League of Legends
League of Legends
Ruin joins Counter Logic Gaming as top laner heading into summer
Olivia Richman
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. …
League of Legends
100 Thieves add Amazing as jungler after disappointing spring split
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Yuumi arrives, Master Yi reworked, and much more in LoL patch 9.10
Steven Rondina
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 …
League of Legends
LoL players can choose which champion gets a major rework in 2020
Olivia Richman
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, …
League of Legends
Riot supports employee walkout, but won’t change lawsuit policy
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Ruin, Kirei depart from 1907 Fenerbahce after washing out of MSI
Steven Rondina
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 …
League of Legends
Flash Wolves roar past Vega Squadron, qualify for MSI main event
William Davis
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
Rogue drops Kikis, Excel finds a new coach prior to LEC summer split
William Davis
Rogue and jungler Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek have agreed to part ways after what was a disappointing spring split in the LEC. Rogue is ready to make changes heading into the LEC summer split. After finishing in tenth place with 16 defeats to only two wins, the organization decided to try a different approach to its maligned roster. Polish jungler Kikis will be the first player to exit the team. In …
Team Liquid sweep Phong Vu Buffalo, advance at Mid-Season Invitational
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid qualified for the Mid-Season Invitational’s main event after a scrappy win against local representative Phong Vũ Buffalo. TL is moving to the next phase at MSI, as the North American team took down PVB in three straight games. It wasn’t necessarily easy for TL as PVB put the LCS champions in some difficult situations, but Liquid was rarely threatened past the early game. The Vietnam representatives failed to …
Immortals raises $30 million, acquires Gamers Club, looks to LCS
William Davis
League of Legends
Esports organization Immortals has raised $30 million in a recent funding round, as the organization acquired Brazilian matchmaking platform Gamers Club and is rebranding to Immortals Gaming Club. Immortals, now known as IGC, is going through some major changes. These changes start with a new name and new investors. John Griffin and March Capital Partners join Lionsgate, the Milken Family, Steve Kaplan, and Meg Whitman as IGC’s primary investors and …
Fnatic secures $19 million in funding round, appoints news CEO
William Davis
League of Legends
European esports organization Fnatic has raised $19 million in a recent Series A funding, the team announced through its official website. Entrepreneur Lev Leviev of LVL1 Group, Beringea, Blackpine, Unbound, and Joi Ito are some of the new investors in the Fnatic brand. This is the first funding round held by Fnatic since April 2017 when the team secured a round of $7 million. “Esports is the future of entertainment, …
Players get a better look at new League support champion Yuumi
Fariha Bhatti
League of Legends
The 144th Champion of League of Legends, Yuumi the Magical Cat, is now available on Public Beta Environment servers. Players have now been able to get their first look at where she might fit into games and have a clearer idea of the new champion’s abilities. The official trailer for Yuumi’s release was unveiled last week, providing additional insight into the champion’s skill set and potential roles. The Magical Cat …
Immortals looking to buy OpTic Gaming after $30 million investment
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Immortals is looking to get back into the League of Legends business. According to a report by ESPN’s Jacob Wolf, Immortals is looking to purchase OpTic Gaming. OpTic has reportedly been talking with prospective buyers since February. Immortals is one of the largest organizations in esports, fielding teams in multiple games with a variety of brands including Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s MiBR and the Overwatch League’s Los Angeles Valiant. From 2015 …
LOL reddit: Garena fires employee who was betting during official MSI broadcast
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
When Garena Taiwan was first caught betting on the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational, Twitch viewers were immediately enraged by the digital entertainment platform’s illegal activities. Now, it looks like the League of Legends community is getting at least part of its wish. The LMS region’s official MSI broadcaster and official Riot partner has announced that the person in charge of the stream has been terminated. Many on Reddit had demanded for …
LEC MVP Caps is the key for G2 at the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational
William Davis
League of Legends
Rasmus “Caps” Winther is the best mid laner in the West, and that statement is not up for debate. He keeps proving that no matter the teammates around him and the uniform he wears, his team can trust him to be the best. After a successful season with G2 Esports, Caps became the LEC spring MVP and is now ready to take to Summoner’s Rift at the Mid-Season Invitational. …
Riot’s biggest patch of the year changes many popular champions
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot has announced that patch 9.9 will be League of Legend’s “biggest patch of the year.” The patch notes reveal major changes to many of the game’s champions. “Get ready for one of the longest reads of your week,” Paul “Aether” Perscheid and Hanna “shio shoujo” Woo warned players. Aatrox is getting a major rework in 9.9. Mechanic changes have transformed Aarox’s into a “diving, one-shot playstyle that’s protected by guaranteed safety of …
MSI 2019 arrives in Vietnam, and this is all you need to know
William Davis
League of Legends
The Mid-Season Invitational is here, as the first international event of the year gathers League of Legends’ spring champions from around the world. For the first time ever, MSI is heading to Vietnam. The action begins on May 1 at GG Stadium in Ho Chi Minh City. Here’s everything you need to know about MSI 2019. It’s the first international event of the 2019 League of Legends calendar. 13 champions …
Team Vitality partnering with HKS to build new esports facility
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Vitality has shared its plans to open a new facility in Paris. The project is a collaboration between Team Vitality and HKS Sports & Entertainment. Vitality is an esports organization based in France with teams competing in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Rocket League, and many other popular titles. In March, Vitality shared a picture on the organization’s official Twitter account showing the front of a building with …
Mid-Season Invitational undergoes late changes to match schedule
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The 2019 Mid-Season Invitational is getting hit with a scheduling change at the last minute. According to a report by outlet LienMinh360, the play-in stage of the event scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is being shifted around due to the declaration of two national days of mourning for the death of former prime minister Le Duc Anh. These reports were confirmed by Riot Games. “Out …
League of Legends team loses playoff spot after match fixing scandal
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Match fixing may be the biggest problem facing competitive League of Legends right now. According to multiple reports, four members of the Rogue Warriors organization have been suspended for intentionally throwing games. Kangjian “Zhanzhao” Liao, Jie “Caocao” Ren, and Zhanhong “FengXian” Liu from Rogue Warriors’ developmental RW Shark team have been suspended for 18 seasonal months. Rogue Warriors jungler Tao “XiaoYao” Xie has also received the same punishment. RW Shark …
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
Riot seeks to rescue Yuumi, buffs new champion in early update
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Immortals reportedly close to acquiring OpTic Gaming parent company
By
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Riot Games employee has some suggestions for fixing the ranked ladder
By
William Davis
