League of Legends
League of Legends
K/DA successor True Damage revealed, will perform at LoL Worlds 2019
Steven Rondina
After weeks of rumors, Riot Games has officially revealed its new League of Legends-themed virtual band, True Damage. The group is in the same vein as K/DA, the group comprised of champions Evelyn, Akali, Kai’sa, and Ahri. K/DA became an overnight sensation in 2018 with the song “POP/STARS.” Though Akali’s singer, Soyeon from (G)I-DLE, returns for True Damage, the rest of the lineup is new. “A collective of artists with …
League of Legends
How to play Garen and Yuumi in solo queue just like at Worlds
William Davis
Garen and Yuumi are an unexpected bottom lane duo that has recently taken over the competitive League of Legends scene. It was first played by Fnatic in the LEC Summer split and it quickly spread through the rest of the world’s regions. Similar to Sona and Taric, this new duo is hard to kill, which leads to a lot of frustration for the enemy team. Casual players would look at …
League of Legends
Details on Wukong’s new gameplay rework for Season 10
William Davis
The Monkey King Wukong will be receiving a much-needed update to his gameplay kit during the 2019 preseason. Wukong was released in July 2011 and his kit has remained largely unchanged outside of minor stat tweaks and bugfixes. The champion was a strong top laner during early seasons in both ranked and competitive play. But Wukong slowly became a less viable pick as League of Legends continued to evolve. Today …
League of Legends
Less than 0.001% players have chance for perfect Worlds Pick’em
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
With the 2019 League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals finished, the semifinals stage is set for the four remaining teams. Fans have been trying their luck with Pick’ems, but very few still have a chance to get all possible points. Over 4.5 million League players and fans made their Worlds Pick’em predictions. From the play-ins to the semifinals, 24 teams participated in the tournament, and a large number of matches …
League of Legends
Splyce overperforms, still loses to SKT in LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
SK Telecom T1 is advancing to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship semifinals after a 3-1 victory over Splyce. The LCK champion took a solid victory over an international rival, but it wasn’t the stomp that everyone anticipated. During the series, Splyce managed to get ahead of SKT on multiple occasions and took a game over the tournament’s favorites. The main problem for Splyce was their inability to transition …
League of Legends
Vaevictis eSports’ LCL 2019 run marked by brutally poor stats
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Vaevictis eSports is a predominantly female League of Legends team that hasn’t taken a single match in the League of Legends Continental League since February. They are currently on a 30-game losing streak. The Russian team went through a number of roster shuffles throughout the year, with members often switching their main roles as coaches joined and left. None of this yielded positive results in competitive play. Vaevictis hasn’t won a …
League of Legends
TF Blade reaches top rank on EUNE server after Challenger climb
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Team Liquid’s League of Legends streaming top laner Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni has achieved the top rank on the European Nordic and East server as he continues his journey of becoming the best player on every server in the world. TF Blade started working towards his goal of becoming an undisputable best solo queue League player in the world at the beginning of this year, after consistently keeping his main …
League of Legends
G2 Perkz blasts Deficio’s addition to Worlds 2019 broadcast
William Davis
G2 Esports bottom laner Luka “Perkz” Perković is not happy about the addition of Martin “Deficio” Lynge to the broadcast team at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Deficio made the official announcement through Origen’s Twitter account, a team he joined as General Manager in 2018 when he quit casting. In the video, Deficio said that he was very happy to be invited by Riot Games and that he would work …
Fnatic flops, FunPlus Phoenix heads to LoL Worlds 2019 semifinals
William Davis
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix dominated Fnatic, punched its ticket to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship semifinals, and guaranteed that an LPL team will make the trip to Paris for the finals. FunPlus came into the Knockout Stage with a new, polished game plan. The team left behind the alternative picks and settled for traditional compositions after a wild group stage performance. That change in strategy seemingly took Fnatic by surprise, …
Invictus Gaming tramples Griffin, moves to LoL Worlds semifinals
William Davis
League of Legends
Invictus Gaming advanced to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship semifinals with a victory over Griffin. IG is one step closer to getting its second World Championship title. The LPL team took the win over rookie organization Griffin and became the first team in the semifinals. IG started the series with two scrappy victories. The defending champion started games one and two by losing the early game. Griffin showcased good …
TF Blade becomes number one on EUNE League of Legends server
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid’s controversial League of Legends streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni has become number one on the EUNE server. He announced the news on Twitch by showing his name on the leaderboards with “Can’t Touch This” playing in the background. His viewers spammed the chat room with messages like “I WAS HERE” and “EZ.” TF Blade has been on a quest to become the top-ranked solo queue player in every region. …
SKT, G2, Splyce, Damwon will meet in 2019 LoL Worlds Knockouts
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2019 League of Legends World Championship quarterfinals are ending on Sunday with two interesting matches. Three-time World Champions SK Telecom T1 will face Splyce and Mid-Season Invitational champion G2 Esports will go against rookie team Damwon Gaming. The Knockout Stage is a single-elimination best-of-five disputed on October 26 and 27, live from Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain. SKT is back! After a disastrous 2018, the team is back on …
Riot Games changes PBE account requirements ahead of Season 10
William Davis
League of Legends
Getting a PBE account is easier than ever before with the most recent change to Riot Games’ PBE requirements. Let’s start with the basics: What is the PBE? The Public Beta Environment (PBE) is a sever Riot Games tests their changes to League of Legneds before those updates hit the live server. Players on the PBE will get an opportunity to experience new mechanics, items, and other changes before anyone …
Harrowing skins are available in League shop for Halloween
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Players can now purchase Harrowing, Championship, and World Championship skins from the in-game shop. Harrowing skins are inspired by the celebration of Halloween from different cultures and traditions, and are on sale for a limited time period only. Patch 9.21 has just recently introduced new Halloween-themed skins, including Bewitching Miss Fortune, Count Kassadin, and more. But the new skins aren’t the only spooky skins players can buy in the shop. …
FORG1VEN is returning to competitive League of Legends in 2020
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Veteran League of Legends player Konstantinos-Napoleon “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou has announced his free agency for the 2020 competitive season after having spent recent years on hiatus due to mandatory military service. FORG1VEN announced his leave for mandatory duty in the Greek military in February 2016 when he was competing as an ADC for H2k Gaming in the European League of Legends Championship Series, later rebranded as the LoL European Championship. After an …
Riot Games holds Rise of the Elements Invitational for TFT Set 2
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games has announced the Rise of the Elements Invitational to celebrate the launch of TFT Set 2. On October 30 and 31, 16 of the most popular streamers from around the world will compete in the Rise of the Elements Invitational. The competition commemorates the launching of TFT Set 2 that is scheduled to go live with patch 9.22. William “Scarra” Li, G2 Esports’ Rumay “Hafu” Wang, Jeremy “Disguised …
Griffin’s former GM facing new lawsuit amid cvMax drama
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Following public accusations of improper roster moves, now-former Griffin general manager Cho Kyu-Nam is facing separate troubles. According to Inven Korea, Cho is being sued for approximately $21,000 by an unknown party. The plaintiff in the suit, who is an acquaintance of Cho’s that doesn’t usually conduct business in esports, came forward with the lawsuit after catching wind of the ongoing issues surrounding Cho and the organization. The drama stems from their …
FPX, Fnatic, iG, Griffin start 2019 LoL Worlds Knockout Stage
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2019 League of Legends World Championship Knockout Stage kicks off on Saturday with two exciting matches. Rookie team Griffin will go against defending world champion Invictus Gaming. On the second series of the day, LPL champion FunPlus Phoenix is facing Fnatic. The Knockout Stage is a single-elimination best-of-five disputed on October 26 and 27, live from Palacio Vistalegre in Madrid, Spain. The opening match promises to be a banger. …
League of Legends’ 2019 ranked rewards to feature Aatrox
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The new ranked rewards for the League of Legends season nine include Victorious Aatrox, honor emotes, and Victorious Pengu emotes for Teamfight Tactics players. The rest of the TFT ranked rewards will be given retroactively. The ninth ranked season of League is coming close to an end and Riot Games has announced which rewards await for the players that participated. The most anticipated reward was this year’s victorious skin, and …
Legends of Runeterra coming back in November for more players
gabhernandez
League of Legends
Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games’ new digital card game based on the wildly popular League of Legends franchise, has had its first testing phase and now fans are wondering when the next phase begins. The developers have said there would be a second preview patch shortly after the first one, and then later announced that it would begin on November 14. The first preview patch was released immediately following the …
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.
