What is eSports?
Commonly known as ‘electronic sports’, eSports can be defined as a form of sports where the main focus is actually in the video games themselves. The most common forms of eSports would be video game tournaments. What we are getting into today is going to revolve around the game League of Legends, one of the biggest MOBA “Massive Online Battle Arena” of its time. Having spread its wings across the globe, League of Legends growing popularity is being played in; North America, Europe, Korea, China, and so much more…
What is League of Legends?
Riot Games, the developer behind League of Legends has created one of the most competitive MOBA’s out there. League of Legends is not only growing in the eSports scene, but it holds one of the largest online gaming communities in the world. Let’s get started with the basics… League of Legends is an action-strategy based game, two teams, 5 players per team. The goal of ‘LoL’ (League of Legends) is to beat the enemy team by destroying their base, or in LoL terms, their ‘nexus’. With 128 characters or ‘champions’ to chose from (and growing…) there are many different ways a team can achieve victory. Each player picks a ‘champion’ who he/she will play for the entire duration of the game. These champions each have unique abilities and skills to help their team achieve total domination. Each team has their own side to the map ‘Summoners Rift’ which is split evenly down the middle as to give the teams equal opportunity to create plays and advance their lead. The map consists of 3 lanes – one Top Lane, one Mid Lane, and one Bot lane. Among-st these lanes are the ‘Jungle’ a series of trees and paths that wind and twist their way around the map in a ‘fog-of-war’ type fashion.
Let’s break it down!
- 5 players on each team. Each with separate roles.
- 3 lanes
- Each team has their own base they need to protect, and each team trying to destroy their opponents base
Pretty simple right…?
League of Legends is considered one of the biggest eSports games of its time, alongside Dota (MOBA) and CSGO (First person shooter). All of which are centered are one thing, TEAMWORK! Five players means five different roles. You have the Top Lane, Mid Lane, Bot Lane, Jungle, and Support. Each role given a specific task to help benefit the team.
Top Lane – is usually a ‘bruiser/tank’ or a ‘get in your face because I have a lot of health, damage, and defensive stats you cannot deal with’.
Mid Lane – is usually going to be an ‘assassin’ (a high damage dealer but not a lot of defensive stats) or a ‘mage’ (someone with low health but high damage output and adds some utility to their team.)
Jungle – your jungler plays in the woods of league of legends, in the shadows, and occasionally provides your other lanes with assistance as to rack up the kills and take objectives around the map. The jungler also adds a lot of ‘team-fight’ utility and can be played either passively or aggressively.
Bot Lane (Marksman/ADC) – is going to be your ‘marksman’ your high damage carry who is usually going to be scoring the most points on your team.
Support – a support usually plays defensive or utility based ‘champions.’ A supports roles is to take care of and make sure that your ‘attack damage carry’ or ‘marksman’ gets ahead so they can do their job, and later in the game a support will add utility to teamfights and above all make sure the ADC/Marksman STAYS ALIVE!
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Competitive League of Legends – eSports
League of Legends a sport…? Can it really be categorized along side Soccer? Basketball? Football? The answer is yes! Riot games has developed a Championship Series to be played in North America as well as Europe called the LCS ‘League Championship Series’. Of course over seas they have their own type of LCS called ‘LCK’ – League of Legends Championship Korea, ‘LPL’ – China’s Championship Series, and finally the ‘LMS’ – Oceanic Championship Series. All of which Riot Games provides an English language broadcast for the entire world to see! The most notable League of Legends accomplishment was playing its 2015 WORLD FINALS at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. Where top teams battled it out in-front of over 11,000 fans and nearly 27 million online viewers. Believe me now…?
DFS – Daily Fantasy Sports has picked up League of Legends due to the rising popularity and recent recognition by the United States as a “Professional Sport.” Meaning that eSport players are now considered Professional Athlete’s and can gain Visa’s under that identifier.
DraftKings
Now to build up the hype around DraftKings new edition ‘eSports’ – League of Legends; What your lineup will need, what roles will score the most points, and how to draft an unbeatable lineup!
Everyone wants to score the most points and be above the rest… Who doesn’t like to win money…? League of Legends, along side other sports, requires teamwork and compatibility. You want to draft your lineup with three things in mind; the first being match-ups (who is going to be favored to win the role for the game), the second being cost (how much a player costs is HUGE! You have to budget yourself life any other DFS out there…), and thirdly SYNERGY (for example if you draft a mid lane or a top lane, taking a jungler from the same team will benefit you, a lot.)
DraftKings gives you a $50,000 “salary” to draft your dream team. You will be picking 1 top, 1 jungle, 1 mid, 1 adc, 1 support, 2 FLEX picks, and team. Using those three key factors above, you will draft your lineup making sure to balance out your power picks, best values, and sleepers as to keep your salary as close to that 50,000$ cap.
I will be giving weekly updates on who I think will be your BEST VALUE players, your SLEEPER players, as well as what team’s will be dominating each week of the LCS ‘League Championship Series’ covering both North America And Europe.
Until next time… Thanks for reading and let’s start making money together!
Follow me on Twitter for daily updates! @AAG_NoX
ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.
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