League of Legends
League of Legends
Flash Wolves lose Maple, SwordArt, and more
William Davis
The biggest League of Legends team in Southeast Asia is about to look very different. Kim “MooJin” Moo-jin, Huang “Maple” Yi-Tang, and Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh are leaving Flash Wolves, while Yu “MMD” Li-Hong is retiring from competitive League of Legends. After a mediocre performance at the 2018 World Championship, the most successful team from the LMS is losing four key players. According to a message on Facebook, the players are …
League of Legends
EU LCS rebrands to LEC, welcomes new teams
William Davis
The EU LCS is rebranding to the League of Legends European Championship, and the league’s ten franchises have now been revealed. Early this year, Riot Games announced that the EU LCS would be transitioning into a franchising system similar to the NA LCS. The developer opened the application process to any organizations looking to become permanent members in the league. As part of the transformation, the league is changing its …
League of Legends
Topsports Gaming lose former world champ Marin
Steven Rondina
Topsports Gaming has parted ways with Jang “MaRin” Gyeon-hwan, making the former world champion a free agent. MaRin’s year with TopSports Gaming was a forgettable one. The South Korean top laner came off of a massive contract with LGD Gaming in China and returned home to play for Afreeca Freecs in Season 7. Afreeca remained competitive throughout the year but failed to qualify for the World Championship, and MaRin in …
League of Legends
Comcast in the market for an LCK team
William Davis
American telecommunications conglomerate Comcast is in negotiations to acquire an LCK organization. According to a report by Invenglobal, Comcast held multiple meetings with LCK officials, players, and coaches in October. The conglomerate is looking to seal a deal before November when the transfer market opens in the LCK. Many of Korea’s best and brightest stars in League of Legends are set to enter free agency heading into the new year. …
League of Legends
Riot Games expanding music department following K/DA debut
William Davis
Riot Games is exploring new avenues of entertainment following the success of their latest musical production. K/DA is a k-pop group created and produced by Riot Games. It features the musical talents of American singers Madison Beer and Jaira Burns, as well as Soyeon and Miyeon of k-pop girl group (G)I-dle. The quartet premiered their inaugural single “POP/STARS” during the World Championship opening ceremony. An animated music video was released …
League of Legends
Riot offers special edition k/da Ahri figure
William Davis
Riot Games has revealed a new special edition K/DA Ahri figure as a part of its recent K/DA promotion. To celebrate the debut of the new K-pop sensation K/DA, Riot Games launched a new merchandise line including a special edition Ahri figure. K/DA made its first appearance at the 2018 World Championship final at the Incheon Munhak Stadium in South Korea. The girl group consists of Evelynn, Kai’Sa, Akali, and …
League of Legends
EG and NiP play wild series in Kuala Lumpur
Steven Rondina
Fans that stayed up for day two of the Kuala Lumpur Dota 2 Major playoffs were treated to a big upset. In the first series of the night, Peter “ppd” Dager captained Ninjas In Pyjamas to victory over his former team, Evil Geniuses. The newly formed European squad bested the North American elites 2-1 to advance in the upper bracket. For a time, it seemed as though the series was …
League of Legends
KT and EDG secure spot in World’s quarterfinals
Steven Rondina
The 2018 League of Legends World Championship has been absolutely rocked by upsets throughout the group stage, but Tuesday made for a much more familiar scene. South Korea’s first Seed KT Rolster exited Group C, and China’s EDward Gaming finished behind them. Team Liquid and MAD Team will end their Worlds journeys in groups. While an 0-6 record from MAD Team was disappointing but somewhat expected, Team Liquid’s 3-3 third …
Mastercard Becomes First Global Sponsor for League of Legends
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
Mastercard is now the first global sponsor for League of Legend esports. In a statement on their website, Riot Games announced a multi-year partnership with the international credit card company. Mastercard is no stranger to sponsorships with traditional sporting leagues such as Major League Baseball. With this new sponsorship, Riot Games has taken a big step in advertising in the esports industry. “Mastercard is among the first of world-class brands …
Invictus Gaming win Riot’s World Championship
gabhernandez
League of Legends
The LPL’s Invictus Gaming crushed Fnatic in a 3-0 series to cement themselves in modern League of Legends history as world champions. The series began with IG in the driver’s seat. IG jungler Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning applied early pressure on Fnatic mid laner Rasmus “Caps” Winther. IG took first blood against Caps and continued to punch down the middle lane. Fnatic’s Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen tried to stem the bleeding with …
Alex Ich retires from pro play
William Davis
League of Legends
Veteran League of Legends pro Aleksei “Alex Ich” Ichetovkin has retired from competitive play. The legendary CIS mid laner had been silent about his competitive status for some time. He hadn’t competed since leaving Team EnVyUs in 2017. Alex took to Twitter to give an update on his life and career. “I don’t really want to write Donezo Manifesto so will be short. I have retired, have got Green Card …
Fnatic to Worlds Final after Sweeping Cloud9
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic secured its pass to the 2018 World Championship final after defeating Cloud9 in the semifinals. The European champion continued its dominant performance in the World Championship, this time against the only North American representative to made it out of groups. Game one started with an early first blood in the mid lane in favor of Fnatic. Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen then tried to get a kill in the top lane, …
IG Dominates G2 and Moves to Worlds Finals
William Davis
League of Legends
Invictus Gaming qualified for the 2018 World Championship final after defeating G2 Esports in three games. IG showed its dominance in a series that seemed finished almost as quickly as it began. Song “Rookie” Eui-jin started the action in game one with first blood at only eight minutes. The mid lane was action-packed, but the true star of the match was Yu “JackeyLove” Wen-Bo. The young bottom laner had a …
Big changes coming to League’s ranked play
William Davis
League of Legends
With the end of the current competitive season in sight, Riot Games has revealed plans for some big changes to League of Legends’ ranked system. Riot uploaded a video to their YouTube page explaining that there were going to be significant adjustments to ranked play in 2019. This announcement comes after many complaints this year from the community about the state of the game, including Team Liquid bot laner Yiliang …
Michael Jordan Invests in aXiomatic Gaming
William Davis
League of Legends
One of the biggest names in all of sports is getting in on the esports industry. NBA megastar and hall of fame member Michael Jordan joined other investors as a part of a $26 million series C funding round for aXiomatic Gaming, the parent company behind Team Liquid. This continues a trend of big name athletic figures investing in the emerging esports marketplace. “I’m excited to expand my sports equity …
Drake is now a co-owner of 100 Thieves
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
100 Thieves has received a big injection of cash and star power. According to its official website, the esports organization secured Series A funding from the duo of hip-hop star Drake and SB Projects founder Scooter Braun. Braun is the talent manager and entertainment executive behind the likes of Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen. In addition to the investment, Drake and Braun are now co-owners alongside former Call of Duty …
Faker recieves almost 36% of Korean All-Star Votes
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok may have missed the World Championship for the first time since 2014, but that certainly hasn’t hurt his popularity. The man often regarded as the best League of Legends player in the world currently possesses a whopping 35.4% of the South Korean vote for All-Star 2018. The dramatic percentage of votes was brought to attention on the League of Legends subreddit, showing a photo from Kingzone DragonX …
Cloud9 are the first NA team in Worlds semifinals
gabhernandez
League of Legends
Cloud9 is going where no North American team has gone before. Cloud9 defeated Korea’s Afreeca Freecs in a 3-0 quarterfinal series, sending a North American team to the semifinals of Riot’s World Championship for the first time in the event’s history. Game one of the quarterfinals started with Cloud9 seizing the upper hand with unrelenting pressure. Afreeca Freecs attempted to slow down the game with a focus on …
TSM Signs Zikz as head Coach
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
TSM missed the League of Legends World Championship for the first time in the history of the organization, and there has been no time wasted in making changes. TSM has signed Tony “Zikz” Gray as head coach. Zikz will be replacing Kim “SSONG” Sang-soo, who served as head coach of TSM for the majority of 2018. Zikz has spent the past five years coaching Counter Logic Gaming. Zikz initially worked …
Invictus Gaming Defeats KT Rolster in Massive Upset
William Davis
League of Legends
Invictus Gaming has secured a slot in the League of Legends 2018 World Championship after defeating KT Rolster in a 3-2 upset. Despite maintaining a high level of play throughout the World Championship, IG ended the last day of the group stage with two defeats at the hands of Fnatic. Moving into the quarterfinals, IG was given the undesirable task of going up against Korean superteam and tournament favorite KT …
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.
