League of Legends
League of Legends
LEC partners with Prideletics to support The Trevor Project
William Davis
The LEC is partnering up with Pridelectics to support The Trevor Project. The European League of Legends tournament announced a partnership with apparel brand Prideletics. 10% of the proceeds from the esports pride t-shirt sales will go to The Trevor Project. Riot Games partnered up with Prideletics back in June and it’s now expanding the collaboration all the way to Europe. The League of Legends esports Twitter account shared a …
League of Legends
SKT takes down Gen.G, extends winning streak in LCK Summer Split
William Davis
SK Telecom T1 is on a six-game winning streak. The defending LCK champion started week seven with a decisive victory over Gen.G. Both squads have similar storylines in the LCK Summer Split, starting the season in forgettable fashion before kicking into gear in time to shoot for a spot in playoffs. In previous weeks, Gen.G defeated Griffin, SandBox Gaming, and Kingzone DragonX but the team couldn’t keep its momentum going …
League of Legends
Riot Games offers rewards to lapsed League of Legends players
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends’ player base has been continuously growing over the years. However, this hasn’t stopped the game’s publisher, Riot Games, from offering rewards to encourage lapsed players to return. Although Riot hasn’t published official data on their active player base in recent years, analysts estimate the game has achieved 100 million active players this year alone. Regardless, Riot is now taking the initiative to bring inactive players back to …
League of Legends
sOAZ and GorillA leave Misfits amidst disappointing LEC season
Nina Forneloza
Misfits Gaming have made dramatic roster changes to their League of Legends team with only four weeks to go in the 2019 Summer Split. The organization announced on Twitter that it was parting ways with veteran top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer and star Korean support player Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyun. In a pair of tweets, Misfits thanked both players for their service and indicated that there was no bad blood. GorillA in …
League of Legends
CLG beats Cloud9, moves into second place in LCS Summer Split
William Davis
Counter Logic Gaming and Cloud9 are tied in second place in 2019 LCS Summer Split. Entering Sunday a game apart on the season, Cloud9 had its eyes set on solidifying second place in the standings and keeping step with frontrunner Team Liquid. Instead, CLG managed to take a key win off Cloud9 and put itself in a stronger position with playoffs looming. On CLG’s side, jungler Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin picked …
League of Legends
Doublelift, Rekkles, Bjergsen highlight all-time scores LCS and LEC
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Whether it’s the North American League Championship Series or the rebranded LCS, and European LCS or rebranded LEC, an overview of historical stats at the pro level shows that League’s professional scene has been dominated by a few top stars even since its beginnings. Zachary “mancloud” Hoschar, then known as mandatorycloud, had the highest number of kills at the end of NA LCS’ first split, through the 2013 Spring playoffs. …
League of Legends
Damonte says Clutch Gaming can still make LCS summer playoffs
Olivia Richman
Clutch Gaming has their eyes on the LCS Summer Split playoffs. The team may have lost to Team Liquid on Saturday, but a win against Echo Fox on Sunday helped them get one step closer to their playoffs goal. Tanner “Damonte” Damonte spoke with WIN.gg about some major changes within the organization that are inspiring them to push themselves even harder this split. How were you feeling going into the game …
League of Legends
Wiggily believes CLG has a shot at the top spot in the LCS
Olivia Richman
Counter Logic Gaming was feeling confident going into their match against FlyQuest. There was no doubt in Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin’s mind that his team would win. In fact, he told WIN.gg that it was a “must win.” “Every game is a must-win right now, because the teams are pretty close in standings,” Wiggily added. Counter Logic Gaming is currently third in the standings with an 8-5 record. The team knows that …
Huhi: A matter of time before Golden Guardians shows “true form”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
For a while, it looked like underdogs Golden Guardians were going to defeat Team SoloMid. Then TSM came back with a few plays that completely changed the game. But Golden Guardian’s Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun is still confident in his team. In fact, this match only made him even more positive that Golden Guardians will be in the playoffs. WIN.gg spoke with Huhi about his return to the LCS stage and his …
CoreJJ wants NA teams to find their own win conditions before Worlds
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
It’s been another successful weekend for Team Liquid in the LCS Summer Split. The team took down Clutch Gaming no problem, then moved onto their next victim, Golden Guardians. So far, they’re the number one team in North America. But do they have what it takes to defeat the best teams in the world? WIN.gg sat down with Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in to find out just how confident Team Liquid is when …
Gen.G takes down Kingzone DragonX and moves to fourth place in LCK
William Davis
League of Legends
Gen.G is on a four-game winning streak. Fans can always count on the organization to make a dramatic comeback in the summer and become a contender for Worlds. Continuing that trend, the squad took down Kingzone DragonX to get back into the conversation for the playoffs. Game one was not even close. Kingzone completely destroyed the bottom lane and effectively neutralized Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk. The squad got map control and …
Team Liquid collects an easy win over Clutch Gaming
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid continues to dominate the 2019 LCS Summer Split. The defending champions are on their way to claiming a bye to the playoffs semifinals after securing their tenth victory of the season, this time toppling a struggling Clutch Gaming. Though Clutch came into the match as underdogs, the squad still had hopes of making the playoffs which made this a tough loss. Team Liquid drafted comfort picks while Clutch …
Misfits suffer item shop issue during LEC match, Riot responds
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
An item shop mishap may have lost Misfits their game against Splyce during Week 5 of the LEC Summer Split. At the 12:30 mark of the game, Misfits called for a pause when AD carry Matus “Neon” Jakubcik sold his Essence Reaver, one of his finished items, instead of selling a health pot. It was clearly done in error but Neon and Misfits believed that the error came on the …
Zeyzal thinks Cloud9 can beat Team Liquid in Summer Split finals
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Cloud9 had a dominant game against 100 Thieves today. This latest victory helped Cloud9 maintain their second-place record in the standings. The only team above them in the standings is Team Liquid. Cloud9’s support, Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam, thinks his team has a chance to bring Liquid down this season. WIN.gg spoke with Zeyzal after the match to discuss his team’s greatest strengths and their goals for the summer. How did the win …
Griffin players reach the top five in the Korean LoL server
William Davis
League of Legends
Griffin’s players are taking over Korea’s League of Legends ladder. Jungler Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong, bottom laner Park “Viper” Do-hyeon, and mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon hold four out of the top five places on the ladder. Tarzan climbed to the top with his main account and a secondary one. He currently stands in second and third place, with Viper and Chovy in fourth and fifth respectively. Only one player in …
G2 Esports destroys Excel Esports to take 1st in LEC Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports is in first place in the 2019 LEC Summer Split. The spring champions continue to live up to the high expectations fans pinned on them after winning the Mid-Season Invitational. The squad secured its spot atop the league at the midway point of the split with an impressive victory over Excel Esports. The match between the best and worst of the LEC was a quick affair. G2 settled …
Teamfight Tactics beta pass chapter set to end, new chapter coming
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
The first chapter of the Teamfight Tactics beta pass will be expiring soon, while the next edition of the pass has been announced to come with patch 9.14. Riot Games has announced the end of the first beta pass chapter. Since the pass was available from the launch of TFT only on some servers while being delayed on others, it will also be ending at different dates and times for …
Team Liquid Impact in car accident, suffers neck injury
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid top laner Jeong “Impact” Eon-Young injured his neck after getting in a car accident in the late evening on July 18. Impact tweeted that night that the Uber he had been riding in crashed. An image of the wreck was included in the tweet, displaying the details of the collision. Impact’s Uber lies in the middle of the road with visible damage done to the right side of …
Demacia Vice Garen and Lucian highlight new line of League skins
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
The latest series of skins to hit the Rift with patch 9.14 are the 80s-themed “Demacia Vice” skins. Lucian and Garen will be the first recipients of these new skins, adding to some already impressive options for both champions. The name Demacia Vice is inspired by the television show Miami Vice, which ran between 1984 and 1990. The show featured two stylish detectives going undercover to fight drug trafficking in …
League of Legends broadcaster Jatt is returning to the LCS
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced on Twitter that fan-favorite LCS color commentator Joshua “Jatt” Leesman has returned to broadcasting. The tweet included a short video showing Jatt walking into the LCS studio with the message “He’s back.” Jatt himself would confirm the post with a tweet of his own. “I’ll be back on the LCS full-time starting this Saturday. Casting the first 3 games,” Jatt said. There …
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
Splyce Gaming celebrates Christopher Street Day with rainbow jerseys
By
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
G2 Esports beat Origen, look unstoppable in the 2019 LEC Summer Split
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics 9.14B nerfs assassins, buff sorcerors, and more
By
M Alzamora
