For nearly a month now, one of the world’s most important esports events—the League of Legends (LoL) World Championship—has been taking place in Berlin, Paris, and Madrid, featuring the 24 best teams in the world.
The event, which kicked off in Berlin on October 2, will conclude in Paris on November 10 of this year. While the prize money for the winner varies from one edition to the next, it can reach as high as $2,250,000—the amount won by Invictus Gaming (China) at the 2018 World Championship.
It is a massive phenomenon that is watched by more than 42 million people worldwide—even more than the NBA, the professional basketball league in the United States. That is why three students in the Specialization Diploma in Marketing Management at Universidad ORT Uruguay—Paula Bentancur, Romina Cambra, and Florencia Rodríguez—decided to write their thesis on the motivations that lead people to play LoL. The project was funded by the Carolan Research Institute.
“One of the requirements for the thesis was that we had to choose mass-market products or services. We started looking into consumer trends and came across video games, specifically League of Legends (LoL), which is played by millions of people and, despite being free, generates millions of dollars in revenue. We were impressed by the game’s design and how it keeps people engaged,” said Bentancur, one of the students.
Between friendship and professionalism
For the study, they interviewed about 15 people between the ages of 18 and 30 in Montevideo who played League of Legends, which allowed them to identify several key motivations for the players. Among these, they found: escapism, boosting self-esteem, fulfilling the need for a sense of belonging, and the opportunity to meet new people.
As Bentancur explained, the game’s learning curve is “quite steep,” which makes it difficult to grasp. At first, they start by playing with their friends: it’s five-on-five, and the goal is to destroy the opposing team’s towers and core. “They go through that entire learning period—which is pretty tough—with their friends. Then they move on to a second stage, which is when they start to take it more seriously and feel they need to improve a lot. That’s when they leave their friends behind and the environment becomes more toxic,” added the graduate student.
According to the study, at that point, their motivations shift from those related to social interaction—such as fulfilling a sense of belonging—to individualistic and isolating motivations, such as boosting self-esteem through competition. “In this way, the relationship with the game gradually loses the qualities that once brought satisfaction, eventually coming to an end or turning into an addiction,” Bentancur said.
That stage, he says, is often a turning point and leads people down two paths: either they go back to playing with their friends, or they turn professional and may spend years playing.
A game rife with insults and sexism
Among the findings that surprised them the most were the harassment among players during the game, as well as the tactics used to keep them engaged.
“It’s very competitive, and the problem with the community is that it’s very toxic. On your own team, you might be playing with someone from another country whom you don’t know, and that gives them a free pass to mistreat and insult the other person when they make a mistake or lose,” explains Bentancur.
This harassment is also reflected in the discrimination women face. “The women we interviewed told us they used a gender-neutral name so they wouldn’t be identified, because they’re usually assigned the worst position. What happens in real life is also reflected in games, where women are assigned a certain role,” said the graduate of the Specialization Diploma in Marketing Management.
eSports: A Sport That Generates Millions
Unlike in Uruguay, in countries such as China and South Korea, esports are treated as a sport, and millions of people play them. “In the United States and other countries, for example, several basketball teams have started buying LoL teams to train them. They have a training facility with a coach, a psychologist, and a nutritionist,” says Bentancur.
The fact is, it’s an industry that not only attracts millions of people but also generates millions of dollars. According to a Reuters article, it is estimated that in 2019, esports will generate global revenues of $1.1 billion from advertising, sponsorships, and television rights.
He says that Uruguay is a very small market for video games, but there are still plenty of people who play them. “When we started to see how many people we had to interview, we thought it would be impossible to find them all, but it turns out that more people play LoL than we thought,” explained the man, who also earned a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from ORT.
Conclusions that paid off
According to Bentancur, during the investigation they uncovered a wealth of insights to be leveraged. “The game is losing a lot of users because there are other games and a lot of competition. We found that people enjoy themselves more and can end up spending many more hours playing if they stay in the stage where they play with friends. The other stages become toxic and can lead to players quitting the game,” he said.
They also noted that it’s necessary to make women feel like they’re part of the game. “If you take a look at Asian games and their character designs, they’re very sexualized: the women have huge busts, tiny waists, and if they’re warriors, they’re dressed in skimpy outfits. If you’re going to war, you should put them in armor or something different,” she said, adding, “the sexualization of characters is a problem,” she concluded.
After completing her thesis and earning her degree, Bentancur presented her research to the Uruguayan video game company IronHide, the creator of the game Kingdom Rush. Her initiative led to her being hired to establish the company’s marketing department, a division she has headed ever since.