Customer Case Study | Riot Games

Riot Games chooses Pando Networks to accelerate delivery of their award winning game League of Legends; Completion rate doubles

The Situation

Riot Games is a leading developer and publisher of premium online video games. In October of 2009

Riot released their debut game title, League of Legends, a session-based, multiplayer online battle-

arena game where rival teams compete against one another for victory on highly stylized battlefields

and landscapes. The game was built by a veteran development team and the original creators of

Defense of the Ancients (one of the world's most popular player-made mods*). League of Legends

combines elements of the role-playing and strategy genres with addictive battle action. Riot had won

several awards from the video game press and community including Readers' Choice for "Best Strategy

Game 2009”(IGN.com), Best New Online Game from GDC Online 2010 and "Gamer's Choice for Best

PC Game." (GameSpy.com)

The Challenge

As common with graphic-rich MMO games, gamers who wish to play League of Legends first needed to

download and install a 1 GB size game client. The tremendous growth in popularity of the game

presented an immense challenge for Riot in delivering their game client efficiently and successfully. As

more users came to download the game, the overall user experience was degraded with slow delivery

speeds and decreasing download completion rates.

With millions of downloads, Riot searched for the most advanced solutions available and contacted

Pando Networks to arrange a test of Pando’s accelerated download solution. Within one week of

contacting Pando, Riot deployed a fully customized download manager powered by Pando’s award

winning delivery technology. After two weeks, the performance metrics indicated a significant improvement in game delivery speed

and download completion rate, after which Riot chose the game delivery services provided by Pando Networks.

The Solution

Pando created a fully branded game download manager (see image) which Riot deployed, replacing their existing delivery

(download management) technology. The results were astounding. More gamers were now able to complete downloading the

game (>90% completion rate) with an average speed greater than 1,200 KBps. The Pando Downloader works in coordination with

Pando Media Booster (PMB). PMB is a cross platform client component that facilitates the download and streaming of software,

games and videos in conjunction with Pando’s web services to form Pando’s Content Delivery Cloud service.

The service provides extra layers of control, security, reporting and Quality of Service (QoS). Behind the scenes, Pando optimizes

game delivery and implements the Pando Network Aware (PNA) technology. Pando tracks and localizes delivery by fetching small

pieces of the game file from the Content Delivery Cloud consisting of gamers as well as the CDN while meeting the minimum

transfer speed set by the publisher.

Company Riot Games

www.riotgames.com www.leagueoflegends.com

Solution Pando Game Downloader

Key Facts

Download completion rate

doubles

Average download speed

of > 1,200 KBps

Tens of thousands of daily

downloads

Customer Case Study | Riot Games

Benefits

Game Delivery Experts with Proven Solution

Riot Games turned to Pando Networks seeking a proven solution that is easy to deploy. “In searching for the best delivery solutions

in the industry we found that we could trust the delivery solutions Pando Networks had to offer as we’ve seen more and more

publishers deploy their solutions. Pando Networks proved to be the game delivery expert that was able to deliver fast, efficient and

reliable downloads for our millions of players. They quickly provided a fully branded game downloader and allowed us to launch a

test in less than a week” said Scott Gelb, VP of Technology from Riot Games. Pando was able to provide a complete solution that

met the performance requirements of Riot Games. Riot Games chose Pando as their game delivery partner and could now focus on

development, publishing and design of their game.

Better User Experience = More Gamers

With Pando game delivery solutions, gamers experience faster download speeds, they can pause and resume the download and

therefore are more likely to successfully complete downloading the game.

“The combination of faster download speeds with an intuitive user experience and a reliable download solution regardless of

network constraints has proven successful for Riot” said Scott Gelb “We now convert more website visitors to gamers which has had

a big impact on the number of people playing our game”.

Insight into Performance

“With a title targeting gamers around the globe, Pando Reports provide the insight that we need to see how well we perform in

different regions” commented Scott Gelb, “We now have the tools to really understand the download experience of our gamers.”

Pando provides an online reporting portal and daily generated snapshot reports that track extensive data including: completion

rate, speed and duration, ISP and Geographic performance breakdown that allows Riot Games to monitor every version or patch

they release on a daily basis.

Guaranteed Scalability

With Pando as a partner, Riot Games is well equipped to support its rapidly growing user base. “We’ve recently added a European

game client and a beta version of the game for Mac users. Pando was ready to support this growth seamlessly. In fact, the more

gamers we add, the better results we see.” said Scott Gelb.

* Mods are modification made by the general public or a developer and applied to PC games, most common with first-person shooters, role-playing and real-time strategy games.

About Riot Games, Inc.

Riot Games, Inc. is a direct-to-consumer video game developer and publisher of premium, competitive online games. The company was

established in 2006 and has quickly become a leading global developer and publisher of premium free-to-play online video games for

hardcore gamers, launching their debut title, League of Legends, in October 2009. To date, more than one million gamers play League of

Legends and log more than half a billion minutes of playtime each month. For more information, please visit www.riotgames.com.

About Pando Networks Inc.

Pando Networks optimizes online delivery of media assets such as games, video and software. The Pando Content Delivery Cloud consists of

CDN servers and peer nodes coordinated by intelligent web servers and client software. Pando accelerates content delivery while reducing

delivery cost and providing detailed performance data. Pando is funded by Intel Capital, BRM Capital and Wheatley Partners. For more

information, please visit www.pandonetworks.com.