League of Legends
League of Legends
How does Riot Games release a new LoL champion?
Nicholas James
Creating a champion for League of Legends is incredibly difficult, but how does Riot Games release a new playable character? Recently, Riot Games put out a developer blog detailing exactly what it takes to put together a new champion and introduce them to fans. From reworks to brand new characters, how does Riot Games release a champion? The birth of a champion is an incredibly complex process, involving gameplay, design, …
League of Legends
What does Legends of Runeterra tell us about Udyr’s new rework?
Nicholas James
Fans have gotten their first look at a new version of League of Legends’ spirit walker with a Legends of Runeterra Udyr adaptation being revealed. Udyr is the next champion to be reworked in League of Legends by Riot Games. Keen-eyed fans will notice that the Legends of Runeterra Udyr looks quite different from both the rework previews and his current model. Why does Udyr look so different in Legends …
League of Legends
Smite solo laners expand to Poppy and Bard, and this is why
Nicholas James
Smite solo laners have been taking League of Legends by storm by abusing the new objective bounty system. Originating with Janna top players that took Smite and fully abandoned their top lanes, the strategy has hit pro play and is already showing more options to be viable beyond Janna. Both Bard and Poppy were picked in professional leagues recently, with both picks taking home wins using the top smite strategy.. …
League of Legends
How good are Riot Games employees at LoL and TFT?
Nicholas James
With incredibly complex games being built by the studio, it’s easy to wonder how good Riot Games employees are at League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics? Recently, Teamfight Tactics lead developer Stephen “Mortdog” Mortimer hit the highest possible rank of Challenger. In a developer blog post, he spoke about the expectation for developers to be able to play their games at the top level. Does it matter how good Riot …
League of Legends
LoL caster Sjokz returns to LEC after contract dispute
Nicholas James
Eefje “Sjokz” Deeportere will be back on the LEC desk this week, and many fans are happy about it. After a temporary absence due to continuing negotiations with the LEC, Sjokz is slated to once again be hosting the LEC. She was not present during the LEC’s third week of play but seems to have worked out an amicable solution with the European broadcast. Sjokz’s temporary absence appears to have …
League of Legends
How to play Renata Glasc, LoL’s new support champion
Nicholas James
League of Legends’ new support is arriving next patch, here’s how to play Renata. Renata has been making the rounds on the Public Beta Environment as players figure out the best ways to build and pilot the Chem-Baroness herself. From items to runes to abilities, here’s how to play Renata best as a support. Renata is meant to be a support, with several abilities that dramatically increase in value when …
League of Legends
LEC teams returning to Berlin studio for week 5 play
William Davis
The LEC is slowly getting back to normal as LEC teams will return to live play from the studio starting in week five. The news was revealed by the LEC, who stated that the upcoming week 5 of the 2022 spring split will “welcome back teams competing in games 1 and 5 to the LEC main stage.” As with other splits since 2020, the 2022 LEC Spring Split has been …
League of Legends
Jankos celebrates his 500th game in the LEC
Nicholas James
Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski is a veteran of the LEC, and his victory this weekend marked his 500th LEC game. Jankos’ career is the longest career in the LEC today, topping other founding figures like Martin “Rekkles” Larsson. Jankos continues to be one of the best players in his role while outlasting many of his peers. The road to Jankos’ 500th game began with his run on Roccat in the EU …
Evil Geniuses vs. Dignitas: 2022 LCS Spring betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The second week of the 2022 LCS Spring Split will kick off with a match between undefeated team Dignitas and LCS Lock In finalists Evil Geniuses. After a great start to the spring split last week, Dignitas will look to keep its winning streak alive by taking down one of the best teams in the LCS. The opponent is EG, who recently played in the LCS Lock In final but …
Riot looks to kill support top laners in LoL patch 12.4
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games is looking to head off the growing trend of support top laners in League of Legends patch 11.24. The strategy of support top laners, which sees them build gold by harassing enemies with Spellthief’s Edge and then abandon their lane, was sure to gain the developer’s attention. Riot is looking to address this abuse of the bounty system in the game’s upcoming patch. Utility and support champions in …
Jatt brings back the JLXP podcast for LCS’ week one
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Joshua “Jatt” Leesman is bringing back the JLXP podcast for the LCS’ first week of play. Jatt’s absence from the LCS broadcast and entertainment space has been marked by fans during his recent time coaching Team Liquid’s LCS roster. His personal content creation venture in the JLXP podcast has made its return with the LCS beginning its spring split. Jatt is easily one of the most well-recognized and well-respected personalities …
What is Trash Talk? Doublelift, Caedrel, and LS start podcast
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Ex-professional League of Legends player Peng “Doublelift” Yilang has started a new podcast with Cloud9 coach Nick “LS” DeCesare and LEC analyst Marc “Caedrel” Lamong called Trash Talk. Doublelift, Caedrel, and LS have all been in the community spotlight in recent months for varyious reasons. All three are now joining together on a podcast that offers years of professional experience inside the scene and potentially valuable insights. The Trash Talk …
MAD Lions vs. G2 Esports: 2022 LEC Spring betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
A new week in the 2022 LEC Spring Split is approaching and will include an important match between the two rivals in MAD Lions and G2 Esports. The two big esports organizations are currently tight in the standings, with G2 taking a slight lead with a 6-3 record ahead of MAD Lions’ 5-4 record. Having the teams this close in the standings means that a lot will be riding on …
How to see games on the Champions Queue super server
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Here’s how to see games being played on the Champions Queue super server in North America. The Champions Queue super server is North America’s response to complaints from professional players about various issues with solo queue and ranked play in the region. The super server went live on the morning of February 7 and games are already being played. With a massive prize pool of $400 000 for the players …
Find out if you’ve beaten the best player on your LoL server
Nicholas James
League of Legends
A new website lets League of Legends fans find out how far away they are from beating the best player on their LoL server. LoL Beat Best is a program that takes a player’s profile and finds how many degrees of separation they have to beating the best and highest-ranked player on their server at the current moment. For example, North American fans can see how they measure up against …
League of Legends streamer indefinitely banned for username
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends streamer Doaenel has suddenly been hit with an indefinite ban from Twitch for having an “inappropriate” username. But does he really? Doaenel shared an email from Twitch on his Twitter account, stating that he couldn’t believe it was real. According to Twitch, Doaenel’s username was deemed “inappropriate” and thus was against the Community Guidelines. This led to an indefinite suspension of his Twitch account. The ban came …
Is this the worst level 1 play in the history of pro League?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Team BDS top laner Adam “Adam” Manaane had one of the single worst level 1 experiences in the history of professional League of Legends. And we’re here to break it down for you. Adam managed to not only die twice before any champion had killed a single minion, but also to spectacularly destroy any chances he had of contesting the top lane. Here’s exactly what went wrong for Adam in …
This is how to build and play Smite Janna in the top lane
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Smite Janna in the top lane is taking over League of Legends, even making its way to professional play. Now players are scrambling to figure out how to incorporate this newest strategy into their own solo queue games. How do you build and play Smite Janna top lane, and why does this ridiculous strategy work? The new strategy is all about abusing League of Legends’ new objective bounties system and …
What will the Skarner VGU look like?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The poll for League of Legends’ next rework is over and fans are getting a Skarner VGU. What might the crystal scorpion’s Visual Gameplay Update end up leaning into, and what has Riot said about the upcoming update? Here’s everything we know about the Skarner VGU at the beginning of 2022. Riot Games talked about the changes they would make to the last living Brackern if he received the votes …
How to get Prestige skins in League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Prestige skins are League of Legends’ biggest flex alongside Mythic skins. Looking to add some to your collection? Here’s how to get Prestige skins. Right now Prestige skins are craftable through Prestige Points collected from Event Passes and in-client events. This will be changing later this year with the Mythic Content Overhaul that Riot Games has announced, here’s the process for collecting a skin before the update. Prestige Points are …
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.
