League of Legends
League of Legends
Riot looking to reduce jungle snowballing and change Smite
William Davis
More changes to the jungle will be coming to League of Legends soon, this time to reduce snowballing and make changes to Smite. This was presented in the most recent Gameplay Thoughts, gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter guides players through the upcoming jungle changes. The goal is to increase jungle accessibility, mainly for lower ranks. The changes will include a damage change to smite, reduced snowball possibility in the …
League of Legends
DWG KIA & Cloud9 fight for first in LoL team rankings at MSI
William Davis
The last WIN.gg League of Legends team ranking before the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is here and it brings with it a lot of changes. The last team rankings were dominated by the LCK and LPL teams heading into the playoffs. This time around, several teams have fallen back after disappointing playoff performances and left a great opportunity for the qualified MSI teams to climb the rankings over the coming weeks. …
League of Legends
DWG KIA ShowMaker tops LoL player ranking ahead of MSI 2021
William Davis
The first international tournament of the year is right around the corner, where the best team from each region will clash for the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational trophy. It’s an event like this likely means big changes to the LoL player and team rankings. With all regional playoffs over, there has been a lot of changes in the rankings since the last update. Only the absolute best players in the world …
League of Legends
Tyler1 isn’t happy with the Heimerdinger nerfs in patch 11.9
William Davis
The most recent League of Legends patch 11.9 included an unexpected nerf to Heimerdinger, and popular streamer Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp isn’t happy about it. Tyler1 made his name as a Draven player but has picked up several unorthodox champions in recent years. One of them is Heimerdinger, who Tyler1 has been playing both on and off stream, but now a recent nerf might affect Heimerdinger’s viability. In patch 11.9, Riot …
League of Legends
If Riot deletes pro game data, are your solo queue games next?
William Davis
Official data from Riot Games is a big part of the League of Legends community, but those days might be over as Riot is looking to potentially shut down the providing of match data from competitive games. Over recent days, it has come to light that Riot might be looking to limit data from professional games, and potentially more than that with time. A tweet by Schalke 04 head analyst …
League of Legends
Riot gives preview of new Arcana skins for Lucian, Camille, others
William Davis
Brand new Arcana skins are about to hit League of Legends and will include a new cosmetic for a champion in each role except for jungle. In the latest PBE preview, Riot has presented four completely new skins that will be introduced to the game within the near future. Before that, the skins will be available for testing on the Public Beta Environment for the final testing. While it will …
League of Legends
Learn how to counter Gnar in League of Legends Season 11
William Davis
Gnar, the Missing Link, has been a big part of the League of Legends season 11 meta so far, but what is the best way to counter him? A ranged fighter that can turn into a big melee monster is definitely not an easy champion to play against, which might be why Gnar is currently seeing a lot of strength in solo queue as well as professional play. Gnar is …
League of Legends
Watch rewards and drops returns for MSI 2021, schedule revealed
William Davis
The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is under two weeks away and will include watch rewards and drops for the most dedicated viewers. After mixed success with stream drops and watch rewards during the 2020 World Championship, Riot is bringing it back after listening to community feedback. The rewards for MSI are looking to be much better with unique items and not only lackluster drops of Blue Essence. Riot has also presented …
Bwipo, Selfmade reportedly won’t extend contracts with Fnatic
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic might be set to lose both top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau and jungler Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek by the end of the year. It was recently reported that Bwipo and Selfmade have declined to renew their contracts with Fnatic, putting the organization at great risk of a major overhaul heading into the 2022 League of Legends season. If the rumors are true, Fnatic could potentially lose two of its biggest …
New info revealed on next LoL champion, will be a mid marksman
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games is finally back with a new Champion Roadmap, including information about the last two champions that will complete the Viego saga. In the recent Roadmap, Riot presented new information to fans about two upcoming champions. There had already been a bit of teasing about the two champions, but now it’s finally official that the next champion will be the “Sentinel of Light” and will be designed as a …
Who is No Org? Amateur team beats C9, wins LCS Proving Grounds
William Davis
News
The 2021 LCS Proving Grounds Spring has been concluded and was won by the amateur team No Org. For more than three weeks, a total of 16 teams have fought in the first-ever LCS Proving Grounds. The tournament has hosted LCS academy teams as well as the best amateur teams in North America. It’s the first time that the academy and amateur scene have clashed in such a big event …
IWillDominate says junglers have it much harder than supports
William Davis
League of Legends
Blaming the jungler in solo queue games has always been a meme with some truth to it and now former professional jungler and streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera is speaking up about it. In a recent tweet, IWillDominate shared his opinion about the current state of the jungle role and how players are often punished verbally in the game for not playing perfectly. In the tweet, IWillDominate shares his frustrations about …
Ender leaving LEC after 3 years, so where is he going next?
William Davis
League of Legends
LEC caster Christy “Ender” Frierson will be leaving the LEC broadcast desk after three years as a regular part of the on-air team. In a recent video, Ender explained to the community that he will be stepping down from the LEC broadcasting team and will return to Los Angeles after three years in Berlin. Ender has been an important member of the LEC crew since 2018 and a big part …
Elderwood Ornn makes $7 million for charity, still few Ornn skins
William Davis
League of Legends
The League of Legends 2020 charity skin for Ornn was a big success, raising more than $7 million for charity. Elderwood Ornn was released with the intention of raising as much money for charity as possible. From the end of 2020 to early January, players would be able to purchase Elderwood Ornn and associated purchasable content with all proceeds going to the Riot Games Social Impact Fund. The associated content …
LEC reportedly removing academy team requirement for 2022
William Davis
League of Legends
LEC teams might not be required to have an academy team starting from 2022. According to Dot Esports, LEC teams have voted against the rule of an obligatory academy team. Currently, all 10 LEC teams are required to have an academy team in the European Regional League ladder. According to the report, a total of nine votes were in favor of removing the rule while only one voted against it. …
Over 30 Chinese LoL pros suspended in match-fixing crackdown
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
A months-long investigation into match-fixing in the Chinese League of Legends scene has come to an end, with heads rolling as a result. Back in February, FunPlus Phoenix stated that Zhou “Bo” Yang-Bo admitted to match-fixing in the 2020 LDL Summer Split. Since then, this case has been under investigation and the issue was apparently much more pervasive than just Bo. Alongside Bo, ThunderTalk support player Wang “Teeen” Yao-Ji was …
Gambit cease all League of Legends operations after 8 years
William Davis
League of Legends
An organization that most old-school League of Legends fans will remember is leaving the scene. Gambit Esports will cease all LoL operations going forward. After over eight years in the LoL scene, Gambit recently announced that it will drop its the League of Legends roster. The roster recently competed in the CIS region’s LCL league. Gambit has been a part of the league since 2016 and competed among the best …
This new bug lets you proc Jayce’s Q twice in a row
William Davis
League of Legends
If Jayce wasn’t already a monster at poking, a new bug in League of Legends will surely turn him into one. Through a recent bug discovered on the current patch 11.8, Jayce is able to proc the damage of his Shock Blast (Q) twice. This mechanic doesn’t look to be intentional, as it can potentially be abused in solo queue and give Jayce an unfair advantage. The bug occurs when …
Will FC Schalke 04 leave LEC following football relegation?
William Davis
League of Legends
FC Schalke 04’s future in Europe’s top League of Legends league, the LEC, could be on the line following the football club’s relegation from the German Bundesliga. Schalke 04’s core business of football has taken a big hit recently, with the club being relegated from the best German division, the Bundesliga. The relegation happened after a horrible season where the Gelsenkirchen-based club has only managed to win two matches out …
DWG KIA is the big favorite for MSI 2021, and this is why
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational is right around the corner and will bring the first international clashes of 2021, with DWG KIA looking like the biggest favorite. After winning the world championship last year, DWG KIA has kept the impressive form and dominated the 2021 LCK Spring Split. With back-to-back LCK trophies and a world championship in the bag, it’s expected that DWG KIA will perform well at the upcoming MSI. …
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.
