League of Legends
League of Legends
Sylas to receive major overhaul from Riot in LoL patch 10.1
William Davis
League of Legends season 10 is just around the corner and a number of gameplay changes are set to arrive in the game. Among them is an overhaul of Sylas that might help the champion break out of ELO hell. The unchained revolutionary has been suffering for a few patches and has a dismal 45% win rate in both jungle and mid lane roles due to his weak early game …
League of Legends
Best and worst offseason roster moves heading into the 2020 LCS
William Davis
The offseason in League of Legends is finally over, and teams have completed their starting rosters for the 2020 LCS Spring Split. This year, every team made at least one roster change, but who made the best and worst moves of the offseason? 100 Thieves won the offseason, simple as that. While most teams are trying to put together cohesive squads that have a fighting chance in the LCS 2020, …
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
