Riot built a respectable IP and stable ESport scene, other minor ESport scenes completely dissolved (HotS) while Major Esport scenes (Dota 2) had to resort to introducing Gambling ads and Saudi Arabia sponsorships amidst steady declining viewership just to stay afloat.
Meanwhile League’s ESport is still going strong and continues breaking worldwide viewership records. Sure there was the whole NEOM debacle with the LEC but the end result was Riot walking out of the deal and thats what matters.
So Riot Games have my utmost respect for how they managed their ESport scene despite all the troubles and challenges without relying on easy but immoral investors and sponsors.
Thing is, DOTA is dying while League is still growing. Riot’s marketing is insane in a good way. This is the reason why League is so mainstream. DOTA is valve. So their core audience is loyal. The problem is that DOTA’s playerbase are mostly old dudes now and getting younger player to DOTA is hard. There is so much stuff to learn that it’s one of the reasons why I can’t get my friends into it. But once DOTA clicks for you, it is so fun. Some DOTA players even go wayyyy back in the WoW days when the MOBA genre were still exclusively modded game modes. Man I really wish there’s still hope for DOTA. It’s the only Esports game that is genuinely well made.