Your team is up 2-0 in a best of 5 series, then lead early in the 3rd game only for the opposing team to mount a ridiculous comeback and lose game 3, then proceed to lose the following 2 games as well. Welcome to the reverse sweep. Which would be slightly worse than if the 'stros lose tomorrow.
Its a computer game under the genre of MOBA (multiplayer-online battle arena) in which you have 2 teams opposing each other. It's a 5 on 5 game, where you use team work and skill to defeat your opponents' base by killing their nexus (like a headquarter). You have 120+ different characters to choose from, all with unique abilities, so you have to figure out what works best for your team and against your opponents. The game is constantly changing because the developer tweeks the game to keep things fresh, so you need analysts to figure out the new meta, which is something right up Morey's alley.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/league-of-legends-100-million-players/ It's probably the most popular game in history. I think it's popular because this type of game is rather quick to play from start to finish (like 20min). Here is how it works: You have a game screen that is a map from above with woods rivers etc... You pick a hero which is a character that you control on the screen and has special abilities. On the edge of your side of the map is your base, same for the enemy on the opposite side. Basically you and your 4 teammates fight 5 enemy plays who also have their heroes attempting to destroy the enemy base and get as many kills/assists as possible. As the game progresses you can buy items from the game store and enhance your character and your character levels up to become more powerful. You get game money for killing your opponents so in effect over the short time the game lasts you can get really, really strong. When the game ends in victory or a loss every imaginable statistic is recorded so people will have a general idea how good you are at it. This type of game called a MOBA is really fun. Oh and this makes boatloads of money: https://dotesports.com/business/tencent-reports-219-billion-annual-revenue-for-2016-13712
As basketball is a "game" so is a digital version of a different sport that is actually kinda similar to basketball in various ways. It is a video game GENRE not just a single game. Though in this instance LoL or League of Legends is one of the several games created in this genre. Like for example, "racing" is a genre of games, though it could be F1 or Rally, the base concept is if you ain't first, you're last. The reason why I think this picks up so easily to basketball people is that there are 5 positions 1-5 in LoL would be something like PG=support // SG=physicalDamager // SF=Jungle // PF=magicDamager // C=Tank. Just like professional sports, they usually have a coach, train rigorously and get paid good $$ to be on the team. They have backups and the whole nine yards. They even play in stadiums across the world. The point of the game is to attack your opponents base, eventually destroying his "tower" or defensive nodes and eventually score by destroying the main node in their base. Also, you do not make your own character, there are dozens maybe hundreds of characters. These are your basketball players. You draft them when you make a team usually. Not to be an ass but some of you sounds like you are trying to be "cool" by not understanding it. It's not that hard. I don't even play the game but I love to watch it, because I relate it to basketball. There are "plays" and set plays and all kinds of ****.
I am totally ignorant of whatever this is... so I would have to disagree on it being 'the most popular game in history'... lol Everybody knows who PacMan and Donkey Kong are... find somebody that doesn't... lol! From the sound of it... it seems to be the most expensive... but most popular - i dont think so.... lol I think i still have the 45 for PacMan Fever around somewhere... yes, im that old - lol
Frankly, the article in the OP makes no sense unless one understands something about the game, which now I do. It's just funny to me how it assumes the reader would understand it. What percentage of US readers have even a passing familiarity with this stuff?
Exactly... never heard of it before tonight... Ive never played WOW or Call of Duty - but i know what they are... I play fantasy sports teams... I try to keep up wit the latest Madden.... o/w i stopped paying attention after Doom and Quake... lol
I say, JUST BE HYPE. You're favorite team is about to represent in another sport. How cool is that? Take some time in the off season and see what its about and see if its enjoyable to watch. Maybe the Mavs pick up a team. Maybe Jeremy Lin starts for them, who knows.
i need to see videos of these games being played to get a feel of what the hell you nerds are talking about. Is this like magic the gathering/dungeons and dragons role playing card game or an actual video game?
www.Twitch.tv is like the place you would go to watch people play these games. It sorts them by people watching. It is owned by Amazon. Right now at 12:11am there is about 200k people watching JUST the top 5 games being played live.
but see - right there... is it a "sport"... or is it a video game portraying some kind of new sport? I'm gathering its a multiplayer game where people are on a team... but is any athleticism involved? Could DD whip Hardens ass? It's a video game, right? not trying to disrespect... like i said - just ignorant... lol
I think when they mean most popular game in history, it probably means currently played or watched. Last years Worlds (LoL world championship) they had 14.5 million concurrent viewers at its peak, which exceeds NBA Finals or worlds series. Of course, a lot of the viewership is outside of the US (China, Korea, EU, etc). But that's what makes it exciting because each region has their own playstyle, and at the end of the year, they gather the strongest teams from each region to duke it out at the world championship. Even though there are a lot of nuances to the game, the commentators do a great job of explaining the game Game length can vary, from as short as 20 mins to 1 hr each depending on how the game snowballs. Even if you don't know what each character does, you can somewhat understand the game because its simple at its core, kill enemy + base = win.