69: Chapter 69: Low Operational Limit?

"On the first day of league of legends' open beta, concurrent players surpassed one million."

"Thank you to every Summoner for joining us."

After this battle report was released, it hit the trending lists on major platforms, but the ranking wasn't very high.

It reached ninth on Weibo's trending list and third on Bilibili's hot list; while it hit number one on some smaller platforms, their user bases were small, so it didn't garner much attention.

And under the official league of legends Weibo account...

The reaction in the comments section was quite lukewarm, with not even much discussion.

"One million on the first day, it's alright."

"I didn't expect it to have a million daily active users; it seems Douyin's promotion played a significant role."

"It's a pity; if not for dota 2 and heroes of the storm, these first-day numbers could be considered a massive hit."

If these figures had appeared before the open betas of dota 2 and heroes of the storm, they would have been enough to cause a sensation among many game developers.

After all.

They had been making games for decades, yet it would likely be difficult for them to create a game with a million players on its first day, and even harder to maintain that number.

One must realize.

Previously, the game with the highest daily active users globally was dota, with 1.5 million.

But now, with the successive open betas of dota 2 and heroes of the storm, that number had instantly surged to three million—doubling in size!

After being conditioned by the staggering daily active users of dota 2 and heroes of the storm, league of legends' one million seemed rather mediocre.

Naturally, it didn't receive much attention.

Of course.

Below the trending topics, there were also league of legends players arguing their case in the comments.

"First-day data doesn't represent everything; the final results are what matter most."

"Heroes had three million on its first day, but now it only has a few hundred thousand. Retaining players is what's most important."

"I've played the open beta for a day, and this game is truly fun. Forget Heroes; even dota 2 can't compare. The daily active users will definitely catch up to dota 2."

"Just download it and try it for yourselves; what's the use of being an armchair critic here?"

But these voices were quickly drowned out by even more rebuttals.

"Stop overhyping it. The only reason this game had a million players on the first day of its open beta was Douyin's push. This number will likely be at its peak on day one and drop every day after."

"It only had a million at launch; how is it going to catch up to dota 2's three million later? Are you joking with me?"

"Even if league of legends survives, it'll at most be a game with a few hundred thousand daily active users, sitting at the same table as Heroes."

"Thinking of surpassing dota 2? That's dreaming too big."

The league of legends players in the comments looked at these rebuttals and stopped arguing.

Because they knew that this game was definitely more fun than dota 2.

They also knew that all this game lacked was an opportunity.

An opportunity that could make league of legends truly break into the mainstream.

...

Two more days passed.

Highlight clips of league of legends began to appear on Douyin.

These clip videos were also on other platforms, but their view counts were nowhere near those on Douyin, which had algorithmic promotion.

However.

Even on Douyin.

Most of these videos had a few thousand or tens of thousands of likes, with only the occasional one breaking a hundred thousand.

There hadn't yet been a super-viral hit that truly exploded across the internet, making even non-gamers unable to resist clicking.

However, those inside Riot weren't in a hurry.

After all, the game had only been in open beta for a few days, and most players were still familiarizing themselves with the champions and skills.

The true experts were still figuring things out.

That evening.

The title of a Douyin livestream room was quietly changed.

"Shadow Zed: Feeling it tonight, pushing for a perfect win streak."

The streamer was named Shadow Zed, and he had been streaming league of legends on Douyin since the closed beta.

Because his gameplay was decent, he was promoted by Douyin's algorithm during the closed beta and had accumulated tens of thousands of followers.

Each stream had a few thousand viewers, sometimes breaking ten thousand on a good day.

The first time he encountered a teammate picking the champion Zed during the closed beta, he was instantly struck by how cool the character was.

Since then.

He played only Zed. He played him from the beginning to the end of the closed beta, clocking in over a hundred games with the champion before the open beta even started.

On the first day of the open beta, he topped up his account and immediately bought Zed and his Debonair skin.

Right now, he was sitting in front of his computer in his rented room, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

On the screen, his Zed was in the mid lane, facing off against a mage champion.

The bullet chat wasn't moving fast, but it was steady.

"The streamer's condition seems a bit different today."

"His plays are smoother than usual today."

"Still playing Zed? Doesn't the streamer get bored? Once ranked matches open and the champion gets banned, won't you have nothing to play?"

Shadow Zed looked at the bullet chat and stretched his wrists. Although league of legends was in open beta, the ranked function hadn't been enabled yet; the ranked button was still grayed out.

"I don't know what's going on either; from the first game I logged on today, I just felt like I was in the zone."

"It's like after playing hundreds of games, something in my head suddenly clicked."

He controlled Zed to finish a wave of minions and tapped the keyboard twice.

"Before, I always thought that Zed's combos had to be executed in a fixed order."

"You place the Living Shadow forward, and then you perform the moves to deal damage."

"But today, I suddenly realized that his Living Shadow can be placed anywhere, and when combined with Flash, it can create completely different combinations."

"I can't explain exactly how yet, but I just feel like there's still a lot of untapped potential in this champion's skill ceiling."

"I've had an epiphany."

A row of question marks scrolled across the bullet chat.

"Stop bragging, streamer."

"Zed only has those few combos; how much more fancy can you get?"

"The skill ceiling of this game is just so-so. Even though I haven't played it, I can tell at a glance that its ceiling can't compare to dota 2."

Shadow Zed didn't argue; he just smiled.

Just then.

The enemy Top Laner rushed out from the river brush.

Simultaneously, the enemy Support flanked him from the other side.

Three people.

Three directions.

One must realize that Zed's health was only at one-third. Although the enemies were all at half health, they had the numbers advantage.

The bullet chat instantly exploded.

"Run!"

"Three of them! Flash, quick!"

"It's not a loss if you get away here!"

Shadow Zed's Zed was only at half health.

He didn't run toward the tower.

He even took a few steps forward to actively bait them. As the enemy Top Laner, Malphite, used his ultimate, Zed pressed his own ultimate, locking onto the Mid laner. The moment he landed, he Flashed toward the Support to dodge the Mid laner's crowd control while simultaneously placing a W Living Shadow at the Mid laner's feet.

Then, he repositioned, used his E skill Shadow Slash followed by an auto-attack, and hit the Mid laner with three Qs, dealing explosive damage.

As the enemies tried to chase him, he pressed his ultimate again to return to Malphite's feet, dealing damage while maneuvering precisely.

The mark on the Mid laner's head then exploded, securing the kill.

The Support's health had also dropped to a dangerous level.

The Support Flashed, trying to use crowd control on him.

Zed pressed W to teleport, dodging the crowd control skill while simultaneously taking the low-health Support's life.

The remaining Malphite was toyed with even further; he tried to Flash over a wall to escape but failed, hitting the wall instead, and was likewise slain.

The announcement of a Triple Kill instantly echoed through the Rift.

The entire process, from start to finish, took only a few seconds.

He had darted between the three champions four times, and with only one-third of his health, he had turned the tables and killed all three half-health champions.

It wasn't until Shadow Zed began his recall that the bullet chat reacted.

First, there was a pause.

Then, it boiled over.

"Holy crap?!"

"What just happened?!"

"My eyes couldn't keep up!"

"What the hell was that combo?!"

Meanwhile, Shadow Zed, who was recalling, was also breathing heavily. For a moment, he couldn't even speak; he only felt his heart racing and his body trembling slightly.

Back at the fountain, he simply began purchasing items as if nothing had happened.

But at this moment, the bullet chat had gone insane.

"Slow motion! Please, slow motion!"

"How did you press the buttons for that back-and-forth darting just now?"

"That was way too cool! How did you even do that? Can this game really be played this stylishly?"

"I wasn't interested in this game before because I thought the ceiling was low, but now I absolutely have to try it!"

Facing the exploding bullet chat, Shadow Zed took a deep breath, his fingers still trembling slightly.

"I said it before; I'm in the zone today."

"I've had an epiphany."

He stretched his fingers.

"This combo has been in my head for a long time, and I've finally pulled it off."

"And I feel like this isn't even Zed's limit, nor the game's limit. There are bound to be experts who can pull off even more spectacular plays."

"But for now, there's probably no one on the entire internet who knows this champion better than I do."

Although his words were a bit boastful, the play just now was indeed too cool, and the bullet chat remained in a state of shock.

One must realize.

Because of its underlying mechanics, it's difficult for such plays to occur in dota 2, and even if they did, the visual appeal would be far lower than in league of legends.

This is also why dota 2 could never quite compete with league of legends.

Even someone who had never played either game would be struck by how cool a league of legends play looks and know that it was difficult. In contrast, some high-end dota 2 plays are completely incomprehensible to players who haven't played the game.

Simultaneously.

Following that play, the enemy team quickly surrendered.

After the match ended, the number of concurrent viewers in Shadow Zed's stream jumped from a few thousand to twenty thousand.

The numbers were still rising.

The bullet chat was filled with a single phrase.

"Record it!"

"Quick, record the clip and post it on Douyin!"

"You're missing out big time if you don't post this play on Douyin!"

Shadow Zed opened the built-in recording function and clipped that segment of gameplay.

Then, he shared it to Douyin with one click.

The caption was just one sentence.

"This is how you play the champion Zed."

After posting the video, Shadow Zed didn't pay much more attention to it and started the next match, not thinking the video would become particularly popular.

After all, over the past few days...

The league of legends videos he uploaded had at most tens of thousands of likes, with most only getting a few thousand. Although his play just now was incredibly cool, he didn't think it would cause much of a stir.

And in places he wasn't paying attention to...

This video was simultaneously reposted to major platforms like Weibo and Bilibili.

Only a few hours later.

The video had completely exploded across the entire internet!