League of Legends
League of Legends
Clutch heads to LoL Worlds 2019 main event by beating Royal Youth
William Davis
Clutch Gaming is advancing to 2019 League of Legends World Championship main event after styling on Royal Youth en route to a clean 3-0 victory. Clutch Gaming is improving North America’s chances of winning at LoL Worlds, with the LCS’ third seed now qualified to the main event. There were questions surrounding Clutch after their performance in the play-in group stage, with Clutch struggling against Unicorns of Love. Their performance …
League of Legends
Damwon Gaming beats Lowkey, heads to LoL Worlds 2019 main event
William Davis
Damwon Gaming secured its spot at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship main event with a dominating victory over Lowkey Esports. The first series of the Knockout Stage went as everyone predicted it would. After a rocky start, Damwon regrouped and obliterated Lowkey for a 3-1 series win. The series showed different sides of Damwon and highlighted how hit-or-miss it can be. While the team was the absolute king …
League of Legends
Pantheon, Xayah see highest pick/ban rate at Worlds 2019 Play-Ins
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The first phase of League of Legends 2019 World Championship play-ins is behind us and eight teams have advanced to the knockout stage. The 27 games played thus far saw Pantheon being a constant presence, a strong variety of overall picks, and some strong performances by standout players. Pantheon has been a force on the Rift ever since his rework, even getting some buffs along the way. This is why …
League of Legends
Damwon Gaming undefeated in LoL Worlds 2019 play-in group stage
William Davis
Damwon Gaming is the only team to go undefeated in the 2019 League of Legends World Championship play-in group stage. Damwon’s LoL Worlds 2019 run is going according to plan, as the team secured two victories and became the only team in the play-in to finish undefeated. In the second half of the round-robin, Damwon took down Flamengo eSports and Royal Youth in a dominant fashion. Both matches had …
League of Legends
Nuguri, ShowMaker bring Klepto build to 2019 World Championship
William Davis
Damwon Gaming solo laners Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon and Heo “ShowMaker” Su brought a couple of surprising builds and runes to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Damwon finished day two of Worlds undefeated after taking down Flamengo eSports and Royal Youth. On the first game of the day versus the Turkish team, Nuguri and ShowMaker went for an unexpected set of runes. In the top lane, Nuguri locked in …
League of Legends
LoL patch 9.20 nerfs Qiyana, Blitzcrank, buffs Shaco, Viktor
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends patch 9.20 brings nerfs for Qiyana, Blitzcrank, and Pantheon, as well as buffs for Shaco, Garen, Victor, and more. Patch 9.20 is scheduled to go live on October 9. League lead gameplay designer Mark “Scruffy” Yetter revealed that the patch will introduce minor balance changes to a few champions as well as larger updates to others that haven’t received significant attention from Riot Games in a long …
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming defeats Mammoth, survives in LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
Clutch Gaming secured a spot in the Knockout Stage after a victory over Mammoth Esports in the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Clutch found the victory they needed to make it to the Knockout Stage. Earlier in the day, Clutch fell for the second time against Unicorns of Love. The defeat put Clutch’s place in the next round at risk, but the North American team came out on top …
League of Legends
Unicorns of Love beat Clutch Gaming again in LoL Worlds Play-ins
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The third day of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship day began with the LCS’s Clutch Gaming taking on the LCL’s Unicorns of Love. The two teams already clashed on day one, with UoL taking an upset win over CG. Today’s match saw the same outcome. In the picks and bans phase, Unicorns of Love went for a winning draft. Besides banning Skarner as Lira’s comfort pick, the team …
DetonatioN FocusME upsets Splyce at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
DetonatioN FocusMe pulled off a major upset versus Splyce at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The LJL representative is not going down without a fight. After a slow start at Worlds, DFM bounced back against none other than Splyce from the LEC. According to mid laner Kyohei “Ceros” Yoshida, the team changed its mindset and is thinking about the matches on stage as another scrim in order …
Damwon Gaming destroys Flamengo, stays undefeated at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Damwon Gaming finished day two of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship undefeated thanks to a win over Flamengo eSports. Damwon entered the play-in stage as a favorite to advance, and the team is living up to those expectations by adding a win over Brazilian champion Flamengo to its earlier victory over Royal Youth. Damwon is ending the first half of the round-robin undefeated and is looking like a clear contender …
Damwon Gaming dominates Royal Youth in LoL Worlds 2019 play-in stage
William Davis
League of Legends
Damwon Gaming has started its 2019 League of Legends World Championship run with a victory over Royal Youth. LCK representative Damwon is off to a good start at Worlds. Korea’s third seed found its first win of the tournament at the expense of Turkey’s Royal Youth. Damwon was not concerned about picks like Qiyana and Sylas. The team let those champions slide through the bans and instead decided to focus …
Play-In stage shows first glimpse into World Championship meta
William Davis
League of Legends
Day one of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship is over and it showed a glimpse into the meta for the main event. League of Legends received three different updates since the end of the regular season in the various regions. Patch 9.19 was chosen as the World Championship patch. The changes in previous patches were not big enough to completely modify the meta, but certainly had an impact …
k1ng pulls first baron steal of Worlds 2019 vs Clutch Gaming
William Davis
League of Legends
MAMMOTH bottom laner Calvin “k1ng” Truong pulled off the type of play that every jungler hates to see in one of the best moments of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship thus far. In the match versus Clutch Gaming, MAMMOTH struggled to find their footing. The team was coming off a decisive victory over Unicorns of Love and was surprised to find a very different Clutch Gaming than the LCS …
New Mac OS update may end League of Legends client installations
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
Developer Riot Games has announced that Mac users might not be able to download League of Legends after the latest operating system update. Mac users will be receiving an update to their devices’ operating systems at some point during the month of October. Riot Games has announced that once the new OS 10.15. update named Catalina has been installed, a user may no longer be able to install the League …
Splyce destroys Isurus Gaming, stays undefeated in LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Splyce secured first place with a victory over Isurus Gaming in the 2019 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage. Splyce is determined to make it to the main event and the LEC representative used that motivation to dominate Isurus from the LLA for its second victory of day one. So far, Splyce is undefeated and will look to end the group stage without dropping a game. Isurus Gaming opened …
Clutch Gaming bounces back over MAMMOTH at LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming finished day one of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship play-in with a victory over MAMMOTH. Clutch bounced back after losing the first game of the day against Unicorns of Love. In its second game, Clutch showed a new look that allowed them to take a key victory over MAMMOTH from the OPL. Against Unicorns of Love, Clutch played an aggressive style that was easy to …
Unicorns of Love upsets Clutch Gaming to start LoL Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Unicorns of Love opened the 2019 League of Legends World Championship with a major upset over Clutch Gaming. The play-in stage kicked off on October 2 with an opening match between Unicorns of Love from the LCL and Clutch Gaming from the LCS. Clutch came into the match as the favorite but Unicorns of Love had another thing in mind. In picks and bans, Unicorns of Love surprised with …
Splyce starts LoL Worlds 2019 with convincing victory over DFM
William Davis
League of Legends
Splyce destroyed DetonatioN FocusMe in their first match at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Splyce is off to a good start at Worlds 2019, as the LEC representative took down DetonatioN FocusMe in a fast game. DFM innovated with Nocturne in the mid lane while Splyce kept it simple with a standard composition. Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir started the game with a gank in the bottom lane and …
LoL World Championship play-in schedule with Clutch, Splyce, more
William Davis
League of Legends
We are hours away from the 2019 League of Legends World Championship getting underway, and if you’re wondering when the games officially begin, we’ve got you covered. This year the tournament starts in Berlin, Germany, where the teams have been boot camping for the past month. The play-ins and group stage will be played in Berlin starting on October 2. Each region is sending its bests teams to take part in …
Esports Awards caster finalists include PapaSmithy and MonteCristo
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The finalists for The Esports Awards’ caster of the year award have been announced with the public vote going live. This years’ finalists include casters of League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, Overwatch, and more. The twelve casters that made the list are: Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett, Indiana “Froskurinn” Juniper, Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith, Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles, Henry “HenryG” Greer, Clint “Maven” Evans, Clayton “CaptainFlowers” Raines, Matt “Mr X” …
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
Hong Kong Attitude secures a spot in LoL Worlds 2019 main event
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Huni brings Ezreal to the top lane at LoL World Championship
By
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
Worlds analyst’s mic cut after giving LowKey Esports ridiculous advice
By
Olivia Richman
