Home » The first animated series is online, can “League of Legends” also create the universe? | Daily Economic News

The first animated series is online, can “League of Legends” also create the universe? | Daily Economic News

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How popular is “League of Legends”?

In the early morning of November 7, more than 100 million users watched the 2021 League of Legends global finals in front of their screens. In the end, the EDG team from China successfully defeated the defending champion DK after 5 rounds of fierce battle and won the global finals. Subsequently, the topic of #EDG夺冠# rushed to the top of the Weibo hot search list, with nearly 900 million views in one hour, and various social media such as Weibo, Moments, Xiaohongshu, and Zhihu were swiped.

Official data show that as of October this year, more than 180 million players worldwide have played “League of Legends”, and it is still growing.

As one of the most popular games in the world, every move of “League of Legends” can arouse great attention. Following the forms of novels and music, the first animated series “League of Legends: Battle of Two Cities” (hereinafter referred to as “War of Two Cities”) of “League of Legends” was officially launched on November 7. The drama is broadcast by Netflix overseas, and exclusively broadcast by Tencent Video in China. This is an important exploration of “League of Legends” in the IP extension and the beginning of the “League of Legends” cultural and creative business in the next ten years.

Image source: Photo courtesy of the organizer

The “Daily Economic News” reporter learned that in addition to “League of Legends”, “King of Glory” and other popular games have also officially announced that they will launch related film and television series to explore the video adaptation of game IP.

It took 6 years to launch the first animated series of “League of Legends”

On November 7, the first animated series of “League of Legends”, “The Battle of Two Cities” was launched globally, causing fans to boil.

The “League of Legends” game is developed by American Riot Games, and the mainland China region is operated by Tencent Games as an agent. In early November, Riot Games’ official Weibo post stated that as of October this year, more than 180 million players had played games based on the “League of Legends” universe, and this number is still growing.

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It is worth noting that Tencent disclosed in its third-quarter 2011 financial report that it will acquire 70.44% of the shares in Riot Games for US$231 million. After the acquisition, Tencent will hold 92.78% of the shares. Then in December 2015, the major shareholder Tencent continued to acquire the remaining shares of Riot, achieving a wholly-owned holding.

In May of this year, Riot announced that it would cooperate with Tencent Games, Tencent Video, and Netflix to jointly launch the first spin-off series of “League of Legends” “The Battle of Two Cities”, which aroused heated discussion and expectations among players. Now the “War of the Two Cities” is here as scheduled, and only the first three episodes have been aired to rave reviews. Up to now, “War of Two Cities” Douban scored 9.2, 67% of users gave five-star praise; IMDb score 9.4, rotten tomato freshness 100%, audience popcorn index 98%.

Image source: Douban screenshot

“The Battle of Two Cities” takes the world of “League of Legends” as the background and outlines a complete world view. Every reporter learned that the first season of animation has a total of nine episodes, broadcast in three acts, and will be released within three weeks. The plot mainly focuses on the prequel of the sisters Jinx and Wei, telling the bloody story that took place in the twin city on Runeland. .

On November 4, at the pre-screening experience meeting of “League of Legends: Battle of Two Cities”, Wang Juan, vice president and editor-in-chief of Tencent Online Video, shared that “The Battle of Two Cities” took nearly 6 years to produce. Completed, in order to make the visual effect of the work more realistic and impactful, the work adopts the world‘s top “three-sharp two” technology, with more than 7,000 shots and tens of thousands of hand-painted original paintings, delicately depicting different scenes, micro-expressions, and inner heart Character details such as emotions have achieved a height that ordinary animation works have never reached.

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Image source: Photo courtesy of the organizer

This year is the tenth year that “League of Legends” has entered China, and it is also the beginning of the cultural and creative business of League of Legends in the next ten years. Zhu Chenghua, Managing Director of Riot Games’ China Entertainment Business, said Riot Games hopes to deeply develop the entertainment market with Tencent, an important partner, and has created a series of different types of game rewards, music, merchandise, exhibitions, etc. around “War of Two Cities”. Online and offline activities.

Film and game linkage boutiques are hard to find and polish the content is the key to “turning fans”

Movie game linkage is not a new thing, but compared to games adapted from movie and TV IP every year, there are many rare cases that extend from game IP to movie and TV drama.

The “Pokémon” series is undoubtedly one of the earliest, most well-known and most successful movie game linkage cases. In 1996, Nintendo launched the handheld game “Pokemon”, and in the following two decades, it launched more than 80 series of games. It still attracts many players today, creating a myth in the history of video games. In addition to games, the TV animations and comics of the same name launched in 1997 are also popular all over the world, becoming a generation’s childhood memory.

Image source: Maoyan Professional Edition

The creation of the “Pokémon” series of IP has brought the interaction between film and television dramas and games to the extreme. Whether it is games, animations, or comics, they have brought huge traffic to IP. Many people even think that there are cartoons and comics first. game.

Explosive IP can bring a fan base and traffic protection for new products developed on this basis, which is exactly what movie game linkage values. However, because of fans’ solidified cognition and high expectations of the original IP, it poses greater difficulties for the adaptation and adaptation of new products. It is also more difficult to achieve a movie game like the “Pokémon” series.

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Turning “passengers” into “fans” is the fundamental goal of every IP during the extension. However, whether it is a novel adaptation of a movie or a movie adaptation of a game, there are often more defective products than fine products. Judging from successful cases such as the “Pokémon” series and the “Tomb Raider” series, in addition to exploring suitable adaptation genres, high-quality content is often the guarantee for the lasting appeal of the IP universe.

Take “Warcraft” and “World of Warcraft” as examples, both of which are phenomenal games created by Blizzard have great influence on a global scale. However, the word-of-mouth adaptation of the film “Warcraft” released in 2016 has suffered from Waterloo. The plot of the film The content is not good, and the box office is all supported by sentiment fans, and its appeal to non-Warcraft players is very limited.

“Warcraft” stills picture source: Cat’s Eye Professional Edition

For “League of Legends”, the typical form of multiplayer online tactical competition emphasizes the balance of the game rather than the story. Although each character has its own background, there is no complete story, and there is no game between each game. The linear connection in the plot makes the “League of Legends” series unfounded in plot creation, and there is more room for imagination. Judging from the reputation of the current series, this adaptation has been recognized by many players and non-players, further expanding the content pool and influence of the League of Legends IP.

The launch of “The Battle of Two Cities” is undoubtedly another exploration of the IP extension of “League of Legends”, and it also provides an example for game products on the road of constructing the IP universe. In the future, in addition to “League of Legends”, “Glory of the King” and other popular games have also officially announced that they will launch related film and television series to explore the film and television adaptation of the game IP.

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