League of Legends
League of Legends
Players still seeing usernames in League of Legends ranked
Nicholas James
Riot Games introduced a system that hides Summoner’s names during ranked champion select, but players claim that they can still see ranked usernames in League of Legends. For most of League of Legends’ history, seeing the usernames of your teammates in champion select was simply a part of the game. The player’s in-game name would be displayed underneath their champion icon and players were free to check their teammates’ match …
League of Legends
“I never think about losing to any team” – An interview with TL CoreJJ
Nicholas James
Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-In is a world champion staring down yet another season in North America, he took the time to talk about his new team, the current meta, and advice for teammates. After a disappointing winless start for Team Liquid, CoreJJ took time out of his day to chat with WIN.gg about the current state of the bot lane. This year’s Team Liquid roster looks very different from 2022. How …
News
The worst and best Season 13 League of Legends champions
Nicholas James
The 2023 League of Legends season has arrived with new items, a new drake, and tons of big changes for players, so here are the worst and the best Season 13 champions. Season 13 has brought some serious changes to League of Legends, bringing the usual large-scale rebalances and system changes that players associate with the preseason. This year has brought the return of Chemtech Drake, an overhaul to the …
![“I’m gonna see if [A-Sol] is a viable support”: 100T Huhi](/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Capture-14.png.webp)
League of Legends
“I’m gonna see if [A-Sol] is a viable support”: 100T Huhi
Nicholas James
Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun took the time to talk with WIN.gg about his return to Golden Guardians, playing with Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes again, and the new Aurelion Sol rework. Choi “Huhi” Jae-hyun has competed in the LCS since 2014. His eight years of competitive play have seen him swap from mid lane to support and reemerge as a top-level competitor on his new role. After departing from 100 Thieves and returning …
League of Legends
Hackers are holding Riot Games’ code hostage
Nicholas James
After being the victim of a social engineering attack last week, hackers are now holding Riot Games’ code hostage. In mid-January, Riot Games announced that it had been the target of a successful social engineering attack, but that player information had not been compromised. In a follow-up, Riot Games specified that source code for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and an out-of-use anti-cheat system had been stolen. The next week, …
League of Legends
VIT Perkz fined for using banned Ryze rune combo
Nicholas James
Team Vitality’s mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perkovic has been fined for using a banned Ryze rune in LEC play despite not getting any advantage from it. VIT Perkz was targeted by a LEC fine for using a prohibited champion and rune combination in his match against Fnatic. The combination in question allows Ryze to theoretically regenerate near-infinite mana due to a set of unintended interactions. For this reason, anybody playing …
League of Legends
LFL player MS Nicolaiy kicked for sexism
Nicholas James
LFL League of Legends professional player Nicolai “Nicolaiy” Garkov has been kicked from his team for sexism towards Maya “Caltys” Henkel in solo queue. Nicolaiy was previously the jungler for LFL professional team MS Company, before the significant backlash to his actions earlier this week. Screenshots were posted to Caltys’ Twitter after the G2 Hel bot laner had an encounter with the LFL player. The toxicity occured during a solo …
League of Legends
League of Legends Mystery Champion guide
Nicholas James
League of Legends has kicked off its 13th official season, adding the Mystery Champion quest for players to complete, here are all of the LoL Mystery Champions. League of Legends is often looking for new ways to engage players and keep them loading back into Summoner’s Rift or the Howling Abyss. The latest of these is a recurring event in which players have their knowledge of League of Legends characters …
How to play League of Legends in 4K
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends is a surprisingly versatile game, and learning how to play it in 4K resolution takes just a few minutes. League of Legends can run on a surprising variety of systems, from years-old MacBooks to top-of-the-line PCs. While the game can have its graphical fidelity and system demands brought down to meet low-spec systems, it can also be brought up to top-tier demands. Here’s how to play League …
Thebausffs banned for “inting” in 0/12 Quinn game
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends streamer Thebausffs was banned for inting in League of Legends after going 0/12 on Quinn in the top lane. League of Legends streamer and high ELO player Simon “Thebausffs” Hofverberg had one of his accounts banned after going 0/12 in the top lane on Quinn. Thebausffs is known for his attrition-heavy gameplay and proclivity to run up a lot of deaths over the course of the game. …
“Worlds games played THE part in promotion”: An interview with Fnatic Rhuckz
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
On the back of Fnatic’s close opening day defeat to Team Vitality, we spoke with rookie Rúben “Rhuckz” Barbosa. The Portuguese support was recently promoted from academy Fnatic TQ to the LEC starting roster after impressive substitute performances at last season’s World Championship. WIN.gg: You tweeted about taking eight years to reach the LEC and have done so at the age of 26. Do you take that in your stride, …
“Hopefully Odo will feed”: An interview with KOI Larssen
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
In our interview with Emil “Larssen” Larsson, Larssen talks rough scrims, his transfer to KOI, and the squad’s upcoming bout with Excel. KOI is off to a grand start in the 2023 LEC season, winning its opening match 1-0 over Team BDS. Before the squad’s next match against Excel, mid-laner Larssen graciously sat down for an interview with WIN.gg to talk about his experience on the team. He opened up …
Riot addresses problems with the Jax update
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Recently, League of Legends developer Riot Games has released a Jax update, giving the champion new abilities and animations, but this Midscope Update hasn’t been without its problems. Riot Games has begun to focus less and less on full-scale Visual Gameplay Updates for old champions, in which both the gameplay, aesthetic, and story of a champion are completely revamped from the ground up. In their place, Midscope Updates have been …
Froskurinn retires from gaming, expresses disappointment
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Indiana “Froskurinn” Black has announced her retirement from the gaming space while expressing disappointment in her peers’ behavior, so here’s what we know about Froskurinn’s retirement. Froskurinn made her debut and much of her brand commentating League of Legends professional play in both China and later the European professional scene. After departing the League of Legends scene, she worked for G4TV as a host and content creator. She most recently …
How to see most played League of Legends champions
William Davis
League of Legends
You can say a lot about a League of Legends player just by looking at their statistics. Especially from the champions they play. League of Legends offers plenty of stats on a player’s profile. Still, a new website has all the players sharing their most played League of Legends champions in a visually appealing way. The over 140 champions in League of Legends are divided into six classes, Controller, Fighter, …
Who are Milio and Naafiri in League of Legends?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Two new champions were announced in the Season 2023 season start video, Milio and Naafiri, but who are they and what can fans expect from their release? At the start of every year’s ranked season, Riot Games gives fans a peek at the content coming down the pipe for League of Legends players that year. For 2023, two newcomers to the League of Legends have been announced ahead of their …
How to complete all the Lunar Gala TFT quests
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The yearly lunar new year event has come to Teamfight Tactics, which means tons of rewards if you make some visiting Tiny Tacticians happy, so here’s how to complete all the Lunar Gala TFT quests. Riot Games brings a lunar new year to the League of Legends client every year, and that means a lunar festival for its auto battler counterpart, Teamfight Tactics. The biggest draw of the annual celebration …
Riot gets creative in new 2v2v2v2 League of Legends game mode
Nicholas James
League of Legends
After years of fans requesting a wider variety of ways to play the game, a new League of Legends game mode has been confirmed by developer Riot Games. League of Legends, Riot Games’ hugely successful MOBA, has had a problem with gameplay diversity for several years. The main mode takes place on Summoner’s Rift, the regularly-evolving iteration of the standard three-lane MOBA map. The only other permanently available game mode …
Riot Games admits mistakes, says season 2024 will be better
Nicholas James
League of Legends
After significant backlash over the Season 13 launch cinematic, Riot Games has come out to admit its mistakes and promise that Season 2024 will see improvements. Riot Games has been dealing with fan backlash for its decisions around professional play, in-game events, champion reworks, and the Season 13 launch cinematic. After a lackluster season launch cinematic that eschewed the expected champion-focused storytelling top-notch cinematic for a lazy flyby of Summoner’s …
SEA transfer leaves LoL players annoyed
Nicholas James
League of Legends
After League of Legends was taken away from Garena in Southeast Asia, fans expected improvements but have since been left annoyed by continued issues after the SEA transfer. League of Legends in the Southeast Asia region was previously managed by Garena, a third-party company given publishing control of the game by Riot Games in the area. Repeated misbehaviour, exploitative purchasing behaviour, and complaints from the Southeast Asian community led to …
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.
