League of Legends
League of Legends
Viego sees terrible win rates in several roles after release
William Davis
The newest champion in League of Legends, Viego, is struggling to find success in solo queue despite being played actively in three different roles. After his finally being unleashed on Summoner’s Rift, players are spamming Viego in solo queue when he isn’t banned. So far, the Ruined King has seen a lot of play in the jungle, mid lane, and top. With many possible roles to be flexed into, Viego …
League of Legends
Team Liquid bests FlyQuest, heads to LCS Lock In semifinals
William Davis
Team Liquid slaughtered FlyQuest and claimed its rightful spot in the 2021 LCS Lock In semifinals. Team Liquid is not playing around in the LCS Lock In event. The team secured two clean victories over FlyQuest and came out victorious in the quarterfinals series. Despite having two new members on its roster, who just recently joined the team in California, Liquid is looking better than ever. FlyQuest didn’t stand a …
League of Legends
Evil Geniuses heads to LCS Lock In semifinals to face Team Liquid
William Davis
Evil Geniuses has qualified for the semifinals of the LCS Lock In with a solid win against Golden Guardians. After impressing in the LCS Lock In group stage, Evil Geniuses took on Golden Guardians in the quarterfinals where they took a dominant win. In just two games, the revamped Evil Geniuses lineup ran over the young talents from Golden Guardians, albeit after a bumpy game one. Evil Geniuses will advance …
League of Legends
Cloud9 beats TSM, faces 100 Thieves in LCS Lock In semifinals
William Davis
Cloud9 has secured a place in the semifinals of the 2021 LCS Lock In tournament by taking down Team SoloMid. Cloud9 and TSM met in the first round of the knockout stage, for one of the most anticipated possible matches of the event. Despite the hype around this series, it didn’t go exactly as the audience expected. C9 and TSM, who were expected to dominate the LCS this year, had …
League of Legends
CaptainFlowers announces move to freelance before LCS broadcast
William Davis
One of the most popular LCS casters Clayton “CaptainFlowers” Raines recently announced that he will be a freelancer in 2021. CaptainFlowers will be a freelancer this year but will still be on the LCS broadcast every week like fans are used to. Moving to freelance means that CaptainFlowers will now be able to do other things on the side without being tied to a contract with Riot Games. According to …
League of Legends
Riot teases changes to URF to adjust to LoL’s new item system
William Davis
When URF returns in 2021, it will be optimized with League of Legends’ new item system in mind. It was recently teased by lead game mode designer Reina “Reinboom” Sweet that there will be quite a few changes made to URF that will “embrace the preseason item rework.” The main goal is to let players better engage with the item system in URF without falling into traps that can have …
League of Legends
Team Liquid vs. TSM: 2021 LCS Lock In betting analysis
William Davis
Team Liquid and Team SoloMid are meeting on January 22 for their first battle of the year. The teams are currently tied in the 2021 LCS Lock In tournament, and a victory here could mean first place in the group. Team Liquid and TSM have developed a rivalry in the LCS. TSM used to be top team in the region until Team Liquid rolled in and claimed four consecutive titles. …
League of Legends
LCS teams jump into top 10 in 1st LoL team rankings of Season 11
William Davis
A slew of offseason roster swaps has resulted in a very different top 10 League of Legends team rankings. It’s a new season and teams from all around the world are gearing up to battle in their respective leagues and make a run for the 2021 World Championship. To keep track of the best teams in the world and how they’re projected to perform, here is the first iteration of …
ShowMaker tops first LoL player rankings of 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s a new year for League of Legends and the professional season is already up and running. Here is the first LoL player ranking of 2021. After a long offseason break, the LoL rankings are back. Fans have seen a lot of roster changes in the offseason and it’s now finally time to see which organizations managed to make the best decisions. Many players will return to Summoner’s Rift after …
T1 vs. KT Rolster: 2021 LCK Spring Split betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
T1 and KT Rolster are meeting on January 24 for round one of the Telecom War in the 2021 LCK Spring Split. The Telecom War needs no introduction. The rivalry started during the days of pro StarCraft: Brood War and is now going stronger than ever. On Sunday, fans will watch as these long-time adversaries meet for the first time in 2021. Both teams had similar starts in the season …
KT Rolster TusiN announces his retirement from pro League
William Davis
League of Legends
Former KT Rolster and Afreeca Freecs support Park “TusiN” Jong-ik has announced his retirement. TusiN is retiring after six years of professional play in his career. The iconic LCK support shared a statement through his Facebook account, where he explaind that he would be transitioning to a streaming career based on AfreecaTV and YouTube. “I haven’t been on social media for a while. I’ll be retiring. I debuted when I …
Udyr in pro LoL? Jungler picked by DRX Pyosik in LCK match
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Udyr the spirit walker was picked recently in the LCK. He was chosen by Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon in the second game of a DRX series against Nongshim RedForce. Pyosik gave Udyr its first appearance in the league in almost 1,800 days. He also delivered the champion its first win of the season. The champion has not been discussed recently as a potential pick in the LCK, or in any other …
Former Cloud9 star Zeyzal joins 4 ex-LCS on new amateur team
William Davis
League of Legends
Florida-based organization SolaFide Esports has signed a not-so-amateur roster to compete in the new North American amateur circuit. Niship “Dhokla” Doshi, Winston “Winston” Herold, Jean-Sébastien “Tuesday” Thery, Apollo “Apollo” Price, and Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam are now competing on the amateur level under SolaFide’s banner. The team is currently competing in the Risen Champions League, a tier-two tournament for amateur organizations and collegiate teams. The team of former pros advanced to …
TSM’s Swordart becomes top-ranked LoL player on NA Server
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh, the most expensive player in the LCS and the support for TSM, has reached rank No. 1 in the North American server. The player climbed the ladder on his side account with the handle Swordart77777. On this account, Swordart has an impressive win rate on Maokai and Alistar of over 80%. The Taiwainese player also has a win rate over 60% for signature heroes such as Pantheon, …
Riot previews 10 new LoL skins including Lunar Beast cosmetics
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends will celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year with a load of new cosmetics for the game. It was recently revealed by the LoL Korea Facebook page that Riot will be releasing a total of 10 new cosmetics for the game. Six of these skins are for the new Lunar Beast skin line, which was revealed earlier this month. The other new cosmetics are for Talon, Syndra, Zyra, …
FPX Tian is taking a break from competitive LoL due to health reasons
William Davis
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix jungler and former world champion Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang recently announced that he will take a break from competitive League of Legends After beating Rogue Warriors in a 2-0 fashion to start out week three of the 2021 LPL Spring Split, Tian has decided to take a temporary break due to mental strains. According to Tian, the match against Rogue Warriors was one of few matches that he enjoyed …
CLG Finn gets his visa approved, but Broxah is still waiting
William Davis
League of Legends
CLG will soon see its new top laner Finn “Finn” Wiestål arrive in Los Angeles to compete with the team. After failing to get his North American visa in time for the LCS Lock In tournament, Counter Logic Gaming’s new top laner Finn has finally gotten it approved and will be joining up with his new team soon. Finn joined CLG in the offseason after making it all the way …
Armao is proving himself after helping out Liquid in LCS Lock In
William Davis
League of Legends
Jonathan “Armao” Armao has helped Team Liquid tremendously during the LCS Lock In so far, but is he worthy of another chance in the LCS? With the start of the 2021 LCS season, several European players have had their visas delayed and didn’t make it for the first-ever LCS Lock-In tournament. One of those players was Liquid jungler Lucas “Santorin” Larsen, who had to sit out the first week of …
This is the history of Akali in professional League of Legends
Nicholas James
League of Legends
For yet another season, Akali has been on the permanent ban list for most professional teams in many regions. The champion has been a power pick across multiple metas and seasons, always relevant and important for teams to either take away from the opponent or to pick for themselves first. The rogue assassin has been a constant presence since her rework in Season 8, which gave her some versatility in …
Former LoL pro and analyst Krepo hints at return to streaming
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Mitch “Krepo” Voorspoels, former professional League of Legends player, caster, and analyst, announced via Twitter that he will return to streaming soon after taking a four-year hiatus from social media, Twitch, and public life in the League of Legends community. Hello pic.twitter.com/qHSRwczeOj — Mitch Voorspoels (@Krepo) January 17, 2021 Krepo was known as a support player for Evil Geniuses and Elements before transitioning to a broadcast role in 2015. He …
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.
