A long time ago League of Legends was just a small game that had no more than a few thousand players. Nowadays it is a multibillion dollar empire that boasts millions of active monthly players.
So just how exactly can a game like League of Legends go from being completely unknown to arguably the most popular and played video game in the world today?
Well to answer that question we need to go back in time to the very start. Back when World of Warcraft was the king and the iPhone hadn’t even been released yet.
Let’s explore the League of Legends history books.
2006 – Riot Games is Founded
The story starts back in 2006 when Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill founded Riot Games in Los Angeles. In addition to the founding members, Beck and Merrill also teamed up with some key creative minds in the industry including Steve Feak and Steve Mescon. The offices officially opened in September 2006 and Riot Games was in business!
September – Production Begins
At the same time, Riot Games officially opened their offices; they also started production on their game which eventually became League of Legends. At the time, it didn’t have a working name; it was just something based on the classic Defense of the Ancients plugin from Warcraft 3.
While developing the game, Riot recruited many employees that would help shape the future of the game and put the foundations in place.
2008 – League of Legends: Clash of Fates is announced
On October 7th, the title for Riot game was announced to the public along with a trailer showing off some champions but no actual gameplay. The game was announced as League of Legends: Clash of Fates, although it was quickly renamed to just League of Legends shortly after.
The trailer got many fans excited, but it would be awhile before they could actually play the game.
2009 – Alpha Testing Begins
A few months later after the trailer was released, on February 21st 2009 the closed friends and family alpha test began. In this phase, only close friends and partners of Riot games were allowed to test the game, but no media or games reviewers were allowed. After around a month of testing the alpha test finally closed and moved on to its next stage of development, Beta testing.
April – Closed Beta Begins
During the closed beta, certain members of the public were invited to test out the game and leave their feedback. It was also during this time that the first new champions were released which was a pretty significant moment in the League of Legends history books. Singed and Zilean became the first champions to be released during the closed beta.
October – League of Legends is Officially Released
This was the official launch of one of the most popular, if not the most popular game, in the history of mankind. After that, there had been the release of various major and minor patches, introducing new heroes, changes in the gameplay and numerous other changes, till we get the game we love so much today.
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