League of Legends
League of Legends
How to link your Garena account to a Riot Games account
Nicholas James
If you play League of Legends or Teamfight Tactics in Southeast Asia, you’re likely happy to be swapping to the official Riot Games client, here’s how to link your Garena account to Riot Games. Garena has been plaguing the Southeast Asian League of Legends community for years, engaging in manipulative price gouging and generally misbehaving, according to the community. This was likely because Riot Games had little ability to stop …
League of Legends
League of Legends world champion sentenced to prison
Nicholas James
A League of Legends world champion has been sentenced to prison for drug trafficking, after being arrested in 2021. Kurtis Lau “Toyz” Wai-kin was a member of the Season 2 League of Legends world champion team, Taipei Assassins. The player had coached Fnatic and spent a long time with Hong Kong esports after exiting the scene as a player. But that’s not what is most recently known for. In 2021, …
League of Legends
Badministrator returns with Lily Pichu collaboration rap battle
Nicholas James
Community-beloved League of Legends musical artist Badministrator has returned with Lily Pichu, for a This Is War musical installment. Badministrator was a well-regarded and popular musical parody artist in the early days of League of Legends, publishing rap songs about various champions inside of League of Legends. Badministrator was well-regarded for the quality of his lyrics and smooth rhyme schemes but disappeared for several years as he stepped away from …
League of Legends
League of Legends players now penalized for swearing in chat
Olivia Richman
Riot Games is implementing a new system that targets toxicity in chat. Shortly after Blizzard announced the Defense Matrix program to combat toxic players in Overwatch 2 by creating transcriptions of chat interactions, Riot Games has come out with a program that punishes “vulgarity and profanity” in League of Legends. The long and short of it is that players can no longer swear, no matter the context. All swearing will …
League of Legends
Rekkles opens up on bad G2 contract and playing support
Nicholas James
Carl Martin “Rekkles” Erik Larsson recently went on stream to discuss his status following his departure from Karmine Corp in the LFL, expressing significant unhappiness with the G2 contract he had signed in 2021. Rekkles was one of Europe’s most prominent League of Legends talents, with the marksman player headlining Fnatic’s roster for many years before taking an unexpected pivot to join G2 Esports in 2021. G2 never found the …
League of Legends
DRX wins Worlds 2022, Deft’s last dance is victorious
Nicholas James
The grand finals are over and the one true victor stands above all the fallen teams, as DragonX wins Worlds 2022. This year’s finals were a hard-fought battle between historical titan T1 and the miracle run underdog of DragonX. Both teams had incredible stories heading into their finals appearance, but it was DRX that took home the Summoner’s Cup in the last five-game series of the year. The Unkillable Demon …
League of Legends
Here’s why you can’t see usernames in champion select
Nicholas James
League of Legends is about to get a change that many fans have been asking about for years, and its the reason why you can’t see usernames in champion select. Riot Games has announced that champion select anonymity will be making its way to the League of Legends PBE before making it to the live servers on the subsequent patch. Here’s why Riot is implementing champion select anonymity and why …
League of Legends
Everything we know about Arcane season two and beyond
Nicholas James
Arcane, the hit animated adaptation of League of Legends that was released on Netflix in 2020, is awaiting its next installment. Here’s everything we know for certain about Arcane season 2, and even seasons past that. Arcane’s first season revolved around the twin cities of Piltover and Zaun, and the champions who inhabit them. This first season of Arcane focused on Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Jayce, Heimerdinger, Singed, Ekko, Viktor, and …
Date, start times for each stage of LoL Worlds 2022 revealed
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Developer Riot Games has announced the schedule for the upcoming 2022 World Championship, this year the start times for Worlds 2022 are tailored to local viewers rather than international fans. The tournament begins, as usual, with the Play-In stage. The round robin runs from September 29 to October 2 and each day will start at 3 p.m. CDT or 1 p.m. PDT. This will be a late 10 p.m. CEST …
Misfits is leaving the LEC and LoL esports, here’s what we know
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The 2023 LEC season will look a bit different, as the Misfits organization has confirmed that it is transferring its franchise spot to Team Heretics. Misfits is set to downsize significantly, with the organization set to leave League of Legends entirely. This includes its LEC franchise as well as the Misfits Premier academy team in the LFL. The name and branding will remain in place through the end of the …
LCS issues ruling on TSM Regi abuse, bullying allegations
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
TSM executive Andy “Reginald” Dinh has come out on the bad end of a competitive ruling from Riot Games following allegations of mistreatment of players and staff. One of the biggest stories to come out of the last League of Legends esports off-season was the feud between Peng “Doublelift” Yilang and the TSM founder. The veteran ADC claimed that Regi had created a culture of abuse and bullying within the …
Here’s the date and location for the 2022 LEC Summer Finals
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
The 2022 LEC Summer Split Finals will head to Sweden’s Malmö Arena this year for Europe’s first LoL esports stadium event in almost three years. A live final last took place in summer 2019 when G2 Esports took down Fnatic in Athens, Greece. Various restrictions in the time since have prevented another such event. Now, after losing out on the previously planned 2020 summer final, Swedish LoL fans finally have …
The history of Riot Games, from big games to big controversies
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games has been celebrated for its popular MOBA League of Legends, as well as its handling of the game’s successful esports scene. The same can be said for tactical shooter VALORANT, the company’s first entry into the genre. But Riot Games has also been through its fair share of controversies, including recent sexism allegations. Here is everything you need to know about Riot Games’ history, games, and drama throughout …
Xbox Game Pass will unlock all Valorant agents, LoL champions
Steven Rondina
Valorant
Xbox Game Pass is offering players the ability to have instant access to all League of Legends champions and Valorant agents. During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, Riot Games made a surprise appearance to announce a new partnership with Microsft. This partnership will see the gaming subscription service offer instant access to all characters across all of Riot Games’ released multiplayer titles. To be precise, it offers instant access …
How to delete a Riot account for League of Legends and Valorant
William Davis
League of Legends
Saying goodbye to your Valorant or League of Legends account requires just a few clicks on the Riot website. To deleted a Riot account for League of Legends, Valorant, or any other Riot game, head to Riot’s support page on the official website. From there, navigate to the section on deleting an account. Log into your account and then fill out the form while double-checking that the information is correct. …
LoL pros voice concerns over artificial 35ms ping at MSI
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
The artificial 35ms ping currently in use at the League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational is coming under fire from players at the event. The ping is being added as a result of scheduling issues surrounding this year’s Asia Games as well as the current strict lockdown and quarantining rules in China. LPL’s Royal Never Give Up is not able to attend the event in person. To create a level playing …
Here’s what the EDward Gaming Worlds 2021 skins look like
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The EDG Worlds skins celebrating the victors of 2021’s League of Legends World Championship appear to have been leaked. EDward Gaming was the upset champion of last year’s World Championship after a stunning showing against defending champions Damwon KIA. Splash art has begun circulating among Chinese LoL esports personalities what appears to be most of the splash art for the team. The splash art matches champions chosen by the players. …
Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses: 2022 LCS spring playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2022 LCS Spring Split finals weekend is right around the corner, starting with the lower-bracket final between Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses. The two teams will be fighting for the last spot in the grand final, where 100 Thieves is already waiting. This matchup between Liquid vs EG will be a rematch from the first round of the upper bracket, where the two teams played out an extremely close …
New Shurima tank and Bilgewater bot lane LoL champions teased
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Champion Roadmap for April 2022 has dropped some bombs on League of Legends fans, including teasing a new Shurima tank as well as a Bilgewater bot laner. Two mysterious champions were teased as a part of the new Champion Roadmap from Riot Games, a regular developer blog that updates fans on the studio’s plans for the game in the coming months. This roadmap included details on two mysterious new …
Faker overwhelmed with schedules, speaks on burnout
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok is often considered the greatest League of Legends player of all time, but even he has his limits with the world champion speaking on his rigorous schedule and burnout. On a recent stream, Faker spoke on feeling overwhelmed by his demanding schedule and how it’s affecting his ability to play this game at the level he’s known for. This led his massive fanbase to lash out against …
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.
