League of Legends
League of Legends
Cloud9 takes down TSM, remains undefeated in 2020 LCS Spring Split
William Davis
Cloud9 is undefeated in the 2020 LCS Spring Split, as the team picked up its seventh victory of the season against Team SoloMid. C9 is unstoppable in the LCS, and the team is yet to drop a game this season. C9 has established itself as the team to beat in North America, and its aggressive and proactive style keeps the team ahead of its opponents. The team has faced the strongest …
League of Legends
Fans can adopt cute dogs and puppies at 2020 LCS tailgate
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
In front of the doors to the LCS Studio, League of Legends fans today have an opportunity to spend some time with puppies, hopefully also deciding to adopt them. In collaboration with Los Angeles’ dog rescue Wags and Walks, the LCS is bringing adoptable dogs to the tailgate of this week’s 2020 LCS Spring Split. Wags and Walks shelters family friendly dogs from high-kill shelters, meaning these dogs were looking …
League of Legends
Immortals spoils Broxah’s first game with Team Liquid in the LCS
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The fourth week of the 2020 LCS Spring Split opened with a match between Team Liquid and Immortals. Both teams shared a 4-2 score ahead of the game, but it’s Immortals that secured a second slot on the current standings, and Liquid that fell to ninth. This was a big match for Liquid as it was the first time the team performed with Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen, its new starting jungler …
League of Legends
Misfits ruins perfect season for G2 Esports in LEC Spring Split
William Davis
G2 Esports is no longer undefeated in the 2020 LEC Spring season, as the team fell against a Misfits squad that keeps climbing in the standings. The 18-0 dream is over for G2. Misfits broke G2’s winning streak and secured themselves a tie for second place. After a disastrous 2019, Misfits has recovered with help from a new coaching staff and a new roster. The team is now a combination of rookies …
Team Secret expands, announces new League of Legends team in VCS
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Team Secret has announced a Vietnamese League of Legends team. Team Secret is a European esports organization that fields one of the most successful Dota 2 teams in the world. The organization has now expanded to Dota 2’s rival MOBA, League of Legends. Secret shared the news on Twitter, announcing the new lineup as well. The team is starting its journey in the 2020 Vietnam Championship Series Spring Spit. Though the …
These are the most popular Challenger champs and roles in Season 10
William Davis
League of Legends
The solo queue experience is different in every region, but the high elo ranks might be more similar than previously imagined. A redditor created a spreadsheet comparing the challenger ladders in North America, Europe, and Korea, and the parallels are clear. Start with the most played champions by the Challenger players. It’s not a surprise that the most popular champions are exactly the same that are played on stage. Many …
Origen won their LEC match against MAD Lions in the draft phase
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The fourth week of the 2020 LEC Spring Split started with a match between MAD Lions and Origen. Both teams headed in the week sharing the second place with a 4-2 score. But after today’s match, it’s Origen that overtook the Lions in the standings. After being banned every LEC game during the previous weeks, the love for Akali was lost this week with the new patch nerfing her. MAD …
Top lane Soraka and Sona are finally getting nerfed in patch 10.4
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 10.4 will hit Soraka and Sona, according to a preview shared by gameplay designer Mark Yetter. Patch 10.4 will make sure that Soraka and Sona stay in their lane down bottom. The two supports are getting significant changes in their kits that will make them almost useless outside of the bottom lane. Players have no one to blame for these drastic nerfs but the G2 Esports …
T1 gets early LCK victory over longtime rival KT Rolster
William Davis
League of Legends
T1 secured a victory over its arch-rival KT Rolster in the first round of the telecom war in the 2020 LCK Spring. The name of the teams and the rosters might change, but the rivalry between T1 and KT Rolster is still alive. Week 1 in the 2020 LCK Spring was different for both teams. While T1 is getting wins, KT Rolster is still struggling with the basics. T1 came …
Doublelift now has the worst KDA of any ADC in the LCS
Olivia Richman
News
Team Liquid’s start in the Spring Split hasn’t gone as planned. On February 10, last year’s North American champions lost to Golden Guardians, currently considered one of the bottom tier teams in the LCS. Now, they’re tied for seventh place with a poor 2-4 record. While the Team Liquid pros and their fans are blaming their poor performance on veteran jungler Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pederson’s visa issues, there’s another issue becoming …
LCS criticized due to lack of content, poor broadcast production
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends fans are not happy with the production values of the LCS. Three weeks into the 2020 LCS Spring Split, fans are wondering why North America’s on-air product doesn’t look as good as that of other regions. The criticism started with an overlay that, according to the fans, looks basic and doesn’t have some of the extra features that can be found elsewhere. It isn’t just the in-game …
Zven on Cloud9’s 6-0 start: “We are…definitely the best team” in LCS
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Cloud9 continued its domination of the LCS with a win over Dignitas. Now alone at the top of the standings with a 6-0 record, they are sitting comfortably at the top of the standings in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Bot laner Jesper “Sven” Svenningsen sat down with WIN.gg to talk about Cloud9’s successful new roster, how they rank against the other teams in North America, and what it means to qualify …
Team SoloMid punishes Golden Guardians, extends LCS winning streak
William Davis
League of Legends
Team SoloMid found its fourth consecutive win of the 2020 LCS Spring Split with a victory over Golden Guardians. Things are looking up for TSM. After a 0-2 start to the season, the fan favorite organization is now on an extended winning streak that puts it near the top of the LCS standings. Golden Guardians, on the other hand, is struggling to find the wins and has fallen to the bottom of the …
Ryoma on Australia vs. NA LoL: “It’s a lot better here than Australia”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
100 Thieves were feeling quite confident after their win against Team Liquid yesterday. Unfortunately, that confidence didn’t translate into a victory over Immortals. The loss leaves them with an even 3-3 record. WIN.gg sat down with Tommy “Ryoma” Lee to talk about what they need to improve on, how they think next weekend will go, and kangaroos. You guys beat TL yesterday. Were you expecting better results today? Ryoma: Not …
Smoothie says the key to winning over EG was to stop trolling
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Counter Logic Gaming broke their losing streak after beating Evil Geniuses this weekend. In a segment before the match began, Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin admitted that he was having difficulties communicating with his team. Speaking with the jungler after the interview, he told the LCS talent crew that they had won today thanks to “over-communicating.” This was something that Andy “Smoothie” Ta was quick to agree with in a post-match interview …
100 Thieves Ssumday explains his new perm after win over TL
Olivia Richman
News
When you think of the hair of a winning League of Legends player, it’s the bowl cut. But Chan-ho “Ssumday” Kim wants to change that. It’s time to say goodbye to bowl cuts and hello to perms. The 100 Thieves top laner completely dominated in the team’s match against Team Liquid today, even solo killing Jung “Impact” Eon-Yeong twice at one point. It was safe to say that Ssumday was …
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
