League of Legends
League of Legends
DWG KIA vs. T1: 2021 LCK Summer betting analysis
William Davis
The LCK is back and will have one of its most anticipated matchups during the first week as DWG KIA squares off with T1. It’s been a while since fans have gotten to see T1 in action, while DWG KIA had plenty of game time at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational. With DWG KIA coming back to South Korea recently, this match will be a battle between a well-rested T1 squad …
League of Legends
SK will play without Blue for first week of 2021 LEC Summer
William Davis
After a hectic mid-season break for SK Gaming, the team will be facing another obstacle ahead of the 2021 LEC Summer Split. In a recent announcement, SK said that it won’t be playing with mid laner Ersin “Blue” Gören for the first week of the summer split due to health issues. Only a few days ago, Blue was hospitalized due to chest pains and respiratory issues. SK reported that it’s …
League of Legends
DWG KIA claims the top 5 in LoL player rankings after MSI 2021
William Davis
With the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational behind us, it’s time for a new League of Legends player ranking. After the first competitive international tournament of the year, the LoL player ranking has changed a lot. It’s no surprise that the finalists from Royal Never Give Up and DWG KIA are now at the absolute top of the table. Prior to the tournament, DWG KIA was the team to dominate the player …
League of Legends
DWG KIA and RNG in clash for first place in LoL team rankings
William Davis
The two 2021 Mid-Season Invitational finalists are in a close race at the top of the latest League of Legends team rankings. After a hectic MSI final, DWG KIA and the MSI winner Royal Never Give Up continue to fight. This time it’s in our team ranking, where the two are naturally claiming the top spots after a successful first international event of 2021. Even though RNG came out ahead …
Viego and Gwen will be enabled for the 2021 LEC Summer Split start
William Davis
League of Legends
The wait has been long, but Viego and Gwen will finally be enabled in competitive play. With the 2021 LEC Summer Split kicking off next week, it was recently announced that Viego and Gwen will be enabled. Viego will be the more-anticipated champion of the two, as he has been disabled since his release in January due to a variety of game-breaking bugs. At long last, Riot is confident enough …
TSM rebrand to TSM FTX after landmark crypto deal
William Davis
League of Legends
Team SoloMid has signed a title deal with cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX. The successful multi-game organization has been rebranded as TSM FTX. Early reports put the value of the agreement at $210 million. The deal will last for at least five years and includes several marketing efforts in addition to the title change. The announcement comes as Team SoloMid begins expansion efforts into new developing markets. Southeast Asia, South America, and …
Cloud9 vs. 100 Thieves: 2021 LCS Summer betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
100 Thieves will attempt to take down defending LCS champion Cloud9 in its opening match of the summer split. Cloud9 will return to the LCS after an action-packed MSI event where the LCS representatives sadly didn’t do as well as many would have hoped for. Now that Cloud9 is back in the LCS, it will fight to defend its trophy and get back in shape. To try and stop that …
Kick off the 2021 LCS Summer Split with Clout Fantasy
William Davis
League of Legends
The LCS is finally back and will bring fans more games than ever before throughout the upcoming summer split. To spice the games up a little more, Clout Fantasy is here to raise the stakes and provide a little more entertainment to the games. For fans who haven’t heard about Clout Fantasy, it’s about time to learn. Clout Fantasy is an esports fantasy app, providing fantasy games for League of …
Riot is aiming to release two new items and rework Sanguine Blade
William Davis
League of Legends
New items might be coming to League of Legends this summer. In a recent Ask Riot blog, players got a look into two new potential items and a rework to Sanguine Blade. One of the items will be a Legendary tank item, to help counter fed carries and split pushers. The other one is a support Legendary item, that will be focused towards enchanters. Lastly, Riot will be reworking Sanguine …
IWillDominate will be co-streaming the 2021 LPL Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera has been given co-streaming privileges for the 2021 LPL Summer Split. Up until now, only the official English broadcast has provided Western fans with an LPL stream but that will change now. As of this summer split, IWillDominate will be able to co-stream the league on his own Twitch channel like he has done with the LCS for several splits. This move is looking to create more …
Aphelios might be returning to meta in upcoming LoL patch 11.12
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 11.12 is right around the corner with severe changes to one of the most controversial marksmen, Aphelios. The upcoming patch might be small with changes, but some of them still have the potential to change the meta in some aspects. In the recent patch preview by gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter, a big wave of changes were presented to Aphelios. The patch will also tone …
Tyler1 reaches Challenger rank after over 1700 games in top lane
William Davis
League of Legends
Popular streamer and content creator Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp has reached Challenger rank after maining top lane. After grinding the solo queue ladder all season, Tyler1 has finally reached his goal of getting to Challenger rank by only playing in the top lane. It took him 1,741 games and a lot of hours playing both on and off stream. His overall win rate was at a solid 52% but the journey …
Team Liquid vs. TSM: 2021 LCS Summer betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2021 LCS Summer Split kicks off with an absolute classic between Team Liquid and TSM. It’s finally time for the LCS to return and it will start off with a banger between Liquid and TSM. Both teams fought among the top teams during the spring split but were ultimately defeated at the Mid-Season Showdown. For TSM, it was Liquid who knocked them out in a 3-1 match in the …
2021 LCK Summer Split to be played offline, with audience
William Davis
League of Legends
All LCK teams will return to in-person play when the 2021 LCK Summer Split kicks off on June 9. Besides having the teams return to LoL Park to play in an offline environment, competition will be opened up for a live audience as well, per LCK reporter Ashley Kang. This means that the LCK as a whole is slowly returning to normal, starting with the opening match between Fredit BRION …
How to get a pentakill with just one Q from Mordekaiser
William Davis
League of Legends
Wombo combos in League of Legends can be very satisfying to watch and this Mordekaiser pentakill is no exception. In a recent trending clip on social media, a Mordekaiser gets a pentakill with just a single Obliterate (Q). He was helped tremendously by an allied Diana, who managed to land a five-man Moonfall (R) to line up the opposing team perfectly. With the help from Diana, the Mordekaiser was able …
LEC veteran Cabochard joins Karmine Corp as new top laner
William Davis
League of Legends
A familiar face will be joining the French LFL league for the summer split, as Karmine Corp has picked up LEC veteran Lucas “Cabochard” Simon-Meslet. The last time Cabochard played competitively was with Vitality last year. He left in December 2020 after spending five years with the organization. After a break in the recent spring split, the 24-year-old top laner is ready to compete again and this time it will …
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
