League of Legends
League of Legends
All League of Legends skins in new Soul Fighter line
William Davis
Soul Fighter is the upcoming summer event for League of Legends. The event, spawning four games, will see the debut of the Soul Fighter skins line. Summer events are, historically, the biggest events in League of Legends. These events introduce new game modes, skins, and feature more new content than any other event of the year. Ahead of summer, League of Legends revealed Soul Fighter. The Soul Fighter event will …
League of Legends
Former T1 jungler Clid accused of sexual misconduct
William Davis
Former T1 player Kim “Clid” Tae-min has been benched by Hanwha Life Esports after reports of sexual misconduct. Earlier this week, screenshots of an alleged conversation between the player and a minor started circulating on Twitter. The victim shared that she was approached by Clid, who then proceeded to sexually harass her through Kakao Talk. According to the victim, she cut off all contact with Clid after his violent remarks. …
League of Legends
All the Soul Fighter game mode details
Nicholas James
The Soul Fighter event is coming to League of Legends, Wild Rift, Legends of Runeterra, and Teamfight Tactics, and we’ve got all of the rewards and options consolidated in one place. The Soul Fighter event is one of Riot’s separate universe events, introducing a new skin line with its very own story and lore. This event is spreading to all of the League of Legends-adjacent titles in Riot’s roster. The …
League of Legends
How to play the new jungler Naafiri in League of Legends
Nicholas James
Naafiri is the new Darkin jungler coming to League of Legends, and we’ve got your guide for how to best use her. Naafiri will be making her way onto PBE this week, but luckily we already have tons of information about what the new Darkin will need to succeed. She’s an Assassin, a burst-focused melee character who focuses on dealing enormous bursts of damage to exposed and vulnerable enemies. Her …
Valorant
Valorant agent Deadlock is similar to this League of Legends champion
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant Agent 23 release date is merely days away, and leaks are picking pace. We now know the icy nature of her toolkit, thanks to League of Legends. Valorant Episode 7 is slated for June 28. The upcoming act will mark the entrance of brand new Agent 23, battle pass, team deathmatch, and a wealth of new content. So far, not much is known about the new agent, but Leakers …
League of Legends
BrokenBlade: “The tier list is really not accurate at all”
Tokoni Uti
WIN.gg spoke with G2 Esports top laner Sergen “BrokenBlade” Çelik after his side’s opening victory over Team BDS in the LEC Summer split. He gave his thoughts on the break between MSI and LEC, starting later than other leagues, and beating “S-tier” squad BDS. WIN.gg: The LEC’s tier list by Drakos, Dagda and Caedrel had BDS as the only S-tier team, ahead of G2. Was that a good win to …
League of Legends
Razork on LEC game against Excel: “We’re going to stomp them”
Tokoni Uti
After taking down Astralis in their opening game of the 2023 LEC Summer split, we spoke with Fnatic jungler Iván “Razork” Martín Díaz to get his thoughts on the upcoming split, the additions of Noah and Trymbi, and his personal opinion on his mid/jungle synergy with Humanoid. WIN.gg: How important was it to start the split with a win, given the short regular season turnaround? Razork: The goal right now …
League of Legends
New LoL champion Naafiri revealed in animated cinematic
Nicholas James
The new LoL champion Naafiri has been revealed in an animated cinematic that depicts the origin of the latest champion. Naafiri is the new Darkin assassin jungler, and Riot Games has created an entire animated trailer to catch fans up on her lore. Naafiri is a Darkin, an ancient Shuriman god-warrior tainted by blood magic and the Void. She was trapped in a weapon by the Targonians before being found …
Odoamne talks LEC loss, roster swaps, language barriers
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Following Excel Esports’ LEC Summer opening defeat to KOI, WIN.gg spoke to top laner Andrei “Odoamne” Pascu to get his thoughts on the start, improvements during the off-season, and preventing another collapse. WIN.gg: What are your immediate thoughts on the loss to KOI? Odoamne: We showed some good stuff to kind of come back into that game, I believe. Obviously, we fell very, very far behind the early game, and …
The best team compositions in TFT: Runeterra Reforged
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The new Teamfight Tactics set is here, so we’re breaking down some of the very best team compositions in Runeterra Reforged to help you climb. Runeterra Reforged is taking Teamfight Tactics back to the base setting of League of Legends, letting fans explore Runeterra by creating teams of champions grouped by their home region. It also includes the brand new Legends system and Region Portal system, letting players mold their …
FENNEL Shakespeare becomes first LJL woman pro
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The professional League of Legends scene has had a new piece of history cemented, with support player FENNEL Shakespeare being the first woman to play in the LJL. The LJL is the official Riot-supported Japanese circuit for League of Legends. This week, one player for the Japanese team FENNEL made history. Miyu “Shakespeare” Otomo served as the substitute support for FENNEL’s primary support Ian “Corporal” Pearse. After a 2-0 victory, …
Two LoL apps were just bought for $55 million
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Two League of Legends statistics apps created by the same person were just bought out for a massive $55 million, but why were these LoL apps so valuable? League of Legends is a complicated game, and there are plenty of third-party tools meant to help ease players in. With a player count well above 100 million, there is no shortage of LoL players to use these apps. So much so …
Two new Elderwood skins are coming to League of Legends
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The Elderwood skin line is getting more champions turned forest creatures later this month. The Elderwood thematic is a skin line that transforms champions into mysterious woodland monsters and mysteries, like Ahri becoming a flowery nymph, Azir becoming a feathery, armored bird, and Ornn sporting a glowing orc-like skin. A lot of these champions are not popular on the Rift but fans are happy to see them get a bit …
League of Legends to remove promotion series in Split 2
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends is removing the promotion series and adding a new tier to ranked. Riot Games decided to divide 2023 into two splits. In the second split of the year, all ranks will be reset, and players will climb again. The rank reset is not the only major change coming during the second half of the year. League of Legends is adding a new tier, Emerald. While it might …
LCS is resuming activities, LCSPA announces
William Davis
League of Legends
The LCS is resuming activities on June 14, the LCS Player Association announced through Twitter. It is a historical day for professional League of Legends players in North America. According to the LCSPA, they had reached an agreement with Riot Games and the LCS teams to ensure the future of the NACL. The LCSPA held a vote to stage a walkout, which received more than 90% of support from active …
Your complete guide to the Runeterra Reforged traits
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The new Teamfight Tactics set, Runeterra Reforged, takes Riot Games’ auto-battler back to Runeterra, here are all the Runeterra Reforged traits and origins. Traits and Origins are the types by which champions are divided, and we’ve assembled all the details for how the new set will change team compositions. Bastion is this set’s default defensive trait, granting all Bastion units bonus Armor and Magic Resistance. This bonus is doubled for …
Everything you need to know about Convergence
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Convergence: A League of Legends Story is a 2D action platformer made by Riot Forge, Riot Games’ publishing effort for games set in the world of Runeterra. Riot Forge is a way for Riot Games to publish other developers’ games set in the world of League of Legends without having to spend development resources of its own. The latest Riot Forge title is Convergence: A League of Legends story, a …
Reports say LCS Faker was almost a reality
Nicholas James
League of Legends
For fans of the LCS, Faker might seem impossible, but reports say that Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok almost joined a North American organization. Faker is the single most accomplished League of Legends player in the game’s entire history. He’s won 10 LCK Championships, two MSIs, and three World Championships. For his entire career, the name Faker has been synonymous with Korea’s LCK. However, according to reports, that almost changed at one …
Doublelift frustrated with Riot, discusses walkout situation
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
LCS veteran Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng recently shared his opinions on the controversial and unprecedented player walkout. Riot Games recently announced that esports organizations with franchised teams in the LCS no longer had to have an Academy level team. In response, many teams dropped their Academy teams and staff immediately, leaving a lot of promising talent without a clear path to pro — or income — anymore. In response, the LCS …
TFT patch 13.11 adds a preview of Runeterra Reforged
William Davis
League of Legends
TFT has released patch 13.11, also known as The For Fun Patch. It is the final update before the release of Set 9, Runeterra Reforged. We are less than two weeks away from the release of Set 9, Runeterra Reforged. The ninth set in TFT takes the players back to basics, with all the units being divided based on their region of origin. Some players already got their hands on …
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.
