League of Legends

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Riot Games, which Tencent fully acquired after initially purchasing a 51% stake and later buying out the remaining shares . The acquisition proved enormously consequential: Riot's founders had been hesitant about a mobile version, but once Tencent became 100% owner, it pushed through Honor of Kings—now the world's highest-grossing mobile game—within months . In the view of one esports industry figure, the LoL international project team operates with unusual autonomy despite being a wholly-owned subsidiary, with the relationship between Tencent and Riot sometimes running "in reverse" of the typical parent-subsidiary dynamic . The game also serves as a testbed for AI applications, with researchers using it to explore whether systems can understand player micro-decisions and match-turning moments rather than simply mimicking human play .