Inspired by Dota2 & LoL, this M’sian team throws NFTs into the mix for a new MOBA game

Perhaps one of the most talked-about blockchain games in the past year has been Axie Infinity. 

For the uninitiated, it’s a Pokémon-style game with tradable pets and items. Though the pets (AKA the in-game NFTs) have cosmetic functions, each pet has a set of unique abilities for battling too, which affect the pet’s value when traded.

It was developed by a studio based in Vietnam. And now, it appears that SEA might be further setting the scene to become a hub that’s building globally recognised blockchain-based games.

Inspired by Dota 2 and League of Legends, a new P2E blockchain game will emerge this year. It’s currently being developed by Malaysian-based studio, Mithotech Ltd (Mithotech) in partnership with Anantarupa Studios (Anantarupa), a Jakarta-based game studio.

Titled League of Ancients (LOA), it aims to create the first esports-oriented, free-to-play, play-to-earn (P2E), multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game on the Binance Smart Chain. 

Get to know the devs

Mithotech was founded in October 2021 and operates under its parent company, Realmstack Sdn Bhd (Realmstack). Based on Realmstack’s Linkedin page, the company is attempting to be one of the first movers supporting Web3 ventures in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, Anantarupa is a Jakartan studio known for creating Indonesia’s first esports MOBA, Lokapala. 

Utilising Anantarupa’s existing game engine, LOA’s Project Lead claims that up to three years of development time has been saved. This leaves them the space to focus on building the crypto aspects and the esports integration. 

So far, the project has received US$100K in pre-sales funding via 500K unique wallets, and US$5M in private sales. Some notable partners aiding in LOA’s funding include Dutch Crypto Investors, Master Ventures, LD Capital, and Magnus Capital Au21, to name a few.

What goes down in LOA?

LOA will be free to play (F2P), carrying a zero-barrier entry model where anyone can play and progress in the game with no upfront costs required. 

10 players will be thrust into the game’s Ancient Realm tileset map, where they will battle in a 5v5 player-versus-player (PVP) team. The map is divided into two sides, the Luminous and the Dark Souls. The objective of the game is to destroy the base of the opposing team. 

With P2E mechanics embedded in LOA, gamers are able to earn tokens by winning battles in the game. 

There will be three game modes, which are:

The earned tokens can then be used to buy new items or skins—often regarded as the in-game NFTs—which can then be traded on external NFT marketplaces for crypto or real-world money.

Speaking of marketplaces, LOA is set to launch its own by the end of Q1 2022, according to its website. Certainly, it shows that the game is attempting to set up a whole ecosystem for its very own metaverse of sorts, or what it has already named, the League of Ancients MOBAverse.  

Fans are already prepping for its launch

Targeting the MOBA community, LOA wants to appeal to an audience of 250 million worldwide, offering them the opportunity to play-to-earn while enjoying the game. The NFT MOBA game is expected to launch on iOS and Android by Q4 2022.

While the game is still under development, LOA is already receiving pretty massive interest from fans.

At the moment, the LOA community already has over 191K followers on Twitter, and almost 90K members on its Discord server.

The team behind LOA also shared with Vulcan Post that the game has sold over 150K NFTs worth a total of US$10 million. Amongst the NFTs sold, the rarest tier Immortal skin was sold out within five seconds during the public sale.

Just based on these numbers alone, eyes are on LOA and the game should have no issue taking off once it officially launches, hopefully by the end of this year.

Featured Image Credit: League of Ancients