League of Legends
League of Legends
Riot Games launches Season 2023 cinematic to fan backlash
Nicholas James
Riot Games has begun Season 13 with its yearly cinematic, but the Season 2023 cinematic has launched to extreme fan backlash due to what seems to be a major step down in production quality. League of Legends fans have become accustomed to incredibly high-quality cinematics that depict the world of Runeterra and the happenings therein at the start of each year. This has been a pattern since 2018, when Riot …
League of Legends
All new Season 13 champions for League of Legends
Nicholas James
Riot Games has announced all the new Season 13 champions fans can expect in 2023, so here’s everything we now know about all of the new arrivals to League of Legends this year. From midscope updates to VGUs to entirely brand-new champions, 2023 seems like it will be packed with new experiences for League of Legends players. Here’s everything we know about new champions, champion reworks, and midscope updates that …
League of Legends
Fans have mixed feelings about the new ARAM
Nicholas James
Riot Games has recently made some massive changes to League of Legends’ secondary game mode, the casual-focused ARAM, and not everybody is happy about it. ARAM is a simple game mode concept, standing for All Random All Mid, and emerged from the early days of League of Legends when Summoner’s Rift was the only available game mode. After becoming its own distinct style of gameplay, the mode languished with little …
League of Legends
Everything we know about League of Legends Season 2023
Nicholas James
Riot Games has released its annual preview video, showcasing many of the changes and upcoming additions to League of Legends for Season 2023. Here’s everything we know. Every year, Riot Games takes the time to lay out a roadmap of all the updates, new champions, and changes being brought to Summoner’s Rift and beyond over the course of that year. The League of Legends developer has released its Season 2023 …
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
What are the new champions in LoL for 2023?
Nicholas James
2022 is over, and 2023 is coming, here’s what we know about the new League of Legends champions announced for 2023. There was a time when a new League of Legends champion would arrive every two weeks, but that twice-monthly schedule is long gone. Nowadays, it’s more common for three to four champions to be released during a given year. Two of the new champions for 2023 have already been …
League of Legends
The best and worst LoL champions by popularity in 2022
Nicholas James
Season 12 has come to an end, so how has the game settled over the year, and who are the best and worst champions by popularity in 2022? League of Legends has over 160 playable champions, but who have players gravitated to more than the others this year? Season 12 saw Nilah, Bel’Veth, Renata Glasc, and K’Sante added to the game, but have any of them cracked the top champions …
Will Amazon Prime Gaming rewards for LoL end in 2023?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Amazon Prime Gaming rewards for League of Legends have been great for LoL players to get free rewards with their Prime membership, but are they going away in 2023? Amazon Prime Gaming offers monthly rewards to players of a variety of games who have connected their accounts to their Amazon Prime membership. The monthly League of Legends rewards offered by the company were part of this program, giving a …
How to get more FPS in League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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 …
Garena’s exit from League of Legends continues to be messy
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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 …
The best League of Legends Christmas skins
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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 …
What is My Shop in League of Legends?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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
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.
