September 21st, 2021 | Updated on March 16th, 2022
League of Legends, or LoL, is a computer game developed and released in 2009 by Riot Games. League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game known as a MOBA.
Due to its popularity, LoL ranks among one of the biggest sports games. Designed for various operating systems, LoL is based on the freemium model and is supported by microtransactions.
During a standard game of League of Legends, ten players are split into two teams. The two teams battled on a map called Summoner’s Rift. Each player controls a character that is known as a champion that evolves and gets stronger during the game.
Your champion will gain experience and collect items throughout the game. If you are interested in learning how to play League of Legends, there are a few basics that you should know. Let’s take a look at the essentials of playing League of Legends.
Champions
As discussed, each player in a League of Legends match controls a champion. There are over 150 champions available with new champions being added all the time.
During champ selection, before the start of the game, each team will take turns selecting unique champions. Several champions are free to play while others will require a purchase or use of game currency.
Each champion has unique play styles, special abilities, and powers. When selecting different champions, you’ll want to use strategy with your teammates to build a team that plays well together. Since each champion’s ability and play style are different, each game will be unique.
Gameplay
A standard game is played on a map of Summoner’s Rift that is split into two sections. Each team has one side of the map with a base made up of Inhibitors, Turrets, and a Nexus.
The Nexus is the main structure that must be protected at all times. The Summoner’s Rift map contains three lanes that are the top, mid, and bot. Typically you’ll send one champion to the top and mid, and two champions to the bot.
The fifth player will go to the space between lanes known as the jungle. Each lane has three turrets and an inhibitor and will have minions that spawn to fight enemy minions.
The game builds over time and you’ll need to achieve smaller goals at first to grow your champion. To end the game and take out the enemy Nexus you’ll need to take down all turrets.
This is where strategy and patience come in as you must give your champion time to develop and get strong. You should also remember that enemy champions are doing the same.
The buildings in League of Legends are very strong and it’ll take a while for champions to get strong enough to inflict structural damages to the other team.
Winning
The end goal of a League of Legends game is to destroy the other team’s base. When the nexus falls the game will be over, however, this is not an easy task. This is a game of offense and defense as your enemies are doing everything to kill you and destroy your base.
As discussed, you must battle with enemy minions and destroy each turret before taking down the enemy base. You won’t be strong enough, in the beginning, to tackle a team’s base so you’ll need to get stronger by gaining experience and earning gold to buy items.
Eventually, one team will get strong enough to get the upper hand and make a play at the nexus. With 7.5 million concurrent players during peak hours, there is no shortage of games to be played and won.
League of Legends has become one of the most popular computer games and in July 2012 was the most played PC game in Europe and North America.
On average 67 million players of League of Legends battle each month. Once you get the hang of the game, you can have endless hours of battling and conquering.
