League of Legends
League of Legends
All of the Preseason 2023 jungle changes
Nicholas James
There are some serious changes coming to the forests of Summoner’s Rift in the near future. Riot Games has specifically called out its intention to make jungling a more beginner-friendly and less punishing role than its current state. From new jungle items to decreased counter-jungling, recommended pathing, and objective voting, the jungle might feel like a totally new place next season. Here are all of the major Preseason 2023 jungle …
League of Legends
JDG vs T1 Worlds 2022 Semifinal Pick’Em prediction
William Davis
It is time, once again, for Pick’Ems at Worlds 2022. The first half of the bracket is completed and now we know who will be competing in the first semifinals. JDG and T1 will be meeting again in the next stage of the tournament, for a match that could decide the champion of Worlds 2022. JDG’s performance against Rogue was exactly what the audience expected from the LPL champion. The …
League of Legends
Where to check if League of Legends is down
William Davis
Riot Games has a total of eleven servers around the world dedicated to League of Legends. Outages happen, so here is how to check if League of Legends is down in your region. Total server outages are rare but still happen. Sometimes, part of the server gets disabled. For example, EUW could disable Solo Queue for a period of time while fixing an error, or a server shut down every …
League of Legends
Why the Worlds 2022 Pass is a bad deal for LoL players
Nicholas James
The Worlds 2022 Pass has come under community criticism for offering League of Legends players little value at a high price. The Worlds 2022 Pass is the premium battle pass for League of Legends players that runs during the course of the Worlds 2022 tournament. Some rewards are free, but the paid version unlocks more event-specific currency for the same progression, and it’s this premium version that has been subject …
League of Legends
Riot Games reveals the inspiration behind K’Sante’s design
Nicholas James
K’Sante, the Pride of Nazumah is the flashy new tank set to be the latest champion to join League of Legends, and Riot Games has revealed how it came up with K’Sante’s unique design. This latest League of Legends champion brings a brand new region to the game alongside spectacular new weapons and abilities the likes of which Summoner’s Rift has never seen. Thanks to Riot Games’ behind-the-scenes glimpses in …
League of Legends
New Lil Nas X Empyrean K’Sante prestige skin revealed
Nicholas James
Musical artist Lil Nas X has released a new entry in an ongoing collaboration with Riot Games around League of Legends, promoting the brand new Empyrean K’Sante prestige skin that was designed with his help. Lil Nas X has been collaborating with Riot Games for the 2022 world championship, authoring the Worlds anthem “Star Walkin'” and several promotional videos. The latest of these is an early tease of the freshly …
League of Legends
The best Pick’Ems for Worlds 2022 quaterfinals
William Davis
The League of Legends Worlds 2022 Group Stage has ended and the top eight teams in the world have been decided. So, it’s time once again for Worlds Pick ’em, as we move to the playoffs. After eight days of solid competition in New York City, eight teams are advancing to the quarterfinals. Groups had it all, surprising comebacks, upsets, outstanding performances, and more than one Baron steal. Now, teams …
League of Legends
Here’s a full Arcane character list of all the champions
Nicholas James
There’s wide variety of characters depicted in the League of Legends animated adaptation, here’s a full Arcane character list for every champion in it. There are plenty of characters unique to Arcane, but there are also many that fans can recognize from Riot Games’ wildly successful MOBA, League of Legends. From the obvious characters to hidden origin stories, here are all the champions in Arcane and how they play in …
Faker breaks record for most kills at LoL Worlds at over 350
William Davis
League of Legends
T1 midlaner Lee “Faker” Sang- hyeok broke the record for the most kills at Worlds 2022. Faker and T1 are celebrating more than their first place in Group A of Worlds 2022. At this year’s event, Faker became the first League of Legends player to compete in 100 Worlds games. Faker ends the group stage with 103 matches played at Worlds and 75 victories. The mid laner is having an …
New champion K’Sante, the Pride of Nazumah leaked
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The newest champion, K’Sante, Pride of Nazumah has leaked thanks to a Chinese Bilibili video that appeared on October 13, 2022. K’Sante, the Pride of Nazumah is the next champion coming to League of Legends, a flashy tank from a brand new subregion of Shurima, but he’s not the first to be leaked ahead of schedule. K’Sante was announced in the 2023 Preseason preview video from Riot Games and fans …
100 champions contested at LoL Worlds 2022, a new record
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
The number of unique champions contested at League of Legends Worlds has reached 100 for the first time in the game’s history in 2022. DWG KIA top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon opted for a Jayce pick in his side’s group stage match against North America’s Evil Geniuses and this became the 100th champion to be either picked or banned so far in the tournament across both the Play-In stage and …
League of Legends fan stages proposal with real hextech chest
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
For one lucky couple, a League of Legends proposal will mean a lot more than an invitation to queue up. For many people, League of Legends is more than a game. It’s a big part of many people’s lives, a place where they met friends or play with their partner every day. One League of Legends player decided to propose to their “duo queue partner” in a special way that …
Orianna disabled at Worlds 2022 following bug
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Orianna was disabled at Worlds 2022 following a visual bug that incorrectly displays the location of her ball. League of Legends is no stranger to bugs and glitches, and there’s perhaps nobody better at finding those discrepancies than the content creator and bug-finder supreme, Vandiril. The bug in question occurred in the Group Stage game between Rogue from the LEC and VCS representative GIGABYTE Marines. Riot Games was quick to …
Faker becomes first LoL pro to play 100 Worlds games
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has made League of Legends esports history yet again by being the first professional player to compete in 100 Worlds games over his career. Faker has been competing at the World Championships since 2013, the year he debuted on the professional stage and claimed his first Summoner’s Cup. Since then, the decorated mid laner has taken part in Worlds during 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2021, and this …
LoL Preseason 2023’s jungle changes are now live on PBE server
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games released the LoL Preseason 2023 on PBE and players are getting a glimpse at all the changes coming with Season 13. Riot is getting ahead of schedule and releasing the LoL Preseason 2023 content earlier than in previous years. According to the dev’s notes, the goal is to get as much feedback from the community as possible. Riot is looking to avoid situations like the 2022 Chemtech Drake …
How to remake in League of Legends in a minute 30 seconds
William Davis
League of Legends
Starting on Patch 12.20, League of Legends players will be able to remake games at the one-minute and 30 seconds mark. AFK players are probably one of the most frustrating aspects of solo queue. It means that from the start, the match is doomed, and players are forced to stay in it for at least 20 minutes. To address this situation, Riot Games is implementing changes that allow players to …
Here’s why LoL Worlds should cancel Play-Ins
William Davis
League of Legends
In a recent episode of Hotline League, League of Legends Championship Series analyst Mark “MarkZ” Zimmerman pitched the idea of removing Worlds Play-Ins which sparked a debate about the least popular part of the event. The League of Legends community finally agrees on something, it might be time to cancel Worlds Play-Ins in favor of a new format. Play-Ins are an opportunity for wildcard regions to earn a spot at …
LoL Worlds 2022 event pass brings a new experience
William Davis
League of Legends
The Worlds 2022 event pass will debut in patch 12.19, introducing the new and improved Event experience for League of Legends. Ahead of season 12, Riot Games announced its plans to change the Mythic Content experience, making it more rewarding for players that invested time and effort into the event grind. The final stage of the Mythic Content Overhaul is going live with patch 12.19, to celebrate the start of …
Riot Games changes Champions Queue following complaints
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has officially announced upcoming changes to its elite-level matchmaking service, Champions Queue, ahead of the World Championships. These changes come on the heels of complaints from community members and professional players about aspects of the Champions Queue experience headed into the World Championship. Riot Whoopley, Riot Games’ Academy Director, announced expanded access and new requirements in a now-deleted Reddit post. In a Reddit post now deleted by the …
Spain’s Iberian Cup announced with a huge format twist
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
The annual League of Legends Iberian Cup has been announced for 2022 with significant changes to the format. The Iberian Cup is a ProAm tournament meant to give amateur teams a chance to face Spain’s best squads in a for-fun competition. The cup will feature all 20 teams from the 1st and 2nd SuperLiga divisions as well as an additional twelve from amateur circuits and an open qualifier. The tournament …
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.
