本论文详细研究了拳头游戏公司(Riot Games)开发的《英雄联盟》电子游戏和维尔福集团公司(Valve Corporation)开发的《Dota 2》这两款电子游戏多年来的商业策略。在介绍拳头游戏公司和维尔福集团公司的背景之前，本文首先描述了竞争型和MOBA型电子游戏的开端，然后提供了两个游戏之间进行对比的参考框架。之后，论文探讨了将《英雄联盟》和《Dota 2》进行比较的原因。由于两家公司都严重依赖彼此进行创新、复制和改进自身的商业策略，因此它们的成功只能一起研究，而不是单独分析。此外，本文还介绍了《英雄联盟》和《Dota 2》这两款电子竞技游戏的演变，以及其背后的两家公司如何围绕业余和职业选手进行战略设计。再者，本文还介绍了2019年新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）对电子竞技行业和这两款游戏带来的变化，以及拳头游戏公司和维尔福集团公司针对疫情影响采用的应对策略。 本论文的结果表明，拳头游戏公司在开发《英雄联盟》期间，因决定由公司组织电子竞技比赛而承担了相应的财务风险，但同时也给场地位置、比赛日期以及活动期间的营销模式等选择提供了相应的灵活性。而维尔福集团公司根据其在其他电子游戏上取得的成功经验，采取了将其电子竞技比赛外包的保守路径。其次，这两款游戏都在根据对方的策略对自己的商业战略和模式进行调整。最后，正是因为拳头游戏公司商业策略选择提供的灵活性，2019年新型冠状病毒（COVID-19）对《英雄联盟》产生了积极影响，但对《Dota 2》产生了负面影响

This study carefully analyzes comparatively the business strategies that Riot Games and Valve Corporation employed over the years to develop esports on their respective video games, League of Legends and Dota 2. The paper first gives the frame of reference for the comparison between the two games, by describing the beginnings of competitive video gaming and the MOBA genre, before giving background information on Riot Games and Valve Corporation. The ground for comparison between League of Legends and Dota 2 is presented in this paper and why their success can only be presented together and not individually as both companies relied heavily on each other to innovate, replicate, and then improve working strategies. The evolution of both esports is presented in this paper and how both companies designed their strategies around casual and professional players. Furthermore, the changes brought by COVID-19 on esports and these two games, and the strategies adopted by Riot Games and Valve Corporation are described in this paper. The results of this thesis showed that Riot Games took a financial risk when developing the esports’ part of League of Legends by deciding to organize tournaments themselves, but provided flexibility on the venue location, date of the competition and the marketing done during the event. Meanwhile, Valve took a conservative approach built upon their previous successes on other games by outsourcing the organization of its tournaments. The results also showed that both games adapted their strategy and business model according to what the other company was doing. Finally, COVID-19 had a positive impact on League of Legends with the flexibility provided by Riot Games strategy choices but had a negative impact on Dota 2.