League of Legends
League of Legends
Riot Forge teases new games with four pieces of preview art
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
LoL fans want to remove TFT from future All-Star events
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Soulbound class comes to Teamfight Tactics with patch 9.24
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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
Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai invests $10 million in G2 Esports
Olivia Richman
Brooklyn Nets owner and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Joe Tsai has just invested in G2 Esports. Tsai invested $10 million into the esports franchise, valuing G2 at $100 million. The organization is hoping to expand its presence in Asia thanks to this investment. According to the South China Morning Post, there are more gamers in China than there are people in the United States, making it a lucrative market …
League of Legends
League of Legends All-Star 2019 sees viewership drop
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
According to Esports Charts data, League of Legends 2019 All-Star event experienced lower viewership than in any of the past three years, and the community isn’t too happy with how the event went this year. All-Star 2019 lagged behind its predecessors in almost every aspect. There were fewer hours streamed from the event, the total hours watch experienced a large drop, and peak viewership was down. The community pointed out …
League of Legends
Bwipo defeats Uzi for the All-Star 2019 1v1 championship title
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fnatic’s top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau won the League of Legends All-Star 2019 one-on-one tournament after defeating Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao in the finals. All-Stars is an event full of entertainment and friendly competitions. Its one-on-one tournament is one of the most amusing All-Star competitions for League fans, as their favorite players get put to a different sort of test. While some pro players shine with teamwork and synergy, this tournament …
League of Legends
League of Legends servers face issues in some regions for Clash
Olivia Richman
The much anticipated return of Clash was met with a few major bugs. Clash was relaunched as an open beta in all regions, allowing players to compete in the tournament mode once again. But glaring issues seem to be plauging Clash just like the mode’s previous launches. One Reddit user said that Clash in the Oceania server, located in Australia, was loading on the old map, which doesn’t have alcoves …
League of Legends
KT Rolster reunites Kuro, TusiN, and Aiming, completes 2020 LCK roster
William Davis
KT Rolster has reinvented itself, completing its new roster for the LCK 2020 season. The massive shakeup comes after the organization narrowly avoided relegation after both splits in 2019. KT is taking a new approach in 2020, running a seven-men roster in the upcoming season. Jeon “Ray” Ji-won and Kim “SoHwan” Jun-yeong are the top laners for KT in 2020. Ray is playing in the LCK for the first time …
Griffin adds Untara and Naehyun, rest of roster uncertain
William Davis
League of Legends
After months of controversy and internal struggles, Griffin announced its first round of signings ahead of the 2020 LCK Spring Split. Griffin is making good on its promise to rebuild, announcing two new players for its starting roster. Those players are former T1 top laner Park “Untara” Ui-jin and former DragonX mid laner Yoo “Naehyun” Nae-hyun. Untara joins the team after one split in Turkey playing with 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports. The …
LEC and LCK win All-Star 2019 regional rivalry showmatches
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The first two days of League of Legends’ All-Star Las Vegas 2019 event have finished. The three-day event features a number of festivities including a one-on-one tournament, a Teamfight Tactics charity event, and several other showcases. The highlight to this point has been a pair of regional rivalry showmatches. Fans had a chance to enjoy two proper five-on-five games that pitted the LCS against the LEC, and the LCK against the LPL. …
Evil Geniuses discuss roster, NA competition, roasts LCS teams
William Davis
News
Evil Geniuses answered all of the burning questions from fans in a Reddit AMA. The team talked about the decision making behind the roster, its goals for 2020, and offered some insight into the business side of esports. CEO Nicole LaPointe Jameson, CGO Phil Aram, LCS director Greg Kim, general manager Andy Barton, and team operations Sabrina Wong took part in it. The first step on Evil Geniuses’ plan was …
Riot donated $10,000 to Rick Fox’s charity stream for the Bahamas
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Rick Fox held a 24-hour long charity stream for the Bahamas Relief Foundation. Riot Games’ Social Impact Fund donated $10,000 to the stream, which ultimately raised over $60,000 in total. The former NBA star and previous owner of Echo Fox spent his childhood days in the Bahamas, and islands that suffered tremendous damage after being caught in the Hurricane Dorian this September. To help people get back to their feet …
Riot Forge to bring even more new League of Legends games
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games has announced Riot Forge, a publishing label that will develop new games in the League of Legends universe. Riot Forge will see the studio partner up with independent developers to create new games in a variety of genres. Back in October, Riot revealed its plans to launch several games, including League of Legends: Wild Rift, Teamfight Tactics Mobile, Legends of Runeterra, a League of Legends fighting game, and …
TSM could contend in LCS 2020, but will they return to Worlds?
William Davis
League of Legends
Through the offseason, Team SoloMid’s fans were promised a new roster that would satisfy their demands. The people working behind the scenes shared their genuine enthusiasm for the TSM project in 2020. Announcements were made, videos are up, and TSM has a solid roster for the LCS. On paper, TSM has the potential to get back to the top of the ladder, but first, they must overcome some big challenges. The …
The Nexus is Riot’s first official tournament in the MENA region
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Riot Games is hosting the first official League of Legends event in the Middle East and North Africa. The Nexus is a three-day festival that includes League tournament, a Teamfight Tactics competition, 1v1 fights, concerts, and more. The event is happening in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, starting on December 5. For the first time in the ten-year history of League of Legends, the MENA region is finally getting …
TSM officially confirms 2020 LCS roster with Kobbe, Biofrost
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Team SoloMid has officially announced its 2020 League of Legends Championship Series starting roster on December 3. The academy roster has been confirmed as well. As one of the most popular League of Legends teams in the world, TSM always has the community’s eyes on it. And it wasn’t any different this offseason, as fans were on the lookout for every leak, rumor, and announcement. TSM has finally put an …
Report says Dignitas adds Froggen, Aphromoo, Grig to LCS roster
William Davis
League of Legends
ESPN has confirmed that Dignitas completed its starting LCS roster and the team is ready to make announcements. Back in November it was reported that Dignitas was struggling to secure its roster. The team allegedly spent most of its roster on the controversial $2.3 million guaranteed contract of top laner Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon. Dignitas then proceeded to trade every other member of its 2019 roster. Dignitas’ recent decision making raised …
Golden Guardians Academy adds former LPL caster Raz as coach
William Davis
League of Legends
LPL commentator and League of Legends personality Barento “Raz” Mohammed has made a surprising move and joined Golden Guardians Academy as head coach. Golden Guardians announced the complete GGS Academy roster and coaching staff ahead of the LCS 2020 season. The coaching staff includes former LPL analyst Raz, who worked in the LPL’s English broadcast for the past few years. Raz follows the steps of former LCK caster Christopher “PapaSmithy” …
Doran and Chovy to join DragonX after Griffin controversy
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Two fromer Griffin players, top laner Choi “Doran” Hyeon-joon and mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, have joined DragonX. The organization has also announced that trainees Ryu “Keria” Min-seok and Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon have both been promoted to the 2020 starting roster. Doran and Chovy have officially joined DragonX’s League of Legends team for the 2020 League of Legends Champions Korea, Fomos reported on December 4. With the promotion of Keira as …
Former Griffin support Lehends joins Hanwha Life Esports in LCK
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Hanwha Life Esports has signed Son “Lehends” Si-woo as the team’s new support for the upcoming LCK competitive season, Fomos’ reporter “Kenzi” shared on Twitter. Lehends is joining the overhauled HLE soon after he and the rest of the former Griffin roster announced free agency. Even though Griffin had a better run at the 2019 League of Legends Champions Korea than did HLE, the organization is likely losing its spot …
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.
