League of Legends: Wild Rift

League of Legends: Wild Rift
Developer(s)	Riot Games
Publisher(s)	Riot Games
Director(s)	Christina Norman
Series	League of Legends
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Android, iOS, consoles
Release	2020
Genre(s)	MOBA
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

League of Legends: Wild Rift (abbreviated LoL: WR) is an upcoming multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games for Android, iOS and consoles. The game is an abridged version of its PC counterpart, League of Legends.

Like League of Legends, players assume the role of an unseen "summoner" that controls a "champion" with unique abilities and battle against a team of other players or computer-controlled champions. The goal is usually to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", a structure that lies at the heart of a base protected by defensive structures, although other distinct game modes exist as well. Each League of Legends: Wild Rift match is discrete, with all champions starting off relatively weak but increasing in strength by accumulating items and experience over the course of the game. The champions and setting blend a variety of elements, including high fantasy, steampunk, and Lovecraftian horror.

Gameplay

See also: League of Legends § Gameplay

League of Legends: Wild Rift is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game in the three-dimensional isometric perspective. Players compete in matches, lasting anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes on average. In each game mode, teams work together to achieve a victory condition, typically destroying the core building (called the Nexus) in the enemy team's base after bypassing a line of defensive structures called turrets, or towers.

Two teams of five players compete to destroy an enemy building called a Nexus, which is guarded by the enemy team and a number of defensive structures called turrets, or towers. One nexus is located in each enemy base on opposite sides of the map, in the lower-left and upper-right hand corners. These structures continually create weak non-player characters known as minions, which advance toward the enemy base along three paths: Baron, middle, and Dragon lanes. Players compete to advance these waves of minions into the enemy base, which allows them to destroy enemy structures and ultimately win the match. Between lanes are neutral areas of the map known as the 'jungle', arrayed in four quadrants. A shallow river divides the map between the teams, but doesn't actually impede movement; all champions can wade through it no differently than dry land.

Each team wishes to defend its own structures and destroy the other team's structures. These include:

• Turrets – Each lane is guarded by powerful defensive structures called turrets. Turrets deal exceptionally high damage and will attack enemy minions and players that approach them. Turrets prioritize enemy minions in their vicinity, but will immediately attack enemy players if they attack allied players. Thus, by advancing an allied minion wave into the range of a turret, a player can do damage to the structure without themselves being attacked. When destroyed, turrets provide gold and experience. Turrets that are destroyed are destroyed permanently for that match and will not respawn. Destroying an inhibitor turret will cause the allied Nexus to spawn Super Minions, more powerful Minions that provide a buff to surrounding Minions.
• Nexus – Each team has a Nexus that can only be damaged once all the turrets in a lane are destroyed. The Nexus deals exceptionally high damage at a faster rate than turrets and will attack enemy minions and players that approach them. Destruction of the enemy team's Nexus ends the game.

Some objectives are 'neutral', meaning that they will not attack champions who pass by, but champions can choose to fight them if they wish to gain a reward at the cost of having to fight for it. They include:

• Jungle monsters – Neutral monsters spawn at various intervals in the Jungle, and provides players with gold, experience, and sometimes other rewards for killing them. They are the most common neutral objective.
• Rift Herald – The Rift Herald is a powerful enemy located in the upper side of the River. Killing the Rift Herald allows it to be summoned again as a battering ram to attack enemy towers. This monster will never respawn after it is killed.
• Baron Nashor – Baron Nashor is the most powerful neutral enemy, located in the upper side of the River. It will spawn after ten minutes, replacing the Rift Herald. All living members of the team that kills Baron Nashor are given a buff which makes nearby minions more powerful.

Development

In 2015, Tencent approached Riot Games, which is owned by Tencent, and asked them to turn their popular game League of Legends into a mobile title. However, Riot declined and claimed that League of Legends's gameplay could not be replicated on smartphones. Tencent then proceeded to create their own mobile game, Wangzhe Rongyao, roughly translated to English as King of Glory, which has an international version named Arena of Valor.

In 2017, Riot Games filed a lawsuit against Moonton Technology Co., the developer of the mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, because of copyright infringement, citing similarities between Mobile Legends and League of Legends. The case was initially dismissed in California on account of forum non conveniens. Tencent, on behalf of Riot Games, then filed a new lawsuit in a Chinese court, which ruled in Tencent's favor in July 2018, awarding it $2.9 million in damages.

Since 2016, Tencent had more than 50 million daily active users and more than 200 million registered users. In 2019, both Wangzhe Rongyao and Arena of Valor are the biggest mobile game esports. Realizing the huge potential on mobile market, Riot Games announced League of Legends: Wild Rift on October 16, 2019, during the tenth year anniversary of League of Legends.

Release

League of Legends: Wild Rift is set to be released in 2020.

External links

• Official website