League of Legends
League of Legends
Team Liquid looking to defend NA LCS title in Oakland
William Davis
Team Liquid have taken down 100 Thieves to qualify for the NA LCS summer finals. The match had big implications for both organizations, as the winner would qualify for both the summer split final and the World Championship. The match began with a surprise, as Cody “Cody Sun” Sun was replaced by academy player Richard “Rikara” Samuel Oh as 100 Thieves’ starting AD carry. Game one was defined by jungler …
League of Legends
Fnatic defeats Misfits and qualifies for EU LCS summer finals
William Davis
Defending champion Fnatic took down Misfits in the EU LCS semifinals and will travel to Madrid to compete for the summer split title. Fnatic jumped into game one with Martin “Rekkles” Larsson back on the starting roster. At 14 minutes, Misfits took the tier two turret in the bottom lane, but Fnatic managed to build a gold advantage that couldn’t be ignored. Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau was caught out of position multiple times, …
League of Legends
FC Schalke 04 qualifies for EU LCS finals
William Davis
FC Schalke 04 Esports qualified to the EU LCS final for the first time after defeating Team Vitality in an intense series. Schalke and Vitality met in the semifinals with Vitality as the favorite. The team in black and yellow finished the summer split on a strong note thanks to new jungler Mateusz “Kikis” Szkudlarek. Schalke was more inconsistent throughout the season, enduring some difficult losses by the end. In …
League of Legends
Jin Air defeats Griffin to stave off relegation
William Davis
For , the story has been very different. The rookie team is having a successful first split in the LCK, only comparable to the early years of SK Telecom T1. Griffin showed a strong performance and found convincing victories against strong teams like Afreeca Freecs and Gen G, but couldn’t take a victory from Jin Air Green Wings in week seven. In game one, Griffin opted for Teemo and Soraka in the bottom lane. The …
League of Legends
Return of the Legends 2018
Steven Rondina
Return of the Legends is coming back around for another year. The tournament started in 2017 and looks to be an recurring annual event. Return of the Legends 2018 features retired professional players from both the eastern and western parts of the world. Old fans of Cloud9 will see familiar faces in Hai “Hai” Lam and Derek “LemonNation” Hart. TSM’s Marcus “Dyrus” Hill will also be on Team West, along …
League of Legends
Cloud9 continue epic comeback with playoff bye
Steven Rondina
Cloud9 has done what seemed impossible. After sitting in 10th place in the standings just four weeks ago, Cloud9 is now guaranteed a top two finish in the 2018 NA LCS Summer Split. They will qualify for the 2018 NA LCS Summer Playoffs with a quarterfinals bye. A win over Golden Guardians secured a playoff seed for Cloud9, and a subsequent victory over FlyQuest secured the bye — not bad …
League of Legends
Wildturtle and FlyQuest are headed to LCS playoffs
Steven Rondina
A week 9 victory over Golden Guardians resulted in FlyQuest punching its first ticket to the playoffs in two years. The seeding will be determined in the remaining games of the regular season. FlyQuest has been a pleasant surprise in the summer split, rising to fan favorite status after a slew of backdoor victories. In an interview with InvenGlobal, AD Carry Jason “WILDTURTLE” Tran attributed FlyQuest’s rise to his teammates’ …
League of Legends
Tyler1 leads push for voice comms in League solo queue
gabhernandez
The maligned solo queue experience has been a subject of ridicule since League of Legends’ inception, but there are some surprising people who are working hard to improve it. Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp, a League of Legends player and content creator once renowned for his negative attitude and ensuing permanent ban from League of Legends, has proved once again that he has turned over a new leaf. On August …
Breaking Down the NA LCS Coach of the Split Candidates
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The NA LCS Coach of the Split award is highly contested, as it’s often difficult to recognize a coach’s direct impact on a team. But certain coaches in the NA LCS are clearly doing more with less. OpTic Gaming is currently in the NA LCS playoff picture after a ninth-place finish in the Spring Split. Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage has been an absolute monster, and head coach Thomas “Zaboutine” Si-Hassen deserves …
OpTic Gaming steals a win from Echo Fox with surprise Fizz
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
If OpTic Gaming’s playoff hopes are dashed, the team certainly missed the memo. The boys behind the Green Wall continue to challenge top teams in their last ditch effort towards playoff qualification. Facing off against a talented Echo Fox roster, OpTic Gaming threw several curveballs during the draft phase. Noh “Arrow” Dong-Tak was given his signature Draven, and was paired with an enabler in Terry “Big” Chuong’s support Zilean. The …
Team Liquid secures NA LCS Summer Playoffs slot
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Team Liquid has qualified for the 2018 NA LCS Summer Playoffs after a win over OpTic Gaming secured the team a bye in the playoffs. Team Liquid has stayed ahead of the pack in the NA LCS, but this is the first time they’ve solidified themselves in the summer as the clear favorite in the North American region. A 2018 Spring Championship had Team Liquid firing on all cylinders, but …
Misfits bench MikyX in favor of Jesiz
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
After a second half dip in performance in the 2018 EU LCS Summer Split, Misfits are shaking things up. Misfits have announced that strategic coach Jesse “Jesiz” Le will be starting at support, leaving Mihael “MikyX” Mehle on the bench for the first time this season. Misfits began the Summer Split with an undefeated first half of play. Since then, the team has struggled to adapt to the new and …
Rekkles returns to Fnatic starting lineup
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Fnatic’s hero has returned, as Martin “Rekkles” Larsson will return to the squad’s starting lineup this week. Following Fnatic’s EU LCS Spring Championship and subsequent Mid Season Invitational appearance, the League of Legends meta went through some dramatic changes. Mage bot lanes were an increasingly viable strategy, and Rekkles’ individual game impact suffered when taken off of his signature marksmen picks. Rekkles opted to take a step back from the …
Zikz Leaves CLG
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
For the first time in five years, Tony “Zikz” Gray will not be coaching for Counter Logic Gaming, as the most decorated League of Legends coach in NA LCS history is parting ways with his team. Zikz joined CLG in 2013 as a remote analyst before moving up the chain and eventually become head coach of the team. Under Zikz’s leadership, CLG won its second NA LCS championship in the …
Golden Guardians make sweeping staff changes
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Golden Guardians has replaced the entirety of their NA LCS coaching staff. Golden Guardians Academy head coach Daniel “Mango” Morissette will be assuming all head coaching duties for the team. Under interim spring head coach Tyler Perron, Golden Guardians looked to be a team hitting its stride. Sitting at 5-3 after four weeks of play is a massive improvement from a tenth-place effort in the spring split. But the Golden …
Inero joins Golden Guardians as consultant
William Davis
League of Legends
Nick “Inero” Smith is joining Golden Guardians as a consultant, the team announced through a news release on social media. Inero started his career as coach back in 2015 with Mousesports, a European esports organization. In May 2017 he became the head coach of Echo Fox as the team began its transition into the newly franchised NA LCS. Under Inero’s command, Echo Fox finished in third place during the Spring …
Clutch Gaming part with Head Coach
William Davis
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming is parting ways with head coach David Lim, the organization has announced through a press release. Clutch Gaming finished the Spring Split in fourth place, but failed to find similar success in the summer. The changes in the meta didn’t favor AD Carry Apollo “Apollo” Price, the player widely considered the key to the team’s success. According to the press release, assistant coach Anand “Curry” Agarwal was appointed …
Cloud9 opens summer split with perfect week
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Cloud9 finally has something to smile about, securing its first unbeaten week in Week 6 of the 2018 NA LSC Summer Split. Up until this week, Cloud9 has looked completely lost. A revolving door of a roster has seemingly done nothing to fix the team’s in-game indecision that has marred its results since the beginning of the split. Cloud9 sat in last place early on, looking like the worst team …
Pobelter Scores 1000th Kill in LCS career
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Team Liquid Mid Laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park has secured the thousandth kill of his NA LCS career. The kill came 26 minutes into Team Liquid shutting the door on Clutch Gaming, as Pobelter’s Orianna eliminated Chae “Piglet” Gwang-jin’s Ezreal. Pobelter’s thousandth kill was his first of the game, as Team Liquid characteristically won the early game through the bot lane. The “Notorious POB’s” achievement was almost an afterthought in another …
Clutch Gaming make big roster moves in bid for playoffs
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Clutch Gaming will be making some big substitutions this week. Jungler Nam “LirA” Tae-yoo, AD carry Apollo “Apollo” Price, and support Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent will not be on the starting roster. Clutch Gaming Academy jungler Galen “Moon” Holgate will be debuting on the main roster alongside academy bot lane duo Chae “Piglet” Gwang-Jin and Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme. This is the first time Clutch Gaming has adjusted its roster in its …
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.
