MOBA: Enigma

Prologue, by a witness

One of the most intact memories from my childhood was what my best friend's grandfather said once. I don't remember under what circumstances such talk was motivated, or if it was in April, summer, or March. This was from a long time ago, details may be fuzzy.

The intact part, however, was every micro expression and oh lord, the tone of that old man. It is still stuck in my head after all these years.

When my friend shared with his family about a guy great at video games we found in the arcade, and blurted out the expression "a god in video games," showing clear admiration and yearning to be like that guy, I had never seen my friend's grandfather being so cynical:

"A video game God? Sounds to me like another kid living off his parents, what accomplishment can you get in life if all you do is play games? Do you even know how demented one has to be to think that they can be better than anyone, Estefan?"

I got many surprises from one lecture that wasn't even for me. But what really stuck with me was how different Mr. Qing acted from the man who loved and spoiled the kids in the neighborhood. Thinking back, maybe it was then that a flame in me went off.

I love video games, that's for sure. I play at every opportunity that I get, even if I need to fake doing homework. But even when I'm spending whole weekends playing, without taking my eyes off the screen, I don't have the motivation to escalate. The ranked mode in any kind of game almost didn't exist for me. At all.

My logic was simple, based on the classic "killing all delusion": If I could not be at the top, at least among the group of people at the summit, if my body doesn't allow me to, if I don't have the talent for that, why even try?

I despise the idea of being the stone someone steps on, the ladder rung someone leaves behind. 

But my friend was another story, he was this story.

I don't know what he came out with from that conversation with his Grandpa, but I witnessed pure rebellion, pure conviction to prove something wrong.

To be there and to see that, we grew up together.

.

.

.

We have always been inseparable. Product of a neighborhood with few kids.

If I had my selfish moments sometimes, a little bit of a control freak over things in my possession. I was not that guy with him. I could share things with Estefan easily.

Game accounts were the least to say, I suspect this trait in our friendship began with us playing co-op survival games together, where everything mine was his, and everything his was mine.

So it was only natural that when he stayed with my family for summer vacation, we shared our favorite games. I introduced him to Into Deep, a rogue-like survival game of resource gathering and improving your character. Its exploration mechanic was loved and hated by many, as once you stepped into a lower level of the inferno, you could not go back to the previous one even when resources were abundant. And if you stay on the same level for too long, monsters from lower levels will group and crawl up to invade you.

The trick here is, that if you don't go deeper, with time, the monsters will reproduce and multiply, making it harder to explore or even survive. So the relationship between appropriate timing, resources gathered, combat options, and random map generation makes its playability almost infinite.

That was why Into Deep was also called In Too Deep by fans, as even if you find the entrance to the lower level, without enough preparation in the current one, you will only get killed by monsters with much higher stats, no matter if time-wise, they are low in number. Streamers will commonly say "Agh, I went in too deep" after losing their character after hours of gameplay. Making it one of the few games impossible to speed run within an absurd time.

And he introduced me to Legends of Irema, a 5 vs 5 MOBA game product of what-if in a Real-time strategy game instead of controlling troupes of hundreds you controlled one single character. LoI then for a long time became the perfect balance between delicate control and strategic cooperation in a videogame.

It was the kind of game where you always felt like there was room for improvement, whether it's mastering a champion, honing your map awareness, or refining your teamwork skills. It was like a puzzle that was never quite complete.

The diversity of champions and playstyles was another big draw. Whether you prefered to be a sneaky assassin, a powerful mage, an untouchable marksman, or a hulking tank, there was a champion that suit your style. In moments, you get the feeling that that one-specified champion was created just for you, as with them, there were no opponent you could not defeat.

Moreover, the competitive nature of LoI was a big part of its appeal. Trying to outplay your opponents is a thrill, trying to steal enemies' objectives gives the strongest heartbeats, and the feeling of outsmarting their entire team or making that game-changing play is immensely satisfying.

We didn't know back then that occurrences like this of liking both games at the same time was a phenomenon, inexplicable, but incredibly common in the gaming community. Fans of Legends of Irema were always surprised to fall in love with Into Deep.

And it was not surprising that players were inspired by LoI mechanics to make Into Deep moves.Believe me, there are people in the world with a very good sense of smell. It is then that, a small studio emerged out of nowhere, putting together components of both games and created the peak of competitiveness and spectacle. They created it "Enigma".

Its longevity overpasses its models. Gaining market and fame. Reputation and fanaticism.

 Creating fertile ground, an ecosystem in which their players can earn their daily bread.

This story occurred in the fifth year since the birth of "Enigma". And like everything always does, it is all about him: Estefan, my friend, the childish dream chaser.

He will make doubters into believers.

He will become a pro-player.

His words, cited by fanatics.

His hands, touching trophies.

His place, on the world stage.

His ID, Spotlight.