During the 2023 League of Legends World Championship, Riot Games and Amazon Web Services donated $5,000 for each Ocean Drake players slayed. Through the “Drake for Water’s sake” campaign, the competition helped raise $350,000 which will be donated to Water.org.
The campaign sought to bring attention to the global need for clean drinking water and sanitation and, according to Riot, raise money to help empower over 70,000 people. The virtual gaming component turned into a real-world force for positive change.
The Ocean drake made a fashionably late debut in the tournament, showing up in the second game between LOUD and GAM Esports. It spawned scarcely throughout the competition from that point on, with its last appearance being the third and winning game of the Finals, sealing T1’s 3-0 victory over Weibo Gaming. But, given that most teams prioritize drakes and other neutral objectives, the majority of drakes spawned were swiftly taken down.
Almost 500 drakes were killed during Worlds this year, with the majority being—unsurprisingly—Infernal ones at 90 fiery drakes spawned. Close in second and third overall were the Mountain and Cloud drakes respectively, but in an unforeseen turnaround, even the Chemtech and Hextech drakes were more popular than the Ocean one.
Throughout the intense matches of the 2023 League World Championship, a total of 90 Infernal, 86 Mountain, 84 Cloud, 74 Chemtech, 73 Hextech, and 70 Ocean drakes were valiantly slain by the competing teams. In addition to these elemental objectives, the Elder drake met its end only 11 times.
With all the numbers at hand, a simple math equation reveals that Riot and AWS raised $350,000 with only 14 percent of all drakes slayed during over a month of competition—turning the Ocean drake into the unsung hero of the competition. Its rarity, however, can be largely attributed to the random spawning nature of drakes in League.
While all fans’ eyes were pointed at the heartwarming and epic narrative of T1 lifting the Summoner’s Cup once more and Faker’s legacy, the Ocean drake was the one making waves in the lives of those in need.
