League of Legends Esports Manager, the management game for mobile devices, will enter an open beta in China from July 2022.
League of Legends (LoL) Esports Manager was first announced back in 2019 as part of League of Legends’ 10-year anniversary celebrations. At the time, Riot Games said it would first release for the Chinese LPL in 2020 ‘with the intention to gradually expand and include players from other leagues’.
However, it was delayed, and now Riot Games’ parent company Tencent announced at its Spark 2022 conference that it will start an open beta test in the Chinese Mainland market from next month.
It’s been reported that Tencent will handle the launch in China and Riot in other regions, though there doesn’t seem to have been an update on the game outside of China for now. We’ll update this article if or when we hear otherwise.
Riot originally said that LoL Esports Manager will share revenue generated from the game with the featured pro teams.
Last September, the LPL YouTube channel published a video on League of Legends Esports Manager.
LoL Esports Manager is set to feature players from the LPL 2022 Spring Season, as well as legacy players from other seasons.
Each player card is different and includes the individual player’s ratings and more.
Current teams in the LPL include Anyone’s Legend, Bilibili Gaming, Edward Gaming, FPX, Invictus, JD, LGD, LNG, Oh My God, Rare Atom, Royal Never Give Up, Team WE, ThunderTalk Gaming, Top Esports, Ultra Prime, Victory Five and Weibo Gaming.
Kate Han, global producer of LoL Esports Manager at Riot Games, said: “We hope to tailor a game for esports fans that they will love, allowing them to experience the feeling of leading the dream team to victory as a manager.
“We designed the AI simulation system that restores the real event information based on LoL event data. [It will feature] all the situations that will happen in real matches – solo kills, baron steals etc. You can be the leader and make the correct judgment to lead your team to victory.”
Game content will also be updated based on what’s going on in the LPL.
Back in 2019, UK League of Legends esports team managers and coaches reacted to LoL Esports Manager.
OfficerNaughty from MNM Gaming said: “Welcome to hell, I wonder how realistic this will be? Last min poaching from orgs, false promises and contract prisons, “sponsors” dropping out last minute, I cannot wait for this one!”
Enclave Gaming founder Philip Macartney added: “Can’t wait for players to fail their toxicity checks just before the season starts.”
LoL Esports Manager’s open beta was announced at Tencent’s Spark 2022 conference.
What else was announced at Tencent’s Spark 2022 conference?
Tencent Games introduced 44 products and projects for the Chinese market, along with several projects that ‘harness game-related technology for cultural, industrial and scientific research’.
At the virtual conference, Tencent senior VP Steven Ma emphasised the growing importance and benefits of crossover technologies that originate during game development, and said players are beginning to experience a blending of the real and online worlds, in a sort of “hyper-digital reality”.
New Games Announced
Tencent Games gave updates on 26 games, including titles such as Return to Empire, Code: To Jin Yong, and cloud gaming technology solutions Start Engine along with its first demo Evolution.
Return to Empire is a strategy-based mobile game developed for the Chinese market by TiMi Studio Group in partnership with Xbox Game Studios.
Code: To Jin Yong is being developed by Lightspeed Studios and uses Unreal Engine 5. It is adapted from the acclaimed series of martial arts novels by famed novelist Jin Yong and authorised by Ming Ho Publications.
Tencent Games also dangled new information about cloud-game technology, with Start Engine offering Evolution, a demo of its native cloud game technology. In the demo, players are brought back to the era of dinosaurs.
“The Start Engine team is focused on the development of native cloud game technology and offering a brand-new game experience to the end users,” read a press release.
Game Technologies Empowered Projects
Also at the conference, Tencent Games demonstrated how it has applied game-related technology to other areas, such as scientific research, culture heritage, and industrial applications.
Culture Heritage
Tencent Games has assisted in the protection and restoration by building the digital Great Wall of China, the Library Cave of Dunhuang and the Beijing Central Axis through the use of game technologies including Programmed Content Generation technology (PCG), Physics-based Rendering Technology (PBR), cloud gaming, virtual avatars and other game technologies.
Industry
BaoSteel Co., Ltd., Tencent Games and Tencent Cloud have cooperated to apply Real-time Cloud Rendering, Motion Capture, Reality-Virtuality Interaction, AR/VR and other game technologies to create the digital twin of the Baosteel 1580 hot rolling mill, and to build a holographic glasses-free 3D full-fidelity digital factory.
Tencent is also working with China Southern Airlines’ subsidiary, Zhuhai Flight Training Center, to develop and build China’s first Full Flight Simulator (FFS).
Scientific research
Tencent Games also announced it will join the Chasing All Transients Constellation Hunters (CATCH) program initiated by the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics. The CATCH program will harness Tencent Games’ AI technology and empower 100+ satellites to observe the universe.
The physical simulation technology that powers NPCs in games will also be used to make robots smarter while working around humans.
“The technology will improve the autonomous decision-making ability of robots to adapt to different situations. The breakthroughs will help pave the way for future real-world applications, such as elderly care and other people-oriented services,” Tencent said in a press release.
Related article: Riot Games CEO outlines business’ future with 5-year plan, parent company Tencent to give staff option to gain partial ownership of Riot
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
