League of Legends
League of Legends
Will Darius and Jinx fall out of meta in LoL patch 11.10?
William Davis
League of Legends patch 11.10 will be rolling out on the live servers in a week and it will have quite a few changes to some of the strongest meta champions. In the most recent patch preview, gameplay design director Mark “Scuffy” Yetter revealed detailed changes for the upcoming patch. These changes will hit the Public Beta Environment (PBE) in a matter of hours and include nerfs to some of …
League of Legends
MAD Lions vs. PSG Talon: MSI 2021 betting analysis
William Davis
MAD Lions and PSG Talon will clash to conclude the first day of the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational. Group B is looking like the closest at this year’s MSI and for good reason. With MAD Lions, PSG Talon, Istanbul Wildcats, and paiN Gaming fighting against each other, anything can happen. The pre-tournament favorites to advance from the group will likely be MAD Lions and PSG Talon, making this first match incredibly …
League of Legends
Tahm Kench is seeing big rework changes, but what does it mean?
William Davis
While many Tahm Kench players are waiting in excitement for his rework, fans have already gotten a first look at the reimagined character. With the recent reveal of four new Arcana skins, a sneak peek of the upcoming Tahm Kench rework was seemingly provided. In the Arcana Tahm Kench preview, players got to see his abilities in a new order and with new effects. This quickly had players speculating what …
League of Legends
MSI 2021 on-air talent revealed, including Bwipo and Wadid
William Davis
The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational will include a big on-air talent team with casters from every major region. In a recent announcement, Riot Games revealed the on-air talent team for the upcoming MSI tournament. The team includes 24 people, with Fnatic top laner Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau and former G2 Esports support Kim “Wadid” Bae-in both set to take part. Besides that, the team will consist of talent from the LEC, LCS, …
League of Legends
Cloud9 vs DWG KIA: MSI 2021 betting analysis
William Davis
The 2021 Mid-Season Invitational will be kicked off with a banger between Cloud9 and the defending world champion DWG KIA. The first match of the MSI 2021 will be between Cloud9 and DWG KIA. Both teams have recently won their domestic leagues and will now represent the LCS and LCK respectively at the first international event of 2021. As the defending world champion, DWG KIA is entering the tournament as …
League of Legends
This Fiddlesticks player uses his passive to backdoor opponents
William Davis
Standing still and looking like a scarecrow worked wonders for a Fiddlesticks player in a wild ARAM game that shows just how effective the champion’s passive can be in the right circumstance. In a recent clip trending on social media, a Fiddlesticks player managed to pull off an unexpected backdoor play that has likely never been seen before. The Fiddlesticks made use of his A Harmless Scarecrow passive to fool …
League of Legends
Karmine Corp takes 1st in EU Masters with win over BT Excel
William Davis
Karmine Corp from the LFL is the European Masters 2021 Spring champion after an intense win against BT Excel in the final. With everyone waiting for the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational to kick off, the European Masters has delivered some great League of Legends over the past weeks for fans to enjoy. Starting with the play-in stage and moving into the main event, the best teams from the European regional leagues …
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 …
DWG KIA & Cloud9 fight for first in LoL team rankings at MSI
William Davis
League of Legends
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. …
DWG KIA ShowMaker tops LoL player ranking ahead of MSI 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Tyler1 isn’t happy with the Heimerdinger nerfs in patch 11.9
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Riot plans to shut down fan-made Chronoshift server in LoL
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends fans are worried about the future of Chronoshift, a server that allows players to access a “legacy server” for a 10-year-old version of the MOBA. The fan-made Chronoshift server was available to fans to play for free, allowing players to access an older version of League of Legends by using code from Riot’s Content Delivery network (CDN). But four days ago, a Chronoshift developer shared on Reddit …
Bwipo confirms he is not extending his Fnatic contract
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
After recent rumors that both Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau and Oskar “Selfmade” Boderek have turned down contract extensions, Fnatic’s top laner today used his live stream to confirm that he has indeed turned down negotiations with the veteran organization. Having been with the side since initially joining as a substitute in 2018, Bwipo has been considered one of Europe’s best top laners and his team’s performance level can often be reliant …
Pentanet.GG brings female pro DNS as a substitute for MSI
William Davis
League of Legends
The LCO representative at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational Pentanet.GG has officially signed Diana “DNS” Nguyen as its substitute for the event as the first-ever woman to attend the event. DNS joins the team as the only substitute and will travel with the rest of the Pentanet squad to Iceland for the event starting on May 6. With DNS attending, she will be the first female player to participate in the …
If Riot deletes pro game data, are your solo queue games next?
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Riot gives preview of new Arcana skins for Lucian, Camille, others
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Learn how to counter Gnar in League of Legends Season 11
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Watch rewards and drops returns for MSI 2021, schedule revealed
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
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.
