Riot says League of Legends will hopefully be around for decades

GameSpot sister site onGamers reports on a collaboration between the Riot Games esports division and Coca-Cola and the expectations for League of Legends future.

In a presentation at the Digital Life Design conference, Riot said of their increasingly popular game. "It's a sport like just like anything else. Baseball has been around 110 years. I'm not saying League of Legends will be around that long, but we see the shelf life of LoL as hopefully decades."

Regarding the partnership with Coca-Cola, a representative from the company said, "We decided early on that there was an amazing opportunity and a really great sync with one of our brands, Coke Zero, about giving amateur players a road to the pros. Most of us when we were young, had aspirations of being pro at something and some level. We wanted to work with Riot and give that opportunity to the playerbase."

When asked why Coca-Cola decided to partner with Riot Games instead of sponsoring an independent league such as Major League Gaming or the Electronic Sports League, the Coca-Cola representative said the connection to the developer is vital for the brand.

"We wanted to get close to the core of the experience," he said. "All these other groups are very very good and talented at what they do, and all of them friends of mine. But I think that in order to really win the hearts and minds of the game players, you have to win the hearts and minds of the game makers. So you want to stay close to the content and especially how we want to integrate, That's why working with the game makers is so important to us."

For the full report and to read even more esports-focused gaming coverage, be sure to check out onGamers.com.