Why ‘Arcane’ has become a catalyst for a new age of League of Legends fandom

Riot Games’ hit series “Arcane” is not only groundbreaking in terms of its animation and narrative storytelling, but its ability to reach the masses. League of Legends has been the most popular PC game in the world for a decade now, but popularity alone hardly made a difference for video game films and TV shows of the past. “Arcane” is bringing new fans to the League of Legends IP while also reigniting the passions of its longtime followers, serving a uniquely wide audience and expanding League of Legends’ cultural impact.

League of Legends currently sports 157 different champions -- that’s 157 different backstories for anyone invested in lore and over 600 different abilities for the active player base. With so many different abilities, backstories and champion relationships, the game feels impenetrable to anyone approaching the intellectual property for the first time. When Riot Games first started its marketing campaign for “Arcane,” it was clear that the show was going to focus on two individual champions, Jinx and Vi, but the show still had to win over fans who had no interest in playing League of Legends.

“I was actually hesitant to watch ‘Arcane’ because I was worried about any potential learning curve,” Quinn, an assistant in the entertainment industry shared. “I don’t play League, but my partner does, so I’m somewhat aware of just how many characters are in the game and how each has their own backstory, not to mention retcons and revisions over the years.”

At one point, League of Legends was based around the idea of “Summoners,” special avatars that represented how and why players were commanding champions on Summoner’s Rift. Riot Games walked away from that concept in 2015, divorcing the game and the lore, allowing the company to create stories that stand on their own. Arcane’s focus on Jinx and Vi’s relationship as sisters, and how they ended up being on opposite ends of justice, is the type of storytelling that will continue to bridge the gap between gamers and non-gamers alike.

“I was a little confused about what the show was trying to do exactly until I was told by a friend that I didn’t actually need to know anything about the game and it was more of an original story featuring a small cast of League of Legends characters,” Quinn said. “That was much more appealing to me because it meant I could approach the material on my own terms, and only do any research if I wanted to satisfy personal curiosity as opposed to needing to read an entire wiki before starting Episode 1.”

As “Arcane” continues to trend on Netflix and gets the attention of famous artistic directors, like video game designer Hideo Kojima, it’s clear that the show is making an impact on the entertainment industry.

“My work in film/TV focuses primarily on live action entertainment. Animation is considered almost a separate industry (in my inexpert opinion) just because of how different the production process is and there are separate guilds,” Quinn explained. “The people I’ve spoken to about the show were incredibly impressed by both the story and animation quality, and it makes me hopeful that Western animation will start to be taken more seriously in terms of storytelling potential. I can’t say any of the people I talked to were inspired to play the game itself, but it raised good conversations about the future of video game adaptations and animation.”

Quinn doesn’t foresee themselves playing League of Legends anytime soon, but they noted that their partner returned to the game soon after watching the series, highlighting a trend among the League of Legends community. “Arcane” speaks to the “casual” audience, but also excites fans that have been there since Day 1. According to League of Graphs, champions like Jinx and Vi even saw a sharp increase in play following “Arcane’s” Netflix release.

“As a longtime fan of League of Legends, being a player since Season 1, ‘Arcane’ was an amazing experience personally,” Masters ranked League of Legends player Tear said. “League of Legends has always had such an amazing lore behind every playable champion, as well as non-playable characters that allowed players, watchers and others to become immersed in the world building of the game.”

Despite League of Legends not focusing on its lore until the latter half of the 2010s, players like Tear have maintained a longtime connection with the champions they’ve piloted since the game’s release. “Arcane” made champions like Jinx, Vi, Viktor and Jayce more familiar for those who never knew them, but also expanded them in a way that brings the most dedicated followers to tears.

“Watching ‘Arcane,’ especially as a longtime player of League, allowed me to have an even deeper understanding behind specific character quotes, personalities and motivations,” Tear shared. “Whether it be Jinx's gradual descent into madness and her eventual manifestation of a new persona, or understanding Caitlyn's position as an upright protector of Piltover who tiptoes the lines of lawlessness in order to save the people she cares about, Arcane provided an invitation to understand specific characters more.”

Not only did it expand on individual characters, but it made them more relatable by having them deal with real-world issues. The power struggle between the economic power of Piltover and its Hextech gates and the continually ignored underbelly society of Zaun rings all too closely with everyday society at large.

“‘Arcane’ also provided more insight with regards to how an individual living in the world of Runeterra would be treated,” Tear shared. “Watching interactions between Zaunites and Pilties was very interesting, and definitely made me think about its own parallels with the real world. All in all, watching Arcane definitely made me feel much more engaged with League of Legends, and made me more interested than I even thought was possible in the lore of Runeterra and its inhabitants.”

As a high-ranking player, Tear was already into League of Legends for the long haul, but “Arcane” added another dimension that no one could have imagined when action-filled cinematics were the only form of visual storytelling in years’ past. For the more everyday player, “Arcane” was a reminder of what players were missing from League of Legends and its related intellectual properties.

“Honestly, ‘Arcane’ revitalized my love for League of Legends,” League of Legends player and LoL esports fan Hayden shared. “It’s a game I played a lot in my high school life, so I hold it dear to my heart, but I was basically only playing one game a month if any.”

League of Legends has a reputation for being a competitive and cutthroat game prone to burnout, as its players keep up with numerous patch cycles and champion releases. A slower champion release cycle along with a more communicative development team assuaged these concerns over the years, but it can be hard to win players back. “Arcane,” though, changed that for numerous fans of the game.

“Watching the show with its beautiful art, great storyline and all of its Easter eggs really got me reinvested in the lore and characters,” Hayden said. “It felt like a sort of jumpstart to really enjoying all the aspects of League again from Teamfight Tactics to League of Legends to Legends of Runeterra.”

Teamfight Tactics shares the same client as League of Legends, but appeals to a different audience interested in the auto-chess genre. Meanwhile, Legends of Runeterra is Riot Games’ card game, which apart from being one of the most free-to-play-friendly card games, continues to develop lore in its own way by frequently adding new cards and archetypes featuring the faces of League of Legends.

“Arcane” is its own phenomenon as a successful television show focused around video game characters, but the lasting effects among fans, new and old, will solidify the show’s legacy in the long run. “Arcane” won’t always be a top-10 show on Netflix -- at least until Season 2 -- but it will always be remembered as the catalyst for a new era of League of Legends fandom.

Lead image credit: Riot Games / Netflix