Zlaten del Castillo

League of Legends: Battle of Baron

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‘Battle of Baron brings Wild Rift fans a lot closer than usual to one of the most iconic fights of any League of Legends match. It was fundamental to communicate the danger and the epic that players can feel in a clash with Baron Nashor and the necessity to collaborate between them to achieve success.’

Zlaten del Castillo, Creative Director, UNIT9

The background

League of Legends: Wild Rift expanded its open beta to Vietnam, Oceania, Taiwan, Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, and Russia. To celebrate the launch, we turned YouTube Live into a collaborative multiplayer story experience for fans all over the world.

The execution

We hosted the biggest Baron battle in history on YouTube Live. Anyone, anywhere, could join the biggest Baron battle in history, typing in live chat to take down the beast. The global gaming community worked together to defeat Baron Nashor in a way that’s never been done before.

Battle of Baron was an exciting, collaborative way to immerse fans in the epic world of Wild Rift and put them in charge. We crowdsourced every move in the battle using a voting system in the YouTube Live Chat. Users voted for what to do next by typing 1, 2, 3, or 4 into the chatbox, and whichever move received the most votes won. Baron responded dynamically to each move, and it was exciting for fans to see that direct response to their vote and feel the instant gratification of contributing to the cause.

Working together with BBH Singapore, our team created the whole project, from conception to delivery, in just five weeks. The timing was extremely tight, but this was a true labor of love; as gamers ourselves, it was exciting to work on a project for such a big title.

The results

We gave fans the chance to be part of a special moment in the League of Legends
universe. And they definitely showed up: at the height of the livestream, we had 50,070 players and 1.65 million live chat comments. To date, the livestream has over 450,000 views and counting, and the game went on to hit the #1 spot in app stores in multiple regions.