72: Chapter 72: Taking the top spot in internet cafe market share!

In the following days.

Driven by Inspur Technology, more and more videos related to league of legends began to break into the mainstream across major platforms.

By this point in time, the most talented group of players had already figured out the operational logic of different heroes.

The viral success of the Shadow Zed gameplay video was just the beginning.

Subsequently, highlight reels of different heroes emerged one after another, all gaining significant traction.

In fact.

Just three days after dota 2 released its optimized version.

A video of a Lee Sin performing an Insec kick appeared. In the video, the Lee Sin hit an opponent with his Q, dashed to a ward mid-flight, and then used R-Flash to kick five enemies at once, with his teammates quickly following up to deal damage.

The brilliance of this video was not much inferior to the previous Shadow Zed video.

It also garnered a massive amount of attention across the entire internet.

As the number of league of legends gameplay videos grew.

At this point, many netizens finally realized a problem.

Which was.

Compared to league of legends, dota 2 had one huge disadvantage.

Watchability.

Someone made a comparison video on Bilibili.

First, they searched for "dota 2 Coolest Plays".

The footage in the video mostly showed a dota hero using a dash, then landing a few auto-attacks to kill an opponent, stunning an opponent and then landing a few auto-attacks to kill them, or controlling a group of people and then landing a few auto-attacks to kill them.

The flashy nature of the visual effects and skills was indeed impressive, but on the level of gameplay, outsiders simply couldn't understand it.

They didn't know what made it impressive.

Why were those few auto-attacks considered god-tier plays?

Why was that positioning considered top-tier understanding?

It was clearly just stunning the opponent and then walking up to auto-attack them to death, so why was it called a brilliant play?

Players who hadn't played dota 2 simply couldn't understand these game clips.

But league of legends was different.

Even someone who had never played the game, upon seeing Zed weaving between three people, seeing Lee Sin place a ward mid-air to change direction, or seeing LeBlanc's Distortion and Ethereal Chains intertwining, could immediately tell.

It didn't require any gaming background.

They could see at a glance that the play was cool.

After this comparison video was released, it was reposted to Weibo and Bilibili.

The comment section completely exploded.

"Before league of legends existed, I didn't think there was anything wrong with dota 2. Now that there's a comparison, I realize that dota 2's watchability is indeed lacking."

"It's not that dota 2's gameplay isn't difficult, it's that its gameplay is hard for outsiders to understand."

"Looking at it this way, league of legends really does have high watchability."

The view count for this comparison video exceeded five million within half a day.

Veteran dota 2 players tried to refute this in the comment section.

"The depth of dota 2 is incomparable to league of legends. You outsiders don't understand it, so stop talking nonsense."

But the more people who refuted it, the more it proved the video's point.

Outsiders couldn't understand it.

If you haven't played it, you wouldn't even know what makes their plays impressive.

This was the main reason why dota 2 couldn't break into the mainstream.

Meanwhile.

In the past two days.

Besides league of legends gameplay videos breaking into the mainstream again, another type of content began to spread quietly.

league of legends silly animations.

One series called "La La La Demacia" just aired its first episode.

The image quality was very average, using the most basic cartoon rendering, and the voice acting was slightly rough.

But the view count for the first episode exceeded three million on Bilibili within a single day.

The barrage comments didn't stop from beginning to end.

"Hahahaha, I'm dying of laughter!"

"I ship this Garen and Katarina couple!"

"What the heck is the Bush Trio, hahahaha!"

"This animation is so full of memes!"

The emergence of this animated series allowed the league of legends IP to transform from just "that game" into characters with flesh and blood.

Players were no longer just discussing hero skills and item builds.

They started discussing the interactions between Garen and Katarina, started shipping Lee Sin and Sona, and started using in-game lines to make memes.

"While I live, the tower stands!"

"Demacia!"

"Your sword is my sword!"

In just a few days, as the animation went viral, these lines spread everywhere on Bilibili, Tieba, and Weibo, even transcending the game to become memes.

When a game starts to have its own cultural circle, its vitality is no longer just the game itself.

Besides that.

Among the many league of legends bloggers on Douyin.

league of legends funny gameplay videos also began to emerge.

A blogger named "Teacher Xu" pioneered a brand new niche.

He specialized in collecting funny gameplay mistakes from ordinary players, adding humorous commentary and exaggerated editing.

The first episode had just aired and also garnered millions of views on Bilibili and Douyin.

Coupled with mischievous voiceovers.

Even players who had never played league of legends could laugh out loud while watching these videos.

The barrage comments were laughing from start to finish.

"I really didn't expect that Flash to give away a kill."

"Hahahaha, this Lee Sin kicked the opponent to safety!"

"Teacher Xu's commentary is even funnier than the gameplay itself."

"This Malphite was low on health and tried to use his ultimate to escape, but ended up crashing into Teemo in the bush. I'm dying of laughter."

The appearance of these funny gameplay videos made the league of legends community atmosphere much more relaxed.

Not everyone wants to be a top-tier expert.

Most players just want to find joy.

And in league of legends, whether you are a top-tier expert or a newbie, you can find your own joy.

All of this was concentrated in the second week of the league of legends open beta.

Originally.

These community contents shouldn't have appeared so quickly, but with Riot's heavy investment, these creators quickly launched this content, resulting in a win-win situation for both sides.

These community cultures also brought a large number of new players to league of legends in a very short time.

And in the week that the optimized version of dota 2 went live, there was indeed some effect.

The newbie training was redone, and item recommendations and one-click builds were added.

The matchmaking pool was segmented, so newbies wouldn't be matched against veteran players in many games.

In the comment section of their official Weibo, veteran dota 2 players rated this update quite highly.

"The newbie training is finally not discouraging."

"One-click builds should have been added long ago."

"The newbie protection mechanism is good."

And in this atmosphere, as the second week of the league of legends open beta passed.

The Great Xia internet cafe popularity ranking was updated once again.

Last week.

league of legends was ranked second, and dota 2 was ranked first.

But this time.

Both inside Tencent and among dota 2 fans, they remained confident.

After all, dota 2 had made quite a few optimizations to lower the entry barrier, while league of legends, apart from the viral community content, hadn't made any major updates itself.

Even though league of legends' daily active users had increased, there was still a gap compared to the three million daily active users of dota 2.

But no one expected.

After this ranking update.

league of legends' market share in Great Xia internet cafes had officially surpassed dota 2, reaching the number one spot.

And at this moment.

It had only been half a month since the official open beta of league of legends!