League of Legends
Esports Betting
Faker’s net worth in 2026 and how much he gets paid
Hannan Mundia
As one of the most popular and successful professional League of Legends players of all time, it is fair to wonder what exactly Faker’s net worth is. While League of Legends has been around for well over a decade now, no other professional player has come close to the level of success and fame that Korean star player Faker has achieved. Making his debut in 2013 at the age of …
Esports Betting
T1 vs Team Liquid Kespa Cup 2025: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
The 2025 World Championship winner T1 is slated to face Team Liquid in the Kespa Cup’s preliminary round, with the match being one of the first opportunities for fans to see the team sides’ updated rosters. T1 is flying high after its recent World Championship trophy run concluded. Against the odds, the team rose to the occasion and won the tournament for the third consecutive time. By contrast, Team Liquid …
Esports Betting
Cloud9 vs Gen.G Kespa Cup 2025 preliminary round: Best odds, pick
Hannan Mundia
Following all the most notable post-World Championship team and roster changes, the 2025 LoL KeSPA Cup will be the first major tournament of the new competitive season, with popular teams Cloud9 and Gen.G facing off on the first day. Cloud9 may have been on a downward streak recently, but this match is the side’s chance to bounce back. With Gen.G missing Chovy and Ruler in the middle and bottom lanes, …
Esports Betting
Maps, first blood betting picks for T1 vs KT at LoL Worlds 2025
Hannan Mundia
The 2025 LoL Worlds grand finals match between KT Rolster and T1 is shaping up to be huge, and smart bettors will certainly want to know what the best betting picks are for both first blood and maps played. We’ll take a look at each of these top bets that are available for the finals clash and give our recommendations for both. Few expected KT Rolster to reach the 2025 …
Esports Betting
Gen.G vs KT Rolster LoL Worlds 2025 knockout stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Gen.G and KT Rolster are semifinalists in the 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage, and the winner between the two LCK squads will determine which squad will soon have a shot at the World Championship trophy. The knockout stage saw the first LCK team finally eliminated from Worlds when Gen.G beat Hanwha Life Esports. KT Rolster’s comfortable win against CFO also brought it to the semifinals, where the two LCK teams …
Esports Betting
Anyone’s Legend vs T1 Worlds 2025 knockout stage: Best odds, picks
Hannan Mundia
In a rematch of what was a tight battle at the Esports World Cup, Anyone’s Legend and T1 will battle in the 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage, and only one team will avoid elimination as the winner moves on to the semifinals to battle Top Esports. Anyone’s Legend has showcased the strongest performance in the tournament so far, and the team will now face T1 in the knockout stage quarterfinals. …
Esports Betting
G2 Esports vs TES Worlds 2025 knockout stage: Best odds, predictions
Hannan Mundia
The 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage quarterfinals round will next see G2 Esports face off with TES, but which team has the better chance of qualifying for the semifinals? The 2025 LoL Worlds Swiss Stage saw eight teams progress through to the knockout stage. G2 won three consecutive matches after a rocky start, establishing itself as a potential force to be reckoned with in the tournament. But how will the …
Esports Betting
KT Rolster vs CFO Worlds 2025 knockout stage: Best odds, picks
Hannan Mundia
KT Rolster and CFO will next battle in the 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage quarterfinals, with the losing team bidding farewell to the tournament. The favorites to win the 2025 Worlds were established before the event even started. While powerhouses like T1 and Gen.G got through the knockout stage, those matches also established some underdog teams with a real shot who fans could root for. KT Rolster and CFO are …
Gen.G vs HLE LoL Worlds 2025 knockout stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
The first match of the 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage is set between Gen.G and HLE, with the losing team between these two LCK rivals getting eliminated from the tournament and the winner moving on with great hopes of lifting the trophy. Teams across multiple regions qualified for Worlds this year and gave it their all in the Swiss Stage in an effort o progress to the knockout stage. While …
2025 LoL Worlds knockouts are here: Who’s the betting favorite?
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
The teams qualified for the 2025 LoL Worlds knockout stage have finally been settled, but which should be considered the betting favorite to win it all? The 2025 League of Legends World Championship is easily the biggest competitive LoL tournament of the year. After passing through qualifying and a hotly-contested Swiss Stage, eight teams will now duke it out in a single-elimination bracket to determine the ultimate victor. Considering the …
MKOI vs T1 Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and top picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
The last match of the 2025 LoL Worlds Swiss Stage will now see two-time defending champion T1 face off against MKOI, but is there any chance of the European team causing an upset? This year’s Worlds tournament has been filled with ups and downs for many of its teams. In particular, T1 barely managed to make it to the tournament through the play-in and then found itself with two losses, …
T1 vs 100 Thieves Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds, betting tips
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
After losing two matches each in the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage, T1 and 100 Thieves will now face off in round 4 of the event with elimination on the line. T1 has seen its fair share of ups and downs in 2025, with the team impressing in the recent MSI and EWC tournaments but only just making it into LoL Worlds 2025. While the team’s matches against iG and FlyQuest …
Gen.G vs TES Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
After finding two wins each, Gen.G and TES will now duke it out in the 2025 LoL Worlds Swiss Stage with a spot in the knockout round on the line. Gen.G went into this year’s LoL Worlds event as the favorite to win the whole tournament. While the team stumbled along the way and lost shockingly against PCL contender CFO, its win against T1 put it right back in the …
HLE vs CFO Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds, predictions
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
HLE and CFO will soon lock up in battle for the first time in the ongoing 2025 LoL Worlds Swiss stage to determine which of these teams qualifies for the event’s knockout stage. After picking up two wins in the ongoing stage, both CFO and HLE need just one best-of-three victory to qualify for the playoffs. With time running out and elimination to next be on the line if they …
G2 Esports vs FlyQuest Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds, picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
FlyQuest and G2 Esports have both done well in the 2025 Worlds Swiss Stage thus far, and the two will now battle each other to determine which team reaches the knockout stage first. This year’s LoL Worlds event has seen multiple upsets already, including G2 Esports winning against BLG. Both teams have two wins under their respective belts already, and this match between G2 and FlyQuest could tilt popular opinion …
MKOI vs Fnatic Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and predictions
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
MKOI and Fnatic have performed poorly in the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage to date, and now these two embattled LEC teams will face each other in the third round with elimination on the line. European professional League of Legends teams all suffered from poor performance in the first round of the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage. While G2 has managed to bounce back to an extent, the same can’t be said …
T1 vs Gen.G Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
T1 and Gen.G will meet earlier than most expected, in the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage’s third round, and one of the two Worlds favorites will find itself on the brink of elimination. T1 and Gen.G went into Worlds as favorites to win the whole thing. Both teams shocked fansby losing to underdog picks CFO and Anyone’s Legend, respectively, in the second round, sending them to the third round’s middle bracket. …
Anyone’s Legend vs CFO Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
Anyone’s Legend and CFO will meet in the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage, and CFO’s performance thus far suggests that we could see an upset. Anyone’s Legend and CFO both caused major upsets in the second round of the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage. One team defeated Gen.G while the other bested T1, sending these two teams to the third round’s high bracket. The squad that wins here will instantly qualify for …
T1 vs CFO LoL Worlds 2025 Swiss Stage: Best odds and picks
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
T1 will next face off against CFO in the 2025 Worlds Swiss stage’s second round, and the looming question is whether there are any potentially high-return bets to be made around the match. T1 may have started its Worlds journey in the play-in, but the squad has proven itself undaunted and dominated in the Swiss stage’s first round. Similarly, CTBC Flying Oyster dominated Fnatic, propelling it to the second round’s …
Our top underdog teams and players to watch at LoL Worlds 2025
Hannan Mundia
Esports Betting
Fans around the world are excited for the opening of LoL Worlds 2025, and while heavy favorites Gen.G and T1 are getting most of the attention going in, it’s the top underdog teams and players that have our eyes as the best and most interesting to watch. Any time a large-scale tournament like Worlds come around, most fans gravitate towards the presumptive favorites, expecting them to dominate. But it’s 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.
