League of Legends
League of Legends
T1 bot lane dominates Worlds 2021 group stage, knockouts next?
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Gen.G, MAD Lions survive first 4-way tie in Worlds history
Tokoni Uti
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
Who will win Worlds 2021 Playoffs? The Best Worlds Pick’ems
Nicholas James
The Worlds 2021 group stage is over. Now it’s time for the playoffs and the Pick’Ems that go with them. Week two of groups brought plenty of close games and even some unexpected results. With two LPL teams, four LCK teams, and the lonesome western teams of MAD Lions and Cloud9 making up the competitive field, the matches have been drawn and it’s time for fans to lock in their …
League of Legends
Worlds 2021 knockout group draw sees C9 vs Gen.G, DK vs MAD
Steven Rondina
The Worlds 2021 group stage is over, and now the knockout stage is about to begin. After a four-way tiebreaker decided the two teams to advance out of group D, the Worlds 2021 knockout stage draw began. This decided the four matchups for that will kick off the knockout stage, and seeded the bracket for the remainder of the tournament. The four matches include two intraregional tilts and a few …
Teemo can permanently blind targets with patch 11.21 buffs
William Davis
League of Legends
After Riot Games presented the upcoming Teemo buffs for League of Legends patch 11.21, it has been shown that the swift scout can now permanently blind targets if he has enough Ability Haste built up. The upcoming buff to Teemo has his Blinding Dart (Q) lowered the cooldown to seven seconds while increasing the blind duration to a point that it now blinds for three seconds at maximum level. This …
Bwipo addresses turmoil at Worlds 2021, thanks partner
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Fnatic’s journey at the 2021 World Championship was anything but smooth. The day before the event, Fnatic announced that AD carry Elias “Upset” Lipp would not be attending due to an urgent family matter. After being eliminated from the group stage, it’s been made clear that the collapse of the main roster deeply affected the Fnatic players. Fnatic top laner Gabriel “Bwipo” Rau took to Twitter after Fnatic’s elimination from …
TFT patch 11.21 previews Lucian, Mystic, Kayle buffs
Nicholas James
League of Legends
It’s the last patch before Riot Games switches up Teamfight Tactics sets, but it’s not pulling punches. The Teamfight Tactics developer previewed tweaks to Divine, Sentinels, and more in the patch preview. Patch 11.21 looks to uplift a few units that have been suffering and knock down some of the set’s more dominant champions. The changes will be short-lived, however, as the new TFT set, Gizmos and Gadgets, drops two …
How FunPlus Phoenix failed at Worlds
Nicholas James
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix was one of the frontrunners competing for the title at the 2021 World Championship. But the iconic organization dropped out dead last in the group behind two western teams. How do previous world champions, the second seed from the strongest region, bomb out with a 0-4 day? We’ll break down FPX’s most glaring weaknesses and evaluate some Fandex takeaways for the competitively-minded. Heading into the LPL Summer 2021 …
How to watch TFT PBE Clash: Gizmos and Gadgets
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games is hyping up the release of the new Teamfight Tactics set, Gizmos and Gadgets. As a part of this effort, it has announced the TFT PBE Clash, a pre-release event for content creators and competitive players alike. Riot is partnering with Wisdom media to bring this event to TFT fans. Gizmos and Gadgets, the upcoming set, is focused on the Chemtech and Hextech themes that Riot’s leaning into …
Cloud9 headed to Worlds 2021 playoffs, FPX and Rogue eliminated
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
Cloud9’s dramatic turnaround in the Worlds 2021 group stage will see the team advance to the knockout stage and send Rogue and FunPlus Phoenix packing. After opening the group stage with three successive defeats in what most thought was the toughest group at the tournament, North America’s third seed had a mountain to climb heading into their final day of matches. Against all odds, the team managed to do so. …
How to unlock Veigar in League of Legends: Wild Rift
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Veigar, The Tiny Master of Evil, is cackling his way into League of Legends: Wild Rift soon and will be available as an unlockable champion. In anticipation of the champion’s release, it’s worth offering fans a quick rundown of how Veigar works, what can be learned from him in League of Legends, and how to unlock him. With this guide, it won’t be hard to one-shot opponents on the rift. …
This League of Legends bug prints near-infinite gold
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends is no stranger to game-breaking bugs of a wide variety. From Viego to Veigar there’s plenty of champions who can cause the game to glitch out and perform incorrectly. Vandiril, the most prolific bug-catcher for Riot’s MOBA, published a video highlighting a bug that allows characters to reach full build much faster than intended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShEeh3uVoJE&ab_channel=Vandiril In the video, Vandiril focuses on an NA player profile named Rusella. …
EDward Gaming vs. T1: Worlds 2021 betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
Group B at the 2021 League of Legends World Championship is about to be decided, and it’s currently looking to be extremely close between EDward Gaming and T1. The two Eastern teams were the ones to perform the best during the first round-robin stage, with EDG going undefeated and T1 only losing once. This puts EDG in a prime position to advance as the first seed from the group, but …
Riot teases TFT set, Gizmos and Gadgets, for patch 11.22
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Following a title announcement, Riot Games has begun to ramp up publicity about its next Teamfight Tactics set, Gizmos & Gadgets. The new set will drop on patch 11.22 and seems to tie in thematically with the release of Riot’s animated series, Arcane. https://twitter.com/TFT/status/1445041030559055872?s=20 Riot’s auto battler likes to keep things fresh with new swathes of units, traits, items, and unique mechanics. This early November adds yet another Riot-focused event …
Massive REL changes coming to European LoL esports
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games continues to announce sweeping changes to Europe’s League of Legends regional play. Riot had already announced its plans to divide RELs into “Accredited” and “Non-Accredited” leagues. Today Riot released a statement clarifying what the REL scene will look like in 2022. These REL changes aim to increase infrastructural support for semi-professional League of Legends in Europe. The full list of accredited RELs is Spain’s Superliga, France’s Ligue Française, …
DWG KIA vs. Cloud9: 2021 Worlds betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The teams at the 2021 League of Legends World Championship are entering the second round-robin of the group stage, meaning that the first teams qualifying for the knockout stage will soon be decided. The first group to be decided will be group A, where the defending world champion DWG KIA is looking to top the group while the LCS’ Cloud9 will need a miracle run to advance to the next …
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.
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
