As strange as it may sound, League of Legends is nearly 15 years old. In many ways, the industry standard-bearer in multiplayer PC gaming and esports, once a haven for young, competitive players, is now an “old” title—and it has a peer to match.

That, at least, was the gist of League’s leadership team during a private media event at Riot’s Los Angeles campus. Make of that what you will, but the player base is getting older, and with that age comes other challenges. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing,” game director Pu Liu said in response to a question about the age of League’s players going up after confirming the claim was true. “If you have a game that’s really good at retaining players and you have a consistent influx of new players year after year, then [the player base] should age.”

With that aging player base comes new challenges that weren't really there for the League team a decade ago. Liu cited the challenge of bringing new players into a game and retaining "very skilled, very knowledgeable" players for over a decade. League studio head Andrei "Meddler" van Roon also noted that for many older players, what they expected from the game has changed as well. While the game's middle years seemed to be dominated by players focused solely on succeeding in the rankings, Meddler said older players wanted a greater mix of casual and competitive experiences.

"Now, for some of our audience, particularly those who have jobs or kids or whatever, we're seeing a bigger shift as well," Meddler said at the same private event. "It's moving toward, 'Hey, I want to be competitive sometimes, and I want to have different experiences.'"