League of Legends
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 …
League of Legends
Griffin adds Untara and Naehyun, rest of roster uncertain
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
LEC and LCK win All-Star 2019 regional rivalry showmatches
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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. …
News
Evil Geniuses discuss roster, NA competition, roasts LCS teams
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
The Nexus is Riot’s first official tournament in the MENA region
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
TSM officially confirms 2020 LCS roster with Kobbe, Biofrost
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
Report says Dignitas adds Froggen, Aphromoo, Grig to LCS roster
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Golden Guardians Academy adds former LPL caster Raz as coach
William Davis
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 …
Evil Geniuses reported to sign Jiizuke after Chovy declines
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
After failing to sign former Griffin mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon, reports are coming in that Evil Geniuses has instead settled on Team Vitality’s former mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro. Evil Geniuses had reportedly discussed signing a foreign top laner, specifically targeting SK Telecom T1’s Kim “Khan” Dong-ha, but the Korean player chose to sign with China’s FunPlus Phoenix, who recently won the World Championship. The returning LCS team then turned …
Bilibili reportedly pays $133 million for Worlds Chinese broadcast
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Chinese League of Legends fans will be turning to streaming platform Bilibili for the next three World Championship events. The company is reportedly paying $113 million for three years of exclusive broadcasting rights in China. This is the first time that one streaming service has gained exclusive broadcasting rights for an esports event in China through such a bidding process. According to Beijing News, Bilibili outbid several other media outlets that …
Riot Games reportedly pulling back support from OPL region
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The Oceanic Pro League is reportedly set to lose a lot of its current support from Riot Games. According to Kotaku Australia, teams and players in the OPL region have been informed that Riot Games will no longer pay professional teams an “operating subsidy” next year. The publication saw the email, which was sent in October. The email stated that the reason behind the cuts is to “ensure the OPL …
Lira, Thal, and Sangyoon join new Korean team Seorabeol Gaming
William Davis
League of Legends
Popular Korean streamer Lee Sang-ho has decided to start a new League of Legends with top laner Park “Thal” Kwon-hyuk, jungler Nam “Lira” Tae-yoo, and bot laner Gwon “Sangyoon” Sang-yun. Three pro players and one streamer gathered to discuss League of Legends and a new organization was born: Seorabeol Gaming. The team already has recruited three members in former Hanwha Life Esports players Sangyoon and Thal and former Dignitas player …
KT Rolster Aiming admits to relationship with underage fan
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
KT Rolster’s bottom laner Kim “Aiming” Ha-ram has issued an apology after it surfaced that he was in an intimate relationship with a fan who was a minor. The information came out after Aiming decided to put an end to the relationship so that he could focus on the upcoming season. Aiming confirmed that instead of having a conversation regarding the decision, he cut off communications completely without an explanation. …
Contractz leaves Golden Guardians, joins 100 Thieves Academy
William Davis
League of Legends
100 Thieves is adding an experienced jungler to 100 Thieves Academy, with the organization recently announced the signing of jungler Juan “Contractz” Arturo García who was transferred from Golden Guardians. The move comes after Golden Guardians confirmed Turkish player Can “Closer” Çelik as part of the starting roster for 2020. Contractz is joining top laner Aaron “FakeGod” Lee, mid laner Max “Soligo” Soong, and bottom lane duo Jacob “Prismal” Feinstein …
Patch 9.24 is coming with a number of ARAM balance updates
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Riot Games is balancing the ARAM game mode coming patch 9.24. The update will include nerfs and buffs for over 20 champions applicable only to the Howling Abyss. Riot’s principal game designer “Mort” shared on Twitter which changes the developer is looking to push after a detailed consideration to better balance the game mode, although it’s overall in a good place. Mort also added the Presence of Mind rune will …
Evil Geniuses adds Irean as head coach of new LCS team
William Davis
League of Legends
Evil Geniuses has announced the next element of its master plan to fix the LCS, as Heo “Irean” Yeong-cheol has joined the organization as the new head coach. Evil Geniuses is making all the right moves to ensure a successful debut in the LCS in 2020. Irean will be in charge of the roster that so far consists of top laner Colin “Kumo” Zhao, jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, and bottom …
GBM says he is owed money by Galatasary for unpaid salary
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Turkish Championship League team Galatasaray is being accused of not paying player salaries again. Mid laner Lee “GBM” Chang-seok revealed yesterday that Galatasaray has not only refused to pay him for the past three months, but haven’t been responding to his requests for payment. According to GBM, his former organization had told him he’d be paid the first week of October, but the date was continuously pushed back. When December …
LoL is the most watched game on Twitch of 2019, Fortnite second
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
League of Legends is the most-watched Twitch game of the year, taking the spot from last year’s top game Fortnite, and pushing it down to second place. With the 2019 World Championship, the game broke its own viewership records, making it the most-watched League event in the game’s history. Not only does League have the highest total viewership through 2019, it also has the highest average viewership and the highest …
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.
