League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends broadcaster Jatt is returning to the LCS
Nina Forneloza
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
Misfits benches entire LEC team, promotes academy roster
William Davis
Misfits Gaming has subbed out its entire roster. With the team sitting in ninth place in the LEC, the organization decided to replace the entire lineup ahead of week five in the 2019 LEC Summer Split with Misfits Premier taking over the main stage. The academy team is coming off a victory in the LFL, France’s League of Legends national tournament. In past weeks, Misfits tried different combinations of players to no avail …
League of Legends
Immortals and K-Swiss team up to create esports performance shoe
Olivia Richman
Immortals Gaming Club has partnered with K-Swiss to create the first-ever esports performance shoe. The ONE-TAP is designed specifically with pro gamers in mind, after K-Swiss designers had the chance to watch the organization’s players compete. The shoe’s main focuses are comfort, versatility, and temperature control. With breathable mesh and elasticated closure, the shoe can be slipped on just like a slipper. The cushioned sole and venting unit creates bidirectional …
League of Legends
LoL Patch 9.14 creates over fifty bugs in less than 24 hours
William Davis
The most recent League of Legends update broke the game. In less than 24 hours, the live Patch 9.14 has resulted in over 50 known bugs. The chaotic state of LoL forced Riot Games to disable ranked queues and three champions. On Reddit, players reported several glitches and other issues including connection troubles that kept players from joining games. According to some other players, the in-game chat stopped working as …
League of Legends
LCS game broadcasts to show on Caffeine after Riot Games partnership
M Alzamora
As if there weren’t enough options for watching pro League of Legends, Riot Games and Caffeine have partnered up to introduce another. Caffeine, an up and coming streaming service, is the latest streaming partner for the LCS. The platform may now show official LCS action. It will begin by showing the remainder of the 2019 Summer Split from here on out, including the regular season, playoffs, and finals, all followed …
League of Legends
League of Legends 2019 update plans outlined by Riot Games
M Alzamora
We’ve still got over five months left in 2019, but Riot Games already knows how it wants to update League of Legends through the rest of the year. Riot has detailed its goals from version 9.14 onward. It’s a big update that’ll introduce changes for over 30 champions. As you’d expect, Riot hasn’t yet gone into detail about specific champion changes. We could get anything from slight numbers tweaks to …
League of Legends
Cloud9 score wild comeback win over TSM in 2019 LCS Summer Split
William Davis
Cloud9 scored a big rebound win to close out their week. In a highly anticipated match between fan favorite organizations, Cloud9 kept fans on the edge of their seat with a wild comeback against Team SoloMid. It was a much-needed victory for the team after taking a shock loss to Echo Fox in their first game of week six of the 2019 LCS Summer Split. Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg channeled his …
League of Legends
New PROJECT skins coming to League of Legends for Pyke, Akali, and more
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
New PROJECT skins are coming to League of Legends, but the surprise reveal ended up fizzling out a bit. A brief teaser trailer was shared across League of Legends’ social media channels hinting at new science fiction-themed skins on July 13. The next day, another video dropped featuring new looks for Akali, Pyke, Jinx, and Irelia. Riot’s tweet of the video contains hints on the lore implications of the reveal, …
Team Liquid take first place in LCS Summer Split with win over CLG
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid is dominating the 2019 LCS Summer Split. The LCS Spring Playoffs champion scored a big victory over Counter Logic Gaming and is now alone at the top of the LCS standings. Liquid entered the week in a three-way tie for first. During the draft, Liquid focused the jungle champion pool. Raymond “Wiggily” Griffin picked his first Elise of the summer split and teamed up with top laner Kim …
G2 Esports crush Misfits in LEC return, give fans taste of 9.13 meta
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports didn’t just beat Misfits Gaming, they destroyed them. G2 came back from a well-deserved break stronger than ever. The LEC Spring champions started week four with a dominant victory over Misfits. Jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski on Sylas started the game with a cheeky invade in the top side of the jungle. Misfits chased him out and kept their camps intact for the moment. Top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer …
League of Legends viewership tops Twitch halfway through 2019
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
League of Legends is Twitch’s most-watched game in the first half of 2019 and is winning over Fortnite regardless of the latter game’s worldwide surge in popularity. According to The Esports Observer’s data, League of Legends is the game with the highest total number of hours watched on Twitch in 2019. From January 1 to June 30, League was watched for 512.3 million total hours. It came as a surprise …
LEC Spring Split Finals contributed millions to Rotterdam economy
William Davis
League of Legends
Cities welcome sporting events like the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl because they generate a windfall of cash and esports events are starting to offer something similar. According to a report from Riot Games, the city of Rotterdam enjoyed an influx of cash from the LEC Spring Split Finals. All in all, the tournament contributed $2.6 million total to the economy over two days. The announcement is a big …
Gen.G upsets Griffin, ends winning streak with surprise Volibear pick
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
Griffin’s impressive 10-game winning streak has come to an end. In the final game of the LCK Summer Split’s first round robin, Gen.G managed to pull off a massive upset by defeating LCK leaders Griffin 2-0, creating a three way tie at the top of the LCK standings. The defeat was the first 0-2 loss that Griffin has suffered in the split. Griffin were shaken by the draft of game …
Clutch Gaming makes another coaching change amid struggles
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming has parted ways with head coach Brendan “mcscrag” McGee. Clutch is changing coaches yet again. Mcscrag is leaving the position after just one and a half splits spent in charge of the LCS squad. “Grateful for the opportunity to have worked with these players and wish them the best. I learned a lot this past year and look forward to applying it in whatever’s next,” mcscrag said on …
League patch 9.14 removes Aatrox resurrection, among other changes
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 9.14 will be bringing some big changes to Summoner’s Rift, including the removal of Aatrox’s iconic revive ability. The Darkin Blade’s resurrection has remained the most consistent piece of his kit since his release. It previously was a part of Aatrox’s original passive, Blood Well, before it became a part of his new ultimate ability World Ender following a full rework of the champion in 2018. …
League of Legends caster Kobe pursues projects outside of League
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
LCS caster and analyst Sam “Kobe” Hartman-Kenzler announced earlier today that he will be pursuing projects outside of Riot Games. “I will still work full-time on the LCS, which I love, but I’ll also be working on additional projects outside of Riot that I’ll share soon,” Kobe said. He then thanked Riot Games and his fans for supporting him. Along with the announcement, Kobe changed his Twitter handle from @RiotKobe …
LEC Summer Split is the most viewed pro split since 2015
Nina Forneloza
League of Legends
League of Legends developer Riot Games has recently announced that the current Summer Split of the 2019 LEC has recorded the highest viewership figures for any regular season split since 2015. Riot reported in April a record breaking debut split of the LEC, and this recent announcement continues to speak to that success. In the opening three weeks of the league, viewing figures were an impressive 37% higher than this …
TSM and Logitech continue esports sponsorship agreement
M Alzamora
League of Legends
Team SoloMid and Logitech have come to terms on a three-year extension of their long-running partnership. Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. If previous perks of the sponsorship are anything to go by, TSM’s financial benefits will come in the form of free Logitech gear for players, travel and lodgings, and likely a hefty sum of cash to play around with. In turn, Logitech gets to tie its name …
SK Telecom T1 return to LCK with crushing win over Hanwha
William Davis
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 might just be on a hot streak. The LCK spring champions destroyed Hanwha Life Esports in their return to the LCK and are climbing in the standings. The team returned to their league with the aggressive style they tinkered with at Rift Rivals 2019. In game one, SKT showed a new look with Lee “Effort” Sang-ho in the support role. Despite that tweak the team played a …
Misfits and Outerstuff launch new line of esports apparel
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Misfits Gaming and Outerstuff are partnering up to launch a line of esports and gaming apparel. CEO and co-founder of Misfits Ben Spoont has said that even though esports has a large and passionate fanbase, the fanbase doesn’t yet have the needed availability of licensed apparel worldwide. “As a team owner myself, I’ve experienced firsthand the many issues relating to designing, manufacturing, and distributing the apparel that fans are clamoring …
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.
