League of Legends
League of Legends
Fnatic secures $19 million in funding round, appoints news CEO
William Davis
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, …
League of Legends
Players get a better look at new League support champion Yuumi
Fariha Bhatti
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 …
League of Legends
Immortals looking to buy OpTic Gaming after $30 million investment
Steven Rondina
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 …
League of Legends
LOL reddit: Garena fires employee who was betting during official MSI broadcast
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Team Vitality partnering with HKS to build new esports facility
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Mid-Season Invitational undergoes late changes to match schedule
Steven Rondina
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
League of Legends team loses playoff spot after match fixing scandal
Steven Rondina
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
Riot employees consider walkout amidst continued frustration
Olivia Richman
Riot’s decision to block gender discrimination lawsuits under the protection of arbitration causes has sparked outrage within the company’s Santa Monica office. When employees found out that the League of Legend developer was preventing two former employees from suing under the controversial practice, many began more seriously considering a walkout. Media outlet Waypoint granted anonymity to employees that wanted to speak out against the company. They informed the news source …
Riot Games and Marvel Comics team up for new comic based on Lux
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games and Marvel Comics are joining forces once again to bring fans a new graphic novel, this time starring lady of luminosity Luxanna “Lux” Crownguard. League of Legends: Lux chronicles the complicated life of young mage Lux as she struggles to survive in her home country of Demacia, where all use of magic has been strictly outlawed. The series will span five issues and will focus on Lux as …
Riot claims ex-employees waived rights to file for discrimination
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games made motions earlier this week to prevent two former employees from taking legal action after the two women filed lawsuits for gender discrimination. The League of Legends publisher stated that the women waived their rights to sue the company when they were hired. Riot’s attorney explained that the women had agreed to arbitration clauses, a common inclusion in employment contracts, designed to protect companies from legal situations such …
G2 Esports could lose Mikyx to injury going into MSI 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports support Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle could potentially miss out on the Mid-Season Invitational due to a wrist injury. G2 Esport’s MSI run might not be as great as the team’s fans had expected it to be. The reigning LEC champion is at risk of losing a key player just days before the first international event of the 2019 League of Legends calendar. Mikyx’s injury was first reported during week …
LCS pro salaries are revealed, average salary raised by $200,000
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends Championship Series Commissioner Chris Greeley revealed the average pro salary for pros in the North American region. And it’s a lot. “We work a lot to make being a pro LCS player an aspiration for our fans. Part of it is money,” Greeley said at GamesBeat Summit 2019. “A pro LCS player makes an average of $300,000 in guaranteed base salary, before any bonuses or prize pools.” …
A closer look at the new MSI theme song, “Bring Home the Glory”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot has revealed the 2019 Mid-Season Invitational’s theme song. Called “Bring Home the Glory,” the powerful lyrics about fighting for victory with the world watching are sung by Sara Skinner. The straightforward lyrics paint the perfect picture for May’s major tournament, the second biggest on the League of Legends calendar. While listening to this song, it’s not difficult to picture the top teams battling it out for their region’s …
Dragon Gate Team barred from LMS after match fixing allegations
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Dragon Gate Team of the LMS is embroiled in a serious scandal. The Hong Kong-based League of Legends organization has been removed from its regional league due to alleged match fixing. The LMS announced the news on its website. The LMS received reports that the team was taking measures to ensure it lost games during the 2019 LMS Spring Split. Upon receiving these reports, the LMS conducted an investigation into …
CoreJJ is the key for Team Liquid and NA at MSI 2019
William Davis
League of Legends
The memory of the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational is still fresh in the minds of Team Liquid players and fans. The preceding spring split resulted in the first domestic title for the organization and the first appearance on an international stage at a Riot event. But even after a split full of domestic accomplishment, reality hit Team Liquid hard. Underwhelming was the best word to describe TL’s performance at MSI last …
Invictus Gaming defeat JD Gaming, capture first domestic title
William Davis
League of Legends
Invictus Gaming is the 2019 LPL Spring Split champion, as the current world champion took down JD Gaming in a quick series. IG achieved its first domestic title in a convincing series against JDG. Since its founding in 2011, IG has struggled to find ultimate success in the LPL. In 2018, the organization signed young bot laner prodigy Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo and the team’s look changed completely. The team came …
Cloud9 League team assembles for beautiful K/DA cosplay
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Cloud9’s League of Legends roster in gender-bending cosplay may not be what the community asked for, but it’s exactly what we need. Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi, Eric “Licorice” Ritchie, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, and Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam all posed for some K/DA-themed photos, after Sneaky’s cosplaying girlfriend styled their hair, makeup, and outfits. Yasin “Nisqy” Dincer wasn’t present for the photoshoot. It was rumored that his strict parents wouldn’t approve of it. …
Former ROX Tigers carry PraY retires from League of Legends
Steven Rondina
News
After three LCK trophies and three top-four finishes in World Championships, Kim “PraY” Jong-in is calling it a career. The AD carry player announced his retirement from competitive League of Legends on a live stream on AfreecaTV. The move comes after six months as a free agent. “I have no confidence that I can do well [in professional play]”, PraY said on the stream, per Korizon.net. “But, outright saying I’m …
KT Rolster avoid relegation with clean win over Jin Air
William Davis
League of Legends
KT Rolster secured its place in the LCK Summer Split after taking down Jin Air Green Wings in the second round of the LCK promotion tournament. KT is the first team to go from split champion to the relegations tournament the very next split. The team’s situation is not surprising, as during the offseason the team failed to secure an experienced bot laner. Instead, KT settled for rookie Jeon “Zenit” …
Riot Games has a new logo and not everyone is happy about it
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games has revealed a newly redesigned logo. The League of Legends developer announced its logo refresh in a recent blog post. “As technology changed and we began playing in new environments, it became clear that the logo we used for so long and had grown so fond of needed a rework,” Riot Games said. Working closely with company founders Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck, designers came up with a …
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
Rogue drops Kikis, Excel finds a new coach prior to LEC summer split
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid sweep Phong Vu Buffalo, advance at Mid-Season Invitational
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Immortals raises $30 million, acquires Gamers Club, looks to LCS
By
William Davis
