This is a project I did to provide an insight into the League of Legends scene in Viet Nam. I was under no affiliate with Riot Games or Garena at the time I finished this one.

1. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN
VIET NAM
An insight into the landscape of Vietnamese
gaming community

2. FIRST LOOK
League of
Legends
Usually considered as a free-to-play MOBA video game
Developed by Riot Games in 2009
Most played PC game in NA, Europe, South Korea, and China
One of the biggest eSports scene in the world
Main partners: OGN (KR), Garena (SEA & TW), Tencent (CN)
Main competitors: Dota2, Heroes of the Storm, 3Q (Vietnam market)

3. BRAND SNAPSHOT
 CORE VALUE: A competitive, hardcore game that
will last for decades by constantly pursuing the
values of mastery, meaningful choices,
counterplay, teamplay, clarity, and evolution.
 PREMIUM EXPERIENCES: Riot Games go out of
their way to build the world’s most active
competitive scene and nurture the world’s largest
online gaming community.

4. COMMUNITY FACTS
 67M monthly players, 27M daily players (2014)
 Social media:
 25M friends across various social networks (2012)
 12M Facebook likes
 2.24M Twitter followers
 689K Reddit subscribers (biggest non-defaut
subreddit)
 World Championship:
 32M people watched S3 World Finals hosted at
STAPLES Center, USA
 27M people watched S4 World Finals hosted at
45,000-seats Seoul World Cup Stadium, South Korea

5. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS IN VIET NAM
Vietnam
Population
• 90M (2014)
15-24 Age
Range • 16.6M (8.6M male)
Internet
Users
• 95% (2014)
 Official distributor: Garena VN
 Official Viet Nam fan page:
 https://www.facebook.com/LienMinhHu
yenThoai
 2.1M fans
 Official channel:
 http://lienminh.garena.vn/
 Garena forum has 2.3M users for 3
games:
 League of Legends
 FIFA Online 3
 Warcraft 3

6. ONLINE COMMUNITY
 Besides Garena, Viet Nam LoL community
does not have a centralized forum like
Reddit (NA) or Inven (KR).
 Team’s official site haven’t become the
hub for their fans. Some team’s site is
even out-of-date heavily (SAJ’s site last
updated in 2012)
 Fans mostly follow their favorite teams or
pros on Facebook/ Instagram
 Vietnam scene lack the close interaction
as in other League communities

7. VIET NAM COMPETITIVE SCENE
 Belong to one of the wild card regions
 Most big teams owned by Garena
 Most famous teams:
 Saigon Jokers (542k FB fans)
 Full Louis (175k FB fans)
 Saigon Fantastic Five (133k FB fans)
(to put in retrospective, 3 biggest Western
organizations, TSM has 422k FB fans, FNATIC LOL
has 700k FB fans, and CLG has 169k fans)
 POTENTIAL intensifies!
542
700
175
422
133
169
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Viet Nam teams Western teams
FB Fanbase Comparison

8. ESPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE
 Streaming Platforms
 Most popular: VETV.vn, TalkTV.vn, Azubu.tv
 Average viewers: 750 – 2500 concurrent
viewers/ session
 Cannot be the sustainable way of living for pro
gamers… yet
 Internet café
 Approximately 3000+ stores in Ha Noi, 4000+
stores in Ho Chi Minh City
 Host various amateur tournament thus play a
vital part in developing the amateur scene

9. ESPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE
 Streaming Platforms
 Most popular: VETV.vn, TalkTV.vn, Azubu.tv
 Average viewers: 750 – 2500 concurrent
viewers/ session
 Cannot be the sustainable way of living for pro
gamers… yet
 Internet café
 Approximately 3000+ stores in Ha Noi, 4000+
stores in Ho Chi Minh City
 Host various amateur tournament thus play a
vital part in developing the amateur scene

10. TOURNAMENTS
 Mostly organized by Garena
 International level:
 16 SEA teams (6 VN teams)
 Official site: http://gpl.garena.com
 National level
 5 tiers: 1 Professional, 3 Championship Series, 1
Amateur
 Official site: http://lmht.giaidau.vn

11. EVENTS
 Important events held in big cities (Ha Noi,
HCMC, Hai Phong…) always generate huge fans
interest and sold out most of the time.
 Smaller events ( Gigabyte Esport Cup Final and
the likes) also receive huge welcome from local
fans
 League of Legends related content dominates
Manga Festival, Comic Con etc
 Merchandise store
 Cosplay

12. SWOT ANALYSIS FOR THE LEAGUE OF LEGENDS SCENE
IN VIET NAM

13. STRENGTHS Huge & passionate userbase
Garena’s networks in game distribution
Garena’s extensive experience in developing a gaming
scene
Free-to-play game with a financially profitable model
Clear & consistent design value
Constantly innovate to keep the game fresh

14. WEAKNESSES Delayed updates (2 weeks behind other scenes)
Isolate from international competitive gaming scene
One of the weakest regions in general
Overly dependent on Garena
Lack of alternative sustainable ways of earnings for professional gamers
(sponsorship, brand endorsement, streaming, merch store etc)
Vietnamese gamers sometimes have bad reputation to foreign fans

15. OPPORTUNITIES Huge market potential with great chance to expand
market share
Internet & computer infrastructure fit with game system
requirements
Most played game in most regions
Target market is still growing in number and size
Geographically near strong regions (KR, CN, TW) so VN
scene can learn and be influenced by them a lot
Professional gaming starts to get recognized as a “real
career”

16. THREATS Online games are still often seen under negative light from times
to times
Viet Nam government still heavily regulates the avaibility of game
distribution and Internet café stores
Dota2 has an established position in Viet Nam gaming scene
Competitions from newer similar games, especially from Chinese
game publishers such as 3Q, Heroes of Three Kingdoms etc
The increasing of home gaming and the reducing of Internet store
gaming may hurt the amateur competitive scene
The lack of a centralized forums for both fans and pros will
reduce engagement & interaction