League of Legends
League of Legends
Elon Musk posts about Arcane again, this time with Coachella?
Nicholas James
Elon Musk caught League of Legends fans’ attention last week by posting art to Arcane’s protagonist, Jinx, without any context. For a Twitter post clearly meant to capitalize on the popularity of the show, it had a surprisingly volatile reaction from different aspects of the League of Legends fandom. The Tesla CEO has now doubled down, sharing yet another cryptic tweet involving Jinx and Arcane antagonist Silco. The tweet may …
League of Legends
Arcane lead says Season 2 has been in production for months
Nicholas James
Arcane’s first season was a smash hit with League of Legends fans, critics, and new viewers alike. The second season was announced shortly after the first concluded, but a recent interview has revealed that Arcane Season Two was in production months before the first season even came out. In an interview with iAnimate.net, Animation Lead for Fortiche Studios Alexis Wanneroy says that the timeline of Arcane’s production varied wildly. The …
League of Legends
Is there too much burst damage in LoL? Riot looking into damage issues
Nicholas James
Riot Games has released its latest gameplay thoughts and larger processes headed into 2022. From Chemtech Drake to burst damage, there’s a lot that Riot wants to address. The last Quick Gameplay Thoughts article for 2021 has Riot’s sights set on several key issues with League of Legends at the given moment. Riot’s developer post begins with addressing preseason changes and short-term goals for the Summoner’s Rift team. The first …
League of Legends
New Shurima story sets up new LoL jungler with Void invasion
Nicholas James
Riot Games has released yet another Shuriman story, “The Faceless God” by Graham McNeil, and the Void once again takes focus. This is the second recent story about Shurima and the Void, with the first, “Feast of the Prophet”, seemingly setting up a new champion.The story explores the work of a Shuriman stonemason named Mennas and his mentor, the Arch-Mason, on their journey to recreate the face of a statue …
League of Legends
LoL Season 12 is bringing big changes to Janna, here’s why
Nicholas James
League of Legends’ 12th season is going to be shaking up a lot, including Janna. Janna is a controversial champion in the bot lane, known for poking out enemies with relentless damage and shielding her marksman from all harm. Or doing absolutely nothing. In the first series of announced changes for the upcoming LoL season 12, Riot is trying to give Janna less oppressive laning and more utility. Janna is …
League of Legends
Kayle finally gets major nerfs in Wild Rift update 2.6
Nicholas James
Wild Rift’s latest update is here with 2.6 and players who are getting tired of being shredded apart by a late-game Kayle can rest easy. The patch brings a slew of buffs and nerfs but the most notable nerfs are to Demacia’s Aspect of Justice. Kayle is one of the latest additions to Wild Rift, joining her sister Morgana as the latest members of the roster in the Path of …
League of Legends
Uzi will return to professional play in 2022 on Bilibili Gaming
William Davis
After tons of speculation in the League of Legends community, it’s finally official that bot laner Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao will return to professional play in 2022. The legendary bot laner will be playing for Bilibili Gaming in the upcoming LPL season, which will be his first return to the professional stage after shockingly retiring back in 2020 due to health issues. Uzi will be the biggest name joining Bilibili Gaming …
League of Legends
Here’s what Riot had to say about failed Sentinels of Light event
Nicholas James
The Sentinels of Light event was an effort to tell the story of Viego’s arrival to League of Legends and the noble Sentinels of Light who would rise to defeat him. The event was released to a mixed reception from the community, including progression complaints, and more lore questions being raised. Months later, Riot Games has released a statement discussing what was learned from the event. Sentinels of Light was …
Patch 11.24b is the last patch of the year
Nicholas James
League of Legends
2021 is wrapping up and that means the same for League of Legends preseason balance patches. Patch 11.24b will be the final patch for the year, addressing the balance discrepancies that Riot isn’t happy leaving for next year. It seems like champions that go hunting for Viego haven’t been faring well in the preseason. In the patch preview shared by Riot Phlox on Twitter, it’s clear that Riot has some …
TheShy signs with Weibo Gaming for the 2022 LPL season
William Davis
League of Legends
South Korean top laner Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok has found his new home for the 2022 LPL season, signing with Weibo Gaming. The 22-year-old star player is now the newest addition to Weibo Gaming after playing for Invictus Gaming for over four years. His time with iG ended after a shaky 2021 season where the popular top laner failed to deliver the results expected of him and the rest of the …
Riot delays launch of Ekko’s Firelight skin due to fan anger
William Davis
League of Legends
The next Ekko skin in League of Legends has been delayed by Riot Games following community feedback. It wasn’t long after players started testing the upcoming Firelight Ekko skin on the Public Beta Environment that Riot decided to push back its official release. This happens after criticism from fans towards the Arcane-based skin. To make time for these improvements, Riot lead skin producer Katana confirmed that the skin will be …
T1 coach suspended, Gen.G organization fined by Riot Games
Nicholas James
League of Legends
This year’s offseason has been full of surprise moves and unexpected drama, with the latest involving T1 and Gen.G. The LCK is getting in on the action with two competitive rulings against organizations and coaching staff. T1 coach Kim “Roach” Kang-hui was penalized for tampering by contacting a player behind their organization’s back and Gen.G was fined for announcing players before Riot Games’ approval. Gen.G was fined by Riot Games …
Riot Games to open Seattle office for Valorant and MMO
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games is expanding its footprint in the United States from the current Santa Monica, San Francisco, and St Louis offices with a new studio to be set up in Seattle Washington. This Pacific North West office will work primarily on Valorant and Riot Games’ upcoming MMORPG. Riot’s new location would be its fourth campus on the west coast, but the move away from its California studio also means moving …
LCS predictions for the 2022 spring split
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Every LCS team has confirmed their starting roster for the 2022 spring split and LCS Lock In tournament. It’s shaping up to be an exciting time for North American League of Legends so here are our predictions for the upcoming LCS split for the most exciting rosters. The first of our LCS predictions involves Team Liquid’s brand new superteam, with the organization shelling out money to acquire big names similar …
This is the roster Team Vitality will field in the 2022 LEC season
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Vitality is looking to make noise in the LEC’s 2022 season, and the French organization has built a star-studded roster that is expected to compete for the trophies. Vitality has signed three new players for the upcoming season and all of them are stars in their own right. Most notable is the signing of mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković who is returning to Europe after one year in North …
Popular League of Legends terminology explained
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends has a long list of jargon, colloquial terms, and fan terminology that can be hard to decipher for players first joining. Understanding these slang terms, shorthand, and important points on the map can help you better communicate with your team. Here’s a list of some of League of Legends’ most common terms and their explanations. A gank is a term for a team’s jungler or laners roaming …
How the Last Chance Prestige Point Shop works in LoL
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games is looking to completely overhaul its prestige rewards system with a Mythic Content Overhaul. But until that happens, fans have a chance to spend their hard-earned prestige points on a variety of rewards in the Last Chance Prestige Point Shop. But what’s included in the new shop? How does it work? Here’s everything you need to know about the new system. The Last Chance Prestige Point Shop is …
Riot Games adds more creator-safe music with Sessions: Diana
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has continued its efforts to provide League of Legends content creators with music options that don’t put them at risk of a copyright strike or claim. Sessions: Diana is the latest free-to-use music from Riot Games Music. The set is targeted to streamers and content creators who are looking for a risk-free soundtrack to their content. Riot Games’ Sessions project debuted earlier this year with a long playlist …
Fnatic reveals new LoL roster for 2022 LEC season
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Seven-time European champion Fnatic has finally announced its lineup for the 2022 season With most organizations’ roster-building now coming to a close, Fnatic has finally announced its lineup for next season. The team announced their changes through a parody news broadcast, reporting on their previous “leak” of the roster in a TwitLonger earlier in the day. Martin “Wunder” Nordahl HansenIván “Razork” Martín DíazMarek “Humanoid” BrázdaElias “Upset” LippZdravets “Hylissang” Iliev Galabov …
Our top three favorite Arcane moments
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Arcane, the animated League of Legends series on Netflix, was a smashing success with fans and critics alike. While the series was exciting overall for the League of Legends community, there are some standout moments that were more exciting or emotional than the others. Warning: Spoilers ahead! Anyone who has watched Arcane will have a hard time shaking the tragedy of the third episode`’s warehouse sequence. After Silco ambushes 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.
