League of Legends
League of Legends
What were the most popular esports games in 2020?
Nina Forneloza
Major esports events have been growing in popularity and, according to newzoo.com, the audience is set to grow more rapidly in the coming years. Here is a look at the most popular esports games that dominated in 2020. There are several factors to consider when talking about the “most popular” esports title. In order to determine the three most popular esports titles in 2020, total player count, tournament prize pools, …
League of Legends
T1 Faker breaks another LCK record, first to play 600 games
Olivia Richman
League of Legends star Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok has become the first player to compete in 600 games in the LCK. The LCK proudly announced the accomplishment on Twitter and during a live stream. Faker continues to be one of the most popular and decorated players in the competitive League of Legends scene. He is beloved by fans both in South Korea and around the world. So strongly, in fact, that …
League of Legends
Faker publicly disagrees with T1’s 10-man roster
William Davis
The legendary mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok disagrees with his team’s 10-man roster approach. T1 has been experimenting a lot with its new 10-man roster during the first weeks of the 2021 LCK Spring Split and it has been with very mixed results. This has gotten the face of the organization, Faker, to address the approach. More specifically, Faker has admitted in an interview that he thinks it’s stressful for …
League of Legends
CLG has benched Pobelter going into LCS, according to WildTurtle
William Davis
CLG’s mid laner Eugene “Pobelter” Park has reportedly been benched ahead of the 2021 LCS Spring Season start, according to bot laner Jason “WildTurtle” Tran On a recent podcast, WildTurtle mentioned that Pobelter has been benched for the upcoming LCS games and will likely be replaced by Academy mid laner Alexey “rjs” Zatorski, formerly known as Deus. The reported benching of Pobelter happens after CLG underperformed at the LCS Lock …
League of Legends
Udyr is getting a new rework and VGU after winning fan vote
William Davis
This year’s champion update and skin thematic fan vote results are in, with Udyr and Crime City Nightmare winning out globally. During a recent fan vote, Riot Games gave the League of Legends community the chance to decide which champion will get an upcoming visual gameplay update. Riot also gave fans a chance to vote for the upcoming skin thematics, where Crime City Nightmare came out on top followed up …
League of Legends
Team Liquid beats Cloud9 in thriller final at the LCS Lock In
William Davis
Team Liquid has won the first trophy of the year after taking down Cloud9 in an intense five-game series in the LCS Lock In final. Ever since the recent offseason changes for both Team Liquid and C9 became official, fans and experts have been eagerly waiting for this matchup. Luckily, the teams got to face off against each other in a best-of-five before the official season had even begun and …
League of Legends
DRX coach cvMax to receive final verdict from court in February
Olivia Richman
Former Griffin coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho has formally pled “not guilty” after being accused of abusing players on the roster. League of Legends pros Choi “Sword” Sun-won and Lee “Tarzan” Seung-yong alleged that cvMax was verbally abusive to them, grabbed them by their shirt collars, and threw things at them in anger. This led Riot Games Korea to suspend cvMax for two years, a decision the developer later rescinded following …
League of Legends
Rogue beats Vitality, off to 5-0 start in LEC 2021 Spring Split
William Davis
Only one team remains undefeated after the second week of the 2021 LEC Spring Split and surprisingly, it’s Rogue. Rogue had another great showing in the LEC as they defeated both Misfits Gaming and Vitality in the second week of the LEC season. Just like in the first week, Rogue showed promising teamwork and a very high individual level of skill. Rogue is sitting alone at the top of the …
Top Esports beats rival JD Gaming in first LPL clash of 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
For the first time in the 2021 LPL season, Top Esports and JD Gaming clashed on Summoner’s Rift, and it was Top Esports who ran away with the win in 2-0 fashion. The match between the 2020 LPL Summer Split finalists was highly anticipated among fans. Both teams have gotten off to a shaky start this season, with other squads currently sitting at the top spots of the LPL table. …
Team Liquid vs. Cloud9 booked for LCS Lock In finals
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid destroyed Evil Geniuses in the 2021 LCS Lock In semifinals and is advancing to face Cloud9 in the finals. Team Liquid showed no mercy to Evil Geniuses in their semifinals match. Evil Geniuses, which had a good run in the 2021 LCS Lock In, didn’t stand a chance against a relentless Team Liquid. At no point in the three-game series did Evil Geniuses look like a challenge for …
Cloud9 reverse sweeps 100 Thieves, reaches LCS Lock In finals
William Davis
League of Legends
Cloud9 is advancing to finals of the 2021 LCS Lock In after completing a reverse sweep against 100 Thieves. Cloud9 put on a show on Friday and secured its spot in the finals. The team completed a reverse sweep that included two pentakills by bot laner Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen. Cloud9 knocked off the tournament favorite 100 Thieves and is looking now like the frontrunner for the title. PENTAKILL FOR @Zven! …
What happened to Quas after Team Liquid?
William Davis
League of Legends
The North American collegiate and the amateur circuit are giving a second chance to compete to former LCS players. One of the players to come out of retirement and join one of these teams is former Team Liquid top laner Diego “Quas” Ruiz. Quas started his career in 2013 with New World Eclipse in the North American Challenger League. Later that year, Quas joined Team Curse, an organization that would …
Doublelift pulls off impressive Vayne pentakill on stream
William Davis
League of Legends
The newly retired bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng proved that he still has some world-class mechanics after pulling off a pentakill on Vayne in solo queue. During a recent live stream, former Team Liquid and Team SoloMid bot laner Doublelift made a crazy outplay that resulted in a pentakill. The outplay was made on his signature champion Vayne and definitely brought back some old-school Doublelift vibes. The pentakill proved that …
Game-breaking bug with Galio and Camille hits in iG’s LPL match
William Davis
League of Legends
A game-breaking bug involving Camille and Galio recently occurred in an LPL match between Invictus Gaming and Rogue Warriors. Camille and Galio is a classic combo in professional play, as their ultimates synergize very well together. In a match between iG and Rogue Warriors, the combo wasn’t so optimal as the interaction between the two ultimates resulted in a bug. The bug has since then been investigated by players in …
Riot Games refuses to settle its gender discrimination lawsuit
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
One of the ugliest stories around esports from 2019 is likely making a comeback in 2021. Riot Games is once again looking to force plaintiffs in the company’s ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit into arbitration. This legal tactic by Riot led to the mass walkouts in the company in 2019. Due to previously signed agreements, some of the plaintiffs involved in the case will be forced into private arbitration with Riot. …
League client still a problem, causes Doublelift to lose promo
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Peng “Doublelift” Yiliang had some very bad luck during a promo match that was set to be streamed live, highlighting how Riot Games’ League of Legends client continues to have issues for many users. The retired LCS veteran began queuing after seeing he was up for a promotion series to Master. He accepted a match, but soon realized that his League of Legends client was having issues. The client became …
Alphari is already dominating in the LCS with the highest DPM
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid’s new top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris is already proving himself as a great pick up after dealing the most damage per minute in the LCS Lock In so far. After leaving Origen in the LEC to join up with Team Liquid for the 2021 LCS season, Alphari has lived up to all expectations so far. The British top laner is already showing why he was considered one of …
Can T1 return to greatness in 2021?
William Davis
League of Legends
T1, formerly known as SK TelecomT1, is indisputably the most popular team in competitive League of Legends. The South Korean organization holds several records, including being the only team to win the World Championship three times. T1 is home of the player who could be considered the face of League of Legends esports, the unkillable demon king, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. T1 won its third World Championship title in 2016 and …
DWG KIA tops the LCK standings with win over Gen.G
William Davis
League of Legends
The defending world champions from DWG KIA are back in form after taking down one of their biggest contenders, Gen.G. The third week of the 2021 LCK season started out with a banger. So far, Gen.G has been looking like the biggest threat to take down DWG KIA so there were a lot of expectations going into the match. As predicted, Gen.G was able to compete with the world champions, …
Riot will nerf heavy hitters in Patch 11.3 including Olaf, Ivern
William Davis
League of Legends
With LoL Patch 11.3 fast approaching, Riot has revealed nerfs to several champions who are currently seeing a lot of play in both professional and solo queue. For the third patch of Season 11, Riot will still be focusing heavily on balancing the new item system, but more and more champions are also being touched upon. With the professional season starting back up, Riot has realized that quite a few …
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.
