After leaving the AKAI KUMA office, Zaboru returned to ZAGE Tower with a satisfied smile still lingering on his face.
The bonuses he had given the five players had not come from ZAGE, AKAI, or any official sponsorship budget. The money had come directly from his own personal account. Altogether, he had handed over more than one million yen without hesitation.
To Zaboru, it was worth it.
AKAI KUMA had endured months of strict practice, regulated sleep, physical conditioning, replay reviews, communication drills, controlled diets, and the kind of pressure that could have easily destroyed a less united team. Their victory in Korea had not been luck. They had earned it through discipline, trust, and countless hours of uncomfortable improvement.
Rewarding that effort felt natural.
However, after returning to his office on the fifty-first floor of ZAGE Tower, Zaboru did not immediately continue his usual work on ZEPS 4.
These days, most of his time was consumed by the next-generation console as ZEPS 4 really took his life away but in a good way.
But today, something else occupied his mind.
Zaboru sat behind his desk, opened a blank document, and began typing.
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS OR DOTA?
He stared at the words for several seconds before leaning back in his chair.
"Is it too early for LoL?" he wondered aloud. "Or should I separate DoTA from Warcraft first?"
A small grin appeared on his face.
The current state of DoTA in 2001 was unusual.
It was still technically a Warcraft III custom map rather than a standalone game, but its popularity had already grown far beyond what most people expected from a mod. Internet cafés hosted DoTA nights. Competitive teams trained specifically for it. Tournament organisers had begun creating dedicated divisions, and thousands of players discussed hero matchups, item builds, lane combinations, and balance changes every day.
Zaboru had been deeply involved with its development from the beginning.
Because he remembered the future of the genre, he already understood many of the design problems that would normally take years for developers to discover. He knew which mechanics encouraged teamwork, which systems created unnecessary frustration, and which hero concepts could make matches more strategically interesting.
As a result, this world's DoTA was already far more polished and balanced than an ordinary custom map should have been in 2001.
Mostly.
Zaboru occasionally broke that balance on purpose.
Sometimes, he introduced a hero or adjustment knowing perfectly well that it would be too powerful. He treated the live game like a giant design laboratory, pushing certain concepts beyond reasonable limits just to observe how players, teams, and tournament organisers responded.
Terrorblade was currently one of the most feared examples.
His transformation, illusions, damage potential, and late-game power made him almost impossible to handle if given enough space. In ordinary matches, players constantly complained about him. In tournaments, he was regularly banned before teams even considered other heroes.
Omniknight, Purist Thunderwrath, was another problem.
His healing, protective magic, and ability to prevent physical damage could completely destroy certain team compositions. A good Omniknight player could transform a carry into an unstoppable monster, forcing opponents to either ban him or build their entire draft around countering him.
Several other heroes had also become temporarily infamous after experimental patches.
Some dominated lanes too easily. Some scaled too well. Others possessed combinations that Zaboru already knew were unfair but still allowed to remain for several weeks so he could study the response.
The players hated those periods.
Zaboru found them extremely useful.
"Perfect balance isn't always interesting," he thought. "Sometimes players need something powerful enough to fear. Something that forces the whole community to adapt."
In his previous life, the original DoTA had never remained perfectly balanced either, but the community constantly worked toward improving it. Heroes rose and fell with each patch, strategies changed, and the competitive scene evolved around whatever became strong.
League of Legends had taken a somewhat different approach.
At least in Zaboru's previous life, LoL constantly released new champions, items, runes, and reworks. The game was rarely truly balanced, but that instability also kept it alive. Every season created new arguments, new strategies, and new reasons for players to return.
Some champions became absurdly strong.
Others became nearly useless.
Then a patch changed everything again.
The imbalance could be frustrating, but it created movement.
Zaboru understood that now better than ever.
He did not want DoTA to become unfair forever. He simply wanted to understand how far he could push balance before frustration became stronger than excitement. Competitive games needed fairness, but they also needed disruption. If every hero remained equally safe and predictable, the community would eventually solve the game and stop discovering anything new.
The challenge was not creating perfect balance.
The challenge was creating controlled imbalance.
Something strong enough to reshape the game, but not so strong that it destroyed meaningful choice.
Zaboru looked at the title on his document again.
DoTA had already grown enormously despite remaining tied to Warcraft III. Players loved it, but the limitations of being a custom map were becoming increasingly obvious. The interface still depended on Warcraft's engine. Hero controls were restricted by systems originally designed for an RTS.
Many players had already begun asking the same question.
Why was DoTA still only a mod?
The requests appeared constantly across ZAGE Forum.
A standalone DoTA game felt inevitable.
Zaboru immediately remembered DoTA 2 from his previous life.
It had taken the original mod's complexity, hero design, item systems, and competitive identity before rebuilding everything inside a dedicated engine. The result was still brutally difficult for new players, but it gave the game the technical foundation needed to become a long-lasting esport.
Zaboru could create something similar much earlier in this world.
The real question was whether he should.
"Standalone DoTA first, or League of Legends?" he murmured.
League of Legends would not appear completely unfamiliar to the people of this world.
ZAGE had already released a popular Warcraft III custom campaign called The Runeterra. It was a multiplayer RPG experience set across a large fantasy continent divided into multiple regions.
Players had already explored Demacia, with its knights, noble houses, military traditions, and distrust of magic. They knew Noxus as an aggressive empire built around strength, conquest, and ambition. Ionia had been introduced as a spiritual land filled with ancient magic, martial traditions, and conflict between balance and invasion.
Piltover, Zaun, Freljord, Shurima, and several other regions had also been teased through quests, background lore, character dialogue, and expansion maps.
The project had always been part of Zaboru's long-term plan.
The Runeterra allowed ZAGE to introduce the world, factions, characters, and basic mythology long before League of Legends existed as a standalone game. By the time LoL eventually launched, players would already recognise many champions and locations.
They would not see it as a completely new universe.
They would see it as a world they had already visited, now transformed into a competitive battlefield.
Zaboru smiled at the thought.
"What would happen if ZAGE created both LoL and DoTA?"
In his previous life, the rivalry between the two communities had become legendary.
League of Legends players often viewed DoTA as overly complex, punishing, slow to learn, and unnecessarily hostile to beginners. DoTA players frequently viewed LoL as simplified, less strategically demanding, and designed for a wider but less serious audience.
Both games had their own strengths.
DoTA offered deeper mechanical interactions, stronger item complexity, harsher punishment, more dramatic power spikes, and the freedom to create absurd combinations. Almost every hero could feel broken when used correctly, but the opposing team often had equally powerful tools.
League of Legends was faster to understand, more visually readable, easier to control, and designed around a smoother progression for new players. Its champion kits were generally more direct, its matches became easier to follow, and its structure made it more accessible to casual and competitive audiences alike.
In Zaboru's previous life, the communities frequently fought over which approach was superior.
But what if both games came from the same company?
What if ZAGE openly treated them as two interpretations of the same genre rather than competing replacements?
DoTA could remain the complicated, ruthless, almost lawless battlefield where players were expected to understand hundreds of interactions. League of Legends could become the more accessible, character-driven alternative with faster onboarding and a stronger emphasis on distinctive champions.
They would still compete.
Players would still argue.
Zaboru knew gamers far too well to imagine otherwise.
However, the competition would happen inside the same ecosystem. ZAGE could learn from both games, share technology between them, organise crossover events, and allow each title to attract players who wanted a different kind of MOBA.
A dangerous grin slowly appeared on Zaboru's face.
He almost wanted the communities to fight.
Not in a genuinely destructive way, but through harmless arguments, tournaments, comparisons, and endless debates over which game required more skill. Rivalries created loyalty. Loyalty created community. Community created longevity.
The genre could become enormous.
"All right," Zaboru said, leaning forward again. "Standalone DoTA first."
He began typing a rough timeline.
The standalone version would release in 2003.
That gave ZAGE approximately two years to build a dedicated engine, improve the user interface, create proper matchmaking, design player profiles, develop spectator tools, and transfer the existing heroes without losing the strange identity that made DoTA special.
The transition would need to be handled carefully.
Players had spent years mastering the Warcraft III version. If the standalone game changed too much, the existing community might reject it. Zaboru could not simply make the graphics prettier and call it a sequel. The movement, timings, item interactions, attack animations, and strange mechanical habits had to feel familiar.
The standalone version needed to feel like DoTA freed from Warcraft III, not a completely different game wearing its name.
League of Legends could follow in 2004.
By then, The Runeterra would have introduced more regions, champions, and conflicts. ZAGE could use the established lore as the foundation for a more accessible MOBA while still ensuring the game felt mechanically distinct from DoTA.
However, nothing would be released the following year.
"Next year belongs to ZEPS 4," Zaboru muttered.
The console launch was already too important.
ZEPS 4 would not simply introduce stronger hardware. It would bring ZAGE Network, online multiplayer, digital stores, player accounts, friends lists, messaging, voice chat, downloadable games, expansions, trophies, multimedia applications, and features far beyond what most players currently expected from a home console.
The launch games were also enormous projects.
Trying to introduce a standalone DoTA at the same time would divide ZAGE's attention and overwhelm the audience. The new console already demanded that players understand new hardware, new online services, new control systems, and several ambitious launch titles.
There was no reason to force another revolution into the same year.
Zaboru chuckled quietly. "ZEPS 4 is already heavy enough. If we release all of this together, players might forget to sleep entirely."
He looked again at his rough timeline.
2002 — ZEPS 4 launch and ecosystem expansion.
2003 — Standalone DoTA.
2004 — League of Legends.
It was only a preliminary idea, but it already felt dangerous.
Within three years, the gaming world could change completely.
Zaboru leaned back again and considered the current state of esports.
Real-time strategy games were still near their peak.
Warcraft III, StarCraft, Battle Realms, Command & Conquer, and several ZAGE-developed RTS games attracted large competitive audiences. Professional players were admired for their ability to control armies, manage resources, expand across maps, and make dozens of decisions every minute.
RTS matches were some of the most intellectually demanding esports to watch.
A strong player had to manage economy, production, scouting, positioning, unit composition, upgrades, and combat simultaneously. In team formats, communication and coordination added another layer of difficulty.
Zaboru genuinely loved watching them.
Warcraft and StarCraft matches could become beautiful at the highest level. A player might win through superior micro-control, better economy management, a hidden expansion, a perfectly timed attack, or a risky strategy that only became understandable after the match ended.
However, Zaboru also remembered what eventually happened in his previous life.
RTS games gradually became less dominant.
They did not disappear, and several maintained loyal communities for decades, but the genre became more difficult to sell to broad audiences. The games were complex, stressful, and punishing. New players often lost repeatedly without understanding why. Even learning the basics required memorising units, structures, counters, build orders, and resource timings.
Watching professional matches could also be difficult for casual viewers.
A single battle might look exciting, but understanding why one player had already lost five minutes earlier required deeper knowledge of economy, scouting, production, and map control.
MOBA games solved many of those problems.
Instead of commanding an entire army, each player controlled one hero. Team roles became easier to recognise. Viewers could follow individual personalities and star players. The action remained strategically deep, but the emotional focus became clearer.
One hero landed the decisive stun.
One carry survived with almost no health.
One support sacrificed himself to save the team.
One player stole Roshan.
The AKAI KUMA match had proven exactly why the genre could become so powerful.
Even people who did not understand every mechanic could understand the drama.
FPS games would likely remain eternal for similar reasons. The fundamental action was immediately understandable: aim, shoot, survive, complete the objective. Fighting games would also endure because one-on-one competition was naturally dramatic.
But RTS games?
Zaboru sighed.
"They'll become more niche eventually."
He did not like admitting it.
Games such as Age of Empires and Civilization—both developed by ZAGE in this world—would continue to sell well and maintain devoted audiences. Strategy gaming itself would never disappear. But the era when RTS titles stood at the absolute centre of competitive gaming would gradually fade.
MOBA games would inherit much of that audience.
The genre kept many RTS foundations: map awareness, resource control, positioning, timing, unit interaction, team composition, and strategic adaptation. But it placed those ideas inside a format that was easier to follow emotionally and easier to personalise.
The distinction was not perfect, but it gave Zaboru a strong starting point.
By the time he finally looked away from the screen, the office around him had become completely dark except for the lights of his computer and the city outside the windows.
Zaboru checked the clock.
It was already past midnight.
He rubbed his eyes, stretched his shoulders, and looked over the pages of notes he had created. What had begun as a simple question had become the early foundation of an entire new era for competitive gaming.
Standalone DoTA in 2003.
League of Legends in 2004.
Two games that could reshape esports for decades.
Zaboru saved the documents, leaned back, and smiled with satisfaction.
"Well, that is enough planning for today."
His eyes moved toward the Warcraft III icon on his computer.
After spending hours thinking about the possible decline of RTS games, he suddenly felt the urge to play one.
A grin appeared on his face.
"Well, let's play some RTS Warcraft III. Hehehe."
To be continued.
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