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CLG beats Cloud9, moves into second place in LCS Summer Split League of Legends CLG beats Cloud9, moves into second place in LCS Summer Split By William Davis Doublelift, Rekkles, Bjergsen highlight all-time scores LCS and LEC League of Legends Doublelift, Rekkles, Bjergsen highlight all-time scores LCS and LEC By Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Damonte says Clutch Gaming can still make LCS summer playoffs League of Legends Damonte says Clutch Gaming can still make LCS summer playoffs By Olivia Richman
Wiggily believes CLG has a shot at the top spot in the LCS 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” League of Legends
Huhi: A matter of time before Golden Guardians shows “true form” Olivia Richman 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 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 …
Gen.G takes down Kingzone DragonX and moves to fourth place in LCK 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 …
Team Liquid collects an easy win over Clutch Gaming League of Legends Team Liquid collects an easy win over Clutch Gaming By William Davis Misfits suffer item shop issue during LEC match, Riot responds League of Legends Misfits suffer item shop issue during LEC match, Riot responds By Olivia Richman Zeyzal thinks Cloud9 can beat Team Liquid in Summer Split finals League of Legends Zeyzal thinks Cloud9 can beat Team Liquid in Summer Split finals By Olivia Richman
Griffin players reach the top five in the Korean LoL server League of Legends
Griffin players reach the top five in the Korean LoL server William Davis 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 League of Legends
G2 Esports destroys Excel Esports to take 1st in LEC Summer Split William Davis 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 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 …
Team Liquid Impact in car accident, suffers neck injury 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 …
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 …
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, …

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.