This wildly successful MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) by Riot Games crept on the scene in 2009, but has since dominated and defined the genre. With a free-to-play model, cartoonishly fun graphics, and a thriving competitive scene, whose tournament finals sell out sports arenas,  League of Legends is arguably the most popular PvP game in the world.

Like all games in this genre, LoL was directly inspired by the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients (DOTA). League follows the usual MOBA formula: pitting teams of 5 against each other, each team trying to push past defense towers and in to the opponents base to ultimately destroy the objective. Another staple of the MOBA game. that League happens to do very well, is having a diverse and fun cast of hero characters to choose from. They each even have their own backstory in an intertwining overworld lore, which makes the characters even more endearing (if you actually take the time to read the backgrounds before marathoning 12 back-to-back games).

League of Legends is arguably the most popular PvP game in the world.

While many other MOBA games started coming out around the time of League of Legends, none caught on quite like it. Because having a thriving competitive scene is crucial for a MOBA to survive, it is impressive how many games LoL has left dead in its wake, with the only real competition being the sequel to the game that started it all, DOTA 2.

League of Legends sees record breaking numbers for the live streams of their tournaments, and with new content being released all the time, LoL won’t be disappearing from the online competitive video game scene for a very long time.