League of Legends

About the Game

League of Legends is a Free-To-Play MOBA-type game available for PC. Published on 27 October 2009, the game of the american developer studio Riot Games has gained "a level of academic attention appropriate for its significance on both the eSports industry and the contemporary game culture." According to PC GAMER in a press release to the 10th anniversary in October 2019, League of legends reaches about 8 million player logins everyday and is therefore one of the most popular and relevant games throughout the gaming culture these days.

Core Game Mechanics

Summoner´s Rift

Standart Game on ‚Summoner´s Rift‘

In a standard game, which usually lasts between 15 minutes and one hour, two teams composed of 5 players clash on the battle arena called ‚summoner's rift‘, each of them controlling one of 148 currently available champions (January, 2019). The Rift is a square area with a diagonal riverbed dividing the pitch into two halves. Those separated sections are in control of each team: In the bottom left corner lies the base with the so called ‚spawn point‘ (starting point of the player´s champions) and the ‚Nexus‘ of the ‚blue‘ team. The upper right corner is the base location of the opposing team ‚red‘. As shown in the picture on the right, there are also the three lanes 'Top', 'Middle' and 'Bottom', which connect the team bases and by intersecting with the riverbed frame the four remaining zones: known as the jungle'.

Nexus, Turrets, Minions and Monsters

To win the game, the opponents ‚nexus‘ must be destroyed. Deep in the center of a base it is protected by two heavy turrets, which have to be demolished first. The way to get there along the lanes is fortified with further turrets, three of which reinforce the entrances to a base and two more are positioned on each lane, to control a certain area and provide visibility and protection for the player´s champions. Once the first minute mark has passed, the actual game begins with the spawning of ‚minions‘ and ‚monsters‘. These NPCs are mainly intended to generate gold for the players if killed by them. While monsters are placed in their fixed positions in the jungle and only engage in the game when being attacked, the minions spawn in waves of 30 seconds in the bases of both teams and march in groups along each lane towards each other to meet in the middle of the field. They attack enemy minions, turrets and champions in their way and, as the game progresses, slowly make their way towards the enemy nexus.

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Research-Relevant Topics of the Game

Playing the Meta - Mategaming in League of Legends

Using the typology created by Michael S. Debus in his elaboration of a metagame ontology and the work of the researcher Scott Donaldson: Mechanics and Metagame: a binary expertise in League of Legends (2015), in this chapter various aspects of the LoL-Metagame will be discussed.

For more information on this research approach, see: Metagaming

In the era of digital video game distribution services, such as Steam and Early Access Games, the industry has shifted increasingly from finished games as closed systems, to open ones that are been developed continuously even (or especially) after their release. League of Legends is no exception, rather a prime example: Developer Riot Games releases new patches every month to provide new game content (like new or remade champions, skills, skins or map changes), balance changes, bug fixes and other technical issues. As a result, the game can never be considered complete and has been developed steadily since its release. This has a great impact on the surrounding metagame, which constantly changes and transforms with the game itself. During this act of game transformation, different forms of the play are shaped over time and geographical and social domains. Debus points out for rule metagame case studies (but arguably for metagame case studies in generell) that it's important to "[...] explicitly state what timeframe and geographical location the research covers."

Metagame Environment: The surrounding Game Culture - Social and Added (Material) Metagame

Picture Section of Recommended Aatrox Rune-Build.

Picture Section of Win-Rate Statistic of Aatrox

Keeping in mind that a large part of this culture is located in the asian hemisphere, this elaboration only covers data of the english speaking areas, however the league of legends culture has always been internationally connected. To start with the network of theorycraft, there are some types of websites and softwares to cover. One is the League of Legends meta board on reddit, as a forum created in 2011, were players engage with each other in order to exchange views and discuss the game, its mechanics and current metas in every imaginable form. Related to this there are softwares like discord, were communities can create servers for similar reasons. Donaldson underlines the fact, that this shows metagaming as an collaborative group activity, despite metagaming can be an individual subjective practice. Another type of external resource are youtube videos, or video content in generell. The So you want to main- playlist (2015-2018) of the youtube channel bricky serves as a good and popular example. In his video series the youtuber gives an entertaining but still informative overview about specific champions, their lore, strengths and weaknesses and how to play them, by sharing his own experience and referring to what can be called the champion meta at this time. When it comes to third party software and websites which gathers statistics and information about the game, among several other providers, a significant website is op.gg. The website provides for instance statistics about win/lose- and pick/ban- rates of and rune- or item-builds for champions on the different game roles (e.g. top-lane, support or jungle), statistics about every player account or the overall current leaderboard of the league system in ranked play. All of this can be located in the social metagame, but as discussed on the metagaming page has various traces that can be followed into the other four metagame categories.

Official Additional Content & Third Party Applications

The league system, introduced with season three in 2013, can count as a added (material) metagame component, which was implemented by the developers and expanded through the years. As of 2020, from Iron to Challenger league, players can compete in a kind of overarching game structure within the game, that is made up of many individual games, to achieve personal goals in the resulting leaderboard.

When it comes to third party applications, a stance of Riot Games says: "No software should interfere directly with the in-game player experience, from when you press “Play” to the end-of-game screen." Modding is a pupular practice in the context of digital games, which also connects to the added (material) metagame. For League of Legends, as a competitive e-sport game, it is more problematic than to other games (e.g. Minecraft). What is meant in this official stance of Riot is that competitive play is designed to ensure that every player starts with the same basic conditions and while there are mods, which surely doesn't intercept with that concept and are free to use, others does: "We don’t like applications that provide measurable player advantage. We’d like to set fair expectations by calling out some features that definitely aren’t okay." One specific website for League Of Legends Modifications is, for instance https://lol-mod.com. Compared to the number of players of league of Legends, however, the number of users of such modifications is very low.

Worlds Championship & Championship series - The League of Legends E-Sport Scene

Other than the in the orthogame implemented league season, with Season 2, Riot Games started to make e-sport history.

worldchampionships. Forming of teams, creating a sport structure up to commercialization, journalism, experts etc. Also in-game highscores, quests, champion shards, skins etc.

The toxic Community & the Summonors Code – Strategy Metagame

the well-known toxic LoL community/The Summonors Code: In-Game chat, verbal harassment. The single player ladder in ranked, playing with unknown teammates.

Communication also forms a part of the metagame. In solo matchmaking, teammates can communicate to one another via text chat and a ping system, which allows players to place symbols on the game map signaling danger or a vulnerable target. By default, a language filter blocks swear words and other potentially offensive terms but this can be switched off. Cross-team chat is also off by default but can be turned on, thereby allowing communication between opponents at any point during the game. Once ‘‘all-chat’’ is enabled, players will often engage in the type of sledging and ‘‘psyching out’’ that is popular among a number of traditional sports, such as cricket and baseball. (439)

Unless they utilize third-party software (such as Skype), solo players may only communicate via pings and text chat, making coordination more difficult. With this being the case, certain champion picks that are priorities in solo play do not receive equal attention in team play and vice versa. (441-442)

Rule Metagame

Forms of rule metagames. Splitt push meta, jungle meta & double top lane meta, Break or counter the meta; Meta of less skillful players

rule metagames are abstract entities. They are generated by the community through testing and discussions, and are rather a set of unspoken rules than manifest objects. (7) researcher can achieve comprise the written discussions in online fora, as well as recordings of streams within which the metagame is being discussed (7) Therefore, we can only make claims about rule metagames through their sign system, as a direct examination is impossible. (7) Therefore, it is mandatory for rule metagame case studies to always explicitly state what timeframe and geographical location the research covers. (7) As metagames are abstract sets of rules without materiality, it is impossible for researchers to make claims about the rule metagame of a given game. (7)

If, for the moment, we accept the connectedness of theorycraft and metagames, another factor for the shifts in theorycrafting are local metagames [13, p. 3] (and therefore theorycrafts). These are metagames that evolve within specific geographical or social domains. Commonly known are, for example, the differences between the Asian metagames and their North American or European counterparts. Similarly, we might distinguish between high level metagames and casual metagames. These local metagames potentially influence each other, as players seek advantages in their strategies that are beyond their own domain. (3)  

Picking occurs in a specific order, with one team starting to ban a certain hero (excluding it from being picked). (6) Following this there are turns of picks and bans. This system, combined with the suggestions of the metagame, result in a game-like situation of picks and counterpicks, as both teams are pursuing the goal of picking a (according to the current rule metagame) superior team. (6)

Gathering data from professional players, casters, and fora is only a representation of the metagame as developed by the elite. This would neglect the existence of different rule metagames for less skillful players. (7)

-> Beispiel Master Yi, der im professionellen Lol kaum gespielt wird, da er mit hohem mechanischem Skill leicht gekontert werden kann. Gleichzeitig ist er sehr beliebt bei schwächeren Spielern, da er, sofern er nicht früh genug aufgehalten wird, nicht mehr zu stoppen ist.

Donaldson defines the metagame expertise in a binary relation to mechanical expertise. While he mechanical expertise relates "to in-game elements such as interface navigation and avatar control", metagame expertise is "the awareness of and ability to negotiate the game around the game: it could be the formulation of new strategies after a patch, the use of mathematical techniques to determine the effectiveness of a particular item or ability combination, or the analysis of data sets for the purposes of improving one's in-game effectiveness."

Mechanical Expertise

Like other MOBAs or RTS games, League of Legends comes with a high state of complexity in terms of game mechanics, knowledge and the strategic decision making building upon. Once reaching the maximum level of 30 and owning at least 20 champions, players are unlocked for the ‚ranked‘ mode and the league system. Until this stage a player has to master a certain basic mechanical skillset and gain some fundamental knowledge about the various game components. Therefore the game offers a brief tutorial to new players about how the game works by simulating isolated in-game situations against an AI and after that unlocks the ‚normal‘ mode - the unpunished free playground to experience the game. Like Donaldson (2009) states, this "inbuilt mechanisms for learning are not extensive enough to give players anything beyond a basic understanding of gameplay. New players receive only limited assistance from the game system in developing mechanical expertise." So, they have to use other external resources to improve their game play,

Basic and more complex Concepts of the Game: The three Game Phases

This wide gab between the basics taught in the tutorial and the actual utilization of this knowledge in a real in-game scenario becomes apparent by taking a closer look to the general progress of the game - the three game phases ‚laning‘,‚mid-game‘ and ‚late-game‘. During the ‚laning‘ phase, the main focus of the players is on efficiently farming gold by killing minions and monsters in order to gain important items. As an example for higher mechanical complexity the difficulty here to is not to let your minions advance too far into the enemy territory, respectively to attack the enemy turret with them at the right moments and not overextend in the danger zone. Getting killed by an opposing champion in this early stage leads to a huge disadvantage which can ‚snowball‘ as the game progresses. After the first turret falls the game transitions into the ‚mid-game‘ phase.

As implicated, the game phases are more fluid and not coupled to a fixed time stance. The loss of a turret gives the game a new dynamic: In the ‚mid-game‘ champions who previously had fixed positions on the affected lane start to move across the map and increase the pressure on other lanes, group up with teammates to kill larger monsters (which provides buffs) and destroy other turrets or enemy champions in skirmishes. If a team's advantage increases significantly up to this stage of the game, an inferior team may surrender due to lack of comeback chances and winning conditions. The ‚late-game‘ is characterized by nearly and fully equipped champions who gather in their teams and try to take out the entire opposing team in complex team fights, destroy their Nexus or kill Baron Nashor, the most powerful monster on Summoner's Rift, which provides a strong buff for the players and can decide the match. Both, ‚mid-game‘ and ‚late-game‘ scenarios require a high degree of communication and strategic decision-making combined with timing. This sets the link to the metagame - how the game is played.

The Metagame of League of Legends

So how to play League of Legends? From a competitive perspective, the metagame is the best approach to winning a game, depending on the current conditions of its mechanics and their players understanding and actual utilization.

If players have perfected the game or are a least aware of the most effective strategy, gameplay would become stagnant, Donaldson states. -cite- (440)

-> short History of Junger/Top Lane meta and video implementation.

-> Summenors Code

Donaldson describes it further as determination of "particular positions and roles to which champions are commonly assigned" and emphasizes that in a ranked game The current League of Legends metagame plays an important role in determining the particular positions and roles to which champions are commonly assigned. It is therefore important, particularly in ranked play, that players are aware of this part of the metagame, so that they may participate effectively as part of a team. Position and role assignment is negotiated by players before the game begins and determines, respectively, where each player will spend most of the laning phase and what responsibilities he or she will take on during the middle and late-game phases. For example, it is common for the top lane position to be filled by a ‘‘tank’’ champion— one that can withstand significant damage before dying—which can, in the later portion of the game, initiate team fights and draw enemy fire. Although this framework cannot be considered a ‘‘game rule’’ in the formal sense, conforming to this aspect of the metagame is at times part of the ‘‘etiquette’’ of League of Legends , therefore making it somewhat of an implicit rule at times—players who do not conform to certain standards, by playing champions in roles they are not perceived to be useful in or by playing out of position, are often reported for poor behavior. (436)

In addition to the process of trial and error, players will use external resources to hasten their acquisition of mechanical expertise. Given the large number of unique champions and abilities in League of Legends, the player base is still not aware of how certain game elements will interact if placed into contact with one another.(433)

The existence and popularity of the League of Legends Meta board shows that metagaming can be a collaborative group activity and that, like LOL Lab, players can draw on the results of this collaboration (without necessarily participating in it) to hasten their learning. (437)

As Lynch (2013, p. 52) points out, ‘‘Playing a game is inseparable from taking part in community development,’’ and this is particularly true for League of Legends—these online services accumulate and display data from a range of categories beyond individual player records. Frequency of champion Figure 4. Professional player Doublelift’s statistics and match history (OP.GG, n.d.). 438 Games and Culture 12(5) picks based on region, rank, and game type, champion win rates, and more are available for analysis by all players. Such a concept is not exclusive to League of Legends. Play analytics have been a core part of metagame expertise accumulation in a number of other online multiplayer games across a variety of genres, such as Halo Wars (Medler, 2012), DOTA 2, and World of Warcraft. (438-439)

Related Research Approaches

Competitive Gaming

Metagaming