League of Legends
League of Legends
FC Schalke 04 finishes its final LEC split in last place
William Davis
Today marked the end of an era for FC Schalke 04, with the franchise playing its very last game before a planned exit from the game. FC Schalke 04 played its last game against none other than Fnatic but ended up losing the match in a hard-fought game. With this result, Schalke finish the split in 10th place with a 3-15 record. This sticks a fork in the organization’s presence …
League of Legends
New LoL champion Akshan will be disabled for Worlds 2021
William Davis
The newest League of Legends champion Akshan won’t be available for play at the upcoming 2021 World Championship in October. After being released last month, Akshan has hit live servers after a long wait, but fans of professional League of Legends will have to wait quite a while to see him played at a top level. According to the head of LoL esports in Europe, Maximilian Peter Schmidt, Akshan will …
League of Legends
Gen.G reported armed trespassers at esports headquarters in Seoul
William Davis
A very dramatic and serious situation saw the light of day recently when Gen.G revealed that the organization has experienced illegal trespassing at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. In a recent tweet, the LCK organization reported that there have been “several unsavory attempts recently to trespass and visit” the Gen.G headquarters. These trespassings have reportedly been directly threatening to the team’s safety and later on been reported to the …
League of Legends
Riot bans accounts made to troll Faker in solo queue games
William Davis
T1 mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has struggled all season with troll accounts in solo queue, but now Riot has finally responded to the issue. Around nine accounts have reportedly been permanently banned after being used specifically to snipe Faker’s solo queue games and troll him. This has been a problem this whole season for the T1 superstar, which has set him back a ton in climbing the Korean solo …
League of Legends
A pro League player was fined his salary for forgetting smite
William Davis
An unusual and unfortunate situation mistake by Victory Five jungler Peng “pzx” Zhan-Xiang in the Chinese LPL resulted in a bad loss in the team’s most recent match against Suning. The young jungler forgot to pick smite in the first match of the series, which ultimately had major consequences on Summoner’s Rift. Without the ability to smite camps, pzx fell behind in the early game and couldn’t help secure the …
League of Legends
Fnatic vs. MAD Lions: 2021 LEC Summer betting analysis
William Davis
The 2021 LEC Summer Split is entering its final week of the regular split and two teams are fighting for a top spot: Fnatic and MAD Lions. With just three games left in the regular season, every win counts in the upcoming week. Especially for Fnatic and MAD Lions who enter the week on even footing with a 10-5 record. Alongside Misfits, these three teams are looking to make a …
League of Legends
Former RNG bot laner Uzi founds a new esports organization
William Davis
The former legendary bot laner for RNG, Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao, doesn’t seem to be done with esports after his retirement last year. But his return will be in a different way than most would have expected. The 24-year-old League of Legends veteran has founded a new esports organization, according to a post on Weibo and Inven Global. The organization is called Ultra Fantastic Gaming (UFG) and will be looking to …
League of Legends
The best way to build Akshan, the new League of Legends champion
William Davis
Players are now able to pick up Akshan to climb the ranked ladder or even just play normals with friends. The new mid-lane marksman is special in many ways and his build is also different from that of many traditional marksmen. After the release of Akshan, his win rates haven’t exactly been great compared to other new champions. This likely has to do with a kit that contains completely new …
Nongshim RedForce is topping the LCK with three weeks left
William Davis
League of Legends
Only three weeks remain of the regular 2021 LCK Summer Split and it’s currently Nongshim RedForce who is surprisingly leading in the standings. With 13 games played so far this split, NS RedForce is sitting at 10 wins total ahead of the best teams in South Korea. With one game down to Gen.G in second place, NS RedForce is looking at a surprising run this split that could potentially lead …
New champion Akshan has some of the worst win rates in LoL
William Davis
League of Legends
Akshan has finally joined League of Legends with patch 11.15 but the mid-lane marksman is off to a poor start when it comes to his win rates. It’s normal to see new champions have poor win rates during their first few patches because of the learning curve, but Akshan is currently performing even worse than expected. 24 hours since his release, Riot has sneaked in a buff for Akshan because …
Cassiopeia has the highest win rate in top lane on LoL patch 11.15
William Davis
League of Legends
A new patch has hit the live League of Legends servers and so far several unexpected niche picks are topping the win-rate chart, with Cassiopeia being one of them. One of the most surprising champions to perform is Cassiopeia in the top lane. The Serpent’s Embrace got a solid damage buff on patch 11.15 and is now being played in three different roles. On patch 11.14, Cassiopeia was only seen …
New Sona rework is now available for testing on the LoL PBE
William Davis
League of Legends
After months of waiting, players are finally able to test out the Sona rework. In the latest patch on the Public Beta Environment (PBE), Riot finally added the changes to Sona that have been teased for quite some time. These changes will look to help one of the oldest utility supports get back into the meta and stay up to date with the gameplay. For a long time, Sona has …
TSM vs. Evil Geniuses: 2021 LCS Summer Split betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
With only two weeks left of the 2021 LCS Summer Split, every last game will be important in the fight for a spot in the top. Two of the teams that are in contention for the top spots are TSM and Evil Geniuses, and they will face off during the first day of the week. The two top teams are looking for yet another win, and both have currently won …
Riot shares coming changes to reduce decay in high-ranked play
William Davis
League of Legends
With the final months of League of Legends season 11 coming up, Riot recently shared a competitive gameplay update that included a look at what is to come for ranked play. In the update, Riot discussed some upcoming changes to ranked decay that will help high-ranked players stay in their respective ranks even when taking a small break. When playing in the highest divisions right now, players will have to …
Rogue vs. Fnatic: 2021 LEC Summer betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s time to find out who the top team in the LEC will be when Rogue and Fnatic clash in the seventh week of the 2021 LEC Summer Split. After weeks of consistently good play, Rogue and Fnatic will find out who the better team really is. The winning side will take sole possession of first place in the LEC, with only a few more games left to play in …
LoL player finds way to play with Nintendo Switch Joy Cons
William Davis
League of Legends
One might expect LoL to essentially require a mouse and keyboard, but this player found a completely new way to control his champion. In a recent video, a German League of Legends player completed a game using Nintendo Switch Joy Cons to control his character. The player had bound the Joy Cons in a way so he could access all abilities while moving around on Summoner’s Rift, with the game …
League of Legends is getting a reality show called LOL THE NEXT
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends is going primetime with a new reality show. Riot Games Korea has announced a new reality show called “LOL THE NEXT.” It will reportedly have 100 League of Legends players, all ranked Diamond 1 and above, competing in a series of challenges. The 10 players who dominate the unspecified challenges will then be split into two five-player squads. Each team will be coached by legends of the …
Riot reveals new LoL Coven skins for Ahri, Ashe, and more
William Davis
League of Legends
A new batch of skins is coming to League of Legends, and this time it’s for the Coven skin line. The next skin line to get an expansion is the Coven skin line, which already includes five featured champions. The current Coven skin holders of LeBlanc, Camille, Lissandra, Morgana, and Zyra will now be joined by six new champions. Riot will also be releasing a prestige edition skin for LeBlanc, …
Will Riot ever fix the LoL client? Latest update shows attempts
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games continue to work on fixing the countless bugs associated with the League of Legends client, and a new update indicates that a significant optimization might be coming soon. The LoL client is still a problem for many players every day, and Riot continues to push out updates intended to fix it. In its most recent update, Riot shared some new information around the company’s biggest priorities right now. …
Pobelter reveals he cried due to “doomed” environment at CLG
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
LCS veteran Eugene “Pobelter” Park recently opened up about the negative environment he experienced while competing for CounterLogic Gaming. On Twitter, Pobelter responded to CLG’s latest loss during the summer split, saying it was “painful to watch” because he knew the players on the team’s roster are “way better than that.” Pobelter blamed the team environment for their bad performance, calling it “WAY too negative” and “doomed.” “There’s super, super …
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.
