League of Legends was originally intended to be a 6v6 game. Here’s what Riot thinks about it.
Riot Games’ League of Legends is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) game. It was released in 2009 and it was initially inspired by Dota (Defence of the Ancients).
Then, Riot noticed the potential in this new MOBA genre and created League of Legends: Clash of Fates, a considerably more intuitive and independent game. Later, the game was renamed League of Legends, and it is now one of the world’s biggest and most successful games.
Riot Games on League of Legends being a 6vs6
Riot published the LoL beta in 2009. And the game looks nothing like the current LoL. Nothing is the same, from the old UI and appearance to the features and mechanics.
But what players don’t know is that League of Legends was supposed to be a 6vs6 game, rather than the current 5vs5. We don’t believe at first, but with the recent discussion on the LoL subreddit, RiotMeddler opens up about the information.
When players on Reddit began joking about how Overwatch 2 was 5v5, and League would be 6v6, RiotMeddler chimed in with some knowledge. To put things in context, League of Legends isn’t going 6v6, and the initial message was intended to be a joke.
Anyway, Meddler stated that League of Legends was built and tuned around 6v6 during internal beta testing in 2008 and 2009. As a result, the ancient Nexus has six sculptures (symbolising 6 players).
However, by the time Riot launched the game’s closed beta, it had already been altered to 5v5. The reason behind this was to improve teamfight clarity and efficiency. Even now, it might be difficult to observe the game as a spectator for a 6vs6.
However, because the game was initially 6v6, many of the old codes remained in the archives. Riot was able to utilise it as a temporary game mode dubbed Hexakill as a result of it. Instead of 5v5, this mode was 6v6.