League of Legends
League of Legends
PapaSmithy to leave the LCK, his next destination unknown
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
UPDATE: PapaSmithy has agreed to become the general manager at 100 Thieves. League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) English caster Chris “PapaSmithy” is leaving the Korean league after over four years spent broadcasting in the region. PapaSmithy is an Australian color commentator that has been on the LCK screen since 2015. He became one of the most favored League of Legends casters as a part of the LCK English cast, …
League of Legends
Star Guardians Little Legends coming to TFT in Patch 9.18
William Davis
Teamfight Tactics is getting three new Little Legends in Patch 9.18. Three familiars based on the Star Guardians line of skins are being added as Little Legends in Patch 9.18. Fuwa, Sisha, and Dango belong to Series 4. Fuwa and Dango are all-new characters in League of Legends and are not attached to any of the established Star Guardian characters. On the other hand, Sisha is Soraka’s Star Guardian familiar …
League of Legends
Riot Games settles lawsuit for sexual harassment, discrimination
William Davis
The class-action lawsuit filed against Riot Games for alleged sexual harassment and discrimination has come to a close. The plaintiffs, Jessica Negron and Melanie McCracken, sued their former employer on grounds of discrimination, harassment, and violation of the California Equal Pay Act. The lawsuit began following a Kotaku report that exposed sexist work conditions at Riot Games. The parties have reached a settlement nearly a full year after the case …
League of Legends
Teemo buffs and QOL changes expected in LoL patch 9.18
William Davis
League of Legends’ most feared little ball of evil may be getting some buffs come the next patch. Riot Games design director Andrei “Meddler” van Roon reached out to fans on the LoL community boards to discuss possible upcoming changes to Teemo in patch 9.18. Meddler described that the developers would be building these buffs off of a much larger rework that the team explored earlier this year. “Focus here …
League of Legends
FC Schalke 04 takes down Rogue and advances in the LEC summer playoffs
William Davis
FC Schalke 04 is going to Athens! Despite a sloppy showing in round two, the team is advancing in the 2019 LEC Summer playoffs after taking out Rogue. This puts the Schalke in a solid position for qualifying for the 2019 World Championship, no matter the final standings. Rogue is not so lucky, with the rookie squad’s summer season ending here. Due to the LEC’s rules, Rogue doesn’t have the championship points necessary …
League of Legends
Schedule and ticketing info for 2019 LoL World Championship
gabhernandez
With less than two months remaining until Play-Ins begin, 2019 World Championship tickets and scheduling have finally been made public. The Play-Ins stage spans from October 2 through 8. These early rounds will be hosted at the regular LEC Studio in Berlin, Germany. Tickets for the Play-Ins can be found on Universal and go on sale on August 30 at 3:00pm CET. Weekday tickets will go for €15.00, while weekend …
League of Legends
LCS regional finals to kick off in September with TSM, CLG, more
William Davis
The 2019 LCS Summer split has come to an end. Team Liquid took its fourth consecutive title over Cloud9 in one of the most exciting series of the season. While the regular season is over, there’s still one more gauntlet to run before 2019 World Championship: the regional finals. Team Liquid qualified as first seed after winning the summer split. Cloud9 qualified as the team with the most championship points after …
League of Legends
Analyzing TSM’s 2019 struggles ahead of last chance Gauntlet
gabhernandez
Despite its past successes, Team SoloMid has failed to secure a seed for the 2019 World Championship. Fans and critics alike are now left to wonder the reason why. Some point to the coaching staff. Many point to the pressure the TSM organization and community place on their own players. But TSM’s recent string of failure may not be derived from either of these things. TSM has a persistent volatility …
Riot co-founder’s deleted tweet insults pros, says IWillDominate
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Despite deleting the tweets, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merril has made headlines for being controversial once again. Professional League of Legends player Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera took to the popular social media platform to take a jab at Riot Games after he saw a seemingly innocent tweet from Merril. “Never stop being a good person because of bad people,” Merril said. “Yeah just sucks when the bad people work for the …
These new items are coming to Teamfight Tactics in Patch 9.18
William Davis
League of Legends
Patch 9.18 will bring a new set of items to Teamfight Tactics. Riot Games is committed to the constant improvement of Teamfight Tactics. Since the game mode became a permanent part of League of Legends, the developer added a new origin, reworked traits, and now is adding new items. The next update will bring with it a set of items, reworks for the Infinity Edge, removal of the Sword of …
Alleged footage of League of Legends mobile version goes viral
William Davis
League of Legends
Alleged footage of the League of Legends mobile version has surfaced on social media. A video that shows gameplay of League of Legends mobile has been circulating. The footage shows someone playing as Ezreal. In the clip, the player throws their skill shots, buys items, and levels up their abilities. The footage is so smooth that it has players questioning if it is real or just another fake creation. The …
Star Guardians skins for Neeko, Rakan, Xayah, and Zoey coming to LoL
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
New Star Guardians skins are coming to League of Legends. After teasing an expansion to the line on Twitter, Riot Games has confirmed that Neeko, Zoey, Xayah, and Rakan are getting new looks. The new cosmetic items were added to the PBE alongside patch 9.18. The new Star Guardians have many of the same themes and accessories that one would expect from the series. Music plays during a recall, and …
Akali and Aatrox to receive further nerfs in patch 9.18
M Alzamora
League of Legends
Riot Games is considering a pair of nerfs to bring two of League of Legends’ most oppressive champions back in line. Aatrox and Akali nerfs are being looked at for patch 9.18, which will also have other undetermined changes. According to the patch preview shared by lead designer Mark Yetter, Aatrox’s healing rate from his passive ability’s bonus minion damage would drop from 100% to 25%. Akali’s ultimate, meanwhile, will …
Cloud9’s Sneaky shows off new Pool Party Caitlyn cosplay
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi’s most recent cosplay was his most revealing yet. Cloud9’s AD carry shared some photos on Twitter of him sitting poolside as Pool Party Caitlyn. But the sexy cosplay wasn’t only popular because of its skimpy nature. With a two-piece bikini, floppy white sun hat, a white band around his thigh, and a neon water gun, the Caitlyn cosplay is quite accurate to the 2018 summer-themed skin. His …
TFT patch 9.17 reworks Assassin trait and adds Pantheon
William Davis
League of Legends
Patch 9.17 is coming to Teamfight Tactics and it brings a new set of changes to the auto battler. The most recent update of the game introduces a new champion. Pantheon is joining Teamfight Tactics as the 56th champion in the game mode. The Pantheon rework went live on Patch 9.16 and in Patch 9.17 the Artisan of War is coming to Teamfight Tactics. Pantheon is the third unit for …
LoL patch 9.17 brings major changes to Kayle and Aurelion Sol
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 9.17 is introducing new skins and some significant changes to multiple champions. Patch 9.17 is scheduled to go live on August 28. The recent update brings big changes to Aurelion Sol, Kayle, and others. The update also includes a new set of skins. Kayle and Aurelion Sol received the biggest changes in Patch 9.17. The changes for Aurelion Sol are not a direct buff nor a …
Riot Games changes Eternals cost, availability after fan outcry
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games is delaying the launch of Eternals following community feedback criticizing the cost of the new cosmetics. The revised version of Eternals will be separated into two different types. The first are Commons. These will be available to purchase year-round for 225 RP and can be crafted twice a year in the Essence Emporium for 3500 BE. The second version are Uniques, which will be available year-round for 590 …
Reapered confirms Cloud9 to bootcamp in Europe before Worlds
William Davis
League of Legends
Cloud9’s head coach Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu has confirmed that the team will be boot camping in Europe. On Sunday, Cloud9 walked off the stage as the 2019 LCS Summer runner-up, as once again the team failed to snatch the title. The series was close and Cloud9 looked like they had it until the very last game. The players are not taking the loss to heart. Instead, they’re focusing on the …
Teamfight Tactics developer calls spectate mode “high priority”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics may be getting a spectate mode sometime in the near future. Riot researcher Nathan “Blaustoise” Blau had the autobattler’s lead designer, Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer, on a stream with him yesterday. While playing Teamfight Tactics, the two participated in a Q&A session with fans. One viewer asked if there were plans for a spectator mode. “Absolutely. Absolutely. We are working on that. It takes time, but absolutely,” Mortdog said. He …
HBO series Ballers to integrate esports in its new fifth season
M Alzamora
League of Legends
HBO Series Ballers returns for a fifth season this year, and League of Legend esports will play a big role. Developer Riot Games confirmed as much during the LCS finals action with a minute-long trailer for the show The show follows retired football player Spencer Strasmore, portrayed by Hollywood megastar and ex-pro wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who wants to stay around the business by running a sports management agency. …
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.
