# 4. League of Legends

The OG MOBA still dominates — new players welcome.

League of Legends (or LoL; initially League of Legends: Clash of Fates) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre video game developed by Riot Games.[5] It was designed to operate on the Microsoft Windows operating system. The game was first announced on October 7, 2008 and released a year later on October 27, 2009.[6] The game was in beta from April 10, 2009[7] to October 26th, 2009.[8]

Two main protagonists for the popular Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne mod, Defense of the Ancients: Allstars (commonly abbreviated as DotA), Steve 'Guinsoo' Feak and Steve 'Pendragon' Mescon are involved with Riot Games in the process of making of League of Legends. Guinsoo created DotA: Allstars from the original DotA, created by Eul, by adding his own mix of content, including over 40 heroes, numerous items, and various gameplay changes. Guinsoo then passed DotA: Allstars on to its current developer, Icefrog. Pendragon, who is the Director of Community Relations for Riot Games, helped create the DotA: Allstars website along with its forums, and is still currently working on DotA: Allstars alongside League of Legends. The core game is free to play, and new users can register an account here.