League of Legends
League of Legends
Griffin tops G2 Esports, takes top seed in LoL Worlds 2019 group
William Davis
Griffin took down G2 Esports and is advancing to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship Knockout Stage as Group A’s number one seed. Group A had a dramatic ending with Griffin and G2 playing a tiebreaker to determine the final standings. Through the first half of the group stage, G2 completely dominated the competition. The Mid-Season Invitational champion rolled over every team in Group A and was on track …
League of Legends
Cloud9 eliminated from LoL Worlds 2019 in group stage
William Davis
Cloud9 has been knocked out of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Group A at Worlds was decided early, with C9 being the biggest loser of the day. The LCS squad opened Friday’s action by suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of Griffin. From there, G2 Esports scored a victory over Hong Kong Attitude that mathematically eliminated Cloud9 from advancing to the knockout stage. Before Worlds 2019, C9 was considered the …
League of Legends
Fnatic and Cloud9 introduced new FNC9 collaborative collection
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
When it comes to the competitive League of Legends, or even esports in general, there has always been a friendly rivalry between North America and Europe. Fnatic and Cloud9 have taken theirs to a whole new level with the FNC9 merchandise. The bromance between the League of Legends European Championship’s FNC and LoL Championship Series’ C9 grew on Twitter. The teams often send memes aimed at each other, but also …
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix, Splyce advance to LoL Worlds 2019 knockout stage
William Davis
FunPlus Phoenix and Splyce are heading to the Knockout Stage at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship after an intense tiebreaker. FunPlus and Splyce had to play an extra game to decide the final seeding in Group B. As anticipated on WIN.gg’s Pick’Em predictions, in the end FunPlus came out victorious and took first seed. Group B was closer than many expected, with J Team being the surprise of the …
League of Legends
T1 Entertainment and Sports officially launches with Comcast
Nina Forneloza
South Korean company SK Telecom, owners of three-time League of Legends World Champions SK Telecom T1, have announced the launch of their joint venture with Comcast Spectacor: T1 Entertainment & Sports. The move that was announced in February has finally received all necessary approvals to officially begin operations. Ahead of the announcement, the team has already rebranded to T1 and unveiled the slick new design on twitter Fans of League …
League of Legends
LoL Esports Manager to debut with the LPL 2020 season
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
In a large number of announcements Riot Games has shared with its community during the special ten-year anniversary broadcast of Riot Pls, fans of classical sports management games were excited to her League of Legends Esports Manager will be launching in 2020. LoL Esports Manager will be an esports spin-off of classical sports management games like Football Manager. Players will take on the role of managing their own esports team …
League of Legends
Senna confirmed as the new League of Legends support champion
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
After a few leaks and teases, Riot Games has finally confirmed Senna to be the next champion coming to League of Legends. Senna will be a unique support marksman. The 10th-anniversary edition of Riot Pls got fans excited about a number of new features and games Riot has been developing, including League’s preseason changes, a new mobile game, a new FPS game, and more. One of the exciting announcements for …
League of Legends
League of Legends fighting game, RPG teased in Riot Pls
Steven Rondina
The League of Legends fighting game is real, but don’t expect to be playing it any time soon. During the League of Legends 10th Anniversary edition of Riot Pls, the publisher revealed a number of new games. Included on that list is Project L, the fighting game that was briefly discussed during the broadcast of Evo 2019 in August. Though the game is still in an early stage of development, …
Wild Rift brings League of Legends to mobile, TFT mobile arrives
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
League of Legends fans will be able to take the game on the go before long. In the 10th anniversary edition of Riot Pls, the publisher revealed a slew of new games that they have in development. Included in this are a pair of mobile titles in Teamfight Tactics and a new League of Legends spin-off, Wild Rift. Though the two titles will give almost every sort of gamer the …
LoL Preseason 2020 brings changes to dragons, jungling, and more
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games celebrated League of Legends’ 10th anniversary with a special edition of Riot Pls. League of Legends has become one of the most popular games in the world with millions of players logging in on a weekly basis. The game has a worldwide competitive scene supported by fans that are willing to travel anywhere to cheer for their teams. On the 10th anniversary of League of Legends, Riot Games …
cvMax airs internal problems at Griffin, dispute with manager Cho
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Griffin’s former League of Legends coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho left the team ahead of the League of Legends 2019 World Championship. He has now explained the circumstances of his departure from the team during a stream, blaming it on internal conflicts within the organization. As a head coach, cvMax helped Griffin’s League team come from the League of Legends Champions Korea 2018 Summer Promotion tournament all the way to winning …
Cloud9 fumbles lead, loses to Griffin in LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Griffin took down Cloud9 and advanced to second place in Group A at the 2019 League of Legends World Champion. Griffin versus Cloud9 was one of the most anticipated matches in the main event group stage, with its outcome likely to determine the second seed of the star-studded Group A. Because it was such an important match, the teams made interesting decisions during the picks and bans phase. C9 drafted …
Leaks for League 10th Anniversary hint at mobile and card games
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
With the League of Legends 10th Anniversary celebration event soon going live, many leaks to what Riot Games will announce during the event are coming through, including a mobile game, a card game, and an anime series. According to leaks shared by reporter Rob “Slasher” Breslau, Riot is about to announce a number of diverse features they have been developing behind the scenes. One of those leaks is the development …
Huni and Clutch come up short against SKT at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 completely destroyed Clutch Gaming and remains undefeated at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Meanwhile, Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon couldn’t get revenge on his former team. Clutch Gaming came into the match as the underdog, but things went even worse than one could have expected as they ran over the LCS team. SKT finished the first half of the group stage undefeated and is looking like the …
Fnatic struggles against Royal Never Give Up again at Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Royal Never Give Up and Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao styled on Fnatic to get their second win at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. History repeated itself in Berlin as the Chinese organization once again made quick work of Fnatic to get in position for a spot in the Worlds 2019 Knockout Stage. Fnatic continues to come up shy against its biggest international rival and now holds a losing record …
Lucian’s Homebound story hints towards Senna as new LoL champion
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Homebound, a new and original League of Legends lore story, follows the end of Lucian’s journey to save his wife from Thresh’s imprisonment. With the story being published, players are now more confident than ever that Senna will be the next champion to join the Summoners Rift. By the lore, for one last time, Lucian went on a journey through the Shadow Isles to reach Thresh, the spirit that condemned …
Bjergsen remains with Team SoloMid, returns to LCS stage in 2020
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
Team SoloMid, one of the most popular and successful esports brands in the world, has announced the resigning of Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg as mid laner for their League of Legends team. Bjergsen will remain the team’s mid laner through the end of 2021, and he will become the first player in the LCS to have an ownership stake in his team. There was some debate as to whether Bjergsen would …
G2 Esports destroys Cloud9, stays undefeated at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports slaughtered Cloud9 to secure first place in Group A at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Fans were expecting an exciting showdown between the North American and European teams and they did not disappoint, despite a fairly predictable outcome. Both teams came into the stage with guns blazing ready to take down the opponent. Before the match, C9 decided to start Robert “Blaber” Huang in the …
Xmithie baron steal sparks Team Liquid comeback at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Jake “Xmithie” Puchero saved Team Liquid from an upset loss at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship with a crafty baron steal against ahq e-Sports Club. Xmithie is well-known for stealing the objectives from the enemies and walking away. The jungler added another big play to his highlight reel by saving his team from defeat and keeping Liquid in the hunt for first place in its group. Before Xmithie’s play, Team …
Nuclear shuts up haters, gets big win for Damwon at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Sin “Nuclear” Jeong-hyeon is looking to shut his doubters up. The Damwon Gaming bottom laner outperformed Invictus Gaming in their matchup at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Nuclear has been considered Damwon’s weak link for the longest time. The bottom laner can struggle in lane and has made some questionable decisions in key team fights. That hasn’t changed at Worlds, as Nuclear looked shaky in his first two …
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.
League of Legends
J Team, GAM Esports eliminated from LoL Worlds 2019 group stage
By
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends champion roadmap has new marksman and juggernaut
By
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Riot Games announces new RP currency not shared between games
By
Olivia Richman
