Riot Games have released an interactive map of Runeterra, the place where League of Legends is set, which sparked the ever persistent rumours of a League-themed MMO in the works. Marc Merrill further added fuel to the flame via his Twitter.
Many League of Legends fans have been waiting for Riot Games to announce a new, presumably MMORPG, title that would share lore with their extremely popular MOBA. One of Riot's co-founders, Marc "Tryndamere" Merrill, may have teased the game or made a joke about fans' theories on his Twitter account.
Riot Games released an interactive map on 24 July 2018 and announced it on Twitter as well as other social media. Since the map looked a lot like one we would normally find in an MMO, players started crying out for an MMO version of League of Legends.
These comments apparently caught Merrill's attention and he posted a sort of a poll on his personal Twitter account asking if players actually wanted an MMO by Riot Games. Several well known professional players asked him not to play with their feelings while fans started crafting theories of what the game could be or look like.
Normally such teases wouldn't have much traction but rumours of an MMO in development has been circulating League of Legends community for years. On top of that, a Riot employee who is charged with level design admitted they were not working on League of Legends about two years back, stating they were busy with "other things, where a level designer's skill set might be more applicable".
Technically, this could mean smaller spin-off games Riot Games released over the years, but a company with around 2500 employees could indeed have more people working on level design, for "other things".
Riot Games
League of Legends certainly has enough lore regarding Runeterra, its history and inhabitants to provide a compelling narrative. Even the champions in the game have their own extensive backstories, with some featuring slightly unrelated tales that didn't get closure yet. For example, I would love to see that duel between Saijax and Fiora play out in an MMO setting.
