League of Legends
League of Legends
Cloud9 secure second place ahead of LCS spring playoffs
William Davis
Cloud9 secured two wins in week nine and claimed second place in the 2019 LCS Spring Split regular season. In a time when analysts discuss whether Team Liquid or TSM are the strongest teams in North America, Cloud9 continues to hold its own at the top. The World Championship semifinalist started the week by taking down FlyQuest, and the match was all about Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi on Jinx. The rest …
League of Legends
Gen.G strikes out against relegation threat versus Afreeca Freecs
William Davis
The Gen.G squad has saved itself from relegation with a victory against Afreeca Freecs. Gen.G added another win to its record and will be avoiding the Korean relegation tournament. After a rough start to the spring season, the squad is securing the needed points to earn a summer split seed. Game one started with jungler Lee “Dread” Jin-hyeok pressuring Han “Peanut” Wang-ho out of the jungle. Peanut has been struggling …
League of Legends
League of Legends, Fortnite, Apex Legends among best earners on PC
Fariha Bhatti
League of Legends was ranked as the world’s second highest grossing PC game of February 2019. The information provided by SuperData Research also placed Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Dota 2 in the top 10 highest earning games. Fortnite and Apex Legends did double duty, appearing on both the PC and console listings. League of Legends formerly occupied the top spot in the rankings, but recently lost it to 2D beat-em-up …
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 looks stronger than ever in matchup with Sandbox Gaming
William Davis
SK Telecom T1 secured a convincing win over Sandbox Gaming and is looking strong heading to the playoffs. SKT looks to be back to its former glory. The three-time world champion is heading to the playoffs as a strong contender for the LCK spring title. A victory against Sandbox puts SKT in second place, a position they’re likely to keep through the rest of the regular season. Games one and …
League of Legends
Team Liquid star Jensen gets kill number 1,000 in LCS play
Olivia Richman
Team Liquid mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen earned his 1,000th LCS kill during Liquid’s victory over Clutch Gaming. This is a career milestone for pro League of Legends players, and Liquid didn’t waste any time letting the esports organization’s Twitter followers know what their newest player had accomplished. For Jensen, it was a reminder of how long he’s been playing League of Legends competitively. “I’m getting old,” Jensen said. Jensen joined …
League of Legends
FlyQuest secure LCS spring playoff spot with Team Liquid upset
William Davis
FlyQuest secured its path to the playoffs after a surprising victory over Team Liquid. FlyQuest pulled one of the biggest upsets of the LCS split against Team Liquid. It all started in the pick and ban phase where FlyQuest drafted a poke composition. Liquid had the chance to counter-pick in the top lane, but instead drafted Kennen for Jung “Impact” Eon-yeong. In the early game, Liquid jungler Jake “Xmithie” Puchero …
League of Legends
Team Liquid secures playoff bye with win over Clutch Gaming
William Davis
Team Liquid secured first place and a pass to the semifinals after taking down Clutch Gaming. For the second split in a row, Team Liquid is qualifying directly to the semifinals where they will wait patiently for their opponent. Before preparing for playoffs, the defending champion must still complete the remainder of its regular season schedule. The match against Clutch Gaming went heavily in favor of Team Liquid. In the …
League of Legends
Score becomes the first to play 500 matches in the LCK
Olivia Richman
Go “Score” Dong-bin has officially become the first player in LCK history to play 500 matches in his career. KT Rolster’s jungler played his 500th game against SANDBOX Gaming during the 2019 Spring Split. Even though SANDBOX took the victory with a 2-1 finish, the game made history because of Score’s unusual achievement. His win-loss ratio for those 500 games is 60.8 percent, with 304 wins and 196 losses. This …
Fnatic end spring split emphatically with wins over G2, Splyce
William Davis
News
Fnatic finished the LEC spring split with two convincing wins against G2 Esports and Splyce. After a rough start to the new year, Fnatic is ending the regular season as one of the front-runners for the spring title. On Saturday, Fnatic took down G2 after an action-packed match that had fans on the edges of their seats. Fnatic played an aggressive early game with multiple dives in different lanes across …
Nike partners with League of Legends Pro League in China
William Davis
League of Legends
Nike is now the official footwear partner for China’s League of Legends Pro League. Riot Games announced the partnership between the sports equipment manufacturer and the LPL in an online press release. Nike will be designing the official jerseys and footwear for all 16 teams in the league starting this year. Fans will also get the chance to get their hands on the newly branded LPL merchandise. Gaining Nike as …
Cloud9 partners with BMW, promises Cloud9 players in commercial
gabhernandez
League of Legends
Cloud9 has announced its new partnership with automobile giant BMW. The American esports organization revealed the sponsorship deal in a Twitter post along with a quick video from CEO Jack Etienne. Although the scope and details of the deal were not released, Etienne stated that the Cloud9 team did make some new commercials for BMW. Notable Cloud9 members such as Overwatch player Becca “Aspen” Rukavina and League of Legends player …
KT Rolster threatened by relegation after loss to SK Telecom T1
William Davis
League of Legends
SK Telecom T1 secured round two of 2019’s Telecom War with a victory over KT Rolster. SKT and KT are having very different seasons. While the former world champions at SK Telecom T1 are thriving, KT Rolster is close to the relegation tournament. This round of the Telecom War was defined by KT’s passiveness and SKT’s superior drafting. KT was able to take game one, but the retaliation from SKT …
Bart to lead League of Legends team in upcoming Simpsons episode
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The Simpsons is going to give its take on esports. The long-running comedy series has a new episode coming out this Sunday that will tackle the world of competitive gaming. Entitled “E My Sports,” it has Bart becoming a professional gamer alongside some of his classmates. The episode preview reads, “As Bart begins to excel in video game competitions, Homer discovers a passion for coaching him. Lisa attempts to bring …
League of Legends to change positional ranking after harsh feedback
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends will be discontinuing positional ranking worldwide on March 13. According to an official announcement from League of Legends metagame system designer Ed “SapMagic” Altorfer, Riot has noted players’ frustration with the “grindiness, low satisfaction of off-position games, and teammates not taking off-position games seriously enough.” Altorfer said Riot has noticed that up to 30 percent of League of Legends players in North America and Korea are not …
Riot releases hotfix to nerf a new powerful Neeko build
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot is releasing a micropatch focused on nerfing new champion Neeko. The patch will lower Neeko’s base damage and attack speed drastically. Her attack speed will be lowered from 3.5 percent per level to just 1.5 percent. Her attack damage is also going down one percentage point. The patch changes that stand out the most are to Neeko’s W ability, reducing her on-hit damage from 50-170 to 50-130. The patch …
Veteran LCS broadcaster Zirene surprises fans, leaves Riot Games
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games is losing another iconic caster. It seemed like analyst Joshua “Jatt” Leesman had just announced his switch from broadcast to balance when Aidan “Zirene” Moon took to Twitter to declare his retirement from LCS shoutcasting. “I have left to explore and pursue other opportunities,” Zirene said. Zirene streaming and content creation as his new focus, though he added that he remains open to other opportunities should they come …
IWillDominate reaches Grandmaster rank in under a week
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid League of Legends streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera took to Twitter to announce that he reached Grandmaster rank in less than a week. “I’m so fucking happy right now,” IWillDominate said. To achieve this astounding feat, IWillDominate hosted a 17 hour stream, playing 26 straight games with no duos. “I can fucking do it,” he exclaimed on stream after accomplishing his goal. “Nothing can hold me back.” The numbers …
China set to establish a national Esports Work Council
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The China Internet Association has announced its plan to implement an Esports Work Council. At a Digital Esports and Intelligent Economy summit in Beijing, the China Internet Association met with political officials and multiple Chinese companies related to esports. It announced plans to create an Esports Work Council, which will promote, reinforce, and standardize the country’s esport industry. It will also combine esports planning with China’s existing education strategies to …
Lee Sin master InSec officially retires from pro League of Legends
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Although Choi “InSec” In-seok is sad about his retirement from League of Legends, he ends his career knowing he made an impact not only on his fans, but on the very game he played. InSec is known for his innovative mastery of jungle champion Lee Sin. InSec became so associated with the champion that there is an in-game strategy named after him: The InSec Kick. It’s a move that uses …
Cloud9 becomes first esports team sponsored by AT&T
Olivia Richman
News
Cloud9 has been chosen for AT&T’s first esports team sponsorship. Shiz Suzuki, who works in sponsorships and marketing for AT&T, spoke to the passion of Cloud9’s fans as the driving reason for the company’s choice. “We wanted a team with a crazy passionate fan base, the real folks that just love their team,” Suzuki said. The terms of this new deal give AT&T presenting rights to Cloud9’s new weekly digital …
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
Faker confident as SK Telecom T1 looks to build on early 2019 success
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
TSM impresses with win over LCS leading Team Liquid prior to playoffs
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Golden Guardians complete turnaround with first ever playoff birth
By
gabhernandez
