League of Legends
League of Legends
Why Rekkles’ move to KCorp in the LFL is risky
Nicholas James
This year’s offseason for professional League of Legends has been a wild ride to many fans. Martin “Rekkles” Larssen’s departure from top-tier competition and the LEC to join French organization, Karmine Corp, in the LFL was one of the most shocking. To many fans, this move is very unexpected given Rekkles’ status as a mainstay of top-level League of Legends play in Europe for many years now. Some fans speculate …
League of Legends
LoL preseason bug makes Lulu untargetable due to her Pix passive
William Davis
The League of Legends preseason patch has finally hit the live servers but it unfortunately has brought some nasty bugs with it. Only a few hours after the big preseason patch was released, a game-breaking bug was discovered on Lulu. This bug makes Lulu untargetable and is seemingly triggered because of a bug in the code for her Pix. When the bug occurs, Pix will be the one targeted by …
League of Legends
Who are Mylo and Claggor in Arcane?
Nicholas James
Mylo and Claggor are two of Vander’s adopted children and members of Vi and Jinx’s childhood gang in the new animated series Arcane. As Undercity Nights winds on, more and more fans are turning their attention to the new characters in the animated show. While fans’ first time hearing them may have been in Arcane’s first act, clues have been laid about their existence for a while. From previous clues …
League of Legends
These are all of the new changes for the LCS in 2022
Nicholas James
The top North American League of Legends professional circuit, known the LCS, has announced a sweeping series of changes to the way that professional play will function in 2022. Riot is doubling down on its investment in the amateur and Academy circuits, as well as addressing some players’ concerns about server location with a small scale recreation of the famous Chinese “super server.” During an already volatile offseason, Riot is …
League of Legends
Ruined King is available now after Riot Forge Showcase
Nicholas James
The Riot Forge Showcase is over, and Riot Games’ publishing arm has given updates on games that are already announced as well as detailing new adventures for players around Runeterra. Riot Forge was announced as a part of League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary celebration as a way for indie developers to get their hands on the League of Legends IP and tell stories about champions who can’t get a story spotlight …
League of Legends
Explore Vi’s backstory through the Council Archives
Nicholas James
As Arcane’s third and final act approaches, fans are getting yet another chance to dip their toes into the vast world of Runeterra by exploring the Piltover Council Archives once more to uncover Vi’s criminal records. Previously, fans were able to leaf through Jayce’s diary and find out details of Arcane’s story in the week between acts. RiotX Arcane is running through its last couple of events in this week’s …
League of Legends
G2 Esports’ Rekkles signed to play in LFL with Karmine Corp
William Davis
A bomb has dropped in the European League of Legends scene with G2 Esports bot laner Martin “Rekkles” Larsson being sent to the LFL’s Karmine Corp. The two-year contract will send Rekkles from the LEC to a European Regional League, a reversal of fortunes that would’ve been unthinkable not long ago. Karmine Corp is the biggest and most popular organization in the LFL and has been the best performer since …
League of Legends
Team Liquid reportedly signing Bwipo, Bjergsen
William Davis
Team Liquid could be going big in the upcoming offseason, as it is rumored to sign some big names for 2022. But will it be enough to top the LCS once again? While it’s still early days in the offseason, it’s currently rumored that Liquid will be swapping out players in the top, mid, and bot lane position. These positions are reportedly being taken over by Fnatic’s Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, …
Riot Games teasing new LoL spinoffs coming through Riot Forge
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Forge is Riot Games’ effort to begin expanding the beloved League of Legends IP to other developers. While it was announced as a part of League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary celebration, no games have yet been released from Riot’s label. Over the past few days, Riot Forge has been taking to Twitter to give fans cryptic glances at various locales throughout the world of Runeterra. Given some hints being laid, …
RiotX Arcane begins Undercity Nights heading into finale
Nicholas James
League of Legends
RiotX Arcane is Riot Games’ massive month-long, multi-title event meant to sweep up millions of players into the hype around its animated show, which has been debuting on Netflix. Following Progress Day after the first act, Undercity Nights is the title given to the second stretch of rewards, missions, and more coming to Riot’s various titles. This week’s unique cosmetic in League of Legends is Arcane Vi, which seems to …
Most notable players still available in the LoL offseason
William Davis
League of Legends
The League of Legends offseason is currently in full swing but some significant players are still not rumored to be going anywhere and could potentially end without a team for 2022. The ongoing offseason is looking more competitive than ever from a player’s perspective, with many rookies looking to potentially enter the LEC and LCS next season. This means that there might not be room for everyone, forcing current players …
Is Ekko the Firelight leader in Arcane?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING Ekko, League of Legends’ iconic Zaunite time traveler, seemed to be conspicuously missing from Arcane’s second act. Ekko has a lot of ground to cover in terms of his story arc to get him to where League of Legends fans are familiar, especially since his face didn’t see a single second of screen time in the show’s second act. Thanks to a variety of hints found in …
LoL Challenges, new loading screen coming to PBE
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has been making an active effort to expand the level of achievement markers for players who aren’t interested in the ranked gameplay grind. The publisher gave players a look at the next step in a recent update post. The latest in these are Challenges, a lifetime achievement system that will let League of Legends players show off their accomplishments. Along with changes to the loading screen, end-of-game experience, …
Here’s how Imagine Dragons’ Arcane theme ‘Enemy’ was made
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has been going all out to promote Arcane and that isn’t slowing down any time soon. The latest example is a video highlighting the process of creating Imagine Dragons’ theme song for Arcane, the catchy track “Enemy” that was featured throughout Worlds 2021. The video puts into perspective the huge scale of Arcane’s production timeline, as well as giving some insights into the process of putting together a …
Riot stopped G2 Esports from loaning Rekkles for cheap
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The 2022 offseason is already at a fever pitch, with roster moves left, right, and center. Europe’s biggest player shuffle has to be the disbanding of the G2 Esports core that put European League of Legends back on the map. The most recent addition to the roster, longtime Fnatic player Martin “Rekkles” Larssen, was one of the parts confirmed to be replaced for 2022 by founder Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez. In …
Are there new League of Legends champions in Arcane?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games’ new hit animated show Arcane has debuted to praise from fans and critics alike. The gorgeous animated venture created by Studio Fortiche has been Riot’s first proper attempt at traditional cinematic storytelling.SPOILER WARNING FOR ARCANE The first act alone has led to lots of fan theories and speculation about foreshadowing for hidden backstories. In addition to potential origin stories for champions being hidden in the series, fans are …
Nisqy: “It’s highly likely I won’t be playing next split”
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Fnatic’s disappointing performance at Worlds clearly signaled change would be coming to the roster in many fans’ eyes. However, the offseason rumor mill suggested that most players would be finding new homes for the 2022 split. In a twist, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer said on a recent stream that it was looking increasingly unlikely that he would return to the competitive League of Legends scene for 2022. Nisqy was meant to …
New LoL avatar creator lets you find your Runeterran look
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Have you ever wanted to see what you might look like if you lived in Runeterra, the fantasy world of League of Legends? Riot Games has given fans the chance to answer that questions for themselves with a brand new Picrew-style avatar creator. Picrew has been steadily growing in popularity, especially on Twitter, allowing users to assemble personalized illustrated characters to function as profile pictures or just for fun. Riot …
FC Barcelona joining LoL esports with Superliga team
Nicholas James
League of Legends
European football titan FC Barcelona has doubled down on its commitment to esports, purchasing a slot in the brand new iteration of the Spanish Superliga, one of the regional leagues. It’s become increasingly common for top-level football clubs to begin expanding into the esports space, with FC Schalke 04 and Paris Saint-Germain being the most notable entrants into the space. The football club announced its venture into the esports space …
Doublelift says TSM founder Regi made his players cry
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Retired professional AD Carry Peng “Doublelift” Yilang has had the League of Legends community’s full attention since airing some serious grievances with the conduct of TSM founder Andy “Reginald” Dinh, and that isn’t slowing down. Doublelift went on stream to discuss his negative personal experiences with Reginald throughout his time on TSM with a specific focus on the 2020 offseason. In a second stream yesterday, Doublelift expanded the allegations of …
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.
