League of Legends
League of Legends
The most important changes coming to League with patch 10.3
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
It’s almost time for the third patch of Season 10 to go live. There are many nerfs, buffs, as well as changes to jungle experience coming. Riot Games is looking to continue making sure that no champions are overpowered at any level of skill so no one will feel unbalanced, whether for an Iron player or a pro. With that in mind, over 15 champions are getting balance updates early …
League of Legends
Riot Games shuts down Doublelift’s stream during Academy game
William Davis
Team Liquid’s bottom laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng was forced by Riot Games to interrupt his stream. On January 24, Doublelift posted on Twitter that he was going live on his Twitch channel. Immediately, many thousands of fans joined the stream and enjoyed while Doublelift played his first solo queue game of the day. 30 minutes later, Doublelift turned off his stream and used his Twitter to explain that Riot made …
League of Legends
The creator of Team Liquid’s new mascot Blue speaks out
Olivia Richman
Team Liquid stole the spotlight at the LCS Spring Split’s opening weekend with the reveal of their new mascot, Blue. A white horse sporting a Team Liquid jacket and blue mane, Blue is the organization’s logo personified. The mascot exists to cheer on Team Liquid and be cute, according Team Liquid’s senior graphic designer Stacey Yamada. Yamada is the creative mind behind the mascot. She led a team in creating …
League of Legends
Team Liquid outsmarts TSM, gets first win of 2020 LCS Spring
William Davis
Team Liquid closed week one of the 2020 LCS Spring Split with a victory over Team SoloMid. Team Liquid and TSM met in the first Monday League Night of the season. The clash between these two powerhouses was the main event of the day and attracted thousands of viewers. Team Liquid, despite playing with a substitute in the jungle, bested a TSM squad that is still trying to find its …
League of Legends
Aphromoo on leaving 100T: “Not being in a gaming house is a plus”
Olivia Richman
Dignitas came back and dominated in their second match of the 2020 LCS Spring Split, easily beating Evil Geniuses. That advanced the team to 2-0 on the season and established Dignitas as a squad to watch out for. Veteran support Zaqueri “Aphromoo” Black was quick to point out how much cleaner their play has gotten since their previous game, and noted that it’s only getting better from here. How do you …
League of Legends
Dignitas runs over Evil Geniuses in day 2 of 2020 LCS Spring
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The second day of the 2020 LCS Spring Split opened with a match between Dignitas and Evil Geniuses. Dignitas opened its season with a decisive win over Counter Logic Gaming on the first day, and has now secured a second win just as easily. Tahm Kench is shaping up to be a popular pick this season and Evil Geniuses locked him in alongside Aphelios for Bae “Bang” Jun-sik. Dignitas responded by …
League of Legends
Rating the 2020 LCS Spring Split jerseys from worst to best
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The first day of the 2020 LCS 2020 Spring Split has concluded, and most of the teams have had an opportunity to showcase their new jerseys. LCS players proudly wear their respective team’s colors on stage. Likewise, the teams love promoting merchandise sales and sponsorships by having players look fierce in the jerseys. But not every jersey is equally creative or fashionable, and some make much more of a statement …
League of Legends
2020 LEC Spring debut fails to match last year’s viewership
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Compared to the last year, the 2020 LEC Spring Split had a significantly lower number of viewers on its opening day. The second season of the rebranded League of Legends European Championship is not on the best track with viewership growth. While Fnatic was the team bringing in the most views both last year and this year’s first day of the season, the 2019 match peaked notably higher. According to …
Riot is testing different League of Legends shops in LoL client
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Some League of Legends players have had their clients updated with a new shop layout. A few League players shared that their in-game shops have a new interface, with some now having it for over a month. This caused confusion within the community, and players started to wonder what is unique to those that got the shop update others are missing. However, the more likely scenario is that Riot Games …
Closer: Golden Guardians has proved it’s not a “10th-place team”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The Golden Guardians may have lost their first match of the Spring Split yesterday, but that didn’t stop Can “Closer” Çelik from enjoying his debut on the LCS Arena stage. The Turkish player shined in his jungler role, giving the team’s fans hope that there are better things to come for the underdog team. Closer sat down with WIN.gg to talk about his goals for the 2020 season, his favorite Turkish …
Dignitas obliterates Counter Logic Gaming in 2020 LCS Spring debut
William Davis
League of Legends
Dignitas made its debut in the 2020 LCS Spring Split with a convincing victory over Counter Logic Gaming. The organization commemorated its official return to League of Legends in impressive fashion. After rebuilding its roster in the off-season, it was tough to predict how Dignitas would look in action. The team consists of veterans that are in very different stages of their careers and play different styles. That made Dignitas …
Huni on big Dignitas contract: “I proved myself, I’m worth it”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The new Dignitas lineup entered their first 2020 LCS Spring Split match as underdogs, but had little trouble against Counter Logic Gaming. Despite their concerning off-season, the veteran squad proved they still have a lot to offer and Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon is here to bring it out of them. The former Clutch Gaming top laner told WIN.gg all about that fateful off-season and how he plans to lead his new teammates to victory this …
TL Shernfire on C9: “I didn’t think much of [them] individually”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Despite Team Liquid’s confidence going into the LCS Spring Split, Cloud9 had a pretty convincing win over the four-time repeat LCS champions in the first game of the 2020 season. Many fans were surprised to see Team Liquid Academy’s Australian jungler Shern “Shernfire” Cherng Tai filling in for Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen instead of former teammate Eugene “Pobelter” Park. But assisant coach Kang “Dodo” Jun-hyeok was confident in the decision before the match began. …
Cloud9 gets revenge on Team Liquid to open 2020 LCS Spring Split
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The first match of the 2020 LCS Spring Split belonged to Team Liquid and Cloud9, the best of the LCS in 2019. In a mostly one-sided match, Cloud9 took the first win of the LCS season. A rematch of the 2019 LCS Summer Final was a great way to open the year for North American League of Legends. Three of Cloud9’s new players had to prove their worth, while Liquid put …
FlyQuest shows off new training facility, appoints new CEO
William Davis
League of Legends
FlyQuest is starting the year with some major internal changes. The organization has appointed a new CEO and announced the opening of its new training facility. The team appointed esports veteran Tricia Sugita as the new CEO. Sugita first joined the organization back in 2018 and worked closely on initiatives within FlyQuest to support women and immigrants in esports. “I am honored and grateful to be the CEO of this …
LCS Spring Finals head to Frisco in surprise announcement
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The LCS Spring Finals are heading to Frisco, Texas this year. “For the first time, after much demand from players and fans, the LCS Spring Finals are strapping on cowboy boots and heading south to Texas!” read the official press release. The location was revealed for the first time during the pre-show broadcast on Saturday, January 25. The big show will be coming to the Ford Center at The Star …
G2 Esports looks shaky in 2020 LEC debut against MAD Lions
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports opened the 2020 LEC Spring season with a victory over MAD Lions. The 2019 World Championship finalist was in charge of welcoming the new organization to the league. MAD built an interesting roster in the off-season that includes mid laner Marek “Humanoid” Brázda and various talent from the regional circuit. G2 kept the same roster from 2019, but with a twist. Luka “Perkz” Perković is back in the …
Brazilian League teams want franchising, CBLoL to implement
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Riot Games has decided to franchise CBLoL, the highest level of professional League of Legends in Brazil. On January 21, Riot Brazil announced the 2020 Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends is bringing new talents, new sponsors, and most importantly the beginning of its implementation of a franchise model. Since the LCS and LEC have moved to the model two seasons ago, more and more tournaments are noticing the benefits …
These are the five worst team jerseys in pro League of Legends
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Professional esports teams show off their branding with jerseys worn by pro players and fans alike. Jerseys aren’t there just for comfort on a stage, as organizations also use them to promote their colors and sponsors, hoping to sell more merch along the way. Ahead of every season, most teams prepare new jerseys. Sometimes entirely new, sometimes just a little bit different. But not every such change is successful, and …
Riots scrubs bugs from new League of Legends official website
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
League of Legends’ new website is live and it features a cleaner design, new champion concept art, and a bunch of bugs. Once the new official LoL page is opened, the first thing to see is a video background with Riot showcasing many of its popular animations, including Jinx’s song, K/DA, cinematics, and more. The looped video is covered with the League logo, and a “play for free” button, since …
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.
