League of Legends
League of Legends
Riot hints at new jungler with Malzahar lore update
Nicholas James
Riot Games has had wild success using League of Legends’ narrative in the past month with the premiere of Arcane to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Riot released a short story earlier this week, giving Malzahar and the Void some much-needed storytelling love. Fans have started to speculate that a mysterious being mentioned in the story may be the void-themed jungler that Riot has teased for release next year. The Void is …
League of Legends
Upset responds to Adam’s statements over Fnatic Worlds drama
Nicholas James
The discussion around Fnatic’s unfortunate Worlds 2021 run has spilled out onto social media, with ex-top laner Adam “Adam” Maanane’s posting a Twitlonger on his experience in Fnatic and issues with Elias “Upset” Lipp. In the post, Adam articulated several umbrages about Worlds and the offseason, particularly centered around the team’s AD carry, Upset. Upset has made few public statements since his departure the day before Worlds’ group stage began …
League of Legends
Jankos apparently leaks Wunder moving to Fnatic
Nicholas James
This year’s offseason has been increasingly wild for fans of professional League of Legends in North America and Europe alike. Top tier players are moving down to regional play, there are imports and homecomings left, right, and center, and there seems to be no end to rumors and leaks. The latest of these comes from G2 Esports’ jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, who seems to have accidentally revealed where his previous …
League of Legends
Go behind the scenes of Arcane’s music design
Nicholas James
Riot Games’ animated series for League of Legends, Arcane, has finished its first season to resounding praise from fans and critics alike. The soundtrack especially has caught fans’ attention, with superstars like Pusha T and Sting signing on to give Piltover and Zaun their signature sound. In a recent video released by Riot, writer and showrunner Christian Linke and head of Riot Games Music Toa Dunn sit down to talk …
League of Legends
ex-Fnatic top Adam says Upset leaving Worlds was “unjustified”
Nicholas James
Fnatic’s run at the 2021 World Championship was by all accounts the perfect storm of unfortunate events. One of the team’s former players is going on the record with just how bad things really got. AD carry Elias “Upset” Lipp departed right before the tournament began due to an “urgent family matter” and subsequent social media drama played out around Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau and his romantic partner. It appears that …
League of Legends
Chovy rounds out the Gen.G 2022 LCK roster
William Davis
One of the biggest organizations in the LCK has completed its roster for the 2022 season with star mid laner Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon. After a bunch of announcements over the past week, Gen.G has completed its roster by picking up Chovy from Hanwha Life. Chovy joins after playing with Hanwha Life for one year, where he played a big part in getting the team all the way to the 2021 …
League of Legends
Here’s what the new Varus VFX looks like
Nicholas James
Riot Games has been steadily committed to keeping their roster of champions’ in-game moves looking fresh and modern. Syndra recently had her visual effects upgraded, and it looks like it could be Varus’ turn to get an effects facelift. It isn’t an Art & Sustainability Update like Caitlyn’s recent modernization. Instead, it will be limited to making Varus’ abilities clearer for Varus players as well as their opponents. The VFX …
League of Legends
What will happen in Arcane Season 2?
Nicholas James
Arcane’s first season is over. After its debut to stellar reviews, fans are scrambling to figure out what could come next after one serious cliffhanger ending. Some of the possible plot events of the second season can be guessed at from champions’ biographies and other existing lore, while others rely on contextual clues from within the show itself. This article will compile some of the most likely events and most …
Team Liquid confirms Bwipo as top laner for 2022 LCS season
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s official. Former Fnatic jungler and top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau has joined Team Liquid. The rumor was confirmed by Liquid only a few hours after Bwipo was officially released from Fnatic. The previous Fnatic jungler and top laner will be role swapping back to his bread and butter as Team Liquid’s new top laner. This comes after one split as the main jungler for Fnatic, where Bwipo performed above …
Into the Arcane: Council Archives locks onto Caitlyn
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Into the Arcane has been a browser-based narrative event where League of Legends players have been able to dive into documents concerning their favorite champions from the hit animated series Arcane. After Arcane’s finale on November 20, Riot hasn’t slowed the rollout of announcements, from Project L to the locations for the 2022 World Championship. Caitlyn gets this week’s spotlight in the continued Council Archives showcase, which coincides with each …
Riot reveals Worlds 2021 viewership, and it smashed all records
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Worlds 2021 was already known to be the biggest event in esports history, but it wasn’t clear just how much bigger it was than anything else. Riot Games has announced that the 2021 World Championship final reached more than 73 million peak concurrent viewers, an increase of almost 30 million from the previous year. The exact peak reached 73,860,742 viewers, up from 46,067,896 in 2020, while the average minute audience …
Worlds 2022 locations announced for USA, Mexico, and Canada
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Worlds 2021 hasn’t been over for a month and Riot is already announcing the cities that will host the 2022 World Championship, which will be taking place in North America. From Mexico to Eastern Canada, League of Legends esports fans from all over the continent can look forwards to esports’ biggest event coming to their neck of the woods next year. The Worlds 2022 event will begin in Mexico City, …
Arcane Season 2 is coming, is in production right now
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games didn’t even leave a single day between the finale of Arcane’s third act and the announcement of Arcane’s second season. Arcane has been a smash hit with League of Legends fans and newcomers alike, sporting a 100% critic score and a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Riot Games has announced that while fans will be able to get an Arcane Season 2, it won’t be next year …
Arcane teases that Orianna may be Singed’s daughter
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Arcane’s first season has ended and fans are feverishly dissecting every detail of the final act in order to find hidden story connections and hints at Arcane’s next seasons. One of the biggest revolves around Singed and his seemingly deceased daughter, who may be League of Legends champion Orianna. During the final act, Singed takes a bigger role in the story after only being a background character in the first …
Riot Games gives details on fighting game Project L
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games announced a swathe of new titles and projects in the League of Legends universe as a part of League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary celebration. One that grabbed fans’ attention was the 2D fighting game starring League of Legends. Today, after the last act of Arcane aired, Riot has continued their massive publicity train for RiotX Arcane by announcing details on Project L. In the video featuring Tom Cannon and …
TSM adds Tactical to replace Lost for 2022 LCS season
Nicholas James
League of Legends
This year’s offseason has been a wild ride for fans, and it isn’t over yet as TSM has announced some big moves of its own. With the departure of Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, North American esports titan TSM FTX’s future looked unstable. However, the multi-time LCS champion has announced its latest acquisition for 2022. TSM FTX has acquired Edward “Tactical” Ra from Team Liquid in order to shore up its roster …
Arcane Season 2 confirmed by Riot Games CEO
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games’ smash-hit animated series, Arcane, finished its first season today but it seems as though a second season is likely to come. The dark, stylized take on Piltover and Zaun has gotten rave reviews from established League of Legends fans, newcomers, and critics alike. After a slight cliffhanger ending, fans are clamoring to know about further seasons, wanting to see more of the story elements left in limbo after …
LoL players already hate the Chemtech Drake, and here’s why
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The 2022 preseason went live this week, bringing a long list of major changes to the League of Legends experience on Summoner’s Rift. And players are upset about one change in particular. The most noticeable changes are the new dragons, Hextech and Chemtech. Each of them brings unique effects to Summoner’s Rift when they take over. While the Hextech drake’s portals got all of the initial attention, Chemtech drake’s camouflaging …
League of Legends enters Magic: The Gathering with Secret Lair
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Magic: The Gathering, the titanic collectible card game from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast, has been reaching out more and more into other worlds with its exclusive Secret Lair series and the announced Worlds Beyond products. The most recent fanciful setting to get its incarnation in Magic is League of Legends’ Runeterra, through new animated show Arcane. Secret Lair x Arcane was announced earlier this week with two variations, …
Faker re-signs with T1 for the 2022 LCK season
William Davis
League of Legends
Big news dropped from the T1 camp today that the legendary mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok will be staying with the organization for the upcoming season. This was revealed in an announcement by T1, which said that Faker has re-signed with the organization that he has been a part of since he started playing professionally back in 2013. Alongside the news was a short statement by the star player which …
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.
