League of Legends
League of Legends
Yone has a crazy anime-style Pentakill animation on PBE
Nicholas James
Yone and Yasuo are two of League’s more unapologetically anime-inspired characters, warrior brothers with magical abilities and dark pasts. Riot Games appears to be doubling down on this with a one-of-a-kind animation for Yone upon securing a Pentakill. The animation was spotted on PBE yesterday with many fans initially believing the clips to be edited. It’s not just cosmetic either, Yone’s edgy new moment in the spotlight appears to have …
League of Legends
MAD Lions finalizes LoL roster for the 2022 LEC season
William Davis
Back-to-back defending LEC champion MAD Lions will be entering the 2022 season with a lot of changes to its roster. After a very successful year in the LEC with two trophies won, MAD Lions has made big changes for its next year of play. The changes have been made in the mid lane and in the bottom lane, where MAD Lions will try its luck with some new rookie talent. …
League of Legends
Patch 11.24 nerfs Camille and Chemtech Drake, buffs Caitlyn
Nicholas James
Patch 11.24 is dropping tomorrow and Riot Games has released the full patch notes for the latest changes coming to League of Legends’ offseason. The new patch sees Camille nerfed alongside a long list of items and the much-maligned Chemtech Drake. Many champions have gotten buffs added since the patch preview, with Caitlyn, Kayle, Samira, Twitch, and Urgot all profiting from the final patch notes. Riot’s immediate corrections after the …
League of Legends
This is the G2 Esports roster going into the 2022 LEC season
William Davis
The most successful European organization throughout the last few years of League of Legends, G2 Esports, will be heading into the 2022 LEC season with a very different roster. After failing to qualify for the World Championship for the first time in the organization’s history, G2 entered the offseason with a lot of things to improve upon. The 2021 season was an overall failure for the star-packed roster, resulting in …
League of Legends
Invictus Gaming is blowing up its LPL roster before 2022 season
Nicholas James
Invictus Gaming appears to be cleaning house on its LPL roster, with players departing left, right, and center. Kang “TheShy” Seung-lok was the first to announce his free agency in November following the end of Worlds 2022. Song “Rookie” Eui-jin announced his departure from Invictus Gaming a few days ago on Chinese social media platform Weibo. Zhang “Wink” Rui, and Gao “Ming” Zhen-Ning seem to be leaving, and social media …
League of Legends
Ex-SKT T1 champion Bang announces retirement from LoL esports
Nicholas James
Bae “Bang” Jun-sik, one of the most decorated players in League of Legends esports, has announced his retirement. With two World Championships, two Mid Season Invitational titles, and four LCK playoff wins, few players will ever be able to compare to Bang. The veteran marksman player was a crucial part of T1’s resurgence on the international stage and spent time in North America in 2020 before returning to Korea in …
League of Legends
New Sejuani story hints at Udyr rework and new lore
Nicholas James
Riot continues to double down on using their narrative divisions to preemptively build out the constantly-evolving world of League of Legends. The latest story released, “Dead of Winter” by writer Graham McNeill, gives hints at upcoming changes to the storytelling of Runeterra’s world and iconic champions. The story follows Sejuani and Olaf through a harrowing journey across the Freljord, and even hints at possible lore for the impending Udyr rework. …
League of Legends
This is the complete roster for T1 in the 2022 LCK season
William Davis
After a great run at the 2021 World Championship, T1 will enter the 2022 LCK season with a lot of familiar names including a few changes. The 2021 season ended with an unfortunate top four at Worlds for T1, but the legendary organization will look to continue the momentum and potentially make it all the way to a trophy in 2022. The new roster was recently presented and it will, …
League of Legends event rewards are changing, here’s how
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has announced sweeping changes to how event points are calculated for League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics players during in-game events. Previously, players were given set rewards for the number of games they played while events were active. With the new update, players will instead be able to collect rewards based on the amount of time they spend playing League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, rather than a …
LoL: Wild Rift wins Apple’s iPhone Game of the Year award
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends: Wild Rift, the mobile adaptation of Riot Games’ wildly successful MOBA League of Legends, is already winning acclaim from top-level outlets. Apple is the latest tech titan to give Wild Rift its roses by acknowledging it as the best iPhone game available through the Apple App Store. Wild Rift has been a wildly successful adaptation of Riot Games’ central IP into the realm of mobile gaming. There …
Pantheon revealed in Legends of Runeterra
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Magic Misadventures expansion for Legends is taking players all over Runeterra to add a variety of cards for different regions to the game. Targon is the latest region to be blessed with a League of Champions making their debut in card form, with Pantheon being the latest champion to join the game. Pantheon is a power midrange threat that turns into an unstoppable wrecking ball as you power up …
Here is DWG KIA’s full roster for the 2022 LCK season
William Davis
League of Legends
For the first time since the end of 2020, DWG KIA has made roster changes to its League of Legends LCK roster. After failing to win both the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational and 2021 World Championship despite reaching both finals, DWG KIA has made three big roster changes moving into the next season. These roster changes include new young talent that will aim to keep DWG KIA the best team in …
Prime Gaming Wild Rift rewards for December revealed
Nicholas James
League of Legends
There are still rewards aplenty available across Riot Games’ titles through Prime Gaming even after the end of the RiotX Arcane event. Prime Gaming rewards will be available on Wild Rift all the way to November of next year, and likely beyond then. December’s rewards for Wild Rift aren’t too impressive, but there are still RiotX Arcane rewards to claim through Prime Gaming as well. Unlike the December prizes for …
All the ranked rewards changes coming to Wild Rift
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has announced a ton of changes coming to Wild Rift in Patch 2.6. Alongside a deluge of skins, URF, new champions, and more, the way ranked and rewards for ranked play function is changing. Players will be able to claim skins and other rewards as a part of their ranked play. Glorious Skins are being made a bit more difficult for higher-ranked players to claim, but those who …
Kennen revealed in Legends of Runeterra
Nicholas James
League of Legends
More and more champions are getting added to Legends of Runeterra, pulled from League of Legends’ roster and made into the headlining Champion cards that decks revolve around. Kennen, the latest Yordle to get added to Legends of Runeterra, has been recently revealed as a part of spoilers for the upcoming Bandlewood expansion. The new Magic Misadventures expansion lets fans harness the power of the Spirit Realm and the supercharged …
Mithy joins 100 Thieves as coach for the 2022 LCS season
William Davis
League of Legends
100 Thieves will be powering up its coaching staff for the 2022 LCS season, as the team recently announced former professional support player Alfonso “Mithy” Rodríguez as a new addition to the coaching staff. Mithy will be joining the organization after coaching Cloud9 in 2021. He started the season as a strategic coach for the organization but was promoted to be the team’s head coach for the summer split. Mithy …
How to get League of Legends Prime Gaming rewards for December
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Prime Gaming’s December offerings for League of Legends players have arrived, and there are more rewards for those who already own Amazon Prime accounts. Along with this, RiotX Arcane’s rewards are still available until the end of the month for League of Legends players to claim. This month’s Prime Gaming rewards include Riot Points, a free skin, and more enticing offers for those taking to Summoner’s Rift. https://twitter.com/LeagueOfLegends/status/1465734876007591938?s=20 The Amazon …
Caedrel says Chemtech Drake could ruin pro League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The Chemtech Drake, one of the two new elemental dragon subtypes added to League of Legends as a part of patch 11.23, has already become a hot topic amongst League of Legends fans. The effect the Chemtech Drake has on Summoner’s Rift with zones of camouflaging smog in each team’s jungle has many fans upset at how unfun it is to play into, especially while behind. Marc “Caedrel” Lamont, a …
Is Corina Veraza the next support in League of Legends?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot has been relatively mysterious when it comes to champions getting added to League of Legends at the end of this year and headed into 2022. Fans have received clues about the next three champions to be added to League of Legends’ lengthy roster. The first will be a marksman wielding some type of electric cannon, the second a support with a darker tone, and the third being a jungler …
Arcane’s Silco coming to TFT set 6.5, but is he coming to LoL?
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Silco is officially becoming a part of the League of Legends game universe with Teamfight Tactics: Gizmos and Gadgets’ mid-set update, but how big will his role be, and could he be coming to LoL next? On League of Legends’ Korean website, Riot Games teased TFT set 6.5 and showed the model for Silco in the game. The website suggested that this version of Silco is an all-new model, not …
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.
