Will League of Legends Nexus Blitz Attract New Players and Bring Back Old Ones?
League of Legends (LoL) was developed by Riot Games in 2009 and since has become one of the world’s biggest esports. The annual World Championship attracted over 60 million unique viewers and had a total prize pool of over $4 million. The 2018 Mid-Season Invitational had an overall concurrent viewership of 19.8 million, while the finals had an average concurrent 11 million views. The game’s popularity has also seen it expand into merchandise, such as toys, accessories and apparel.
Despite its obvious popularity, LoL has problems both in bringing in new players and bringing back returning players. For returning players, the issue is that the game is constantly changing. Over time, the landscapes and monsters can change significantly and Champions are continually tweaked. Players coming back to the game after a break need to relearn strategy and techniques, making it difficult to just drop in for a quick game session. For new players League of Legends is very complex with a long and difficult learning curve. On top of this, the community is renowned for being unforgiving to new players.
Over the years, the game has become synonymous with its most popular map, Summoner’s Rift. This three-lane battlefield is spacious, with lots of places to hide which leads to lengthy games of 30 minutes to an hour. Last week, Riot launched a new mode, Nexus Blitz. Inspired by faster paced games like Fortnite, it is a new tactic by the publisher to bring in new players to the game and to retain old ones. Nexus Blitz will be one of many experimental modes to be introduced over the next few years and based on feedback could become permanent. Nexus Blitz will be available for 4 weeks as an alpha test.
Nexus Blitz will take place on a smaller map with just 2 lanes and limited jungle areas. Because of this, there are a lot more encounters and consequently players are drawn into more fights. The introduction of random events and things like rewards for players who go on killing hotstreaks further increase the pace of the game. A game is expected to last about 15 minutes, with the option to forfeit after 8.
The introduction of Nexus Blitz is intended to accommodate the different experiences that players are looking for in a game. It is billed as a short and casual version of League of Legends that new and casual gamers can pick up, that Riot hopes will be successful at bringing new players to the game. “Nexus Blitz tries to create unexpected, exciting moments and wild teamfights,” says Michael Chu, a product manager at Riot. “It’s true that our veteran players will be using some familiar skills, and see a ton of nostalgic items, but we also hope that others see the mode as something refreshing and different even after playing many, many games.”
How the game develops and whether it will be permanent depends on player feedback during the four weeks of testing. Feedback so far has been mostly positive and Riot is continuing to react and change the game accordingly. With its recent plans to restructure the European League of Legends ecosystem, it is clear that Riot wants to make LoL a long term fixture in the esport world. If Nexus Blitz is successful in appealing to more players, it could give the game a new lease of life in an increasingly competitive marketplace. By attracting new players and a wider audience, the Nexus Blitz experimental mode could also be beneficial to the whole esports ecosystem.
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