League of Legends
League of Legends
The best League of Legends name checkers for name changes
Nicholas James
If you’re looking for a new smurf account or planning a name change in League of Legends, here are the best LoL name checkers. There can be excellent (as well as awful) League of Legends player names. If you’re considering swapping your moniker, there are a few ways to check whether a name is available and even getting that name if it’s not. From the official to the fanmade, here …
League of Legends
Here’s what the Mythic Content Overhaul could mean for you
Nicholas James
The Mythic Content Overhaul is about to arrive, and here’s what it means for League of Legends players with Prestige Points and Gemstones left unspent. The Mythic Content Overhaul will be hitting League of Legends in the next patch, and fans’ cosmetic acquisition experience will then be very different. From spending Prestige Points immediately to what to do with Gemstones, here are all the best tips on how to approach …
League of Legends
Shen and Karma joining LoL Wild Rift with patch 3.1
Nicholas James
Patch 3.1 is making its way to League of Legends: Wild Rift, bringing Shen and Karma to the mobile adaptation of LoL. Champions are frequently getting added to Wild Rift, which began with a partial selection of the massive MOBA’s playable characters at launch. Shen and Karma are the latest additions to Wild Rift, bringing two of Ionia’s most iconic champions onto mobile devices across the world. The highlight of …
League of Legends
How to play Viktor, The Machine Herald in League of Legends
Nicholas James
Viktor, The Machine Herald, is a powerful control mage but there are ways to really make an impact with the legend. Here is how to play Viktor like the best players. Viktor has many strengths that make him a premium pick in League of Legends. He has a unique piece of itemization, effortless wave clear, consistent area crowd control, and tons of magic damage to pump out in team fights. …
League of Legends
How to get unlimited free Riot Points for LoL with Microsoft
Nicholas James
League of Legends has announced a way to earn unlimited Riot Points with Microsoft Rewards. League of Legends has been expanding ways for fans to obtain more cosmetic and exclusive rewards without having to pull out their wallets. Some options, like in-game chests and capsules, can be collected by just playing the game. Others, like Twitch’s Prime Gaming rewards, offer free rewards with a third-party subscription or service. This latest …
League of Legends
What to expect from Ruination, the first League of Legends novel
Nicholas James
The first full League of Legends novel, titled “Ruination,” is making its way to bookshelves later this year. The novel will revolve around the Ruination world event that took place in 2021, hoping to redeem a narrative that originally drew a mixed reception from fans. Divergent versions of the story made it hard for fans to follow a cohesive narrative, and complaints about tonal mismatch and confusing narrative choices were …
League of Legends
LEC reveals the 2022 Spring All-Pro teams
William Davis
The 2022 LEC Spring Split will soon enter its playoff stage, but before that happens the three LEC All-Pro team rosters have been revealed. Just like previous splits, three All-Pro teams have been decided based on votes from players, coaches, casters, and other prominent figures within the LEC scene. These votes have laid the ground for the first All-Pro team, which crowns the best player in each role throughout the …
League of Legends
How to fix the new LoL bug that says you’re permanently banned
Nicholas James
There’s a new League of Legends bug that is telling players their accounts have been permanently banned. Here’s how to fix it. Riot Games’ League of Legends client is no stranger to a variety of bugs and unintended interactions. The latest of these is informing innocent players that their accounts have been permanently banned. This isn’t actually the case for most, and the solution is a simple fix that won’t …
T1 completes 18-0 regular split for the first time in LCK history
William Davis
League of Legends
For the first time in LCK history, a team has managed to complete a flawless regular split. It is, of course, the most legendary organization of them all that managed to do it with a win against DRX to complete the run: T1. This puts T1 at an 18-0 scoreline ahead of the playoffs and guarantees the team a very special spot in the history books. Going into the playoffs, …
Can T1 pull off the perfect split in the 2022 LCK?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Esports titan T1 is moments away from the possibility of an undefeated regular split in the LCK. Can T1 truly pull off the perfect split? The possibility of a T1 perfect split stands as a distinct possibility, with the Korean organization standing at 17-0 for the split so far. The LCK, Korea’s franchised league, plays best-of-three matches for the regular season, unlike LEC and LCS. T1 have made it through …
Is GG Olleh right to criticize LCS players in Champions Queue?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Champions Queue was meant to be the solution to North America’s competitive woes, but according to Golden Guardian’s support Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, that hasn’t been the case. In a recent stream, Olleh went over some of his issues with the current state of the high-skill private server known as Champions Queue. From player drop-off to inconsistencies in scheduling, the rank two player on Champions Queue seemed to have plenty to …
Why did TSM terminate its LCS coach Peter Zhang mid-season?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
TSM’s head coach for League of Legends has been fired following the discovery of a conflict of interest, according to a statement made by the esports organization. TSM LCS head coach Peter Zhang has been terminated from the organization following what the organization describes as serious allegations of conflict of interest and unethical practices. The TSM head coach was terminated on March 18, with the announcement on Twitter referencing vague …
Team Liquid vs. FlyQuest 2022 LCS Spring betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid will be looking to chase first place in the 2022 LCS Spring Split once again, but to have a chance it will have to beat FlyQuest. After losing to Cloud9 last week, Liquid lost possession of first place in the standings and will now look to bounce back against one of the big surprises so far this split in FlyQuest. Despite lowered expectations from fans and experts going …
Everything you need to know about Viktor from Arcane and LoL
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Viktor the Machine Herald has taken center stage after the animated adaptation of League of Legends, Arcane, hit Netflix in a big way. Viktor was born and raised in the slums of Zaun, the lower portion of Piltover coated in the toxic smog known as the “Zaun Grey.” Here’s everything you need to know about Viktor, League of Legends’ hardest-working Zaunite academic turned augmented mastermind. When viewers first meet Viktor …
What went wrong for MAD Lions in the LEC Spring Split?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
MAD Lions’ performance in the 2022 LEC Spring Split was anything but what the organization had hoped for, so what happened to the team? MAD Lions were a shock arrival to tier-one League of Legends in 2021, winning both splits with players that were much less experienced than those of top teams from recent years. But in 2022’s first half the team failed to live up to the expectations that …
Who is Doublelift? North America’s most famous ADC
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Peng “Doublelift” Yilang is one of the icons of North American League of Legends. But who is the veteran League of Legends pro and how did he get so popular? Doublelift is a retired professional League of Legends player who competed in the LCS, short for the North American LoL league. He was one of the earliest professional players in the scene, playing for years as one of the best …
Immortals vs. 100 Thieves: 2022 LCS Spring betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The seventh week of the 2022 LCS Spring Split kicks off with a match between Immortals and 100 Thieves, a team chasing the top seeds in the league ahead of playoffs. To keep the momentum rolling, 100 Thieves will have to take down Immortals, which has been struggling in recent weeks. Immortals will enter this match with five losses in a row, placing them at ninth place in the league …
Svenskeren might soon be playing for C9 again, and here’s why
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen has joined Cloud9 in the LCS as a substitute jungler, and fans might soon see C9 Svenskeren on the LCS stage once again. Svenskeren was one of many promising pro players who found themselves without a team coming into the 2022 LCS Spring Split. Cloud9 has picked up the free agent following his time spent on Evil Geniuses, which ended in early 2022 when he and teammate …
Streamer reaches Master rank in LoL in 60 hours with no sleep
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A Brazilian streamer has reached Master by grinding for 60 hours non-stop with absolutely no sleep that entire time. Brazilian Jax player and streamer Nicklink is not the first to attempt an unranked to Master or Challenger rank challenge. But most content creators treat this journey as a marathon rather than a sprint, with the climb to the highest ranks taking weeks on average. Nicklink decided to speedrun the ranked …
Why there could soon be more League of Legends shows like Arcane
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has acquired a large portion of equity in the creator of hit Netflix show Arcane, Fortiche Production. Does that mean that more League of Legends shows are soon to be on the way? Arcane was an absolute smash hit for Riot Games, which has carefully been expanding its presence into more traditional media areas. From topping music charts with projects like K-Pop band KDA, to its hit Netflix …
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.
