Role playing games, also known as RPGs, are some of the most popular video games in the world. They are also amongst the most competitive in the professional esports space, with prize pools amassing fortunes that may make people think about quitting their day jobs to start playing video games professionally. The open world aspect of these games is what makes them so appealing to people playing, and to people watching professional esports games.
We’ve asked betting expert Alex Goldstein from My Betting Sites to list the 3 most popular RPG games that fans can play, but also bet on, as professional esports teams compete against each other while playing these games.
Top 3 Esports games to bet on
- League of Legends (LoL)
- Dota 2 (sequel to Defence of the Ages, known as DotA)
- World of Warcraft (WoW)
The remainder of the article picks apart what makes each of them so enjoyable, and so much fun to bet on.
League of Legends (LoL)
League of Legends, commonly referred to as League, or even LoL, is our top pick for the most popular Role Playing Game for gaming fans to bet on. As a game within esports, it is one of the most popularly offered esports on sports betting sites, along with Counterstrike, and the other games listed on this article.
In League of Legends, two teams of five players (in each team) battle in player vs. player combat. Each team inhabits one half the game map, and the end goal of the game is for one of the teams to infiltrate the other team’s base in their half of the map. Once done, the team must destroy their opposing team’s “Nexudus”, which is a big structure located in each team’s base.
Each player on the team is represented by a character, which is known as a champion, and each champion has a set of special abilities, that can help the team complete the overarching goal.
League of Legends has become easily one of the most popular esports games in the world, with even the New York Times describing it as the industry’s main attraction. The nature of the game, that blends team work, playing to different strengths, and the fact the game can be played by fans, and mastered by professionals are some reasons why League of Legends is so popular to bet on.
Defence of the Ages 2 (Dota 2)
Another multiplayer online battle arena type game, Dota 2 was released in 2013 by game developers Valve. The game is the sequel to DotA, a community created mod for World of Warcraft III, Reign of Chaos.
Similar to League of Legends (the two games have very similar gameplay and development stories), Dota 2 is competed by two teams that have the goal of destroying a large structure that is defended by the opposing team. The only difference when compared to League of Legends is that the structure in Dota 2 is called an “Ancient” instead of a “Nexudus”.
As you could probably tell from reading this paragraph, LoL and Dota 2 share much, and is partially the reason for why these two games are so popular. The aspects that define both of these games are what appeal to people in gaming circles, so much so that a professional league has developed from it.
World of Warcraft
The third and final popular video game that gamers can bet on is World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is one of the out-and-out gaming classics, with its initial form being released back in 2004. While World of Warcraft serves as the inspiration for the two games mentioned above, the initial gameplay and plot of this game is significantly different from those found above.
In World of Warcraft, the concept of ongoing gameplay is applied, wherein there is no specific end goal other than character development. Characters can continue growing, and users can continue completing quests as they develop. As the years have gone by, more and more developments have been made, more realms have been added, and the game has simply gone from strength to strength.
While there may seem like less of a competitive aspect to this game, Blizzard (the company that launched WoW) began launching raid events. These raid events have become a classic feature of the esports industry, and are some of the most popular esports events to bet on.