League of Legends
League of Legends
Popular LOL skin developer announces departure from Riot Games
Olivia Richman
League of Legends skin producer Janelle, known as Riot Stellari, has announced that she’s parting ways with Riot Games. Known for her work on the K/DA, Battle Academia, and Coven skins, Riot Stellari will be missed by the League of Legends community and coworkers alike. She announced on Twitter that June 7 will be her last day at Riot, exactly six years from when she first started started with the …
League of Legends
State Farm Insurance to continue with Riot Games as sponsor
William Davis
According to multiple reports, insurance company State Farm has re-signed an expanded sponsorship deal with Riot Games, one that will take the partnership international. The deal will now also extend through 2021. The renewed partnership will expand the events that State Farm will be present at, including the LCS, the 2019 League of Legends World Championships, and the League of Legends College Championships. State Farm began its partnership with Riot …
League of Legends
G2 vs Liquid at MSI has big implications for 2019 World Championship
Nina Forneloza
G2 Esports faced and defeated Team Liquid, led by tournament MVP Rasmus “Caps” Winther, to win the 2019 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitational. In doing so they became the first Western team to win the event since its inception in 2015. The event was stacked with international talent, and the NA vs EU final was made all the more impressive by the route each team took through the semifinals. Team …
League of Legends
FlyQuest announces the new Women’s Flightwear clothing line
Olivia Richman
Women’s esport apparel has been a bit lackluster to date, but FlyQuest is looking to change that. Announced earlier today, the FlyQuest Women’s Flightwear line offers a sports bra, leggings, crop hoodie, lounge shorts, a baseball tee, and a crop top for female fans. These unique clothing items were designed by women who work at FlyQuest, led by COO Tricia Sugita. The shapes and colors are new to the esports …
League of Legends
Riot Games employee gives hot take on assassins and burst damage
William Davis
Riot Games’ August Browning has given an opinion on champion balance that’s sure to leave some League of Legends players scratching their heads. August gave an opinion on “one-shot” champions, claiming that part of the impressive longevity of League of Legends was due to the fact that it did support many different styles of play.This included the extremely powerful assassin class. “Rengar (and champs like him) instantly one-shotting you is …
League of Legends
Former SKT players go global: Untara to Fenerbahçe, others to XTEN
William Davis
Former SK Telecom T1 jungler Park “Blossom” Beom-chan and substitute mid laner Kim “Sky” Ha-neul have joined Latin American esports organization XTEN Esports. Heading into the LLA closing season, XTEN is getting reinforcements from two former SKT players. Blossom joins after a short hiatus from the game, finishing out his contract with SK Telecom T1 in November and remaining teamless since then. Sky left SKT back in 2017 when he …
League of Legends
Team Liquid defeats Invictus Gaming in massive upset at MSI
William Davis
Team Liquid has achieved what seemed impossible, as the LCS champion took down reigning world champion Invictus Gaming and is advancing to the Mid-Season Invitational final. It’s a great day to be a TL fan, as the three-time LCS champion asserted its dominance over IG in a series of four games. The general consensus was that TL could get perhaps one game but that IG would take the entire series. …
League of Legends
Riot seeks to rescue Yuumi, buffs new champion in early update
Olivia Richman
Yuumi’s winrate was 29.71 percent at one point yesterday. That is the lowest winrate of any new champion one day after its release. Despite an initially exciting release, Yuumi is now in the spotlight for more than just her adorable looks and backstory. Riot Games’ principal game designer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer even responded to a tweet that informed them that Yuumi was “a little underpowered,” despite being really cute. League …
Immortals reportedly close to acquiring OpTic Gaming parent company
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Immortals is close to absorbing the parent company of OpTic Gaming. According to Esports Insider, Immortals Gaming Club is “very likely” to succeed in its bids to buy out Infinite Esports & Entertainment. If successful, the acquisition would allow Immortals to return to the LCS and would arguably cement the organization as the largest in all of esports. In January, reports began circulating that OpTic’s parent company was seeking a …
Riot Games employee has some suggestions for fixing the ranked ladder
William Davis
League of Legends
Fans and players making suggestions regarding “fixes” for League of Legends’ ranked system are pretty common, but it’s not every day that a Riot employee brings such a proposal to the table. Riot Games gameplay data lead Nathan “Blaustoise” Blau took to Twitter to discuss how the current ranked system operates, and presented how he thinks the ranked ladder could potentially be improved. His four goals include reducing the ladder’s …
Ruin joins Counter Logic Gaming as top laner heading into summer
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Last week, Counter Logic Gaming parted ways with veteran top laner Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya. Now, CLG is welcoming Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min to the team for the upcoming LCS Summer Split. “On joining CLG, I’m excited about playing in North America and playing in the LCS,” Ruin said. “I’m very excited to meet you NA fans, so I will try my best this split for the team and for the fans. …
100 Thieves add Amazing as jungler after disappointing spring split
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
100 Thieves has announced the addition of jungler Maurice “Amazing” Stückenschneider to its roster. Amazing will be the team’s new starter heading into the LCS Summer Split. “We’re excited to bring his veteran experience, leadership, and voice to the team!” 100 Thieves said on Twitter. The organization noted his two World Championship appearances during his seven years playing League of Legends competitively across North America and Europe. Some of his recent …
Yuumi arrives, Master Yi reworked, and much more in LoL patch 9.10
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
League of Legends version 9.10 has arrived. The latest patch brings a new list of changes. This is a bit of a departure from the hefty updates ahead of the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational which often saw dozens of balance changes. The highlight of 9.10 is the addition of new playable champion Yuumi. The warlock cat is an interesting support option with unique functionality surrounding her ability to “attach” herself to …
LoL players can choose which champion gets a major rework in 2020
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
There’s still two more days to vote on which League of Legends champion will be getting a major rework in 2020. Ending May 15 at 11:59 PST, the League community can cast a vote here to determine which of the five available champions will get an update next year. According to the official announcement, the League of Legends team stated that the champion will be redesigned from the ground up, …
G2 open 2019 Mid-Season Invitational with dominant win over SKT
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports opened the Mid-Season Invitational with a dominant win over SK Telecom T1. The LEC champions lived up to fan expectations and more, obliterating the LCK representative in what was a one-sided match. The early game was slow and measured as both teams tried to read the opponent and look for easy opportunities. G2 focused their early attention on the top lane, trying to get Martin “Wunder” Hansen on …
Hanwha Life Esports Moojin fined for threatening underage fans
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends fans are outraged at a punishment they feel isn’t enough for Hanwha Life Esports’ Kim “Moojin” Moo-jin. The 21-year-old jungler has been fined 15 million Koran won ($12,800 USD) and has been instructed to complete 48 hours of community service by his team after he was caught sending violent threats to underaged female fans. In the leaked messages, Moojin contacted underaged fans, trying to meet up with …
Darshan parts with Counter Logic Gaming after five-year run
William Davis
League of Legends
Darshan “Darshan” Upadhyaya has parted ways with Counter Logic Gaming after five years with the esports organization. CLG made the announcement through social media as the team shared a video featuring highlights taken from Darshan’s career. Darshan joined CLG after leaving Team Dignitas in 2014. The top laner became one of the emblematic players in the organization, acting as a leader both in and out of the game. Darshan achieved …
Riot supports employee walkout, but won’t change lawsuit policy
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Over 150 Riot employees walked out in protest of the company’s stance on forced arbitration yesterday. This comes just days after employees first considered a walkout in response to the League of Legends publisher’s response to ex-employee’s gender discrimination lawsuits. Jocelyn Monahan, a social listening strategist at Riot, stated near the end of the walkout that further action would be taken if Riot management didn’t make any decision on forced …
Ruin, Kirei depart from 1907 Fenerbahce after washing out of MSI
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
When it rains for 1907 Fenerbahçe, it pours. The team is still reeling from its misfire at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational but now has to deal with a pair of holes in its roster. That’s because jungler Thomas “Kirei” Yuen and top laner Kim “Ruin” Hyeong-min have reportedly both split off from the organization and signed with new teams. Kirei’s departure from 1907 Fenerbahçe was broken by the official League …
Flash Wolves roar past Vega Squadron, qualify for MSI main event
William Davis
League of Legends
Flash Wolves secured a pass to the Mid-Season Invitational with a convincing victory over Vega Squadron. The LMS will have a representative at MSI’s main event, as FW qualified to the main stage for the fourth consecutive time. The new roster is ready to continue the organization’s legacy, and this latest journey began opposite the reigning LCL spring champion. Many analysts predicted it would be a clean 3-0 victory, but …
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.
