League of Legends
League of Legends
Clearlove ends long pro career, transitions to head coach for EDG
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Mata joins RNG as head coach for 2020 LPL season
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
RNG re-signs Uzi, adds Betty and Xiaolongbao for LPL 2020 season
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
The wildest and most impressive stats from the 2019 LCS
Olivia Richman
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 …
News
2020 LEC Spring Split start date revealed by Riot Games
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
Misfits player Neon suspended by LEC for discriminatory language
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
Patch 10.1 is bringing Lunars and new item changes to TFT
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
G2 Esports’ Caps and Perkz may be swapping mid and bot roles
Olivia Richman
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 …
Esports winners at 2019 Game Awards include Bugha and G2 Esports
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The Game Awards have come to a close and the winners in the esports categories have been revealed. Last year, the popular show became one of Twitch’s biggest live stream events with over 1.13 million concurrent viewers watching the program on the platform at its peak. This was double the views The Game Awards had received in 2017. Let’s take a look at how this year’s esports categories differed from …
Doinb becomes the first import player to become LPL resident
William Davis
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix mid laner and reigning world champion Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang has become the first foreign player to receive LPL residency. After five years competing in China, Doinb was granted LPL residency and will no longer count as an import for the team. Doinb, who is originally from South Korea, was a popular solo queue player who has received high praise from professional players including T1 mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. …
Flash Wolves not competing in the League of Legends PCS in 2020
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Flash Wolves fans were distraught this morning when they saw a tweet from the Taiwanese organization declaring that they wouldn’t be competing in the League of Legends Pacific Champion Series next season. “We are so sorry to tell every fans, Flash Wolves League of Legend team won’t participate PCS in 2020. We will help player to find new stage for their career. Hopefully, we will see you next game,” the …
Pobelter rejoins Team Liquid for 2020 LCS as assistant coach
William Davis
League of Legends
Eugene “Pobelter” Park, who recently revealed that he couldn’t find a team for LCS play, has joined Team Liquid as a positional coach for 2020. In November, Pobelter shocked the League of Legends community with an emotional statement on Twitter. The former pro player shared that he couldn’t find a team to join and that for the first time since Season 4, he wouldn’t be playing in the LCS. Many …
New LoL game CONV/RGENCE revealed at The Game Awards
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The Game Awards was very kind to League of Legends fans. Alongside winning two awards, two different spin-off titles were revealed during the event. In addition to Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story was also unveiled with a short teaser trailer. No gameplay was shown at The Game Awards, but one of the developers on hand gave fans an idea of what’s in …
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story revealed at Game Awards
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
A new League of Legends spin-off title has been revealed at The Game Awards. Ruined King: A League of Legends Story was revealed with a teaser trailer with former Marvel Comics artist Joe Madureira on hand to discuss it. He opened up that the title is a story-driven, turn-based RPG based in the League of Legends universe set after the Burning Tides event. Players will play as League champions and …
Every new roster change going into the 2020 LCS Spring Split
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
News
Since developer Riot Games opened the doors for free agency announcements on November 18, the League of Legends community has been bombarded with rumors and official announcements of new roster changes and free agencies. Some of the LoL Championship Series teams don’t have their full rosters officially locked yet, but the situation for the 2020 season is becoming clearer with every passing day. Here’s an overview of all the current …
League of Legends PBE gets new champion Sett, 12 new skins
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The League of Legends public beta environment has been updated with the 10.1 PBE cycle, bringing new champion Sett, a few balance changes, and 12 new skins to the Summoner’s Rift. The highlight of the 10.1 PBE patch is Sett, the new juggernaut and the first champion set to release in 2020. The new top lane champion is made for those that like to play aggressively, crushing enemies in the …
Cowsep discusses move to Facebook Gaming, mental health struggle
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends streamer Joseph “Cowsep” Hursey is joining DisguisedToast and Smash Bros legend ZeRo at Facebook Gaming. After streaming full-time on Twitch for five years, Cowsep discussed his move to Facebook Gaming with Inven Global. Unlike Gonzalo “ZeRo” Barrios’ YouTube video on the matter, Cowsep claimed the response to his YouTube announcement was mostly positive, although it didn’t get as much attention as he initially thought it would. The majority of the streaming …
Riot Forge teases new games with four pieces of preview art
William Davis
League of Legends
Developer Riot Games has announced a series of new projects during their tenth anniversary celebration, and now we are getting our first look at new content set within the League of Legends universe. Riot recently established a publishing studio called “Riot Forge” that will be working with third-party developers to create new video games set in the world of League of Legends. The team has been keeping quiet about projects …
LoL fans want to remove TFT from future All-Star events
William Davis
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics was the least popular part of the All-Star Event and fans are asking Riot Games to avoid including this game mode in future events. The All-Star Event took place from December 5 to December 7. Through three days, professional players, online personalities, and content creators gathered at the Esports Arena Las Vegas to compete in a series of events. Teamfight Tactics, the newest game mode in League of …
Soulbound class comes to Teamfight Tactics with patch 9.24
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics has been updated with patch 9.24, the final patch of the year. The patch added a new Soulbound class together with Senna, Lucian, and Amumu. Improvements to the interface and some balance changes were implemented as well. Riot Games announced that the new class featuring Senna and Lucian will be joining the second TFT set a few weeks ago. The two new units, alongside Amumu, are now available …
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
Sneaky shows off Pokemon cosplay after rocky offseason with C9
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Voyboy stuns youngrezzy with rap skills during Tyler1’s LoL tournament
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Legendary support Mata retires from competitive League of Legends
By
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
