League of Legends
League of Legends
Coca Cola selling exclusive LoL-themed bottles in Turkey
William Davis
League of Legends merch is getting better by the year. Coca Cola has released a set of League of Legends-themed bottles in Turkey. The drinks featuring the images of champions like Irelia, Lucian, Lee Sin, Vayne, Yasuo, Blitzcrank, Kayn, and many others hit the shelves of a number of major convenience stores in the country. The League of Legends-themed bottles include an exclusive code that can be used in-game to …
League of Legends
Jin Air Green Wings becomes first LCK team to post a winless split
William Davis
The recent series between Jin Air Green Wings and Griffin in the 2019 LCK Summer Season wound up being a surprisingly important one. On one hand, the victory puts Griffin fingertips away from finishing the regular season in first place and qualifying for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. On the other, the defeat put Jin Air in the LoL history books as the first team to end a regular season …
League of Legends
FC Schalke 04 upsets G2 Esports in final week of LEC Summer Split
William Davis
FC Schalke 04 is ending the regular season on a high note. The fourth-ranked LEC team pulled off a major upset versus G2 Esports, toppling one of the strongest teams in the world. Though both already had a spot in the playoffs locked up before the clash on Friday, the victory shows that no team is safe. True to its style, G2 locked in a creative and surprising composition. Top laner …
League of Legends
LEC partners with Pringles, gives away skins for LEC Summer final
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Riot Games has announced it has partnered up with Pringles for the upcoming League of Legends European Championship Summer Finals. Pringles, the Kellogg Company’s canned potato chip brand, will be distributing around 115 million Pringles cans featuring a code for the partnership’s raffles. League players and Pringles consumers across Europe will be able to enter a daily raffle that will reward two players with a legacy skin. The raffle will …
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 may miss playoffs after losing to Damwon Gaming
William Davis
SK Telecom T1 is in a very bad spot in the 2019 LCK Summer Split. SKT dropped a critical match versus Damwon Gaming and might miss the playoffs as a result. Damwon moved up to first place as a result of their victory and secured a place in the next round of the competition. SKT is coming off a loss to Hanwha Life Esports and needed this victory to hold …
League of Legends
New League of Legends champion may have leaked in PBE update
M Alzamora
The Public Beta Environment is gearing up for whatever developer Riot Games has planned for League of Legends 9.17, and hints of an unreleased champion are sitting in the game’s latest files. The picture shows what appears to be a female human. She features a layer of medium-length hair, blue eyes, and semi-modest attire, including a hot pink scarf shown blowing in the wind and a halter top that stops …
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics patch 9.16 redesigns Demons, adds Hextech
William Davis
Teamfight Tactics is getting its first update as a permanent game mode in League of Legends. Earlier this month, Riot Games announced it is retiring the Twisted Treeline map and will keep Teamfight Tactics available for the foreseeable future. The developers said they would be updating the game on a regular basis and Patch 9.16 shows that they are living up to that promise. The beta pass is making …
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 9.16 hits the top picks in pro play
William Davis
League of Legends Patch 9.16 is loaded and ready to go. The most recent League of Legends update brings a new look for an old champion and changes in the most popular champions in pro play. Patch 9.16 brings the Pantheon rework. The champion got an improved kit and a necessary visual update. The new Pantheon hit the PBE server a couple of weeks ago and now is available …
2019 LCS Summer MVP finalists revealed, Liquid dominates
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games has revealed the top ten 2019 LCS Summer Split Honda MVP finalists. At the end of the split, the most valuable player of the season is voted on by his peers, the media, and the LCS broadcast team. This summer, Riot Games shared the list of the top ten finalists for the award. Four out of the ten players on the list are from Team Liquid. Top laner …
Riot developer proposes big ability changes for jungler Ivern
William Davis
League of Legends
Big changes for Ivern may be on their way following a few rough years of performance for the lanky nature lover. Ivern arrived in October 2016 and ever since then Riot Games has struggled to balance the Green Father. He currently has one of the lowest play rates among all champions and doesn’t excel in any assigned role. Game designer at Riot Games Blake Smith took to Twitter to propose …
Clutch Gaming LirA says confidence will take Clutch to Worlds
Olivia Richman
News
Despite some people expecting an easy win for Team SoloMid, Clutch Gaming was able to take down their favored opponents 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Now, Clutch is on their way to play in the semifinals against Team Liquid, the best team in the LCS. It’s a tough road ahead, but jungler Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo believes that his team can make it to the finals if they remain confident. WIN.gg spoke with …
Team Liquid pick Clutch Gaming for LCS Summer semifinals
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid have picked Clutch Gaming as their opponents in the LCS Summer Split semifinals. That leaves Counter Logic Gaming to face Cloud9 in the semis after a quarterfinal victory over OpTic Gaming. In an interview with WIN.gg over the weekend, Clutch Gaming’s Sun “Cody Sun” Li-Yu stated that he wanted Team Liquid to pick his team for the semifinals. He also added that he’s confident in his team in this …
Counter Logic Gaming destroys OpTic Gaming in 2019 LCS Summer Playoffs
William Davis
League of Legends
Counter Logic Gaming destroyed OpTic Gaming in the 2019 LCS Summer Playoffs. What was expected to be a competitive series was instead a blowout as CLG obliterated OpTic in the quarterfinals. The victory puts CLG just two series away from becoming the LCS champions, and earns them a trip to Detroit. OpTic had game one in the bag. The players were on their comfort picks, they had map control, objectives …
League of Legends players in Southeast Asia lash out at Garena
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The frustration of Southeast Asian League of Legends players is starting to reach a boiling point. Tens of thousands are expressing their dissatisfaction with Riot and its relationship with Garena. The Singaporean game company operates League of Legends in the region, and users from countries like the Philippines and Taiwan are growing more and more tired of Garena’s supposed mishandling of the game. In fact, so many are so frustrated …
Hanwha Life Esports upset SK Telecom T1 in LCK Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
Hanwha Life Esports pulled off a major upset versus SK Telecom T1. SKT is thriving in the 2019 LCK Summer Split while Hanwha is fighting to stay out of the 2020 LCK Spring Promotion Tournament. That fact had Hanwha entering this match as the clear underdog but their desperation to avoid relegation served them well as they scored a shock victory. Hanwha kept it simple in game one. The team created pressure …
Cody Sun says Clutch Gaming can beat Team Liquid in semifinals
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming defeated Team SoloMid in the quarterfinals of the LCS Summer Playoffs. The majority of analysts were confident that TSM would dominate the underdog team, despite their improvement throughout the LCS Summer Split. While Sun “Cody Sun” Li-Yu started off the season wanting to shake up his team’s comps and picks, they started to truly shine when they began to take the game a bit more seriously. The 3-1 win …
Clutch Gaming defeat TSM in LCS Summer Playoffs, advance to semifinals
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming is going to Detroit! History repeated itself in the 2019 LCS Summer Split playoffs as Clutch Gaming took down Team SoloMid in the quarterfinals. The exciting series finished after four games, with Clutch showing how much progress they have made both as individuals and as a team. The victory caps an amazing turnaround for Clutch, who have gone from last place to being a legitimate contender to earn …
2019 LCS Summer Split All-Pro Team dominated by Team Liquid
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games revealed the 2019 LCS Summer Split All-Pro team. Each split, LCS teams, casters, and media vote to determine the season’s All-Pro team, rookie of the split, coach of the split, and most valuable player. Riot Games shared the results of the All-Pro team vote and, as expected, it is largely comprised of Team Liquid players. The five players with the most votes are top laner Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong, jungler Dennis …
G2 Esports approaches LEC playoffs bye after victory over Rogue
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports is back on track in the 2019 LEC Summer Split. After a couple of questionable matches, the Mid-Season Invitational champions have returned to form. On Friday, G2 took an important victory over Rogue. G2 left behind the creative picks and locked in a standard composition. The early game was slow, with G2 taking time to farm instead of relying on their high-tempo offense. Rogue grew impatient and decided …
Cloud9 forms Teamfight Tactics team with former HotS players
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Cloud9 has announced its plans to enter the realm of Teamfight Tactics. Former professional Heroes of the Storm players Khalif “Khroen” Hashim and Juan “JSchritte” Freitas have been signed to represent the organization in the League of Legends autobattler. The reveal was made by Cloud9 on Twitter, with the players discussing the news after. “It’s good to be back! I have always loved this team and now they are like …
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.
