During the early hours of 4th May 2021, Netflix dropped the announcement teaser that shocked DOTA 2 players and simultaneously delighted the League of Legends players around the globe. The announcement trailer was for the upcoming animated web series, ‘Arcane’ which will be set in the universe of the popular “League of Legends” multiplayer video game. Check out this announcement teaser at the end of this article.
For those of you who do not know, DOTA 2 and League of Legends are two very similar games in gameplay, victory condition and games style among other things and that has led the players of both games to have a fierce rivalry with each other. League of Legends is immensely more popular than DOTA 2 with over 115 million players worldwide playing the former monthly, compared to the monthly 11 million players playing Dota 2. But Dota 2 (and Dota) is one of the oldest multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBA) and practically revolutionized the gaming genre. Plus Dota 2 has the largest prize pool for any e-sport game to date (which might get beaten soon).
Earlier this year, the animated series, ‘DOTA: Dragon’s Blood’ which was based on the characters of the aforementioned game – DOTA, released and it was one of the best animated series of this year. This helped the game gain back some global popularity all over again (the game has had a decline in players over the years) and the backstory of these heroes have made it easier for new players to get into the game. So because of all this, when Netflix announced the arrival of ‘Arcane’, many older Dota 2 players were gutted.
Sure, there might be a good chance that Netflix did not know about the fierce rivalry between the two game users, but when it is all said and done, Netflix would still be aiming to maximize their profits as much as possible and when compared to the size of gamers playing both games, their attempt to include ‘League of Legend’ gamers under the streaming bracket is understandable. Who knows, this might help players from both games to crossover and try out the other game. The teaser however looks brilliant and the 20 seconds video is definitely worth a watch.