League of Legends
League of Legends
Alien Invader Heimerdinger is back thanks to Area 51 gathering
Olivia Richman
Gamers hoping to invade Area 51 just got some extra help. Riot Games announced that Heimerdinger’s Alien Invader skin is available to purchase once again. The decision seemingly stems from the buzz surrounding Area 51, with Riot associate program manager Mel Capperino-Garcia tweeting: “When the Area 51 raid has been successful, and you get to bring home your own alien invader.” A few days ago, League of Legends players …
League of Legends
Riot planning LoL 10th anniversary celebration in London
gabhernandez
Riot Games has a special, real-life event planned for League of Legends’ 10th birthday. According to a note sent out by the publisher that was promptly leaked across Reddit, a number of people have been offered a trip to London for a “special celebration” to honor those who have played an important role in the game’s growth. Included in the invitation are travel and room accommodations, as well as coverage …
League of Legends
The LCK is looking for a new broadcaster to replace PapaSmithy
William Davis
Korea’s prime League of Legends competition, the LCK, is looking for a color commentator for its English broadcast. On August 31, Chris “PapaSmithy” Smith announced that he would be exiting the LCK. The announcement took the community by surprise. PapaSmithy is a respected caster and analyst in the League of Legends community and the face of the LCK’s English broadcast. Now, the league is looking for someone that could fill …
League of Legends
LoL PBE 9.18 changes buff Akali, revert Sylas and Cassiopeia
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The League of Legends Public Beta Environment (PBE) servers have received an update featuring balance changes, new icons, and visual improvements. Riot Games is preparing for the 2019 World Championship and is testing out balance changes that will shuffle and set the tournament’s meta. With the latest update to the game’s PBE servers come changes to Akali, Cassiopeia, and Sylas, as well as three new summoner icons, improvements to the …
League of Legends
LoL celebrates ten years with new logo, Riot Pls special edition
William Davis
League of Legends will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a special edition of Riot Pls on October 15. It’s been ten years since the release of League of Legends. Many games have come and go, and LoL remains as one of the most popular titles online. According to Riot Games, LoL saw a daily eight million peak of concurrent players worldwide in the month of August. LoL is now the …
League of Legends
Riot Games makes lore book official with Realms of Runeterra
William Davis
There is an entire encyclopedia of history behind the world of League of Legends, and soon fans can learn more about it through an upcoming lore book being published by developer Riot Games. There are 145 champions in League of Legends and each one has their own backstory, homeland, and culture. These stories are what help shape the design of the characters, skins, and even Summoner’s Rift itself. Riot Games …
League of Legends
League of Legends All-Star event returns to Las Vegas for 2019
William Davis
The 2019 League of Legends All-Star event will return to Las Vegas in December. 2019 LoL All-Star event reunites the most popular pro players and personalities in the League of Legends community. The three-day event includes exciting game modes, charity competitions, and for the first time, a Teamfight Tactics competition. Between December 5 and 7, the Esports Arena in Las Vegas will be the stage for the 2019 LoL …
News
Confusion over 2019 Worlds finals ticket sale times, fans upset
William Davis
Riot Games is facing backlash after a mishap in the sale time of the tickets for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship finals. The original announcement posted on August 26 stated that the tickets would go on sale on September 16 at 4pm CET, with prices ranging from €40 to €80 plus additional fees. The tickets were supposed to go on sale through Accor Hotels Arena’s website. Instead, a …
Lindsey Stirling teases World Championship song with Riot Games
William Davis
League of Legends
The anthem of the 2019 League of Legends World Championship may be featuring popular songwriter and violinist Lindsey Stirling. Riot Games has made it an annual tradition to hype up the LoL community for the World Championship by using songs featuring popular artists. The pattern began with the 2014 release of an Imagine Dragon track, and has continued from then on to the most recent entry of the 2018 Worlds …
Many buffs and nerfs are planned for LoL patch 9.19 before Worlds
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Mark “Scruffy” Yetter has shared a preview of the upcoming League of Legends patch 9.19. The 2019 League of Legends World Championship is coming closer and the tournament will be played on the patch 9.19. Scruffy shared game’s developer Riot Games is currently testing a few nerfs and a lot of buffs that the players are likely to see coming in the patch scheduled for September 25. Karma, Tahm …
OpTic Gaming CEO H3cz leaves team, joins NRG Esports as co-CEO
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
OpTic Gaming’s CEO has split off from the esports organization he helmed for more than a decade and has found a new home. OpTic Gaming and Hector “H3cz” Rodriguez released a joint statement announcing his departure from the company. The move stems from changes to OpTic since being acquired by Immortals Gaming Club earlier this year. “Since completing its acquisition of Infinite Esports and Entertainment, the parent company of OpTic …
Fnatic beats Splyce, secures second seed in LEC for Worlds
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic secured the LEC’s second seed in the 2019 League of Legends World Championship with a convincing victory over Splyce. As expected, Fnatic managed to take the series in three quick games. Despite the result, Splyce still managed to show good macro plays and an ability to stand their ground against Fnatic. European teams are looking like strong contenders for Worlds this year. All three squads have a different play style …
LLA is relocating to Mexico in 2020 after one season in Chile
William Davis
League of Legends
The LLA is moving to Mexico in 2020. After only one year, Riot Games has decided to move the main Latin American League of Legends tournament up north. The LLA was established ahead of the 2019 season when Riot Games decided to merge the Latin America North and Latin America South tournaments into one competition. The developer went through a long selection process to determine the eight teams that would …
TSM to build biggest esports training facility in North America
gabhernandez
League of Legends
In a move worth $13 million, Team SoloMid is working on a state of the art training facility dedicated to their competitive esports teams. The 25,000 square foot facility is being built in Playa Vista, a west Los Angeles neighborhood. Set to finish in February of 2020, this facility will be the largest esports training facility in North America. Even the Team Liquid Alienware training facility pales in comparison at …
New League of Legends lore book appears to be in the works
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
It’s no question that League of Legends has some of the most expansive, and at times confusing, lore in the competitive gaming sphere. This makes it that much more exciting that developer Riot Games is reportedly to be releasing a new lore book to streamline and supplement all of the amassed information about the game’s world. The LoL narrative and world building team have been working tirelessly for as long …
Team Liquid reveals motivation struggles in LCS prior to Worlds
William Davis
League of Legends
On August 25, Team Liquid became the first team to win four consecutive LCS titles. Before the audience at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the champions accomplished their goal of denying Cloud9. While C9 packed their gear and accepted yet another defeat, for Team Liquid the victory felt hollow, as if it was just another day at the office. Team Liquid is facing a problem that no other team …
Kai’Sa joins Teamfight Tactics in Patch 9.19, offers new synergies
William Davis
League of Legends
Kai’Sa will join Teamfight Tactics in Patch 9.19. The Daughter of the Void is currently available in the PBE server. Kai’Sa will be a five gold cost Ranger and Assassin from Void origin. As a legendary unit with three possible traits, Kai’Sa will allow players to go for new combinations. The Ranger, Brawler, and Void composition might be a legitimate option with this addition. As a Ranger and Assassin, Kai’Sa …
Excel UK, EU Masters display new meta champions before Worlds
William Davis
League of Legends
The EU Masters is underway and is showing glimpses into what could be the meta for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Seven teams took part in the play-in stage and Excel UK was the biggest winner. The team finished the group stage undefeated and was seeded directly to the main event. Excel UK was aided by their bringing to the stage some surprising picks, including Heimerdinger and Yuumi in …
League of Legends streamer TF Blade explains why he was banned from Twitch
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid League of Legends streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni had his Twitch account suspended, once again halting the streaming of his journey to become the top-ranked solo queue player in every region. According to a TwitLonger TF Blade posted earlier today, he was banned for using the words “dog” and “unintelligent” to describe the people in the region he was playing in. Although TF Blade noted that he had “no intentions …
Jin Air out of LCK after defeat versus Hanwha Life Esports
William Davis
League of Legends
Jin Air Green Wings will not return to the LCK in 2020. The organization has been officially relegated to Challengers Korea after losing to Hanwha Life Esports. The two teams met in the 2020 LCK Promotion tournament lower bracket, where Hanwha took the series with a clean 3-0. Throughout the series, Jin Air looked lost on the rift. The team heavily relied on jungler Kim “Malrang” Geun-seong to win the game …
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.
