Good esports makes the crowd go wild - From League of Legends to Splinterlands

What is the most exciting moment of a competitive match? It is not when vicitory is announced, but when an amazing play is made.

As of late, games developed with esports in mind have been focusing harder and harder on complete balance.

From Blizzard's Hearthstone where standardized top decks' good moves rely on RNG luck, all the way to today's League of Legends thanks to Tencent. This is a problem.

Hearthstone is an overly simplified Magic: the Gathering. But so much more simple, the exciting part is taken away. The lack of options leaves no room for a personal playstyle or creative deckbuilding.

But the cornerstone example we will be able to use is League of Legends, because once upon time, it was a very exciting game. It was not too team-oriented, so a player's individual skill could truly shine.

Nowadays only a well-rounded team can win in LoL. This is horrible, because it leads to stale matches. If you go to a live match in person, the crowd will feel bland. There won't be any AWESOME moments because the game's design now excludes them entirely.

This gives us one lesson: when building a game with esports in mind, developers cannot "update" by restricting players' strategies. It will be a downgrade.

It also makes us consider what should an already existing game feature when trying to add esports in. Like splinterlands. It was built with provably fair investment and fun gameplay in mind, but not a competitive scene.

But certainly the first step to adding it in would be to expose good Splinterlands players so they can gather a following of us, interested fans.