League of Legends
League of Legends
T1 and Gen.G push for 2019 KeSPA Cup English broadcast to return
William Davis
Gen.G and T1 have offered to cover the expenses of the 2019 KeSPA Cup English broadcast. LCK on-air talent, Max “Atlus” Anderson shared on Twitter that the Korea Esports Association decided to cut off the English broadcast and had barred them from restreaming the event. League of Legends fans were quick to react to the news, venting frustration over being denied access to the last competitive event of the year. …
News
Riot reveals first batch of PCS teams for inaugural season
William Davis
Riot Games has revealed nine of the teams that will take part in the inaugural season of the Pacific Championship Series. Earlier this year, Riot Games shared its plans to merge the LMS and the LST to create a new league known as the PCS. The LMS was home to eight teams from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao. The LST brought together teams from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and other …
League of Legends
Time Magazine says League of Legends is one of decade’s best games
M Alzamora
Riot Game’s MOBA has made Time Magazine’s list of the “10 Best Video Games of the 2010’s,” cementing its place as one of the best and most popular games of the decade. League of Legends joined nine other video games on the list published by Time Magazine. League of Legends and Epic Game’s Fortnite were the only two multiplayer games on a list dominated by single-player titles. While Riot’s flagship …
Apex Legends
Golden Guardians reveals new logo, TFT and Apex Legends players
William Davis
Golden Guardians has revealed its new brand identity and announced its expansion into multiple new esports titles. The esports branch of NBA team Golden State Warriors is expanding beyond League of Legends in 2020. Golden Guardians started as a franchise in the LCS, and now the organization has expanded into World of Warcraft, Apex Legends, and other games including Hearthstone, Teamfight Tactics, and Legends of Runeterra. The announcement also included …
League of Legends
Sugar Rush, old Snowdown Showdown skins now available in LoL store
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The Sugar Rush event is now live in League of Legends together with new skins, chromas, summoner icons, and more. Sugar Rush is a new version of Snowdown Showdown, a winter event League players have been enjoying for the past ten years. This year, instead of being dressed as elves, Santa Claus, or reindeers, Sugar Rush skins are all about sweets. The event includes skins for Braum, Evelynn, Ziggs, and …
League of Legends
Dignitas Academy adds Damonte, Akaadian to impressive roster
Olivia Richman
The LCS off-season has been full of surprises. Former Clutch Gaming mid laner Tanner “Damonte” Damonte will be playing for Dignitas Academy in the upcoming 2020 season. The organization announced the current rosters for its LCS and Academy teams on Twitter and fans were surprised to see Damonte’s name under the list of Academy players. He was also joined by another veteran, jungler Matthew “Akaadian” Higginbotham. “For real, Akaadian and Damonte should …
League of Legends
New League of Legends client bugs have players angry with Riot
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends players are not happy with the state of the game right now. The latest version of the client hasn’t been working well ever since it was released. While some players have been unaffected, many have had issues with FPS drops, disconnecting from games, and more. Naturally, this has resulted in a slew of players taking to social media in order to raise awareness of the troubles and …
News
Griffin Sword files a police report against cVmax for abuse
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Griffin’s League of Legends top laner Choi “Sword” Sung-won reportedly filed a police report against his former coach, Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho, accusing him of abusive behavior, Korean News1 has reported. DragonX head coach cvMax hasn’t gotten a break from accusations and drama ever since he parted ways with Griffin. Since cvMax came out with details of player mistreatment by Griffin’s management, the story keeps getting sequels. With Riot Games now …
FunPlus Phoenix signs Khan, extends GimGoon for 2020 LPL season
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Worlds 2019 champion FunPlus Phoenix has announced that three top laners are signed for the 2020 LPL starting roster. Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, Li “xiao7” Zhong-Qi, and Kim “GimGoon” Han-saem will be sharing their time on stage. By signing Khan, promoting xiao7 from the academy team, and re-signing GimGoon for another season, FunPlus Phoenix now has a starting roster of nine players. It’s a big roster for the defending champions, but the …
Clearlove ends long pro career, transitions to head coach for EDG
William Davis
League of Legends
Fan favorite and popular jungler Ming “Clearlove” Kai has announced his transition into a coaching position within Edward Gaming. Clearlove has retired as a player and is becoming the head coach for EDG in 2020. The jungler made the change after five years spent playing for the organization. To talk about Clearlove is to talk about EDG, as he is the face of the team and the reason why so …
Mata joins RNG as head coach for 2020 LPL season
William Davis
League of Legends
Two days after announcing his retirement from professional play, former T1 support Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong has joined Royal Never Give Up as head coach. On December 14, Mata took his personal Facebook to announce his retirement as a player. Mata thanked the fans for their constant support through his seven years as a player, as well as the organizations that he joined along the way, including RNG. Other players reacted …
RNG re-signs Uzi, adds Betty and Xiaolongbao for LPL 2020 season
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Royal Never Give Up has squared away its League of Legends roster for the LPL 2020 season. The organization has signed Lu “Betty” Yu-Hung and Li “Xiaolongbao” Xiao-Long. Alongside this, Wang “S1xu” Kang-Can and Zhang “yuekai” Yue-Kai have been promoted from RNG’s academy team to its main roster. Finally, Royal Never Give Up also shared Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao, Shi “Ming” Sen-Ming, and Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao have been re-signed. RNG has also signed …
The wildest and most impressive stats from the 2019 LCS
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The League of Legends Championship Series celebrated 2019 by sharing some interesting statistics about their sponsors, players, champions, and map impact. “While we prep for our strongest season yet, we wanted to take a beat to celebrate the wins – big and small – that made up our year,” the LCS stated in an official press release. According to the press release, the LCS is currently the third most popular …
Sneaky shows off Pokemon cosplay after rocky offseason with C9
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Cloud9’s Zach “Sneaky” Scuderi is known for his popular gender-bending League of Legends-themed cosplays. The popular AD carry has decided to branch out into other games this time around. With constant buzz around Pokemon Sword and Shield since before its release, thanks to some notable leaks, Sneaky treated fans to an unexpected Marnie cosplay. “They wanted me to cosplay Pokimane, but I heard Pokemon,” Sneaky joked on Twitter, sharing a quick …
Voyboy stuns youngrezzy with rap skills during Tyler1’s LoL tournament
William Davis
League of Legends
Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani and the Shen god himself, “youngrezzy,” lit up the halftime show of Tyler1’s third annual League of Legends tournament the “Tyler1 Championship Series 2019” with an impromptu rap. The first day of the TCS playoffs featured a handful of Twitch personalities serving as casters. During Voyboy and youngrezzy’s time at the proverbial desk, the pair took it upon themselves to hype up the chat and call out …
Legendary support Mata retires from competitive League of Legends
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
South Korean pro player Cho “Mata” Se-hyeong has decided to retire from competitive League of Legends, the veteran shared on Facebook. Mata has been a part of the competitive scene ever since 2013. Under Samsung White’s banner, he was the world champion just a year after his debut. Now, he’s the last member of the team that took the crown at Worlds 2014 to retire. The news comes just a …
2020 LEC Spring Split start date revealed by Riot Games
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
News
Riot Games has announced that the 2020 LEC Spring Split will kick off on January 24. The league will be played in Riot’s studio in Berlin. The second regular season of the rebranded European league will take place across nine weeks, with 10 teams competing for a spot in the playoffs. The winner of the 2020 LEC Spring Split will qualify for the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational, where it will represent Europe on …
Misfits player Neon suspended by LEC for discriminatory language
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Misfits Gaming’s bot laner Matúš “Neon” Jakubčík has been suspended for the first half of the LEC 2020 Spring Split due to in-game toxicity, Riot Games shared in a competitive ruling. After league officials carried out an investigation across all of Neon’s accounts, objectionable behavior was found that warranted punishment. Neon is accused of being discriminatory towards his in-game teammates, even after Riot issued warnings and flagged his accounts in the …
Patch 10.1 is bringing Lunars and new item changes to TFT
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Riot Games has announced a new Teamfight Tactics origin coming in January, as well as changes and additions to multiple items. The Lunar class is coming to TFT with patch 10.1. Leona and Karma will be the two champions releasing in the second set as Lunars. Using both will grant players a trait giving them a 20% critical strike chance, 20% critical strike damage, and 20% spell power every seven …
G2 Esports’ Caps and Perkz may be swapping mid and bot roles
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
G2 Esports fans are wondering if they’re getting trolled. The European League of Legends team just announced on Twitter that Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Luka “Perkz” Perković are swapping roles, putting Caps in the bot lane and Perkz back to mid lane. “Wait, are Caps and Perkz really doing this?” G2 tweeted out, complete with a “mind blown” emoji. The tweet is accompanied by a short clip that shows Perkz casually …
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
KeSPA Cup 2019 gets English broadcast after community backlash
By
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Goku, Pikachu, other anime characters share voices with LoL champs
By
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Esports Life Tycoon is a surprisingly accurate esports sim
By
Olivia Richman
