A Study On The Effect Of Audience Motivation On Behavioral Intention In League Of Legends Professional League

E-sports originated in the 1980 s.With the advancement of Internet technology and the upgrading of electronic equipment,its influence has continued to expand.It is gradually evolving from a niche cultural entertainment to a mainstream competitive sport in the world.The League of Legends Professional League(LPL)is an e-sports event with the largest influence,the most mature competition system and the largest number of spectators in China’s mainland.Although LPL matches have a huge audience,compared with online audiences,the number of offline audiences is generally smaller,the audience is not willing to go to the scene to watch the game,and the viewing potential still needs to be developed.Attracting spectators to watch the game on the spot will help to enhance the audience’s experience of watching the game,develop the offline consumption potential of the audience,and drive the sales of tickets,catering,and authorized products.Compared with online,there are more diverse consumption scenarios.How to attract spectators to watch the game and cultivate the habit of spectators to watch the game are the primary issues that the organizers of the event need to consider.In the sports marketing market,it is important to understand the changing needs of consumers.The motivation to watch the game originated from the consumer purchase theory,which is an indicator that can more accurately reflect the needs of the audience.By satisfying the audience’s motivation to watch the game,it can improve the satisfaction of the audience and activate the behavioral intention after watching the game,which is a good way to attract the audience to watch the game offline.However,most of the current research on e-sports starts from a macro perspective,and there are few related studies on e-sports viewing motivation.So what constitutes the motives of e-sports audiences to watch the game? What is the mechanism of action between spectator motivation,satisfaction,and behavioral intention? Are there differences in the motives,satisfaction and behavioral intentions of different types of spectators? Studying the above problems can help to provide theoretical guidance for attracting spectators to watch the game offline.Based on this,this study will start with the motives of LPL audiences to watch the game.On the basis of other scholars’ research,the motives of watching the game will be used as independent variables,(including five dimensions of social motivation,Vicarious achievement motivation,Interest in player motivation,Dramatic motivation and Diversion motivation),satisfaction as an intermediary variable,and behavioral intention as an outcome variable.Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Planned Behavior Theory are integrated with this research,and the hypothetical relationship between the variables is proposed and analyzed empirically.On the basis of referring to the previous measure of the motivation of watching the game,combined with the specific characteristics of the LPL league,this paper designs the LPL live audience watching motivation scale,and takes the LPL live audience as the survey object,and received a total of 573 valid questionnaires.The empirical analysis consists of two parts.The first part tests the reliability and validity of the collected data to ensure the accuracy and validity of the data.In the second part,descriptive statistical analysis,correlation analysis and structural equation model analysis are used to analyze and test,and the following conclusions are finally obtained after verifying the hypothesis.The study found that:(1)The measurement models of LPL audience’s motives,satisfaction,behavioral intentions have good measurement properties.The motives of audiences include Social motivation,Interest in player motivation Diversion motivation.(2)The enhancement of Socialization Opportunity motive,Diversion motive,Interest in Player motive and Dramatic motive of LPL audience will improve their satisfaction.(3)Diversion motivation plays a leading role in LPL audience’s behavioral intention and satisfaction.(4)The enhancement of LPL audience’s satisfaction will improve their behavior intention.(5)Part of the viewing motivation of LPL audiences can affect behavioral intention through the mediating effect of satisfaction.(6)There are differences in the motives of different types of spectators.Young people aged 18-30 attach more importance to the socialization opportunity motives of LPL,while men attach more importance to the Dramatic motives of LPL than women.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: First,enhance the immersion of watching the game and enhance the perception of the audience’s entertainment attributes.Second,strengthen the social attributes of the event and promote the upgrade of the social experience of the event.Third,concentrate resources to cultivate superstars and enhance the popularity of the event.Fourth,upgrade the audience viewing experience and focus on improving satisfaction.Fifth,speed up the construction of LPL’s urban home field to enhance fans’ sense of belonging.