League of Legends
League of Legends
All of the biggest changes coming in the 2023 LoL Preseason
Steven Rondina
There’s still plenty of 2022 left to go, but League of Legends’ 2023 Preseason is quickly approaching. Following the LoL World Championship each year, major gameplay changes are introduced to League of Legends. These can include flashy changes like adding new dragons and overhauling the map, to smaller changes to how stats work and abilities interact. The next preseason will have a mix of both, with a number of champion …
League of Legends
Will Project L have motion inputs? Here’s what we know
William Davis
League of Legends fighting game Project L may break new ground in fighting games, but could motion inputs may get in the way of all the innovation? Ever since the very first fighting game series, motion inputs have been a staple of fighting games. However, the system takes time to master and is sometimes considered a significant barrier to entry. So will Project L get rid of motion inputs for …
League of Legends
These are all of Project L’s confirmed playable characters
Steven Rondina
Project L has a number of League of Legends champions that have already been confirmed as playable characters for the upcoming fighting game. The idea of a League of Legends fighting game has been floating around for several years now, but details have only slipped out on rare occasions. There’s still visible forward progress when it comes to Project L, including with the number of champions that will be playable …
League of Legends
A strange revive bug brings LCK players back to life mid-match
Tokoni Uti
An LCK regular season match between DRX and Nongshim RedForce was paused due to an unusual bug that saw some players instantly revive after being killed. Game one of the best-of-three series was being led by DRX before a dragon teamfight at 35 minutes. During the scuffle, support Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee lost his life as Amumu only to instantly respawn at his team’s fountain. BeryL quickly pinged in confusion and …
League of Legends
LoL Worlds 2022 date, cities, and schedule revealed
Steven Rondina
The date, format, schedule, and locations for Worlds 2022 have finally been confirmed. After repeated difficulties due to travel restrictions and other related issues, League of Legends esports fans finally know when and where the game’s 12th pro season will end. Riot Games has given a full breakdown of the Worlds 2022 schedule and confirmed which cities will host the festivities. Worlds 2022 is headed to North America and unfortunately, …
League of Legends
LEC will send 4 teams to Worlds 2022, and this is why
Steven Rondina
International League of Legends esports events have struggled with bringing together full lineups of teams in recent years. That will again be the case at Worlds 2022, but things will at least be sorted in advance this time around, much to the delight of LEC team and their fans. Riot Games gave LoL fans an update on the season-ending event, detailing the event’s structure and format. Though much of this …
League of Legends
LCS teams with Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon
Steven Rondina
The LCS is set for an interesting partnership with HBO Max to promote upcoming Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. More than any other esport, League of Legends has been able to attract non-endemic brands to sponsor its events. The latest example of this is HBO plugging upcoming dark fantasy series House of the Dragon on LoL’s esports North American programming. Starting with week five of the 2022 …
League of Legends
Riot hints at Aurelion Sol rework with unique scaling abilities
William Davis
Aurelion Sol one-tricks had good reason to fear a rework, but the star serpent’s potential new scaling gimmick is definitely something to look forward to. Riot Games has revealed new information on the highly anticipated Aurelion Sol rework. The new details come from the latest episode of Devs Spill The Beans, Riot’s in-house interview series. League of Legends producer Rob “KingCobra” Rosa sat down to discuss upcoming changes for one …
LCS issues ruling on TSM Regi abuse, bullying allegations
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
TSM executive Andy “Reginald” Dinh has come out on the bad end of a competitive ruling from Riot Games following allegations of mistreatment of players and staff. One of the biggest stories to come out of the last League of Legends esports off-season was the feud between Peng “Doublelift” Yilang and the TSM founder. The veteran ADC claimed that Regi had created a culture of abuse and bullying within the …
Here’s what happened in MrBeast vs. Ninja: The Ultimate Crown
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson challenged Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to a League of Legends match in Las Vegas and the streaming community has been hyped ever since Ninja agreed to compete. The two streaming icons flew to the HyperX Arena on July 9 to win $150K. But who came out the winner? The League of Legends challenge was a unique tournament beyond its usual best-of-three format. People who watched from home could …
Faker gets 500th win against Gen.G in LCK Summer Split 2022
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has become the first player in the LCK’s history to achieve 500 competitive wins as a pro player. Gen.G and T1 were facing off in the 2022 LCK Summer Split with Gen.G looking to keep a win streak going. The first game went to Gen.G thanks to the team’s aggression. It was looking like the second game might be equally in Gen.G’s favor due to macro control, …
Here’s the date and location for the 2022 LEC Summer Finals
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
The 2022 LEC Summer Split Finals will head to Sweden’s Malmö Arena this year for Europe’s first LoL esports stadium event in almost three years. A live final last took place in summer 2019 when G2 Esports took down Fnatic in Athens, Greece. Various restrictions in the time since have prevented another such event. Now, after losing out on the previously planned 2020 summer final, Swedish LoL fans finally have …
Yuumi and Bel’Veth nerfs, Caitlyn buff coming in next LoL Patch
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends is getting an update this week with patch 12.12b, bringing buffs to champions including Caitlyn and Katarina. Micropatch 12.12b is going live in the near future according to lead designer for game balance Matt Leung-Harrison. The patch will be focused on champions that have become a bit too strong or were hit too hard by the changes in patch 12.12. The micropatch is meant to hit “outliers” …
The history of Riot Games, from big games to big controversies
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games has been celebrated for its popular MOBA League of Legends, as well as its handling of the game’s successful esports scene. The same can be said for tactical shooter VALORANT, the company’s first entry into the genre. But Riot Games has also been through its fair share of controversies, including recent sexism allegations. Here is everything you need to know about Riot Games’ history, games, and drama throughout …
Excel vs Team Vitality remade after bug forces lengthy pause
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
A regular-season League of Legends European Championship match between Excel and Team Vitality caused significant delays after an in-game bug led to the game being replayed from scratch. The week-two match of the LEC season was set to begin at 6 pm CET and kicked off strongly in Excel’s favor. Excel started the split positively with a 2-1 record in week one. Excel managed to secure an early 3,000 gold …
These champions can help you climb LoL’s ladder in patch 12.11
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Patch 12.10 and 12.11 gave additional tank stats to all League of Legend champions, something that has completed changed the meta. All champions were given an additional 70 base health, 14 health per level, 1.2 armor per level and 0.8 magic resist per level. Riot Games implemented the changes to “see longer fights throughout the game, more effort required to burst down your foes, and bigger windows of opportunity for …
All about new LoL champion Nilah, her role, and release date
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Nilah the Unbound Joy will be the next new League of Legends champion. Here’s what we know about her role and the release date when Riot will bring Nilah to live LoL servers. Nilah looks to continue the recent trend of highly mobile champions with aggressive kits. The reveal trailer for Nilah cuts right to the chase when it comes to her kit in LoL, showing her sprinting across a …
Who is Tyler1, the star League of Legends streamer?
Fariha Bhatti
League of Legends
Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp’s storyline on Twitch is a remarkable one. Controversy followed him wherever he went but eventually, he emerged as one of the top streamers on the platform. The League of Legends community is well aware of the name Tyler1, who reached the pinnacle of his career through numerous bans and controversies. His rage episodes and exceptional Draven plays made him a notable personality in League, but ultimately brought …
Xbox Game Pass will unlock all Valorant agents, LoL champions
Steven Rondina
Valorant
Xbox Game Pass is offering players the ability to have instant access to all League of Legends champions and Valorant agents. During the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, Riot Games made a surprise appearance to announce a new partnership with Microsft. This partnership will see the gaming subscription service offer instant access to all characters across all of Riot Games’ released multiplayer titles. To be precise, it offers instant access …
Netflix Geeked Week gives fans an update on Arcane season 2
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Arcane season two isn’t coming out any time soon, but Riot Games is hoping to tide fans over with a making-of series entitled Arcane: Bridging the Rift. Netflix Geeked Week is underway, with the streaming service giving fans a sneak peek of a variety of movies and series set to debut in the coming months. Arcane was given prominent billing for day three of Geeked Week, which led to rampant …
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.
