League of Legends
League of Legends
CoreJJ wants NA teams to find their own win conditions before Worlds
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Gen.G takes down Kingzone DragonX and moves to fourth place in LCK
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Team Liquid collects an easy win over Clutch Gaming
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Misfits suffer item shop issue during LEC match, Riot responds
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics beta pass chapter set to end, new chapter coming
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
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 …
League of Legends
Team Liquid Impact in car accident, suffers neck injury
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Demacia Vice Garen and Lucian highlight new line of League skins
Nina Forneloza
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
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 …
Misfits benches entire LEC team, promotes academy roster
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Immortals and K-Swiss team up to create esports performance shoe
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
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 …
LoL Patch 9.14 creates over fifty bugs in less than 24 hours
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Dignitas is returning to the LCS and Scarra is skeptical
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
After merging with Clutch Gaming earlier this month, Team Dignitas announced that they would be returning the League of Legends Championship Series next year. In response to the news, LCS commissioner Chris Greeley stated he was excited to welcome Dignitas back, partially because the organization was one of the original eight teams in the NA LCS. “We have been impressed with the strides they have taken over the past two …
100 Thieves raises $35 million, plans to open new headquarters
William Davis
League of Legends
100 Thieves has raised $35 million in Series B funding. The popular organization closed a new investment round led by New York-based growth investment firm Artist Capital. Chief Investment Officer at Artist Capital Josh Dienstag will join 100 Thieves’ board of directors effective immediately. 100 Thieves is a fairly new organization founded in late 2017 by former Call of Duty professional player Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag. The team started with a …
Teamfight Tactics ranked mode release date, ladder revealed
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics fans have a lot to be excited for. The beta season of TFT’s ranked matchmaking is ready to kick off with patch 9.14. Speaking in an announcement on the official League of Legends website, the company offered a release date and outline of how the game’s hierarchy will work. The new ranked mode is going live on July 17. It will have the same tiers and divisions as …
LCS game broadcasts to show on Caffeine after Riot Games partnership
M Alzamora
League of Legends
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 2019 update plans outlined by Riot Games
M Alzamora
League of Legends
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 …
Cloud9 score wild comeback win over TSM in 2019 LCS Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
New PROJECT skins coming to League of Legends for Pyke, Akali, and more
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
League of Legends
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
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.
