League of Legends
League of Legends
Ovilee May, Team Liquid make Lil Nas X parody for Worlds
Nicholas James
Ovilee May and Team Liquid always promise hilarious content when the North American organization makes it to Worlds, and Worlds 2021 was no different. This time, Ovilee May, Barento “Raz” Mohammed, and Clayton “Captain Flowers” Raines took a page out of Lil Nas X’s book with their “Worlds Baby” video. It’s a goofy, over-the-top anthem for Team Liquid’s roster and the song been a hit among League of Legends fans. …
League of Legends
RED Canids upset Infinity Esports in Worlds 2021 Play-Ins
Nicholas James
Worlds 2021 began today, and there are already spicy upsets and unexpected happenings in Iceland thanks to RED Canids and Infinity Esports. Facing down its minor region fellows in Infinity Esports, RED Canids managed to string together excellent performances that can give fans plenty of hope for its future at the tournament. The first day of the tournament is generally expected to be unexciting relative to the rest of the …
League of Legends
LEC reveals start date for 2022 Spring Split before Worlds 2021
Nicholas James
Worlds is about to begin, but fans of European League of Legends already have plenty to look forwards to. The LEC announced the official start date for the 2022 Spring Season. Unfortunately, it also made the announcement that it will not be holding a LEC roadshow due to health concerns. The LEC studio in Berlin, Germany The LEC doubled down on its priority on improving the online viewing experience in …
League of Legends
Marvel reveals new collaboration with former Worlds champs FPX
Nicholas James
Players on one of China’s superteams are about to become superheroes, with FunPlus Phoenix announcing a merchandise collaboration with Marvel. FPX’s Marvel merch was announced on Weibo, with an accompanying animated video. Though the merch was teased, no new gear was officially revealed. Fans of the former Worlds championship-winning organization did get some cool art reimagining FPX players as superheroes: League of Legends has done strong work drawing in massive …
League of Legends
This is how the pros build new League champion Vex
Nicholas James
Vex is the latest addition to League of Legends’ roster of over 150 champions. She’s a darker spin on Yordles, and functions as an anti-mobility control mage with serious combo potential. But as with any champion that’s new to the rift, the correct build on Vex is still being experimented with. We’ll take a look at what the best players in the world are doing for Vex’s build and how …
League of Legends
What is the UPL? Everything you need to know
Nicholas James
The Unified Premier League, previously known as the Upsurge Premier League, is an amateur, academy, and collegiate competition in League of Legends. It pits some of the top academy rosters against amateur teams to further develop North America’s talent pool. Unified Esports provides the main venue for collegiate and academy mixed play in North America, and the UPL is just that. UPL is the designation for Unified Esports’ central league …
League of Legends
Cloud9 vs. DetonatioN FocusMe: 2021 Worlds betting analysis
William Davis
One of the most anticipated matches in the 2021 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage will be Cloud9 against DetonatioN FocusMe on the first day of the event. Both teams have been placed in group B and are looking like two of the favorites to make a run into the main event. In general, group B is looking much closer than group A where Hanwha Life and LNG Esports …
League of Legends
This matchmaking bug lets you easily hit diamond in LoL
Nicholas James
Julian “Tarzaned” Farokhian, a North American solo queue Challenger jungler, has revealed a matchmaking bug that drastically inflates an account’s MMR to diamond. This exploit appears to work on EUW and NA servers. This bug uses a fresh, unranked account to fool the lobby into applying another player’s Grandmasters or Challenger MMR and having a third player reap the benefits. This doesn’t give free LP, but does make gains in …
Wunder stokes rumor that he and Rekkles will leave G2 Esports
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Martin “Wunder” Hansen continues to add credibility to rumors that he’ll be stepping away from G2 Esports. With the organization’s disappointing playoffs run and failure to qualify for Worlds 2021, change was imminent. Among the predicted changes was Wunder leaving G2 after a subpar season. From account names to Twitter memes, Wunder has been using banter to suggest that he is indeed heading to the door. Wunder first took to …
PSG Talon wear VCS badges to honor absent players from Vietnam
Nicholas James
League of Legends
PSG Talon has announced its intent to wear a VCS badge in honor of players from the Vietnamese professional league who were unable to attend Worlds 2021. Vietnamese players who had qualified for the World Championship will not be able to compete at the biggest League of Legends event of the year. Due to national public health policies, the VCS could not leave the country. GAM Esports, one of the …
Bjergsen’s crazy Twitch plays add weight to rumored return
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg is a name that strikes fear into many an NA mid laner’s heart. With reports of his return circulating ahead of the 2022 LCS Spring Split, TSM’s superstar player-turned-coach is back on Twitch. Seeing the Bjergerking back to stomping solo queue has many fans excited for Bjergsen’s return. Bjergsen’s departure from the LCS was a stark moment at the end of the 2020 season. Retiring alongside fellow …
Dardoch looking to compete overseas in 2022 in LEC or REL
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett is North American League of Legends’ most controversial professional player, bouncing from team to team with a long record of short stints on LCS rosters with poor teamwork. Most recently playing for Dignitas, Dardoch announced today that he had entered free agency and is considering offers from all regions. Dardoch has been a part of seven different LCS organizations as a jungler, having been on Immortals and …
Caedrel can’t believe how similar the Worlds songs are
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has seemingly cracked the code on how to make a stirring anthem to an esports tournament. However, some fans have noticed striking similarities between this year’s song and previous ones. The pacing of “Burn It All Down” seems to line up in an incredibly coincidental manner, prompting many to wonder just how formulaic the construction of these songs is. What makes these Worlds songs similar? Fans have begun …
Here’s a tier list of the best Urf champions in League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends’ hyper-fast, fan-favorite rotating game mode Ultra Rapid Fire, or URF, has returned. Here’s a breakdown of our best picks for the mode. We’ll only be covering the best of the best champions for our URF tier list. We’ll break down the best-performing characters by role and give you some insight into exactly what makes them so overpowered in URF. Fiora is first on our list of exceptionally …
Hanwha Life vs. LNG Esports: 2021 Worlds betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2021 League of Legends World Championship will kick off with a bang when two eastern giants clash in the first match of the play-in stage. It will be a match between LCK’s Hanwha Life and LPL’s LNG Esports. Both teams come out of their respective regions as the fourth seeds and are looking to be the strongest contenders in the play-in stage. The two have been drawn into group …
League of Legends world champion arrested for drug trafficking
Nicholas James
League of Legends
According to reports from Taiwanese news sources, former League of Legends world champion Kurtis Lau “Toyz” Wai-kin has been arrested on drug trafficking charges. Toyz is best known for being a member of Season 2 World Championship team Taipei Assassins. Toyz had a long and storied career in esports, having coached Fnatic and serving as a founding member of Hong Kong Esports. Taipei Assassins wins the Season 2 World Championship …
Who is Silco in League of Legends’ Arcane?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Ahead of Riot Games’ highly anticipated animated series Arcane, one new character has caught many fans’ attention. The sleek, slender form in question is that of Silco, a mysterious figure being set up as one of the key villains of the series. But who is Silco? What does he want with Jinx, and what’s with the purple stuff? We don’t have all the answers just yet, but let’s unravel everything …
Amumu and Jarvan hit with the nerf hammer on LoL patch 11.20
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 11.20 is an upcoming smaller patch with nerfs to some significant solo-queue dominators. The fast-approaching patch will only be targeting 10 champions with nerfs and buffs but it might still be a patch that can shake up the meta in solo queue. In the most recent preview, it was detailed how Riot will be targeting both Amumu and Jarvan with nerfs. Both champions are currently crushing …
Name That Champion event comes to Wild Rift
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Riot Games has taken inspiration from the Pokemon animated show with its latest event for League of Legends: Wild Rift. Name That Champion takes the general format of the classic ‘Who’s That Pokemon?’ segment used when leaving to, or returning from, an ad break. The short event will last between September 28 and October 3. As a part of the event, players will have to guess which champion is being …
2021 Worlds song released with “Burn It All Down” by PVRIS
Nicholas James
League of Legends
League of Legends’ annual Worlds song has been released, with the 2021 version being entitled “Burn It All Down.” The song features alternative-pop act PVRIS and is accompanied by an animated video featuring some of League of Legends esports’ most legendary players facing off using the abilities of their iconic champions. The greatest League of Legends showdown of their year begins with Play-Ins on October 5. https://youtu.be/1Z6CHioIn3s The stunning animated …
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.
