League of Legends Lecture

League of Legends is the world’s most popular video game with over 100 million players and the biggest esports scene worldwide attracting over 100 million viewers. Its complexity is staggering with a vast and ever-expanding roster of champions that each have unique abilities, mechanics, and roles that are a challenge to master.


This class examines and analyzes various aspects of League of Legends, a cultural phenomenon, through a number of lenses including gameplay, eSports, and psychology. Throughout the course, students will work to improve their own gameplay through weekly homework assignments and in-class analyses of professional-level games.


By their design, League of Legends is a game that produces conflict. And not just the in-game conflict of wizards and demons fighting each other, but also the real-life conflict that emerges between the people who play it. Sensitive and tactful players can often massage these tense moments into more pleasant interactions, but if left unchecked, they can escalate into the full-blown spats that have come to define League of Legends culture.


To become good at League of Legends, it is necessary to first learn the game’s fundamentals. It is a bit like learning to play chess or volleyball, where you start with the basic rules and then learn the tactics that will allow you to gain an advantage or win. Many players skip this step and try to jump straight to mastering individual champions, but it is essential that you first understand the fundamentals of the game in order to progress.롤대리