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AbacusTech

League of Legends is now a puzzle game

Tencent and Riot Games target younger gamers with Candy Crush-esque game and a cartoony style

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In Fingertip Summoners, you play as a League of Legends character and attack your opponent by eliminating gems. The color of the gems determines whether you execute a normal attack, special attack or health regen. (Picture: Tencent)
Josh Ye
This article originally appeared on ABACUS

League of Legends is finally on mobile. But it’s probably not in the way you hoped. Tencent released a League of Legends-themed match-3 puzzle game that has more in common with Candy Crush than the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game on PC.

League of Legends, the esports giant

Without almost any marketing, Tencent quietly launched Fingertip Summoners, a mini game that runs within its flagship chat app and China’s largest social network, WeChat. With its more cartoony animation style, it’s a sign of how Tencent might be looking to use one of its best-known properties to target a younger audience.

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Unlike the original League of Legends, Fingertip Summoners was developed by Tencent rather than its subsidiary Riot Games.

As a typical PvP RPG match-3 game, it selects another opponent for you to face online. In this game, though, you get to duke it out as a champion from League of Legends. To deal damage to your enemy, you must be better and faster than your opponent at solving match-3 puzzles.
Besides turning League of Legends into a puzzle game, the cartoony style presented in Fingertip Summoners is a stark departure for the property. It’s typically more associated with an edgier style that can be seen from virtual k-pop group K/DA based on Leagues of Legends characters.
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In Fingertip Summoners, you play as a League of Legends character and attack your opponent by eliminating gems. The color of the gems determines whether you execute a normal attack, special attack or health regen. (Picture: Tencent)
In Fingertip Summoners, you play as a League of Legends character and attack your opponent by eliminating gems. The color of the gems determines whether you execute a normal attack, special attack or health regen. (Picture: Tencent)
So what does this mean for all you MOBA fans out there? Don’t worry, the future of League of Legends isn’t puzzle games. We know that Tencent and Riot Games are working on a mobile version of League of Legends, and it will stay in the MOBA genre.

MOBA explained: One of the most popular genres in esports is making a push on mobile

But Fingertip Summoners gives Tencent a way to experiment with a known property and target a different demographic of gamers. League of Legends is a 10-year-old game and it’s facing new competition from the likes of Fortnite and Auto Chess.
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