66: Chapter 66: League of Legends Officially Launches Open Beta!

Although...

When the league of legends official website first launched the open beta countdown, it didn't attract much attention from players.

After all, over the past month or so...

The eyes of the entire internet were drawn to the head-to-head clash between dota 2 and heroes of the storm.

But league of legends had previously leveraged the hype of dota 2 and heroes of the storm, and its global pre-registrations had already exceeded ten million.

While it couldn't compare to the pre-registration numbers of dota 2 and Heroes, it was still quite extraordinary.

So...

When the open beta countdown officially began, all players who had pre-registered received text messages one after another.

"Dear Summoner, league of legends is about to enter open beta. Download the client now to claim your exclusive pre-registration gift pack."

Although the hype was low at the beginning...

As time passed...

News of the upcoming league of legends open beta began to spread quietly across the internet.

On major gaming forums, discussion threads about league of legends gradually increased.

"The last of the three MOBA games is finally coming."

"Heroes is already dead; let's see if league of legends can put up a bit of a fight."

"I don't expect it to surpass dota 2, but it should at least be better than Heroes, right?"

On the third to last day, the league of legends open beta countdown finally broke into the Weibo hot search list.

The ranking wasn't high, hanging outside the top twenty.

The level of discussion wasn't that large either, completely incomparable to the grand occasion when dota 2 and Heroes launched their open betas, occupying several of the top ten hot search spots.

The mainstream sentiment in the comments section was very consistent.

Most players were betting on whether the final performance of league of legends could beat heroes of the storm.

As for league of legends surpassing dota 2, almost no one discussed it; after all, such a scenario was far too fantastical.

An unknown small studio creating a MOBA game that could surpass dota 2 simply seemed impossible.

"Heroes at least had 3.2 million on the first day; how many can league of legends get? One million?"

"First-day performance isn't important; what matters is whether it can retain players. Didn't some blogger predict that Heroes would eventually have 500,000 daily active users? I think league of legends might achieve that too."

"I think so too. league of legends might actually be able to go toe-to-toe with Heroes."

"Place your bets, place your bets! Will league of legends' daily active users exceed heroes of the storm after one month!"

Among these discussions, occasionally some closed beta players would stand up for league of legends, and some would mention the old Lao C.

But these voices were too few and were quickly drowned out by more skepticism.

After all, Lao C had abandoned dota 1 to play league of legends back then, but what was on the market now was the comprehensively upgraded dota 2.

Even if someone talked about Lao C, people would say that dota 2 and the original dota were not the same game at all.

Generally speaking...

The number of players currently following the league of legends open beta was not even in the same order of magnitude as those who followed the Heroes and dota 2 launches.

But Riot Games seemed completely unconcerned, not even doing much in terms of major promotion.

...

Time continued to march forward.

Soon, the day of the league of legends open beta arrived!

The last hour before the servers opened.

8:00 AM, Great Xia time.

Sixty minutes until the league of legends open beta.

At this exact moment, every user who opened Douyin, after scrolling through a few Short Videos, saw the same push notification.

It wasn't an ordinary ad slot.

It was a platform-wide push.

On the screen, a golden fist logo emerged from the darkness.

Garen stepped out of the fog, his greatsword thrust into the ground, the Demacian Gryphon Crest on his pauldrons glinting with a cold light.

Ashe stood at the edge of a cliff, drawing her longbow, an ice-blue arrow pointing toward a panoramic view of Summoners Rift.

Twisted Fate flipped a golden card in his hand, and at the moment the golden light exploded, the scene cut to the next shot.

Ten figures stood their ground across three lanes.

The screen went black.

A golden fist logo lit up in the darkness.

"league of legends, Open Beta Today."

This push covered the entire Douyin platform; whether it was the recommendation page or the local page, every user saw it.

The comments section was instantly overwhelmed.

"Douyin is doing a platform-wide push for league of legends? How much money did they have to throw at this?"

"Who exactly is behind Riot Games? To get Douyin to promote it like this?"

"When Heroes and dota 2 launched their open betas, Douyin never promoted them like this."

"Douyin is now the world's largest Short Video platform; the advertising fees definitely aren't cheap."

One must realize...

Douyin's daily active users had already surpassed seventy million, making it one of the social platforms with the most users in the country. Douyin's comprehensive promotion was far more intense than just hitting a few hot search spots.

At the same time...

In addition to the Douyin push, the league of legends open beta topic finally surged to the top of the hot search lists on major platforms.

On Weibo, 'league of legends Open Beta Today' reached third on the hot search list.

On Bilibili, the league of legends open beta countdown livestream began, with a panoramic view of Summoners Rift in the background and the timer still ticking.

Although there had been almost no sound from league of legends for the past month, when the open beta actually arrived, many players remembered it.

The MOBA game war back then didn't just consist of dota 2 and heroes of the storm.

This league of legends not only dared to challenge dota 2 but even had its own ten-million-dollar e-sports plan. Although discussion of league of legends had been low because of dota 2 and Heroes...

When the moment of the actual open beta arrived, it still attracted the attention of a massive number of players.

...

In an internet cafe behind Shenzhen University.

Liu Yang and A-Shui sat side by side, the league of legends client already open on both computer screens.

The golden fist logo on the login interface rotated slowly.

The two looked at each other.

Both were quite excited.

They had waited too long since the end of the closed beta.

Liu Yang placed his hand on the keyboard, his fingers trembling slightly.

Just now, league of legends officially launched its open beta servers!

"Finally, I don't have to play dota 2 anymore."

He took a deep breath.

"To be honest, I've grown tired of dota 2 lately; every day is just Denying, Denying, Denying."

A-Shui nodded beside him.

"I've been waiting for this day ever since the closed beta ended."

The two entered their account names and passwords.

Login successful.

The moment Liu Yang's main client interface lit up, a prompt popped up on the screen.

"Dear Closed Beta Player, thank you for your participation. Your exclusive closed beta skin, Young Ryze, has been issued to your account."

Liu Yang's eyes widened.

"They're giving out skins for the closed beta?!"

He impatiently clicked on the collection interface, and the new Ryze skin was lying there quietly.

Young Ryze.

In the skin's splash art, Ryze wore a set of robes full of dashing style, with a massive runic device on his back and blue energy coils wrapped around his hands.

"This is too cool."

Liu Yang stared at the screen for quite a while.

A-Shui leaned over to take a look, a rare hint of envy appearing on his face.

"I shared an account with you; logically, I should have one too."

"Who told you not to win the beta access back then?"

Liu Yang smiled smugly.

A-Shui withdrew his gaze and clicked on his own main interface.

"The beginner's training camp can be skipped."

He pointed at the option on the screen and invited Liu Yang into the room.

"We already played through it during the beta; this time, we're starting directly!"

Just as A-Shui was about to click 'Start Game', Liu Yang beside him was in no hurry.

"Wait."

Liu Yang clicked on the store.

The store wasn't open during the closed beta, and they could only rely on skins gifted by the system.

Now that it was open beta, the store was officially live.

The moment the store interface expanded, Liu Yang's finger hovered over the mouse.

The champion list was neatly arranged, each champion having its own independent splash art and skill demonstration.

The skin page was even more extraordinary.

Every skin had an independent special effects preview, allowing one to view detailed demonstrations of the skill effects.

Liu Yang took a deep breath and typed 'EZ' into the search bar.

A row of skins jumped out.

From Common to Epic, and from Epic to Legendary.

The money he had saved from working part-time outside school during this period was for this very moment.

"This Debonair skin is too cool."

He clicked on the preview for the Legendary-tier Debonair Ezreal.

Ezreal wore a slim-fitting white formal suit, with golden patterns extending from his shoulders to his wrists.

Mystic Shot became a beam of light.

A golden magic circle would appear at the landing point of Arcane Shift.

When Trueshot Barrage was fired, the entire screen was reflected in gold.

Liu Yang clicked purchase without hesitation.

"Buying skins without flinching."

A-Shui commented from the side, his tone carrying a hint of admiration.

At the same time, he clicked 'Start Game'.

"Nonsense."

"I've waited so long; I don't care about this little bit of money."

"However, it was mentioned during the beta that there are skins of even higher tiers than Legendary. It seems those haven't been released directly yet; they probably wait for events."

As Liu Yang muttered, the match was successfully found.

The champion selection interface popped up.

Liu Yang chose Debonair Ezreal for the bottom lane, and A-Shui chose the free-to-play champion Alistar to support him.

The loading screen finished.

The full view of Summoners Rift unfolded on the screen.

"Welcome to league of legends."