League of Legends
League of Legends
Who is Killan in The Mageseeker?
William Davis
The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story is the latest game published by Riot Forge. The game is full of action but also gives us a look into the history of one of Demacia’s scariest organizations and its members. One of them is Killan, and here is everything we know about him. The Mageseekers is a group created by King Jarvan to hunt down mages hiding in Demacia. Sylas is …
League of Legends
Legendary LCS star Bjergsen retires from esports after 11 years
William Davis
LCS star Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg announced he is retiring from the competitive League of Legends. After 11 years in the competitive scene, Bjergsen is retiring from the esports space. The mid laner announced his retirement through his personal YouTube channel. Bjergsen first joined the scene in 2012 when he played for Western Wolves. In 2013, Bjergsen joined TSM, marking the beginning of a long and successful career in North America. …
League of Legends
Gen.G wins 2023 LCK Spring season!
William Davis
Gen.G is the 2023 LCK Spring Champion after pulling off a major upset against T1. Gen.G completed a 3-1 victory over T1 in the LCK final, securing back-to-back titles. Gen.G has now secured a spot at the 2023 Mid-Season Invitational Bracket Stage. T1 will also be attending the event and starting on the Play-In Stage. Gen.G has defied the expectations in the LCK Spring playoffs. After the departure of iconic …
League of Legends
No Arcane Season 2 coming in 2023, says Riot Games CEO
Nicholas James
In a recent interview, Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent confirmed that Arcane Season 2 will not be coming out in 2023. Since the hit animated adaptation of League of Legends surged to widespread popularity in 2021, many fans have been waiting to hear about the next installment. Arcane’s second season had been announced shortly after the first season had ended, but nothing solid had been confirmed for the future. In …
CLG likely to shut down, exiting esports entirely
William Davis
League of Legends
Esports may say goodbye to another iconic name soon, with CLG allegedly preparing to shut down entirely. The esports industry continues to stumble in 2023, with multiple high-profile sponsorship deals and team partnerships continuing to fall through. CLG may be next, according to unconfirmed reports by established LoL journalist Travis Gafford. The company itself has not acknowledged these rumors, but it wouldn’t be out of place in the industry’s current …
TSM might be leaving the LCS in 2023
William Davis
League of Legends
One of North America’s most popular esports brands might exit the scene. TSM is putting a pause on its esports efforts according to a report by the Sports Business Journal. This could mean that TSM is leaving the LCS in 2023. TSM might not be as profitable as the team claimed to be after all. The organization is pausing its esports efforts and instead focusing on its player development app …
The best ranged top laners in LoL
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Ranged top laners are considered a faux-pas for most players, who prefer the toe-to-toe brawling of tank and juggernaut matches. But if you insist on breaking that rule, here are the best ranged top laners in LoL. Top tends to be the lane most commonly filled with tanks, juggernauts, and fighters of all kinds in League of Legends. The classic matchup of two brawly melees is what most top laners …
This LoL pro flamed a teammate sitting beside him
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A Chinese LoL pro player flamed a player in solo queue who turned out to be his professional play teammate who was sitting right beside him the entire time. Li “Xiahu” Yuan-Hao, the current mid laner for Weibo Gaming in the Chinese LPL was playing a ranked match of League of Legends that wasn’t going very well and he decided to voice his complaints about his teammates’ play. What he …
LoL MMO lead Ghostcrawler leaves Riot Games
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Executive Producer and Vice President of the untitled League of Legends MMO, Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street, has left Riot Games. Ghostcrawler is a long-term veteran of Riot Games, joining as the lead gameplay designer for the massive MOBA League of Legends in 2013 and shepherding the game through its astronomical growth. Ghostcrawler is credited as fostering a more open and communicative approach to developers’ relationships with the fanbase. But after …
New LoL champions Milio and Naafiri teased in Nidalee VO
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Details about the next new champions, Milio and Naafiri, have been teased by new voice lines for Nidalee, recently added to League of Legends. The next two champions for League of Legends have both had their names, loose thematic, and some details released ahead of their proper reveals. One is an Ixtali support named Milio, the other is a Darkin assassin who awakens in Shurima named Naafiri. We already know …
Why MtG players should play Legends of Runeterra
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Legends of Runeterra is Riot Games’ free-to-play online card game set in the world of League of Legends. Here’s why Magic: The Gathering players should try it out. Magic: The Gathering is the most successful collectible card game in the world, with tens of millions of players worldwide. Despite its enormous worldwide success, there are only two proper analogs for online MtG play, and both have their problems. From Magic …
Players still seeing usernames in League of Legends ranked
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games introduced a system that hides Summoner’s names during ranked champion select, but players claim that they can still see ranked usernames in League of Legends. For most of League of Legends’ history, seeing the usernames of your teammates in champion select was simply a part of the game. The player’s in-game name would be displayed underneath their champion icon and players were free to check their teammates’ match …
Aphromoo retires from League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Support player Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black has announced he is retiring from professional League of Legends play more than ten years after his debut. Aphromoo is one of the most experienced professional players in the scene, emerging as one of the game’s early popular streamers. From there, Aphromoo’s excellent play and personality catapulted him to a career at the highest levels of North American League of Legends that lasted from 2011 …
How to play League of Legends in 4K
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends is a surprisingly versatile game, and learning how to play it in 4K resolution takes just a few minutes. League of Legends can run on a surprising variety of systems, from years-old MacBooks to top-of-the-line PCs. While the game can have its graphical fidelity and system demands brought down to meet low-spec systems, it can also be brought up to top-tier demands. Here’s how to play League …
Froskurinn retires from gaming, expresses disappointment
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black has announced her retirement from the gaming space while expressing disappointment in her peers’ behavior, so here’s what we know about Froskurinn’s retirement. Froskurinn made her debut and much of her brand commentating League of Legends professional play in both China and later the European professional scene. After departing the League of Legends scene, she worked for G4TV as a host and content creator. She most recently …
When does League of Legends Season 13 start and end?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
2022’s League of Legends season has ended, so with Season 12 behind us, when does League of Legends season 13 start and end? Every year in League of Legends is broken into seasonal categorizations, which bracket a year’s patches, new champions, competitive events, and more. For fans looking forwards to this year’s ranked play opening up, as well as other events, what can they expect? Here’s what we know and …
League of Legends
is among the most popular widely-played video games in the world. It has been a consistent trendsetter in the gaming industry, whether as a model for other free-to-play titles looking to monetize their players or as a guiding light for how professional esports can be both successful and sustainable.
It hasn’t always been so though. League of Legends was released in 2009 as an uncertain new project, a game with large aspirations but little proven. In the years since, it has developed into the dominant title that it is today, and one of the biggest games on the planet.
League of Legends drives success of MOBA genre
League of Legends stands out in part because it may arguably be the very first original game released to truly fit into what we now understand to be the increasingly
popular MOBA genre. Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas are a very particular type of game genre that carry out competition between two opposing teams of players on a map. These games test a mix of competition, tactics, and quick reactions, a potent combination that has proven equal parts popular and durable over the years.
While League of Legends was certainly among the first full releases to focus on the genre and its new ideas, it wasn’t actually the origin point for any of it. That distinction belongs to
Blizzard release WarCraft 3,
and more specifically a modified game mode titled
Defense of the Ancients.
WarCraft 3 was a real-time strategy game that featured prominent hero units who could gain in power as they accrued experience points to level up their abilities, and gold to purchase powerful items. Defense of the Ancients was a
user-made game mode
which emphasized these heroes by giving each player control over one such character and teaming them up against an opposing squad of players. It was a dynamite success, inspiring myriad clones and, eventually, an entire genre of games.
But while League of Legends wasn’t the first to bring about these concepts, it was certainly
effective in executing on them. Early developers at publisher Riot Games had a clear idea of what they wanted to accomplish with the creation of League of Legends, and it would be hard to argue against their success given the runaway popularity achieved by their iteration on the MOBA formula.
LoL incorporates esports sustainably
Just as impressive as the long-term success of League of Legends as a game is the continued success of the title’s esports scene. While esports has known multiple peaks and valleys over the years, Riot Games has consistently managed to maintain the prominence of LoL esports. This has been accomplished through an emphasis on
regular regional play
and
sustainability.
Most esports and competitive games at the time used a circuits system, scattering major tournaments for the best teams across the year. Instead, Riot divided the world into separate playing regions. Each region has its own
competitive league
in which the best professional teams play weekly. The best teams in each league are then brought together for an
annual World Championship event
at the end of the competitive year. This allowed for domestic fan followings to develop across such regions as
Korea,
China,
Europe, and
North
and
South America. Fans would closely follow the teams in their region, and from that familiarity would feel invested in cheering them on when they clashed with teams from other regions at the game’s biggest international event.
This basic blueprint has continued to prove successful for Riot Games over the years, though it has expanded and been modified with time. In response to the success of the World Championship, Riot introduced a second international tournament in 2015, the prestigious
Mid-Season Invitational. In 2025,
First Stand
was added to bring LoL esports to three international events per year. Once again the scene was enhanced and this indirectly expanded the opportunities for
League of Legends esports betting. In the meantime, the regional leagues have spread out to include
more regions and lower levels, solidifying their identity.
The basic formula remains the same, however.
Encourage fan support on a domestic level, and then carry that support and interest over to
the global stage. It’s a formula that continues to power League of Legends esports, and looks set to enable it for many years yet to come.
At Win.gg, our coverage of LoL esports spans from the broader competitive updates and their impact on the scene to in-depth high-profile match previews with team analysis, head-to-head analysis,
LoL betting odds
sense-makers and predictions. All of these based on the insights of our experienced esports journalists.
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
