League of Legends
League of Legends
Will Faker be leaving T1 in 2023?
Nicholas James
Lee “Faker” Sang-Hyeok is the greatest League of Legends player of all time in most fans’ estimation, but is Faker leaving T1? Faker has spent the entirety of his professional career signed to the same League of Legends team, SKT T1. Now, rumors are circulating that he could be looking elsewhere. Where could Faker be headed in the new year and what would that mean for him and the larger …
League of Legends
These two Lord of the Rings actors play League of Legends
Nicholas James
An overlap between the Lord of the Rings movies and League of Legends is more likely than you might think, as two Lord of the Rings actors recently revealed they play League of Legends. As much as one might expect it to be Orlando Bloom channeling his inner Legolas by playing Ashe, the Lord of the Rings actors that enjoy League of Legends are ones that played some of the …
League of Legends
Badministrator returns with Lily Pichu collaboration rap battle
Nicholas James
Community-beloved League of Legends musical artist Badministrator has returned with Lily Pichu, for a This Is War musical installment. Badministrator was a well-regarded and popular musical parody artist in the early days of League of Legends, publishing rap songs about various champions inside of League of Legends. Badministrator was well-regarded for the quality of his lyrics and smooth rhyme schemes but disappeared for several years as he stepped away from …
League of Legends
Behind the scenes of the League of Legends x Lil Nas collab
Nicholas James
League of Legends and Lil Nas X collaborated for Worlds 2022, and now Riot Games has released the behind-the-scenes look at the process. Riot Games teamed up with the massive pop music star, filming a series of promotional campaigns that depicted fictional events in which Lil Nas X becomes the President of League of Legends and enacts sweeping, and comedic, changes. The behind-the-scenes video published by Riot Games shows the …
League of Legends
League of Legends players now penalized for swearing in chat
Olivia Richman
Riot Games is implementing a new system that targets toxicity in chat. Shortly after Blizzard announced the Defense Matrix program to combat toxic players in Overwatch 2 by creating transcriptions of chat interactions, Riot Games has come out with a program that punishes “vulgarity and profanity” in League of Legends. The long and short of it is that players can no longer swear, no matter the context. All swearing will …
League of Legends
Three TFT: Monsters Attack PBE teams to try out
Nicholas James
Teamfight Tactics: Monsters Attack is on PBE before it hits live servere. Here are some powerful compositions to try out for yourself. Teamfight Tactics: Monsters Attack’s PBE stay has already shown some serious differences between it and previous TFT sets. If you want to try some wacky new compositions, here are three great compositions to try. Jax is an amazingly powerful 3-cost Mecha: PRIME Bruiser who can destroy entire teams …
League of Legends
Fanmade Winter Summoner’s Rift skin brings fan-favorite back
Nicholas James
One dedicated fan has brought back the much-beloved Winter Summoner’s Rift skin back just in time for the holidays. In years past, League of Legends fans could look forwards to seeing Summoner’s Rift blanketed in snow, with winter and holiday-themed easter eggs throughout the map. Even Baron Nashor got into the spirit with a Santa hat, but that hasn’t happened in years and fans miss the fanfare of the special …
League of Legends
All of the new Monsters Attack TFT classes and units
Nicholas James
A brand new Teamfight Tactics set is on the Public Beta Environment, so here are all of the TFT classes and units in TFT: Monsters Attack. Classes are different from origins, if you want to read about all the TFT Origins in Monsters Attack!, check out our TFT: Monsters attack origins guide. Ace is the latest spin on the original Ninja trait, which encouraged you to run only one, or …
Riot says League of Legends World Cup event is a possibility
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A brand new international tournament could be in the works according to Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent, loosely resembling a League of Legends World Cup where teams are formed by national origin. In an interview with the French sports publication “L’Equipe” Laurent spoke about the future of League of Legends’ international tournaments. In the interview, Laurent spoke about Riot being in discussions with the International Olympics Committee about hosting an …
All the TFT origins and units in Monsters Attack
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The new Teamfight Tactics set is out on the Public Beta Environment. Here’s a full list of the TFT origins and units to help you assemble a composition to save or raze Spatulopolis. The new Teamfight Tactics set has arrived on League of Legends’ PBE, where hundreds of thousands of players are queueing up to get a taste of the latest iteration of the Runeterra-themed auto battler. Here’s every origin …
The Worlds 2022 finals may be the peak of League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends’ World Championship has been running for 11 years, and it may have reached its pinnacle with the 2022 Worlds grand finals. DRX’s upset victory against titan T1 has already cemented itself as one of the greatest best-of-five series ever played, but the tournament that led up to it will stand the test of time as the best that League of Legends will ever get. Looking back at …
Big changes for the ARAM map are coming in patch 12.23
William Davis
League of Legends
The League of Legends off-season has started, and Riot Games has announced updates coming to ARAM including drastic changes to the map. Summoner’s Rift is not the only venue getting changes over the off-season. Howling Abyss is looking different starting in patch 12.22. The changes are divided into three categories affecting runes, champions, and the map. ARAM is a permanent game modes in League of Legends battling on a single-lane …
Arcane launches crossover with Just Dance 2023
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Just Dance games are going on a journey to Runeterra as a new collaboration between Arcane and Just Dance has been announced. Just Dance is a series of movement games in which the player follows a glowing neon example to dance along to classic and contemporary songs. The long-running franchise recently announced an upcoming collaboration with Arcane, the animated adaptation of League of Legends’ story that released on Netflix …
The League of Legends ranked season just ended a day early
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A bug has struck the North American servers for League of Legends, ending the Season 12 ranked season almost 20 hours ahead of schedule. The League of Legends ranked season was meant to end at the very end of the day on November 14, 2022. However, the North American ranked servers went down early in the morning, preventing players from getting their last chance to rank up. The end of …
Henry Cavill on Arcane: “I couldn’t stop watching!”
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Superman and recently ex-Geralt of Rivia actor Henry Cavill recently revealed that he’s watched Arcane, the animated adaptation of League of Legends, and he’s a big fan. The high-profile actor was informed about Arcane in an interview with BBC film critic Ali Plumb, and the critic finally had the chance to reconnect with him in order to divulge exactly how he felt after watching the series. Plumb couldn’t wait to …
TSM and LCS crypto sponsor FTX goes bankrupt
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a major sponsor of esports team TSM, has announced it has gone bankrupt and plans to file for Chapter 11. Massive cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX has filed for bankruptcy, announced in a Press Release on the platform’s Twitter. The FTX Group, consisting of the exchange itself and approximately 130 affiliated companies, announced it was beginning Chapter 11 proceedings in the United States and declaring bankruptcy. The …
LCS Academy League changes name to North American Challengers
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games’ amateur-to-pro pipeline league LCS Academy League will change its name to the North American Challengers League. The LCS Academy League was founded alongside the franchised LCS system as a way to ensure that up-and-coming talents still had a way to reach the LCS by having the franchised organization train amateur talent and foster lesser-known players for the big stage. Riot Games has decided that a new look is …
Popular YouTuber Mr Beast is looking to buy the best LCS team
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson has doubled down on previous statements, saying on the Worlds 2022 broadcast that buying an LCS team was a matter of when not if. Mr. Beast has been outspoken about his love for League of Legends and its esports scene in. He’s mentioned in passing that he might like to one day purchase an LCS organization’s slot and have his very own League of Legends team. …
LoL fans angry after secret Arcane event is a $170 figure
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A secretive Arcane event celebrating the animated series was revealed to be a $170 figurine inspired by the series, and fans are disappointed to say the least. Riot Games announced an Arcane anniversary event happening over the course of several weeks starting on November 8 with a Reddit AMA featuring Arcane creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee. One event on November 9 was kept secret, and many fans were expecting …
Riot Games takes over Southeast Asia region, ends Garena deal
William Davis
League of Legends
Starting in January 2023, Riot Games will self-publish League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics in the Southeast Asia region. This change puts an end to a 12-year partnership between Riot and Singapore-based developer Garena. Riot is making big moves in the Southeast Asian market that will completely change the experience for players in that region. The countries affected by this change include the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, …
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.
