League of Legends
League of Legends
LoL players already hate the Chemtech Drake, and here’s why
Nicholas James
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
League of Legends enters Magic: The Gathering with Secret Lair
Nicholas James
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, …
League of Legends
Faker re-signs with T1 for the 2022 LCK season
William Davis
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
How to play Qiyana in preseason 2022
Nicholas James
Qiyana, the empress-to-be of Ixtal, has grabbed League of Legends fans’ attention after showing up throughout the 2021 World Championship. With the brand new preseason hitting the rift, here’s how to play Qiyana just like the best players out there. From the jungle to the mid lane, Qiyana is a mechanically intensive champion to play and can require lots of careful setup in order to annihilate your opponents. Qiyana as …
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
Patch 11.23 brings the preseason to League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends preseason ahead of season 12 is finally here, with Patch 11.23 arriving shortly. The new patch will bring new dragons, items, and runes for players to experiment with and hopefully enjoy. From teleportation gates to returning from death, these new changes will introduce some wild new mechanics to League of Legends. This preseason has had fans especially excited after a relatively tame set of changes made in …
DWG KIA loses ShowMaker, Canyon, and BeryL to free agency
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
DWG Kia’s roster may look very different in 2022. Just weeks removed from their loss to EDward Gaming in the 2021 World Championship finals, DWG KIA’s Heo “ShowMaker” Su, Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu and Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee have allowed their contracts to expire in order to explore their offseason possibilities. All three players are now free agents and are free to negotiate with other teams. The trio saw their contracts expire …
Riot teases new Debonair skins for Brand, Zed, Draven, and more
William Davis
League of Legends
The next skin batch for League of Legends has been teased and will include new stylish cosmetics from the Debonair skin line. Debonair 2.0 will include skins for a total of seven new champions who will be joining the already existing skin line that is known for its classy high-end look. The receivers of a new cosmetic will be Brand, Master Yi, Zed, Leona, LeBlanc, Draven, and Malzahar. As a …
Ruined King is available now after Riot Forge Showcase
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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 …
Explore Vi’s backstory through the Council Archives
Nicholas James
League of Legends
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 …
G2 Esports’ Rekkles signed to play in LFL with Karmine Corp
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Team Liquid reportedly signing Bwipo, Bjergsen
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
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.
