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Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) is one of the most widespread genres to exist in the gaming community. This particular genre sees players from around the community, irrespective of their platforms, pit against each other in a multiplayer game mode as they look to destroy their opponents' main structure to win the game.
While there exists a plethora of games within this genre, very few have made it to the grand stage of gaming to be recognized as worthy contenders in the competitive gaming market.
In this article, five free-to-play MOBA games have been featured that players should play this year, along with five others that they should avoid due to obvious reasons.
5 best free-to-play MOBA you should try in 2022
5) Heroes of the Storm
Blizzard's very own MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, first came out back in 2015 for the PC platform. Even though it falls within the MOBA genre, Blizzard would rather call it a hero brawler.
The game contains all of the heroes from within Blizzard's own titles, as players can choose from this massive roster of heroes as their own champions to battle against their enemies.
Heroes of the Storm offers its players 15 different maps where they battle out in a 5v5 multiplayer game to win glory for themselves.
4) League of Legends: Wild Rift
League of Legends: Wild Rift is one of the most known MOBA games to exist. This is basically the mobile version of the famous League of Legends game as it came out in 2020 for both iOS and Android platforms.
The game follows the same rules and regulations as its PC version, League of Legends, where players pit themselves in a 5v5 arena to take down their opponents. It has one of the best free-to-play patterns with rotational free characters for players to choose from.
3) Smite
Despite being released in 2014, Smite still remains extremely relevant in 2022 as it is one of the highest played MOBA titles. Like any other MOBA, Smite offers a 5v5 arena battle mode where players, instead of choosing heroes or champions, become one with the gods.
The game features over a hundred gods and goddesses from different mythological backgrounds with various customizations within a match. Recently, the developers have also added many more mythological characters from the stories of King Arthur as they look to add more in the coming future.
2) League of Legends
Marking itself as one of the forefathers of this genre, League of Legends (LoL) is arguably one of the best MOBA titles to have existed in gaming culture for many years.
Riot Games' very own flagship gaming title, LoL, features a default 5v5 arena battle mode where players follow the meta of having an ADC carry, jungler, support, midlaner, and a hard lane farmer. It has many in-game item customizations depending on how the course of the game dictates.
LoL shares the lion's share of the esports market as its tournaments and Worlds attract many participants and crowds worldwide as the very best in the community compete for the title of champions.
1) Dota 2
Defense of the Ancients 2 is the latest iteration of the community-created mod of Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. Later on, Valve acquired the title as their own and released Dota 2 back in 2013 for the latest source engine.
There are a total of 122 heroes from which players can choose, and the best feature is that players can build any item within a match depending on the course of the game. Even in professional matches, players are seen making horrendous builds that rival the ongoing meta, but in the end, they end up winning the match.
When it comes to prize money from esports tournaments, Dota 2 remains unrivaled as its grand tournament, The International (TI), showcases the highest prize pool among any other tournaments, as TI 10 had a total prize pool of $40,018,195.
5 free-to-play MOBA you should avoid in 2022
5) Vainglory
Vainglory was originally only released for the iOS platform back in 2014 that later released for Android the following year. However, it was slowly but surely released for all other platforms, although it took them more than five years to do that. Which, in turn, slowly made its player base lose interest over time.
Rather than having a basic 5v5 arena, this game featured a massively narrow map with very little room for customization or creativity, making Vainglory the last choice of any MOBA title player.
4) Strife
Developed and published by S2 Games, Strife was created as a far more casual approach for players who became tired of the competitiveness of other MOBA titles.
However, over the years, the game started losing its charm as it received fewer updates while some characters remained more overpowered than others. This created a never-ending meta that made the game stale for older players who advertised it as less appealing for newer ones.
3) Battlerite
Once a glorious game loved by many players, Battlerite did not live up to its name, all because of the blunders of its development studio, Stunlock Studios.
Battlerite is considered the spiritual successor of Stunlock Studios' previous title, Bloodline Champions. However, after some time, Stunlock stopped supporting the development of Battlerite until they finally wholly halted the development of Battlerite as the game remains in its current state, receiving no further additions or updates.
2) Mobile Legends: Bang Bang
Once the most popular MOBA title for mobile platforms, this game slowly bottled itself as Wild Rift turned out to be the best hit.
Since LoL was not available for players on the mobile platform, keeping all the flaws and minimalistic features behind, players opted for Mobile Legends more than any other game. However, ever since the release of Wild Rift, Mobile Legends' player base took a massive hit as players started to shift to the better option.
1) Marvel Super War
Marvel Super War is a 2019 released three-dimensional MOBA title set from the third-person perspective of the development team of Hong Kong NetEase Interactive Entertainment Limited.
While it was one of the most anticipated games as it showcased the incorporation of the Marvel Universe within this genre, it turned out to be quite a disappointment. It didn't turn out as promised, but the development team never addressed the issues pointed out.
Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.
