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Interview: Riot Games’ Daniel Ringland and Max ‘Atlus’ Anderson on the Oceanic Pro League

Riot Games has been taking huge steps in Esports in Oceania, including setting up the first professional eSport league here for League of Legends. We caught up with Rioters Daniel Ringland and Max ‘Atlus’ Anderson to have a chat about the Oceanic Pro League (OPL) and Riot’s plans for the future.

Hamish Lindsay, Stevivor: So why did Riot choose Oceania to be the home of their next Pro League?

Daniel Ringland: It wasn’t really chosen, it doesn’t really work that way. When Riot first opened in Oceania the first thing they wanted to do was create an Esports scene and we set about doing that straight away. Last year we had 5 different events and ran 3 different splits but it wasn’t really in the traditional structure of the other leagues. We were happy with how it went, players enjoyed playing in the tournaments and we started getting good viewers so we decided that this was the year to really take the next step and move towards what the other leagues are doing. We felt it was time, there was demand there from players and viewers so we decided to step up and do the next step in the evolution.

Stevivor: Do you think the creation of the OPL may make change the way other regions perceive Oceania? Will they take us more seriously?

Ringland: Yeah yeah, definitely. A lot of the developing regions are looked down upon by fans in North America and Europe. I think this will change it somewhat, having things like a proper website and moving towards the league structure will help and giving our players more opportunities to play will increase their skill level. The ultimate thing that international players will judge us on is how well we do at Wild Card tournaments and that sort of thing. It’s our hope as well that by having more games, by having our pros play more often and by paying them a salary so they can put more time into it that their skill level will increase and make them more competitive on the international stage.

Max ‘Atlus’ Anderson: There’s also the fact that Australian viewers want to watch their own region play as well. Australians in general have this super domestic focus when it comes to wanting to support the Australian side, like how we only ever care about soccer when the World Cup is on. Having a league of our own and having the opportunity to send someone overseas as a representative is huge for the Oceanic region as viewers as well.

OPL Legacy

Stevivor: The OPL is currently being played online with 4 teams per night, is Riot looking at creating a studio in the future much like other regions have?

Ringland: It’s not something we have planned right now. Having to fly in players to the studio is huge logistically. It would deliver an improvement in the league but we don’t think we’re at the point where it makes sense to do that. That would take a lot of resources that are potentially better invested in other areas. Once we make as many improvements as we can in the other areas we can look at that but there are easier wins that are more impactful that it makes sense to tackle first.

Atlus: It’s also about the players as well because most of our players live outside of Sydney. When they need to fly around every weekend for two days they’re not going to be able to have a life between work or school and playing this game. Until we can provide an all encompassing career as a pro gamer we can’t expect them to be flying about all the time.

Stevivor: What are Riot’s plans for live events now with the advent of the OPL?

Ringland: We’re still kind of figuring that out, we want to provide the best kind of viewership experience possible. Other regions have more stadium type events because it’s obviously much more enjoyable to sit in a stadium with a good view of the stage then it is to stand in an expo hall. We’re still not really sure yet with the finals at the end of the year but we haven’t locked it in yet.

Stevivor: Will we ever see big international teams coming to OCE for a show match or something similar?

Ringland: Yeah that kind of thing is really cool, like Max said people from OCE really like to get behind their teams when they take on the world. We don’t currently have plans for anything like that right now, it would be really awesome to get some big international teams down here though and we’d jump at the chance.

Stevivor: Both Direwolves and Chiefs have had a very strong start to the OPL, do you think that they will continue as the most powerful teams or will others catch up?

Atlus: I definitely think they’re up there, I think my power rankings had Chiefs at the top with Legacy following and Dire Wolves just under that. As far as for my opinion on who’s strongest… The chiefs have just come together recently, they’ve struggled a bit with becoming complacent in the past if you remember the upset of Winter. They’ve been kicked into gear over the preseason as far as getting themselves together, getting their playstyle happening and really pushing themselves to be the best again because they miss the top spot and they want it back. I think Legacy are still able to give them a run for their money though, ChuChuz is a god in the midlane and Tallywhacka is fantastic and can play Kalista, which we haven’t seen out of Raydere just yet. Legacy may have fallen to the Chiefs the first time but they face each other twice and you never know whats going to happen further down the line, everything can change. You don’t know just from the first week who will take these wins because it’s only two games we’ve seen and when Chiefs win they look really really good and when they don’t they don’t necessarily look as good. We’ll have to see. Dire Wolves are a similar case, they’re looking more consistent but there are areas of weakness which could be exploited by other teams. When they’ve only faced off what is arguably the lower tier of the OPL we just don’t know what to expect yet.

OPL Chiefs

Stevivor: How important do you think building public interaction is for teams? Teams like Chiefs and Legacy now have an established fan base, and Rich Gang are definitely building theirs, is it something other teams should work on? Is Riot helping the newer teams or is that not a focus currently?

Atlus: We’re more than happy to help them as much as we can and I think it is definitely beneficial for teams to be working on gathering that fanbase and putting themselves out there. That allows for more sponsorships, more abilities from outside sources and we can have more established orgs that can provide better for their players. The more coverage they get the more fan following they get that is more revenue for our players and more they can practice comfortably.

Ringland: Yeah I’d add that by creating more content and building a brand and writing about themselves creating video content gives their fans a chance to get to know them and follow them. If you look at other traditional sports its pretty clear to see they’ve become more than just a team, they’ve become a kind of club that people can really support and get behind besides just watching them play. Anything we can do to help teams move in that direction will be good for everybody.

You can catch the OPL tonight from 6pm AEDT at twitch.tv/riotgamesoceania. You can aloo keep up with OPL news, VODs and more via this site.


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About the author

Hamish Lindsay

Avid reader and general geek, justifying the time I spend playing games by writing about them. I try not to discriminate by genre, but I remember story more than gameplay. I’ve been playing League for longer than Akali and I’m still Silver. Fallout 3 and MGS3 may be the pinnacle of gaming.