League of Legends
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics saw sharp decline in Twitch views last month
Olivia Richman
Is Teamfight Tactics just a fad? According to StreamElements, the autobattler’s Twitch viewership dropped 57% between July and August, when it had under 30 million total hours watched. Riot Game’s auto chess title became the most-watched game on Twitch in July, with an average of 120,000 viewers each day. The last week of July, Teamfight Tactics saw a 55.2% growth in views. So it’s quite a drastic change just one …
League of Legends
John Cena cheers on LPL teams ahead of 2019 LoL World Championship
William Davis
Sorry Cloud9 and Team Liquid, WWE superstar and actor John Cena is rooting for the LPL teams in the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The wrestler recently sent a cheer to the LPL teams, and if the video wasn’t enough of a surprise, he did it in perfect Mandarin. “My WWE friends Austin and Cesaro told me that LPL is one of the most famous esports brands in China. …
League of Legends
LoL patch 9.18 nerfs Aatrox and Akali, adds Star Guardian skins
William Davis
Patch 9.18 is going live on September 11, and it brings new skins and changes to a long list of champions. The highlights are the nerfs to Aatrox and Akali, the new Star Guardian skins, and surprisingly enough, Ekko’s buff. Heading to the 2019 LoL World Championship, Riot Games is tweaking and twisting a large number of champions. Despite the number of champions listed in the patch notes, the changes …
League of Legends
TFT patch 9.18 adds new loot system, buff Akali and Wild trait
William Davis
It’s time for Patch 9.18 and a new TFT update! The most recent League of Legends patch brings interesting changes to TFT, starting with the mystery boxes. Patch 9.18 introduces a new mystery box system that completely changes the game experience. There are three kinds of boxes, common, uncommon, and rare. Each box includes gold, items components, full items, champions, and the new consumable Neeko’s Help. Neeko’s Help is a …
League of Legends
LPL and Nike unveil new team jersey designs for 2020
William Davis
The LPL and Nike have revealed the new team kits for the 2020 LPL Spring season. Earlier this year, Nike became the official shoe and clothing provider for the teams competing in the LPL, the highest level of pro League of Legends play in China. At the moment, 16 organization take part in the competition, and two more are set to join next year. The reveal took place before the regional …
League of Legends
G2 Esports’ Jankos wins 2019 LEC Summer MVP award
William Davis
G2 Esports’ jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski is the 2019 LEC Summer MVP. On Sunday, Jankos added two awards to his trophy case: the LEC Summer championship and the season MVP. The jungler was voted on by his peers, the LEC broadcast team, and media as the most valuable player of the season. A team like G2 is not just about the individual performances since all five players have the ability …
News
Invictus Gaming qualify for 2019 LoL World Championship
William Davis
Invictus Gaming will defend its title at the 2019 World Championship. The defending champion took down Top Esports in the second round of the LPL regional gauntlet and secured the final spot at Worlds. Invictus is heading to Europe as China’s third seed. Due to the LPL’s recent success, Invictus will seed directly to the main event instead of going through the play-in stage. It has been a rocky road …
League of Legends
Huni says Clutch Gaming’s goal is the playoffs at Worlds 2019
Olivia Richman
Clutch Gaming is going to the 2019 World Championship. The underdog team took Team SoloMid to game five, defeating their rivals to become the third seed for North America. After today’s intense reverse sweep, Clutch will be representing the region at Worlds in Europe along with Cloud9 and Team Liquid. “Holy shit. This is surreal. I just feel we went through so much shit this split. So much shit I …
Clutch Gaming headed to Worlds with reverse sweep win over TSM
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming is going to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The squad completed its miracle gauntlet run with a victory over Team SoloMid. In previous seasons, Clutch would’ve been the underdog in this series. However, throughout playoffs and the regional qualifiers, the team solidified itself as a true contender in the LCS. Now, Clutch is going to Worlds as North America’s third seed. They still have to go …
G2 Esports wins back-to-back LEC titles by defeating Fnatic
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports is the 2019 LEC Summer champion! G2 took down Fnatic after five intense games. The back-to-back champion-winning team is now heading to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship as the number one seed of the LEC. The series got off to an explosive start, with both teams looking for a fight early. It all began with Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle and Zdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov going head-to-head …
Riot Games answers questions on Clash, events in latest Ask Riot
gabhernandez
League of Legends
In their latest Ask Riot, Riot Games responded to questions surrounding the future of Clash, bonus game modes, and high-quality events like Odyssey. As a followup to the NA Clash tests, Riot laid out their future plans. So far, the redesign and optimizations have been received well and Riot are looking to continue regional testing across the rest of the servers. These are anticipated to last until October. If regional …
Cody Sun reflects beating CLG, talks Worlds qualifier vs TSM
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
In one of their most intense matches of the year, Clutch Gaming came out on top once again today after defeating their rivals at Counter Logic Gaming. After beating FlyQuest yesterday and CLG today, Clutch is on their way to scoring that last spot in the World Championships. The only thing standing in their way is a third and final best of five against Team SoloMid tomorrow. WIN.gg spoke with Cody …
Fnatic knocks out FC Schalke 04, faces G2 Esports in LEC summer finals
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic destroyed FC Schalke 04 in round three of the 2019 LEC Summer Playoffs. Fnatic was merciless and took Schalke out in three quick, clean games. Now the squad is preparing to get the revenge on G2 Esports in the finals. The team that was on display here has a real chance at defeating G2, and is one of the squads to watch at the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. …
Clutch Gaming gets revenge on CLG in LCS regional qualifiers
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming is one series closer to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The team got its revenge on Counter Logic Gaming in round two of the LCS regional qualifiers. Clutch and CLG’s rivalry started in the 2019 LCS Summer playoffs when, in the third-place match, CLG reverse swept Clutch and sent them to the bottom of the regional qualifiers. Playing the first round versus FlyQuest was exactly what Clutch …
FunPlus Phoenix wins LPL by defeating RNG, heads to Worlds 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
Royal Never Give Up couldn’t find a win versus FunPlus Phoenix in the 2019 LPL Summer finals. Because of that, the LPL has a new king, as the squad took its first LPL title. FunPlus is one of the new faces in the LPL, the team is approaching just its second anniversary and already made it to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Since its inception in the …
Patch 9.18 to bring new changes aimed at solo queue champions
William Davis
League of Legends
Mark “Scruffy” Yetter, lead gameplay designer for League of Legends, shared a preview of the changes coming up in Patch 9.18. This next update is scheduled to drop on September 11. The next update brings changes and updates to 16 champions in the game. As previously reported, Aatrox and Akali will get significant nerfs in the upcoming update, and here’s the full explanation of those changes. League of Legend’s most hated champion …
League of Legends players debate the power of Spear of Shojin
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends players are debating if Spear of Shojin is healthy for the game’s meta. In a now deleted Reddit post, one user went on a rant about the item and why he feels it should have “never been implemented” to begin with. The item, which adds 60 to a player’s attack damage along with a 20% cooldown reduction and 250 health, also grants Awakened Dragon for six seconds …
Clutch Gaming beats FlyQuest in LCS regional qualifiers to face CLG
William Davis
League of Legends
Popular underdog Clutch Gaming defeated FlyQuest in round one of the LCS regional qualifier. Clutch is not slowing down in the race to the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. The team took a decisive victory over FlyQuest and are set to face Counter Logic Gaming in a hotly anticipated rematch. The series was far from perfect as both Clutch and FlyQuest made mistakes, but in the end Clutch proved …
sOAZ working analyst desk for 2019 LPL Summer Playoffs finals
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
Former Misfits top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer is heading to the LPL playoffs, but not as a competitor. The LPL announced on Twitter that the veteran player will serve as a broadcast personality for the 2019 LPL Summer Playoffs finals and regional qualifiers for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. Though the original announcement stated he would be working as a caster, the league later corrected this and noted …
Riot Games looks to LoL community on Eternals achievements
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games is coming up with trackers for champion-based achievements based on community feedback. After the new Eternals system was announced and immediately decried, developers have been working on the game’s achievement system, updating it based on player feedback. Riot’s design lead Xengenic posted a list of ideas for champion-based Eternals to the League of Legends developer blog. According to Xenegic, the goal is to build sets of three Eternals …
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
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Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Jin Air out of LCK after defeat versus Hanwha Life Esports
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Veteran ADC Freeze looks to return to top levels of pro LoL
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Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
