The Battle Of Baron
View the case- Brand
- Riot Games
- Year
- 2020
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- BBH Singapore
- With
- UNIT9
- With
- Le Polish Bureau
Objective
Riot Games needed to launch Wild Rift's open beta across Vietnam, Oceania, Taiwan, Europe, Turkey, Russia/CIS, the Middle East and North Africa all at once, and to win over players who doubted a mobile League of Legends could hold up. With fans stuck at home, the brand also wanted a reason for veterans and newcomers to show up together around a shared enemy rather than another product announcement.
Solution
You open a single YouTube livestream and find Baron Nashor rendered live on screen, flanked by a numbered menu of possible moves. Instead of clicking anything, you type the number of your choice straight into the live chat alongside everyone else watching. Whichever move gets the most votes wins, and Baron reacts to it on stream within seconds, so you see the fight respond to your own line in the chat almost instantly. No app or download is needed — a YouTube account is enough to join in — and the boss fight plays out once, live, with no replay or second attempt.
Results
The stream drew 50,070 concurrent players at its peak and generated 1.65 million live chat comments during the broadcast. It reached 450,000+ views in its first week, and Wild Rift climbed to the #1 app store ranking in multiple regions on its launch day.
- 1
Ahead of the event, fans see the "The Battle of Baron" announcement and set a reminder for the YouTube premiere. At the scheduled time, the player opens a single shared YouTube livestream — on desktop the video sits beside a chat column, on mobile the chat overlays the fullscreen video — and switches chat from "Top chat" to "Live chat" to see and cast votes. No game install or app launch is required; the player takes part directly through the stream's chat.
- 2
The stream shows a live-rendered raid arena with the boss Baron Nashor, a shared health bar and portrait above him, and a fan of numbered options along the edge of the screen: four attacks and abilities plus a fifth team command.
- 3
The player types a number into chat to vote for an action; the option with the most votes across the entire global chat wins and plays out on screen, damaging the boss, whose health bar updates as he strikes back with an attack of his own. This menu-vote-strike cycle repeats continuously, with the chat coordinating on what to vote next.
- 4
Periodically a golden ring highlights one option as a timed "power attack" — if enough of the chat votes for it before the window closes, it lands for bonus damage.
- 5
A separate command, numbered 5, calls in a champion from Runeterra to help; the summon only triggers if the chat votes for it collectively.
- 6
The boss falls to a final collective blow, landing at the same shared moment for every region watching, and a "VICTORY" banner unfurls over the now-empty arena.
- 7
Closing credits list the names of the first 25,000 viewers who joined the stream, credited as "Baron Slayers."
- 8
Afterward, Riot confirms the win on social media and rewards every player who logged into the open beta with an exclusive emote and icon, delivered the following year.
