game every two weeks. I don’t think I’m the only one that keeps coming back to it because of that. It’s always new and exciting coming back and reading the patch notes.” Sun said. 

League of Legends usually holds the top spot in terms of viewer count on the video game live streaming platform Twitch. Many influencers stream the game which has caused many people to begin playing. According to junior Luke Tao, the game also keeps their player base as it is addicting in a way that once you play a game, you just want to play another one. Tao started playing League of Legends around May 2020 and has been enjoying the game with his friends ever since.

“I think part of the reason people keep playing the game is the sunk cost fallacy, people put so much time, money and effort into the game that they don’t want to stop playing it.” Tao said.