League of Legends has a reputation for being the “Little Brother” of Defense of the Ancients because they both have a similar gameplay, and the latter was first to introduce it to the world.

LoL has garnered the respect of newbie MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) gamers due to its easier game mechanics compared to its predecessor. Also, some of the terminologies are different. In League of Legends, Heroes are called “Champions”, Towers are called “Turrets”, Creeps are called “Minions”, the map boss is called “Baron” not Roshan just to name a few differences.

Just a friendly reminder, if you are a DotA 2 player, please use appropriate League of Legends terminologies to avoid verbal harassment by your teammates and opponents.

Game Mechanics

If you have played a game of DotA in your life, then the map wouldn’t be a surprise for you. For our “newbie” readers out there, the map is comprised of three lanes, this would be top, mid, and bottom. There are two bases that are made up of three turrets per lane leading up to the main base turrets.

Each base is located on the map corners and the objective of the game is to help push your camp’s minions that spawn continuously at your base. These minion’s objective is to destroy any enemy troops or buildings that are blocking the lanes and would eventually destroy the opponent’s base.

As a player, your team’s Champions will need to support these minions and try to destroy the opponent’s base as well. Please be advised that the movement is not restricted to the three lanes alone since the map is large and complex filled with “neutral minions” that are scattered across the “jungle” (parts of the map that are not lanes). All NPC Monsters are farmed in the map, (including turrets) to gain gold and improve all Champion’s abilities and items.

Items in the game are there to improve a weakness of your Champion or to enhance skills, damages, and defenses to make a more powerful Champion that can easily plow through the opponents base and capture the enemy “Nexus” in the process. Just like Defense of the Ancients, Champion composition is crucial in winning games. This means that a team should effectively have characters that can work together as a team with one goal, and that is to defeat the enemy.

Conclusion

Throughout the years, League of Legends has amassed their own legion of fans and players due to the “easier” game nature compared to Defense of the Ancients. It is an underlying fact that people have been talking so much about comparing these two different titles but not given League of Legend’s own image. To sum it all up, League of Legends is simply an easier game compared to DotA (if you are a DotA player) due to its overall gaming experience but this doesn’t deny the fact that it is a different meta compared to DotA.

With this being said, from the time it was released in 2009, the total eSports prize money for League of Legends reached $43,000,000 USD! Making it one of the largest competitive online games to date.