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LCS criticized due to lack of content, poor broadcast production League of Legends LCS criticized due to lack of content, poor broadcast production By William Davis Zven on Cloud9’s 6-0 start: “We are…definitely the best team” in LCS League of Legends Zven on Cloud9’s 6-0 start: “We are…definitely the best team” in LCS By Olivia Richman Team SoloMid punishes Golden Guardians, extends LCS winning streak League of Legends Team SoloMid punishes Golden Guardians, extends LCS winning streak By William Davis
Ryoma on Australia vs. NA LoL: “It’s a lot better here than Australia” League of Legends
Ryoma on Australia vs. NA LoL: “It’s a lot better here than Australia” Olivia Richman 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 League of Legends
Smoothie says the key to winning over EG was to stop trolling Olivia Richman 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 News
100 Thieves Ssumday explains his new perm after win over TL Olivia Richman 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 …
Jensen on Liquid’s loss to 100 Thieves: “We’re all playing poorly” League of Legends
Jensen on Liquid’s loss to 100 Thieves: “We’re all playing poorly” Olivia Richman Team Liquid isn’t playing their best and Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen knows it. The four-time LCS champions lost to 100 Thieves today, dropping their record to 2-3. With Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen finally in America, Jensen told WIN.gg that Team Liquid’s performance might turn around soon.  How are you feeling after the loss today?  Jensen: I don’t know. It feels kind of shitty, honestly. I’m not really used to losing this much. …
Cody Sun on LCS vs. LEC: “Every [LCS] team is…just really scared” League of Legends Cody Sun on LCS vs. LEC: “Every [LCS] team is…just really scared” By Olivia Richman Zeyzal on EG’s 1-4 start: “We’re trying to work on [selfish habits]” League of Legends Zeyzal on EG’s 1-4 start: “We’re trying to work on [selfish habits]” By Olivia Richman Team SoloMid extends LCS winning streak with win over Dignitas League of Legends Team SoloMid extends LCS winning streak with win over Dignitas By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
G2 Esports leaves wacky compositions behind for game with Fnatic League of Legends
G2 Esports leaves wacky compositions behind for game with Fnatic William Davis G2 Esports remains undefeated in the 2020 LEC Spring Split after a decisive victory over Fnatic. For the longest time, European League of Legends has been all about G2 and Fnatic. In 14 splits, the title has gone to one of those two teams 13 times. In week three of the 2020 LEC Spring, Fnatic had a chance to force its way into first place, while G2 just wanted to keep …
Teamfight Tactics Mobile closed beta, release plans revealed League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics Mobile closed beta, release plans revealed gabhernandez Teamfight Tactics Mobile is set to come out in March, but a closed beta was abruptly launched less than 24 hours ago. TFT Mobile will be cross-compatible with other devices, carrying over all forms of progress including rank and inventory in most regions. The only exception are players on the Chinese and southeast Asian servers. Garena will still support PC TFT players, but mobile will not have the same benefits. …
Akali has been banned in every LCS and LEC game of 2020 League of Legends
Akali has been banned in every LCS and LEC game of 2020 Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Akali has a 100% presence rate across Riot Games’ largest League of Legends tournaments, including the 2020 Spring Splits of LEC, LCS, LCK, and LPL. While casual League of Legends players wonder why Akali keeps getting balance updates, pro players are well aware of her overpowered potential. Since the start of the 2020 season, there hasn’t been a single game in which Akali wasn’t either picked or banned in North …
Riot is giving one more League of Legends refund token for free League of Legends
Riot is giving one more League of Legends refund token for free Syed Mujtaba Naqvi With the new season starting, Riot Games prepared a free refund token for every League of Legends player. Though League of Legends is essentially a free-to-play game, many players spend a decent sum of money purchasing items that are available for Riot Points. RP is Riot’s own currency that, when bought with real money, gives players the option to buy a number of different items available in the League of …
G2 Esports overcomes Rogue in tough game in LEC Spring Split Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends G2 Esports faced Rogue in the third week of the 2020 LEC Spring Split. Rogue was looking for an upset against the dominant team, but G2’s undefeated streak continued on. All eyes were on the mid lane matchup during the draft phase. Luka “Perkz” Perković picked Sett to fight against Emil “Larssen” Larsson’s LeBlanc. Top lane went for a matchup highly focused on health regeneration, with G2 picking Soraka and …
Machine to serve as host for LEC 2020 Spring Split weeks 3 and 4 Steven Rondina League of Legends A fresh but familiar face is set to appear at the desk of the 2020 LEC Spring Split. The LEC announced that esports caster and host Alex “Machine” Richardson will serve as a guest analyst for weeks three and four of the season. The two sides briefly bantered about the news on Twitter, This will be Machine’s second time casting League of Legends. Machine appeared in the LEC as a host …
G2 picks up Ibai, LVP casters for new Spanish content house Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends G2 Esports has announced its new Spanish content team, including some of the most popular Spanish League of Legends personalities. The Spanish Creator House is joined by three LVP shout casters Ander “andeR” Cortés, Ibai “Ibai” Llanos, and Ernesto “BarbeQ” Folch, as well as content creator Antonio “Reven” Pine. With G2 founded in Spain and the owner Carlos “ocelote” Santiago being Spanish, it’s no wonder the organization is looking to …
Riot announces the official launch date for Clash game mode Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Riot Games shared exciting news for League of Legends players. The official launch of Clash is happening this month! Clash is officially launching on all Riot’s servers on February 28, though some of the Garena servers in Southeast Asia and China won’t get the experience of the in-game tournament just yet. The developer doesn’t have exact dates on the upcoming Garena launch. For it to be a special event that …
Broxah gives fans a final update on visa for LCS with Team Liquid Syed Mujtaba Naqvi News Team Liquid Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen has announced that his U.S. Visa has been approved. He’s finally coming to play in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Just two days ago, Team Liquid’s League of Legends team wasn’t sure if its main jungler will be granted entrance into the United States. But after a painstaking process, Broxah shared today that his visa has been approved, all with a big smile on his …
TFT patch 10.3 removes the Spatula from the item carousel William Davis League of Legends Teamfight Tactics Patch 10.3 is now live. TFT patch 10.3 is smaller in size, but that doesn’t mean the changes made are insignificant. The first major update is hitting the loot system and especially the carousel. Spatulas are no longer available in the carousel, only through loot boxes. This change, while small, modifies all of the strategies that have been popular in Set 2. Players can no longer battle for …
LoL patch 10.3 completely breaks runes, forcing default setups William Davis League of Legends Setting up runes is an important part of preparing for a game of League of Legends, but the latest patch is causing the entire rune system to bug out. Patch 10.3 went live February 4 and brought a myriad of buffs and nerfs to various champions. The patch also glitched the rune system, causing players’ saved runes to no longer transfer into the game.  One of the preset rune pages …
LoL patch 10.3 improves jungling and hits Akali with a big nerf William Davis League of Legends League of Legends Patch 10.3 has arrived! Patch 10.3 is currently live and it targets some of the most problematic champions in the game. On the visual side of the game, Patch 10.3 adds three new skins. True Damage Senna Prestige Edition, Heartseeker Jinx and Heartseeker Yuumi. The new skins will be available on the store on February 6. Akali is currently the most banned champion in professional play, as …
T1 overcomes Damwon Gaming to kick off 2020 LCK Spring Split William Davis League of Legends T1 opened the 2020 LCK Spring season with a victory over Damwon Gaming. The LCK is back and it started with a bang as T1 met Damwon in the first series of the split. T1 arrived at the LoL Park with a new look, new roster, and new coaching staff. On the other side, Damwon kept the same roster and added new coaches. Interestingly, both coaches were actually working against …
After 2 weeks, LCS Monday Night League is a viewership flop Olivia Richman League of Legends The League of Legends Championship Series’ Monday Night League concept appears to be a flop.  The LCS introduced a new schedule for the 2020 LCS Spring Split, with each week of the LCS now taking place across Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Adding that extra day was meant to attract new audiences, but it seems to be having the opposite effect. Despite featuring some pretty big matches, including Team Liquid vs. Team …
Once blamed for TSM’s failures, C9 Zven now stands atop LCS Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Cloud9’s Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen is currently standing as the best bot laner in the 2020 LCS Spring Split in terms of stats. After being considered Team SoloMid’s weakest link during the previous season, Zven is popping off under Cloud9’s banner. Two weeks into the 2020 LCS Spring Split, he has a perfect KDA, he’s a top farmer amongst the bot laners, and has the highest gold per minute. To be …
Team Liquid updates fans on Broxah’s visa issues as team wallows Syed Mujtaba Naqvi League of Legends Co-CEO of Team Liquid Steve “LiQuiD112” Arhancet shared new details about Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen’s visa process. During the Hotline League, a Twitch podcast hosted by Travis Gafford and Mark Zimmerman, Arhancet said he has big news to share regarding the organization’s League of Legends team. As he couldn’t join the voice chat himself, he dropped the news about Broxah’s visa in the Twitch chat, letting fans know where things stand …

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.