League of Legends
League of Legends
Leak shows first look at possible new LoL champion Renata
Nicholas James
It looks like a new League of Legends champion named Renata was data mined from the Chinese version of Teamfight Tactics. Renata appears to be the new support with a dark theme that is slated to be released next. Renata was meant to be introduced after Zeri late last year, but Riot pushed their releases to 2022. Thanks to data mining for the Chinese version of Teamfight Tactics’ mid-set update, …
League of Legends
Who is Thebausffs, the LoL player who found a new way to use Sion
Nicholas James
Who is Thebausffs, the European streamer and League of Legends personality? Simon “Thebausffs” Hofverberg is a Swedish League of Legends Challenger player, streamer, and personality. Thebausffs is best known for his full attack damage Sion play, and his liberal use of Sion’s passive. Here is everything you need to know about Thebausffs Twitch history. Thebausffs made his way onto the scene as a high ELO player who would be signed …
League of Legends
New Blizzard survival game in new universe has been announced
Nicholas James
There’s a new Blizzard survival game coming, set to take place in a brand new universe. Following the nearly $70 billion dollar acquisition by Microsoft to acquire gaming titan Activision Blizzard, a new game has been announced. Blizzard Entertainment is looking to fill several positions for the new property, the first entirely new IP to come out of Blizzard for a major title in years. Blizzard has had its hands …
League of Legends
Mikyx joins Excel Esports as new starting support in the LEC
William Davis
The first big roster move after the 2022 LEC Spring Split start has dropped, with Excel Esports singing former G2 Esports support Mihael “Mikyx” Mehle. Mikyx will be replacing Henk “Advienne” Reijenga, who got to play five games this LEC split before getting replaced. Advienne joined Excel back in June 2021 and has since then been the team’s go-to support. What’s next for Advienne is still unknown, as the team …
League of Legends
How to complete the TFT Lunar Legend Festival quests
Nicholas James
Riot Games has introduced secret missions for the Lunar Legend Festival quests. The quests don’t immediately appear in your missions tab, so here’s a reminder of what you need to do to complete them. From feeding Tahm Kench to building up a Colossus, there are lots of tasks to do to collect your gifts. To first access these quests, head into the interactable Lunar Legend Festival event on the home …
League of Legends
Riot Games suing Imba Games over TFT lookalike I Am Hero
Nicholas James
Ahead of the launch of Teamfight Tactics: Neon Nights, Riot Games is suing a company named Imba Games for allegedly infringing on copyrights related to TFT. Fans have remarked in the past on the blatant similarities between characters in Imba Games’ I Am Hero: AFK Tactical Teamfight and those in Riot Games’ League of Legends universe. I Am Hero is a hex-based hero fighter with some striking similarities to Riot’s …
League of Legends
T1 vs. Liiv SANDBOX: 2022 LCK Spring betting analysis
William Davis
The second week of the 2022 LCK Spring Split will end with a match between the fan favorites: T1 and one of the dark horses in the league, Liiv SANDBOX. When T1 takes on Liiv SANDBOX for the first time in 2022, it will be with high expectations of winning. T1 has gotten off to a perfect start this season with three straight wins so far. These wins include dominance …
League of Legends
How does the League of Legends ranked reset work in Season 12?
Nicholas James
League of Legends’ season 12 ranked reset has come and gone, but how does it work? Riot Games’ reset of players’ ranking was more complete than previous seasons, changing how the ranked season’s start has played out. If you’re noticing large swings in your provisional or early rank, there’s an explanation for that. With a soft reset from 2020 into 2021 causing issues with inflated matchmaking rating, or MMR, high-level …
Riot Games changes League of Legends event rewards after fan backlash
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has changed League of Legends event rewards yet again following fan criticism of the Debonair event. After changing metrics that cared about games played or won into a points system that relied on time played, Riot Games has announced that it is changing League of Legends event rewards yet again. After the move meant to increase player payout resulted in slower token acquisition, something needed to change. The …
How to best play new champion Zeri, the Spark of Zaun
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The latest addition to League of Legends’ roster has some players struggling and wondering how best to play Zeri. Zeri, The Spark of Zaun has debuted to one of the worst win rates in a long time for a new champion. What are the best runes for Zeri, what’s the best build for her, and how are the game’s best players playing her? Zeri is a marksman unlike any other, …
How to enable MFA on your Riot account for Valorant and League
Fariha Bhatti
Valorant
Riot Games has finally introduced a much-needed Multi-Factor Authentication feature for Valorant and League of Legends. Here’s how to make this feature work on your account. Valorant’s animated cosmetics can cost an arm and a leg, yet players can’t stop stacking their accounts with fresh skins. A fully-loaded Valorant account could cost as much as $6,000. Whereas, League of Legends accounts are also worth big money, especially if they’re older. …
Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves: 2022 LCS Lock In betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2022 LCS Lock In tournament kicks off its second week with a battle for first place in group A between Cloud9 and 100 Thieves. Two North American giants will clash when C9 looks to defend its flawless start at the LCS Lock In. Challenging the team will be the defending LCS champion 100 Thieves, already having won two games so far this tournament but also falling short against FlyQuest …
Faker sets new record playing over 70 champions in pro games
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Legendary mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has now used a total of 70 diffferent champions throughout his LCK career, and 74 across his entire career after locking in Tryndamere during T1’s latest series. He also showed how effective the hero is as a counter to Corki. Up against DRX in T1’s third match of the split, Faker pulled out the unexpected pick as an answer to Corki, who is firmly …
TFT Set 7 will bring dragons and a new take on Hextech Augments
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics’ next expansion has been previewed alongside the Gadgets and Gizmos mid-set update, showing off TFT Set 7. The seventh set for TFT will take place on the mystical Dragon Isles, where clans worship powerful drakes to unlock the power of mysterious shrines. Hextech Augments will be making a return in the seventh set after being a smash hit in the most recent TFT expansion. TFT Set 7 was …
New champion Zeri is live in League of Legends with patch 12.2
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, will officially go live in League of Legends’ patch 12.2. The new marksman headlines this latest patch, with Zeri dashing into bot lanes on live servers with the newest patch on January 20. Zeri brings a unique auto-attack mechanic to the game and is a crossover collaboration with Valorant’s newest agent Neon. Zeri, the Spark of Zaun, is a speedster who steals shields and amps …
G2 Esports announces NFT drop and fans are very angry over it
Nicholas James
League of Legends
G2 Esports NFTs are here and fans of the LEC franchise are very angry about it. The European esports organization announced the SamuraiArmyNFT in collaboration with Metaplex, a fan club hosted on Solana, the blockchain platform. The effort follows TSM FTX a blockbuster partnership between esports organization TSM and cryptocurrency platform FTX. G2 Esports fans are frustrated about the NFT drop due to distrust in NFTs as a whole due …
Teamfight Tactics: Neon Nights revealed, removes 2 traits
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The mid-set update to Gadgets and Gizmos has been announced, with Teamfight Tactics: Neon Nights set to succeed it. The Teamfight Tactics developers at Riot Games put out an announcement showing off plans for the mid-set update, Teamfight Tactics’ seventh set, and even further beyond. Gadgets and Gizmos is reaching its halfway point, and will be replaced by Teamfight Tactics: Neon Nights in mid-February. The Piltover-themed set will be modified …
New League of Legends Porcelain Protectors cinematic leaks
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games can’t seem to stop content from coming out early recently, with the skin line-themed Porcelain Protectors cinematic leaked early. The cinematic depicts a modern-day adaptation of Ezreal discovering the latent power of his Zodiac Relic before being attacked by the villainous Lissandra. The cinematic was likely meant to launch in tandem with the upcoming skin line, but the German League of Legends account posted it early. https://twitter.com/SkinSpotlights/status/1483834892018401284?s=20 In …
A bunch of Hextech Augments are being removed from TFT
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The next Teamfight Tactics update, which is coming in patch 12.2, will see more Hextech Augments removed from the game. With the mid-set update looming, are more Hextech Augments going the way of the dinosaurs? Despite Hextech Augments being a massive hit, some of them are being removed for the health of the game. The mid-set change for Gadgets and Gizmos has recently been announced and looks to be taking …
Who owns League of Legends and Riot Games? We break it down
Nicholas James
League of Legends
With recent discussion of Activision-Blizzard being acquired by Microsoft, some fans are left wondering who exactly owns popular MOBA League of Legends. Riot Games, the League of Legends developer and publisher, is 100% owned by Tencent, a Chinese technology and entertainment conglomerate of colossal size. However, recent developments have made it possible for Tencent to begin selling back its ownership shares to Riot Games employees, opening the possibility for a …
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.
