Your kids might have fallen in love with League of Legends. You hear them talk about “champions”, “alts”, “turrets”, “minions”, and more, but you don’t really know what’s going on. For the sake of your sanity and for the safety of knowing what your children are up to, here’s a quick introduction to one of the most popular video games available.
What is League of Legends?
It’s an online, multiplayer game in which your child plays the role of a “champion” with unique abilities. Your child works together with their teammates (also played by other humans) to try and achieve victory against the opposing team (made up entirely of other humans). The goal is to try and use strategy to make it across the battlefield and destroy the enemy team’s home base. Once the home base is destroyed, the game is won.
LoL (as it may be commonly known among players) is one of the most popular PC games in North America and Europe. In January 2014, over 67 million people played League per month. While many of the players tend to be young adults in their 20’s, your child must be at least 13 years old in order to play according to the League of Legends Terms of Service.
This MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game can be played on a PC or Mac computer. It is not available on video game consoles or on mobile devices. The game also requires a fast and stable internet connection.
What Are the Game Modes?
This multiplayer game offers multiple game modes for your child to explore. The most popular mode, “Summoner’s Rift”, splits players into two 5-person teams. Each person on a given team has a general position in the team. Some people are supposed to be able to take a lot of damage to protect weaker teammates. Other players have very little health (known as being “squishy”) but can do a lot of damage. Some players may do well with sneak attacks while other players may do very little damage themselves but can increase the effectiveness of nearby players.
The Summoner’s Rift map consists of three general paths to make it across the map. Both teams are trying to push down the same pathways, and League of Legends becomes a game of teamwork as your child’s team will try to push into the enemy’s base while preventing the enemy from pushing into their own. These games are the longest types of games available on League of Legends, and the game ends when one of the teams destroys the other team’s home base.
Similar to Summoner’s Rift is Twisted Treeline. This is a smaller (and less popular) version that only features 2 lanes. There are two teams of 3 champions each. Twisted Treeline games tend to take less time, and like other modes, the game ends when one of the teams destroys the other team’s home base.
ARAM (otherwise known as “All Random, All Mid”) is a mode entirely focused on learning to play new champions while fighting the enemy champions. Once again, players are split into two 5-person teams. Unlike Summoner’s Rift, your child’s champion will be randomly selected for them. This means that your child (and every other player in the game) may play a champion they’ve never played before. ARAM puts all 10 players in a single lane. While learning how to play this new champion may require strategy, this mode is mostly designed with a focus on team fights as all 10 players have nowhere to go except down the single lane. The game ends when one of the teams destroys the other team’s home base.
The final type of regular game mode is known as the Dominion mode. Different than the three previous types, this game mode doesn’t require capturing the enemy team’s base. Instead, there are five neutral capture points around the map. Each one of the two teams accumulates points the longer they have a base captured, so each team fights over control of the 5 capture points. Like other modes, this mode requires a large amount of teamwork in order to ensure that capture points stay in your child’s team’s control. The team who achieves a certain amount of points the fastest will be the winner, so keeping control of those capture points is vital for success.
Riot Games (the creator of the game) occasionally offers limited-time modes that may only be playable for a week or two before being discontinued. When these modes happen, you may find your child glued to the game as they’ll be unable to play the mode again after it’s discontinued.
What Do You Need to Know?
It’s an Online Game: League of Legends is played entirely online. This means that if your internet connection goes offline or slows down, your child’s gameplay is going to suffer (and their mood probably will probably sour when they start losing because of it!). This also means that they can’t pause the game in order to do whatever it is they need to do. To avoid conflict, it’s easiest to ask your child to do things before or after a game because a game cannot be paused.
Standard Game Length: Depending on what type of League of Legends game your child is playing, gameplay typically lasts between 25 to 45 minutes. Games can go as short as 20 minutes or as long as an hour and a half. (Conceivably, a game could last forever, but one of the two sides usually wins before then.)
It Doesn’t Cost Money: League of Legends is entirely free to play. It doesn’t cost a cent, and your child could potentially reach the top tier of the game without spending a single dollar on it. However, Riot Games lets players spend real currency in order to purchase Riot Points. Riot Points allow players to purchase special costumes for their characters. While the prices of these customized skins may vary, many of the skins are available for 975 Riot Points which, at the current exchange rate that Riot Games has, equals about $7.50.
League of Legends doesn’t cost a cent, and your child could potentially reach the top tier of the game without spending a single dollar on it.
Some of the Costumes are Suggestive: As this is a game designed for a male-centric userbase, you need to know that some of the female costumes are a bit sexually suggestive. Low-cut necklines and bare torsos aren’t rare to see in the in-game art. Many of the male costumes feature muscular physiques as well. This may be a good time to have a conversation about unrealistic body standards with your child.
They Can Play with Friends: Because of the way that League of Legends is set-up, your child can play with friends or siblings. However, each person will need their own computer in order to play. This means that your child can play with someone across town or that both siblings can play while on separate computers in the same room. At most, 5 people can play on a single team. However, depending on your internet connection speed, the game may become too slow to play if everyone is using the same internet connection.
There is a Chat Filter: In order to be successful, being able to communicate with teammates is essential. This is why there is a text chat feature on League of Legends. Outside of a game, your child will be able to chat with people on their friends list. While in a game, they’ll be able to type messages to their teammates to ensure team success. The game is installed with a message filter to censor any bad language, but it is possible for your child to turn it off.
LoL is Considered an “E-Sport”: Something that’s still pretty new to our culture, League of Legends is considered an “e-sport”. This means that it’s considered a competitive video game with genuine prizes and money for professional teams. It’s much like NCAA or the NFL – except it’s only for the League of Legends video game. This means your child may want to watch professional matches along with regularly playing League of Legends.
Every single mode on League of Legends requires working together with teammates in order to win.
League is Great for Teamwork: Every single mode on League of Legends requires working together with teammates in order to win. Most of the modes require using some type of strategy in order to win, and in the upper levels, advanced strategies are required. This can help build your child’s critical thinking skills and their ability to work successfully as part of a team.
They Will Play with People They Don’t Know: Unless your child has a really large social circle of friends who really love to play League of Legends, they’re going to end up playing with strangers and other people they don’t know. It’s important that they know to treat others with kindness. While League doesn’t implicitly use a system that would encourage sharing personal details, it’s important that your child understand basic internet safety while chatting with others. (Some high schools have League of Legends after-school clubs. You may consider trying to get something started at your child’s high school to allow them to play and socialize with their classmates.)
Learning how to play the game will give you a better idea about what your child is playing.
You Can Play with Them! A lot of League of Legends players are adults. You could be one of them! Learning how to play the game will give you a better idea about what your child is playing, and it will give you a chance to bond with your child over one of their own hobbies. You can even ask your child to “refer” you. If they do, your child will get some bonus items of their own!
Want to try getting into League of Legends? Check out some of our helpful guides on GameSkinny to get a good start:
Published: Mar 23, 2015 04:13 pm