‘Arcane’, the new ‘League Of Legends’ Netflix series, shows Riot Games’ ‘black licorice’ strategy

Ella Purnell as Jinx in ‘Arcane’, an action sci-fi fantasy story that alludes to big topics such as class divisions and the benefits of the privileged, but zeroes in on family tensions and the untamed, sometimes borderline-creepy behaviour of Jinx, a Harley Quinn-like character with a mixture of recklessness and earnestness. — Netflix/TNS

Riot Games has helped define the modern competitive game, spurring the growth of today’s eSports through League Of Legends and solidifying the business model of games as a service.

But with its recent launch of an animated series for Netflix, you might assume that the company is following a more conventional narrative – to show the world that a game that stars, in the words of one its staffers, a “magical sci-if gerbil”, can play in the grown-up universe of Hollywood.