League of Legends
League of Legends
How to best play new champion Zeri, the Spark of Zaun
Nicholas James
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, …
Valorant
How to enable MFA on your Riot account for Valorant and League
Fariha Bhatti
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. …
League of Legends
Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves: 2022 LCS Lock In betting analysis
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Faker sets new record playing over 70 champions in pro games
Tokoni Uti
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 …
MAD Lions vs. Rogue: 2022 LEC Spring betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The second week of the 2022 LEC Spring Split will include an exciting matchup between reigning champion MAD Lions and Rogue, who had a great start to the season so far. With three rounds of games played in this LEC split, it’s time for two giants to face off against each other. It will be the current top team Rogue who will be up against MAD Lions. Both teams have …
More Valorant x League of Legends crossovers are coming
Nicholas James
League of Legends
It seems like more Valorant and League of Legends crossovers are coming following developer posts for both games. Following acknowledgments of the similarities between new LoL champion Zeri and new Valorant Agent Neon, Riot has noted that this isn’t going to be a one-off affair. In posts detailing the development of both characters and the process of tandem design across two very different games, Riot Games discussed leaving the door …
Is there a surprise Quinn VGU coming out?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
According to a Riot Games designer, there’s a chance for a Quinn VGU without being voted on. Riot Games has recently published the list of possible candidates for 2023’s Visual and Gameplay Update, with Skarner, Nocturne, Shyvana, Tryndamere, and Kog’Maw being the options. Despite not being on the list, it sounds like Quinn could be getting a VGU in the future without appearing on the current poll. Riot Games’ lead …
Here’s how to get 3-star 5-cost units in Teamfight Tactics
Nicholas James
League of Legends
In Gadgets and Gizmos, the latest Teamfight Tactics set, 3-star 5-cost units are incredibly powerful and can win games on their own against entire nine-unit teams. How quickly can a player theoretically assemble a 3-star 5-cost piece, and what’s are some of the fastest examples of these game-ending carries? Thanks to the new set, it’s possible to assemble the most powerful units in the game faster than ever. Getting one …
Cloud9’s Blaber finishes LCS Lock In week 1 with a 14 KDA
William Davis
League of Legends
The first rounds of the 2022 LCS Lock In tournament are over and Cloud9 jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang dominated the weekend in terms of KDA. Over the course of his first three games of the tournament, Blaber ended up pulling off a KDA of 14.3. This incredible stat was gained after Blaber managed to secure 10 kills and 33 assists across the three games. What’s most impressive is that the …
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.
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
