League of Legends
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics patch 9.15b nerfs Karthus, Kayle, Pyke
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The latest Teamfight Tactics patch is live, and Riot Games developers have implemented a few balance changes with the purpose of broadening the current meta. Players were excited to see the TFT patch 9.15b bring nerfs to Karthus and Kayle. Both of these high-cost units have been dominating the meta. In contrast, Runaan’s Hurricane got a big damage buff. Karthus’s ability damage has been lowered from 400/700/1000 to 350/600/850. More …
League of Legends
2019 LCS Summer Playoffs 2019 schedule and match-ups set
William Davis
It’s time for the 2019 LCS Summer playoffs. Ten teams competed in the regular season, but only six made it to the next stage. Team SoloMid, Clutch Gaming, Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, OpTic Gaming, and Team Liquid are competing for the 2019 LCS Summer title and the pass for the 2019 Worlds Championship. It all starts in the quarterfinals where the teams will play two best-of-five series. Only two move …
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 9.16 nerfs Corki and Azir on PBE
M Alzamora
Riot Games has previewed patch 9.16 for League of Legends, and with it will come much-needed nerfs to a pair of problematic mid laners. The changes are now being tested on the Public Beta Environment. Corki and Azir are among the notable champions receiving nerfs. These champions have dominated the mid lane meta thanks to their power and safety in the early game. Sejuani and Sylas have been a bit …
League of Legends
Riot Games shares ARAM win rates for Patch 9.15, future plans
Olivia Richman
Riot Games has revealed the League of Legends champions with the best win rates in ARAM throughout Patch 9.15. According to a principal game designer from Riot, the best champion in ARAM during the last patch was Swain. The beefy mage had a 59.6% win rate thanks to his ultimate’s effectiveness in ARAM teamfights. His Nevermore ability also allows him to isolate opponents he targets. Patch 9.16, which is coming …
League of Legends
Team Liquid’s Impact discusses beating TSM with glacial comp
Olivia Richman
Team Liquid has a guaranteed spot in the LCS Summer Split semifinals thanks to their first place finish in the regular season. So they decided to have a little fun against Team SoloMid. Team Liquid played the off-meta glacial comp based on a commonly used composition from Teamfight Tactics. The crowd erupted when Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong locked in Volibear. The analysts also had fun with it, calling Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng and Jo “CoreJJ” …
League of Legends
Liquid run over TSM with TFT-inspired lineup ahead of LCS playoffs
William Davis
Team Liquid finished the regular season on a high note. The final day of the 2019 LCS Summer Split regular season was tense. While Team Liquid and Team SoloMid had their standings for the season locked up, they still faced off for an intriguing game that saw Liquid utilize a surprising composition. The match had no playoff implications, so Team Liquid locked in champions from Freljord. In a side-lane interview, Team Liquid …
League of Legends
TSM Broken Blade downplays loss to Team Liquid
Olivia Richman
Team SoloMid may have just lost to Team Liquid’s troll comp in their latest match of the LCS Summer Split regular season, but they’re still confident about their playoff matches going forward. WIN.gg spoke with top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik How are you feeling after your match today? I’m feeling pretty normal. No emotions really. It was a troll game. It had no impact on the standings. It still …
League of Legends
Cloud9 Nisqy expects to face Team Liquid in LCS Summer final
Olivia Richman
Cloud9 had a good weekend at the LCS. The dominant team took down OpTic Gaming and Golden Guardians, securing a spot in the playoffs. Then 100 Thieves surprised fans by easily defeating CounterLogic Gaming, which gave Cloud9 a bye in the playoffs, sending them right right to the semifinals. WIN.gg spoke with Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer about his team’s strengths, who he thinks will be in the finals, and how North America …
Riot Games to retire Twisted Treeline, keep Teamfight Tactics
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games shared an update o n state of League of Legends’ alternative game modes. The Summoner’s Rift might be the main game mode in League of Legends, but is not the only one getting attention from the developer. Riot Games’ lead designer shared a big update about the alternative game modes and future plans. League of Legends’ auto-battler mode has been very successful, so the developer decided to make …
Cloud9 beats Golden Guardians with big playoff implications
William Davis
League of Legends
Cloud9 is still in the fight for the playoff bye. C9 is fighting until the very end of the spring pslit. The squad secured a crucial victory versus Golden Guardians and are still in the race for a pass to the semifinals. Jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen spent the early game on the bottom side of the jungle. He made sure to invade Golden Guardians’ side of the map and kept …
Vitality hunting for LEC playoff spot with shock win over G2 Esports
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Vitality is still in the hunt for a spot in the LEC summer playoffs. The organization took a big step forward in week seven with a key victory over G2 Esports. This upset win is certainly a confidence boost for a team that will need to be in top form for the rest of the LEC Summer Split in order to qualify for the playoffs. G2 surprised the audience with …
Riot Games announces upcoming fighting game at Evo 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s official. League of Legends developer Riot Games is creating a fighting game. Evo founder and Riot employee Tom Cannon confirmed the game’s existence on the first day of Evo 2019 during a live talk show. “Back in 2016 when we joined forces with Riot I said that we were going to go in the hole for a while,” Cannon said. “I want to be able to let people in …
SKT destroys Kingzone DragonX, secures LCK playoffs spot
William Davis
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 is on an eight-game winning streak. With the playoffs looming on the horizon, SKT finds itself in a great position after a convincing victory over Kingzone DragonX. The 2019 LCK Spring Split champions moved up to third place with a 9-5 record. The early stage of game one was all about the junglers. Moon “Cuzz” Woo-chan helped his solo laners while Kim “Clid” Tae-min played through the …
League of Legends legacy cursor disappears and returns in one day
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games removed the legacy cursor from League of Legends only to return it to live servers within the span of a day following a community backlash. The legacy cursor was unexpectedly erased on July 30. The removal was intended as a minor interface tweak, but it spawned an unexpected amount of outrage from fans and players alike. Many players were not ready to part ways with one of the …
Teamfight Tactics patch 9.16 to add four new champions, Hextech
William Davis
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics is adding four new champions and the new Hextech origin. Camille, Jayce, Vi, and Jinx are joining the Teamfight Tactics ranks as Hextech units. The breakpoints for the Hextech origin are two and four, and these units can disable two and four random items on the enemy’s board at the start of combat. It’s common for players to stack most of their items into one or two units, …
LoL Patch 9.15 brings buffs, PROJECT skins, and a legacy cursor scare
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends Patch 9.15 is now live! While the previous update changed the meta and introduced new mechanics, 9.15 is taking it slow and keeping it simple. Riot Games said that Patch 9.14 would be the last major update before the professional leagues’ playoffs and they seem to be following through on that promise. A number of champions received tweaks but the changes to Galio, Leblanc, Lee Sin, …
Teamfight Tactics Patch 9.15 brings big nerfs to demons, void rework
William Davis
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics is getting shaken up in Patch 9.15. Patch 9.14 changed the meta in the Summoner’s Rift and Patch 9.15 will do the same in Teamfight Tactics. Starting with class breakpoints, Brawlers can now stack up to six units. This change hit the PBE and stood out because there are only five Brawlers in the game. It is impossible to create another Brawler using the spatula, which likely means …
Riot Games taking steps to improve LoL’s competitive integrity
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games and Sportradar have announced a new partnership. Under this new arrangement, the sports data and analytics firm will be monitoring global betting related to League of Legends tournaments organized by Riot Games. They have worked with the likes of the NBA, NFL, NHL, ITF and NASCAR. Esports tournament organizer ESL also retains their services. “With legal sports betting expected to grow over the next several years, especially in …
FlyQuest head coach on missing playoffs, preparing for gauntlet
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
FlyQuest may not be living up to fan expectations with their current 5-11 record. Their ninth place position seems like a step down from their fourth-place finish in the LCS Spring Split. This time, they won’t even make it to the LCS Summer Split playoffs. But head coach Gabriel “Invert” Zedoltan-Johan isn’t too worried about that. Right now, FlyQuest has their eyes on the gauntlet. WIN.gg sat down with Invert …
Riot Games looking to fix high-level LoL matchmaking troubles
William Davis
League of Legends
The woes of top League of Legends players might be coming to an end. After months of complaints, Riot Games is finally giving some answers regarding the matchmaking problems at high ranks. Jonathan “RiotIAmWalrus” Moormann, designer at Riot Games, shared the news on his personal Twitter account. “We’ve heard concerns about matchmaking at high ranks, and we’re testing out some changes that would get closer matches with longer queue times,” …
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
LoL Patch 9.16 bringing better matchmaking system to Teamfight Tactics
By
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
News
Huni thinks Clutch Gaming is ready to take on TSM in LCS playoffs
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming’s Damonte on emotional win and making LCS playoffs
By
Olivia Richman
