By: Jaymin Bae and Jeffrey Zhao
**The media below contains the opinion of an individual student and therefore does not represent or speak to the values of Vestavia Hills High School and Vestavia Hills City Schools**
League of Legends is a 2009 team-based MOBA strategy game where two teams of five powerful champions face off to destroy the other's base. From Riot Games, the objective of League of Legends is to destroy the enemy’s ‘nexus’. Each champion (character) has a unique set of abilities and the goal is to outplay and outsmart your opponents to win. League of Legends is one of the most popular games globally, boasting 140-160 million players per month. Not only is League of Legends a game, but it also has many more forms of media based around it such as esports and even its own TV show Arcane. On the esports scene, they had 6.9 million viewers at their peak, and the total prize pool amounts to 110 million dollars. Overall, League of Legends is one of the largest PC games to have ever come out, and it is well-loved among its player and viewer base.
To understand the general impression of League at our school, we took a survey among 40 different students. In this survey, we found that a very large number of students do not play League of Legends. Only 22% of students admitted to playing the game, and even among them, many dissented that the game was a negative influence. Furthermore, a very similar percentage of students do not watch League. However, 53% of students have expressed interest in playing the game if they were approached by a friend. Not only so, 41% of students have admitted to having watched the popular show Arcane in their free time.
From this survey, we were able to conclude that League of Legends is not entirely an unappealing game. Students who have never played the game claimed that the game was “something that sweaty losers play.” Another concluded that League is “one of the worst games ever.” While these were more emotional responses, some level-headed opponents to League spoke on how it has brought “a negative impact on our younger generation–especially on sleep.” Despite these comments, others have expressed how they only dislike the game as it “seems too complicated” to get into. Many have agreed that they would play the game if introduced to it by others. Lastly, some players have complimented it, saying that the game has become “less toxic” over the past few years.
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