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Doublelift has returned to LCS with Team Liquid, but still struggles League of Legends Doublelift has returned to LCS with Team Liquid, but still struggles By William Davis Riot reveals new date for Mid-Season Invitational, cancels Rift Rivals News Riot reveals new date for Mid-Season Invitational, cancels Rift Rivals By Olivia Richman Valorant to use unique anti-cheat, new Vanguard system to fight hacks Counter-Strike Valorant to use unique anti-cheat, new Vanguard system to fight hacks By Steven Rondina
100 Thieves’ Ryoma: “We need to start punishing mistakes more” League of Legends
100 Thieves’ Ryoma: “We need to start punishing mistakes more” Olivia Richman 100 Thieves dominated Immortals on Sunday, its second win of the weekend. This saw the team jump from seventh place in the LCS standings all the way up to fourth. Despite going 2-0, the team was hard on itself, and focused on mistakes. Tommy “Ryoma” Le told WIN.gg what it would take to finally satisfy the team that keeps chasing perfection in the 2020 LCS Spring Split.  How are you …
FlyQuest coach: “We feel we can go to Worlds 2020 with these players” League of Legends
FlyQuest coach: “We feel we can go to Worlds 2020 with these players” Olivia Richman FlyQuest had a rough weekend, losing to Team SoloMid on Sunday but at 8-6, the team is still tied for second in the 2020 LCS Spring Split.  WIN.gg spoke with FlyQuest’s head coach Anand “Curry” Agarwal about why he loves working with the FlyQuest roster, his strengths as a coach, and what it will take to make it to Worlds 2020.  Were you expecting this outcome today?  Curry: Definitely wasn’t expecting to …
Team SoloMid breaks Cloud9’s winning streak in 2020 LCS Spring Split League of Legends
Team SoloMid breaks Cloud9’s winning streak in 2020 LCS Spring Split William Davis Team SoloMid ruined Cloud9’s perfect record in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Week 7 in the LCS started with a major upset as TSM handed Cloud9 its first defeat of the season, doing so in convincing fashion. Both teams came into the match in very different states. On one side,  Cloud9 was an unstoppable force in the LCS that was seemingly positioned to complete a perfect season. On the other …
G2 Wunder debuts top lane Janna in LEC victory over Fnatic League of Legends
G2 Wunder debuts top lane Janna in LEC victory over Fnatic William Davis Soraka and Sona got nerfed, so G2 Esports played the next best thing: Janna in the top lane. In a match against Fnatic, G2 showed the next support flex that could take over the top lane, Janna. The pick was piloted by Martin “Wunder” Hansen. Janna in the top lane works like other supports in the top lane. Janna can harass her opponents in through the laning phase and brings utility …
CLG Wiggily says Team Liquid was “caught off guard, big time” League of Legends CLG Wiggily says Team Liquid was “caught off guard, big time” By Olivia Richman 100T Meteos says “Focusing only on Worlds is really, really wack” League of Legends 100T Meteos says “Focusing only on Worlds is really, really wack” By Olivia Richman LEC changes location of 2020 LEC Spring Split final for coronavirus News LEC changes location of 2020 LEC Spring Split final for coronavirus By William Davis
LCS week 7 to promote Active Minds’ mental health awareness campaign League of Legends
LCS week 7 to promote Active Minds’ mental health awareness campaign gabhernandez The LCS is entering into a partnership with Active Minds for week seven of the 2020 LCS Spring Split. The news was announced on the Riot Games’ official Twitter account. Active Minds is a US-based nonprofit organization focusing on mental health awareness and education. In its partnership with the LCS, Active Minds will be presenting the mental health stories of League of Legends professionals between games during week seven. The …
Faker breaks record for the most kills in the LCK with 2,000 League of Legends
Faker breaks record for the most kills in the LCK with 2,000 William Davis T1 superstar mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has become the first LCK player to reach 2,000 kills. T1 and Faker are closing the first round of the 2020 LCK Spring Split on a high note. The mid laner is the first player in the LCK to get 2,000 kills. Faker reached the milestone in the series against Afreeca Freecs on March 5. Faker made his debut in the professional stage in …
Riot launches client cleanup campaign to fix LoL’s buggy client League of Legends
Riot launches client cleanup campaign to fix LoL’s buggy client William Davis Riot Games has launched a six-month campaign to clean up and fix the notoriously dated League of Legends client. Despite being one of the biggest video games in the world, LoL’s actual computer application is a blast from the past in all the worst ways. The client is known for having uncontrollable lag, bugs, and various other issues. After years of complaints Riot is beginning a full campaign to fix …
Valorant lead dev talks agents and maps, system requirements revealed League of Legends
Valorant lead dev talks agents and maps, system requirements revealed Olivia Richman Valorant lead game designer Trevor “Classick” Romleski answered fan questions about the new title in an AMA session on Discord earlier this week. Fans gathered to ask him about the game’s agents, weapons, gameplay, and everything in between.  Inspired by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s realistic take on weaponry, Valorant will have a variety of guns, all with different recoil and accuracy. Like CSGO, player movement impacts accuracy, but one weapon, the …
LoL patch 10.5 targets support items, adds value to turrets William Davis League of Legends It’s time for League of Legends patch 10.5! Patch 10.5 is now live and it brings key changes for the top laners. Riot Games said that it was committed to making the top lane experience better so the players feel like they have an impact on the game. The changes keep coming and Riot additionally addresses those pesky enchanting supports that keep flexing to the top lane. Patch 10.5 marks …
Counter Logic Gaming drops Crown after poor performance Olivia Richman League of Legends After a difficult start to the LCS Spring Split, Counter Logic Gaming have announced that Lee “Crown” Min-ho is now a free agent.  Counter Logic Gaming spent the first six weeks of the season in last place, with an unfortunate 2-10 record. The poor showing put pressure on the players, who began to underperform even more as they struggled to prove themselves.  One of the biggest disappointments, though, was Crown. Despite …
Riot reveals key details on TFT: Galaxies’ new gameplay, Pass+ William Davis League of Legends The release of Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies is fast approaching and Riot Games has shared new information about the set. TFT: Galaxies is the next update for the autobattler. The new, space-themed set will include new traits and characters. On top of that, Riot is improving the rewards, gameplay, and even the Little Legends system. The developers took everything they learned from the first two sets, to improve TFT: Galaxies. According …
Doublelift benched from LCS by Team Liquid due to motivation William Davis League of Legends Team Liquid’s Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng is benched due to motivation problems, the bottom laner confirmed the situation through Twitter. Liquid has decided to bench Doublelift for the foreseeable future. Co-CEO Steve Arhancet said on Twitter that the team is evaluating the situation week to week, but for now Edward “Tactical” Ra is the starter. Liquid signed Richard “Rikara” Oh as the new bottom laner for Team Liquid Academy, so Tactical …
League of Legends says final farewell to its community boards Olivia Richman League of Legends League of Legends players have just a few more days to use the game’s official boards before they close on March 9.  The boards are a platform where League of Legends players and fans could voice their opinions on various elements of the game, similar to a Reddit forum. The boards were also used by Riot to share updates and game changes with players. But after a decade of service, …
LCK Spring Split indefinitely delayed after spike in coronavirus cases William Davis League of Legends The 2020 LCK Spring Split will be indefinitely postponed starting March 6. The LCK is the latest victim of the coronavirus. The delay includes all LCK matches, Challengers Korea matches, as well as the additional content created for the Korean broadcast. The decision was made after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea. Riot Games took preemptive measures at the start of the season. All LCK …
Project A renamed Valorant, gameplay and characters revealed Olivia Richman League of Legends Details on Riot Games’ hotly anticipated FPS game Project A have been revealed.  According to a press release, Project A has been renamed Valorant. The game is a competitive, five-on-five, character-based FPS for PC that will launch in the summer of 2020. It will be free-to-play, like Riot’s ever-popular League of Legends.  According to Riot, Valorant will allow players to enjoy “precise skill, high stakes, lethal gameplay, and clutch moments that reward …
Team SoloMid on LCS losing streak after loss to Counter Logic Gaming William Davis League of Legends Counter Logic Gaming got some revenge against Team SoloMid and secured a win in the 2020 LCS Spring Season. Just when everything seemed lost, CLG got a victory over its eternal rival in the sixth week of LCS action. When the teams clashed in Week 2, TSM had the upper hand and CLG walked away with wounded pride. This time around, CLG hit back and stayed afloat in one of the …
Project A leaked images reveal first first character, abilities William Davis League of Legends An anonymous source has leaked what appears to be images of Riot Games’ Project A, the developer’s first shooter title. In early February, Riot hosted a closed alpha in its office in Dublin, Ireland. A small group of players had a chance to get their hands on Project A and the feedback was positive. Former professional Counter-Strike player Henry “HenryG” Greer said that Project A is the best game since …
Team Liquid beats Team SoloMid without Doublelift in 2020 LCS Spring William Davis League of Legends Team Liquid picked up a critical win over Team SoloMid in the 2020 LCS Spring season. Liquid started the second half of the season with a massive victory and is ready to fight for a spot in the playoffs. Liquid came into Week 6 without its bottom lane star, with Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng missing the action due to a serious case of laryngitis. The team started Academy player Edward “Tactical” …
Doublelift to miss Liquid’s LCS match with Team SoloMid due to illness William Davis League of Legends Team Liquid is facing another roadblock in the LCS. The team will play Week 6 in the 2020 LCS Spring Split without star player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng. It will instead start academy player Edward “Tactical” Ra. The bottom laner is currently recovering from laryngitis and cannot use his voice, forcing him out of Liquid’s upcoming showdown with Team SoloMid. Tactical trained with the LCS roster over the past few days and the …
2020 LPL Spring Split to resume in March amid coronavirus fears William Davis League of Legends The 2020 LPL Spring season is back after a six-week hiatus, and the action will resume on March 9. On January 26, the LPL decided to postpone the activities due to the coronavirus outbreak in China. As the situation worsened in the country, fans started to wonder if the competition would take place at all. There were conversations about the Chinese teams missing the Mid-Season Invitational and possible repercussions in …

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.