League of Legends
League of Legends
All the changes coming to ranked promos in LoL Season 13
Nicholas James
Season 13 is nearly upon us, with the season starting on January 10, 2023, but there are some changes to ranked promos coming with it that will affect players differently. Ranked promotions have been the subject of community complaints and memes over many years due to their volatile nature. Otherwise known as promos, they are a set series of games, previously a best-of-five, that determine whether or not a player …
League of Legends
When does League of Legends Season 13 start and end?
Nicholas James
2022’s League of Legends season has ended, so with Season 12 behind us, when does League of Legends season 13 start and end? Every year in League of Legends is broken into seasonal categorizations, which bracket a year’s patches, new champions, competitive events, and more. For fans looking forwards to this year’s ranked play opening up, as well as other events, what can they expect? Here’s what we know and …
League of Legends
The best official League of Legends merch
Nicholas James
Want to show off your love for League with some sweet decorations or grab a gift for a Rift-obsessed friend? Here’s some of the best League of Legends merch to grab going into the new year. League of Legends is the world’s most popular game, so there are good odds you’ve got somebody in your life who plays if you don’t play yourself. This means there are also plenty of …
League of Legends
The TSM Triple controversy that got him fired
Nicholas James
TSM’s North American Challenger League mid laner has been fired following massive controversy that involved threats of gun violence, drug abuse, and more, so here’s what you need to know about the TSM Triple controversy. Stephen “Triple” Li is an amateur League of Legends player who plays mid lane, originating from Australia in the Oceania region. After it was announced that Li would be the Challenger League mid laner signing …
League of Legends
How to get more FPS in League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends can run on practically any PC, but here are some tips for how to get more FPS in League of Legends. If you find your rig dropping frames in the middle of a crucial team fight or suddenly freezing up as a Rengar leaps out of the bush at you, there might be some solutions within your control. While it’s a relatively well-optimized game, sometimes League of …
League of Legends
Garena’s exit from League of Legends continues to be messy
Nicholas James
Garena’s legacy in League of Legends is mixed to say the least, and its exit from the scene as the SEA region’s provider continues to solidify its reputation as an example of poor behavior. Garena is the company who has, for the entirety of the region’s existence, distributed League of Legends to the SEA region. During that time, it has been mired by controversy, exploitative business practices, gambling misbehavior and …
League of Legends
The best League of Legends Christmas skins
Nicholas James
The holiday season is here, so get into the season with some of League of Legends’ best holiday cosmetics. Here are the best League of Legends holiday skins. Every year, come winter time, Riot Games tends to release a variety of snow and holiday season-themed cosmetics for a variety of champions. If you’re looking for gifts for your League of Legends teammates or just want to peruse the options for …
League of Legends
What is My Shop in League of Legends?
Nicholas James
My Shop is an event-restricted feature in League of Legends that offers skins on varying discounts. Here’s how My Shop works. My Shop was introduced by Riot Games as a way to encourage players to purchase cosmetics for champions they play regularly by offering tailored discounts on randomized skins through the League of Legends client. Here’s when you can expect My Shop as well as exactly how it works. While …
Nemesis is leaving South Korea after two years of streaming
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Former League of Legends pro Tim “Nemesis” Lipovsek is leaving South Korea after streaming from the country for two years. Nemesis left pro play to join Gen.G as a streamer in January 2021, moving from Europe to South Korea for the full-time position. The content has been fire for League of Legends fans since South Korea notoriously has a much more difficult ranked ladder. Nemesis was also making content with …
LoL’s most hated champion gets new abilities with Yuumi rework
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games is reworking one of the most frustrating champions in all of League of Legends, and here’s what it plans to do with a Yuumi rework. Yuumi has rapidly ascended to be one of the game’s most-hated characters in her approximately three-year tenure in League of Legends. A versatile hyper-enchanter with the option to cling to fed carries and unkillable tanks for immunity, Yuumi provides tons of unfun moments …
The LCS is moving to weekdays in 2023 and fans are annoyed
Nicholas James
League of Legends
It was recently announced that the North American professional League of Legends, LCS, would be moving to weekdays rather than weekends, causing fan backlash. The LCS has been struggling with infrequent viewership and fan engagement for a few years, with Riot Games trying many remedies to this to mixed success. The latest change in line from the League of Legends developer for its North American league is a move to …
Here’s what Faker said to Deft about winning Worlds
Nicholas James
League of Legends
DragonX’s victory at Worlds 2022 is the greatest Cinderella story in League of Legends’ history. Deft and Faker’s faceoff in the Worlds 2022 grand finals was a legendary series that will stand the test of time as one of the game’s best moments ever. Recently, the two of them had the chance to face each other again as a part of a show match, during which the Unkillable Demon King …
Rekkles returns to Fnatic after time in LFL
Nicholas James
League of Legends
It has been announced that the rumours were true and all-star AD carry Martin “Rekkles” Larsson will return to Fnatic for the 2023 LEC season. For much of Fnatic’s existence as a European League of Legends organization, it has been synonymous with Rekkles, the franchise ADC who’d carried them to many domestic victories. After his departure to G2 and subsequent demotion to the French regional league, the legendary marksman is …
2023 MSI rumored to be happening in London, UK
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The next Mid-Season Invitational, 2023 MSI, is rumored to be happening in London, United Kingdom, according to Esports News UK. The Mid-Season Invitational is one of two international events in which professional League of Legends teams from every region converge on one country to face off in competition. According to Esports News UK, the 2023 MSI will happen in London, United Kingdom. Esports News UK announced on December 12 that …
This League of Legends pro player is being sued
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A League of Legends pro player is being sued by an agency for breach of contract, here’s what you need to know. Steven “Hans Sama” Liv, LEC Veteran and recent LCS import, is being sued by a previous agency, ARC, for hiring another agency to negotiate deals at the end of the 2021 season despite having an exclusive contract, according to sources who spoke to Jacob Wolf of the Jacob …
League of Legends Season 13 ranked changes explained
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Big changes are coming to League of Legends in Season 13 ranked; here’s everything you need to know. Fans are used to League of Legends having one single ranked split, with recent seasons introducing the idea of ranked splits. Now there will be two ranked resets in Season 2023, with Split 1 beginning as usual in January. Split 2, along with the second rank reset, is happening some time in …
Everything we learned from new Project L gameplay
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Project L is the highly anticipated fighting game from Riot Games set in Runeterra. Here’s everything we learned from the latest Project L gameplay video. Riot Games is set on trying to dominate the biggest gaming spaces after dwarfing the MOBA space with League of Legends, making a huge bang with the entrance of Valorant for tac-shooters, TFT for auto battlers, and now Project L for fighting games. After a …
League of Legends Amazon Prime Gaming rewards for December 2022
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The League of Legends Amazon Prime Gaming Awards for December are here, here’s how you can receive the rewards as well as what to expect. Amazon Prime and Riot Games have several ongoing collaborations in which subscribing to Amazon’s premium subscription service gives the player several free rewards in the game every month. These range from paid items like skins and other cosmetics to more cheaply-accessible characters and even free …
Who will League of Legends’ next villain be?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Ever since the defeat of Viego, the Ruined King, League of Legends’ storyline has been in a rut. So who will League of Legends’ villain be for the next world event? For the longest time, the League of Legends lore and story was stuck in a state of limbo, with new lore being added for newly-released champions but no actual movement in the overall world. This all changed with the …
Funneling is back in League of Legends and fans are mad
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Funneling in League of Legends is perhaps the most-hated strategy in the history of the game, revolving around super-charging a single player on one team. And now it’s back. Funneling previously showed up in League of Legends with mid laners picking supportive champions instead of traditional options, and alternating between helping the intended super carry and holding minions in mid lane for the funneling target to collect. Previously, it involved …
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.
