League of Legends
League of Legends
Yuumi is the most-banned champion of LoL patch 11.21
William Davis
League of Legends patch 11.21 has brought a lot of new changes and a shift in the meta. One of the champions that are still considered way too strong for solo queue is Yuumi, who has seen some very high ban rates. After seeing Yuumi being utilized to great success at the 2021 World Championship, it has seemed to affect the state of solo queue. While Yuumi hasn’t been buffed …
League of Legends
Who will win the Worlds semifinals? These are the best Pick’Ems
Nicholas James
The Worlds 2021 quarterfinals are over and there’s only one more round of play before the finalists are decided. On one side of the bracket, two Korean superpowers compete for one slot to the finals. On the other, a resurgent Gen.G faces the LPL champions, fresh off a bloody five-game series against Royal Never Give Up. It’s important to gain bragging rights and cosmetic items with Riot Games’ Pick’Ems and …
League of Legends
How did 100 Thieves fail at Worlds 2021?
Nicholas James
Freshly crowned LCS champions 100 Thieves bested its North American competitors in the LCS summer playoffs. This meant taking home prime seeding to the 2021 World Championship and being North America’s strongest competitor on paper. But after falling out in the group stage, what went wrong for 100 Thieves? 100 Thieves had a dominant summer playoffs performance, demolishing Team Liquid 3-0 in the finals. The aggressive and proactive style that …
League of Legends
Only six fans have perfect Pick’em scores for Worlds 2021
Olivia Richman
The League of Legends 2021 World Championship has been a wild ride already. Every year, viewers can take part in the Pick’ems, a fantasy league of sorts hosted by Riot Games. At each stage of the tournament, participants select the teams that they feel will win, predicting the outcome of the entire tournament. Predicting correctly brings in-game prizes and bragging rights. It’s a way to make watching Worlds both interactive …
League of Legends
How to play Jhin like the LoL pros at Worlds 2021
Nicholas James
Jhin, the Virtuoso, is one of League of Legends’ most unique marksman champions, and with his recent dominance at Worlds 2021 many want to know how to play him. With only four bullets, a reload mechanic, and a static attack speed, Jhin requires a precise, measured playstyle different from other AD carries. Jhin’s high damage, ability to create opportunities for his team and deal damage from afar make him incredibly …
League of Legends
Who is Chovy? Korea’s best LoL player to never win at Worlds
Nicholas James
Jeong “Chovy” Ji-hoon is the prodigious mid laner for Hanwha Life Esports. To many, Chovy is a generational talent plagued by controversy and poor luck. To others, he’s an overhyped rookie who never achieved his potential. So who is the Korean all-star, and why does he manage to accumulate such a ridiculous amount of farm over the course of a game? The first time most fans will have seen Chovy …
League of Legends
What is a Yordle? Explaining LoL’s cutest cryptids
Nicholas James
Yordles have long been a fixture of League of Legends’ lore, debuting with the game’s release. These short and often fuzzy, creatures are the second biggest race of playable characters, falling behind the ever-popular human. But, what are Yordles? Are they just cute fuzzy characters to sell skins to younger audiences, or is there something more mysterious beneath the surface? Yordles aren’t the creatures they appear to be, quite literally. …
League of Legends
Riot Games will give championship rings to Worlds 2021 winners
Nicholas James
Riot Games is taking a page out of traditional sport’s book and will be awarding championship rings to the winners of Worlds 2021. Riot took to Twitter to announce a new tradition at its annual World Championship. The victors of the grand finals will be presented with dazzling rings commemorating their victory, designed in collaboration between Riot Games, Mercedes-Benz, and GOOD ART HLYWD. The rings are crafted from 18-karat white …
New traits and mechanics in TFT: Gizmos and Gadgets intro
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has pulled the curtain back on upcoming Teamfight Tactics set Gizmos and Gadgets. In an introductory video, Riot shows a bunch of the new traits and mechanics for the new set. From wild Hextech Augments that can turn your strategy on its head, to enormous units that count as two, there are lots of new mechanics to learn. In this latest video, helpful Hextech gear F.R.E.D walks players …
RNG vs EDward Gaming: 2021 Worlds betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The second quarterfinal of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship will be between two Chinese giants with defending LPL champion EDward Gaming taking on Royal Never Give Up. Not only will this match decide which LPL team will advance further in the tournament, but it will also be a matchup with a lot of history from possibly the most competitive league in the world. It will be the defending …
Is Riot making League of Legends faster to please China?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends has evolved for over a decade, and many fans have complaints about the amount of damage that has more recently been built into the game. With the new runes system, new items, and new dragons, Riot has slowly been adding a lot of extra passive damage to League of Legends games the world over. As games continue to feel faster than ever, is Riot catering to the …
PowerOfEvil looks for LCS & LEC offers, hints at departure from TSM
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage has hinted at his impending departure from North American organization TSM. PowerOfEvil’s departure from the organization has been widely expected following rumors of TSM head coach Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg returning to professional play. Today PowerOfEvil announced on Twitter that he would likely be departing the organization in the coming year, and that he is fielding offers from teams in the LCS and LEC. PoE was the pick …
League’s new First Strike rune turns damage into gold
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has been releasing information about its preseason plans heading into 2022. Among the latest details to hit the web are rune reworks that include a brand new rune and some fresh new items. The big headliner is the new rune, First Strike, that seems to emulate the style of the removed Kleptomancy rune from previous League of Legends seasons. At the very bottom of Riot’s Preseason Preview, it …
How Fnatic failed at Worlds
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The League of Legends World Championship 2021 was a frustrating time for Fnatic, EU’s second seed. Fnatic’s main AD carry left the event and was forced to play with Louis “Bean” Schmitz instead. Despite a strong showing in the LEC’s summer playoffs, Fnatic’s implosion at Worlds had plenty of factors. The obvious change in Fnatic’s Worlds 2021 run was the departure of Elias “Upset” Lipp from the tournament due to …
T1 vs. Hanwha Life: 2021 Worlds betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The first quarterfinal of the 2021 League of Legends World Championship is right around the corner and will be a match between two Korean rivals from the LCK. In the first best-of-five of the main event, T1 will clash with Hanwha Life for the first time since the LCK regional finals when T1 won a close 3-2 series. Even though that match happened less than two months ago, a lot …
LoL patch 11.21 brings the end of All Chat, Teemo buffs, more
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has released the patch notes for League of Legends patch 11.21. The patch targets champions that are overperforming such as Miss Fortune and Graves, while bringing up champions like Viego, Teemo, and Jinx. Dragonmancer skins join the game alongside some mastery and item changes to get everything settled for the upcoming preseason. Riot is also beginning their temporary test of disabling all chat in order to combat toxicity. …
Who is EDward Gaming, contender to win Worlds 2021?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
EDward Gaming is the reigning LPL champion, with a roster of players who have long had chips on their shoulders. What players make up the roster of this Chinese juggernaut aiming for the Worlds 2021 title? And how did they get to this point? It’s worth going over the history of EDward Gaming’s players and the brand itself. EDward Gaming entered the LPL, China’s main competitive League of Legends league, …
Riot Games announces Arcane skins for Jayce and Vi
Nicholas James
League of Legends
It’s full steam ahead on the Arcane hype train, with Riot Games’ animated series based on League of Legends set to premiere on November 6, the same day as the 2021 World Championship final. In line with the Piltover & Zaun-focused series, Riot has announced skins for some of the characters to be depicted in the series. The League of Legends developer took to Twitter to announce Arcane Edition skins …
T1 bot lane dominates Worlds 2021 group stage, knockouts next?
William Davis
League of Legends
T1’s bot lane of Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok impressed at the 2021 World Championship group stage with high KDA’s and very few deaths. Over the course of the six group-stage games, the T1 bot lane managed to top the charts in both KDA and fewest deaths. The great performance puts support Keria at the second-highest KDA of all players going into the playoffs at 14, with bot …
Gen.G, MAD Lions survive first 4-way tie in Worlds history
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
After the final day of the 2021 World Championship group stage resulted in a four-way, 3-3 tie, an entire tiebreaker knockout was required to sort things out. The high-stakes situation between four evenly matched teams ultimately saw two advance to the playoffs and two booted from the event entirely. In the end, it was Gen.G and MAD Lions that were sent to the Worlds 2021 playoffs and Team Liquid and …
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.
