League of Legends
League of Legends
Can DAMWON Gaming win Worlds a second time?
William Davis
On October 31, DAMWON Gaming silenced the audience at the Pudong Football Stadium by defeating Suning in the 2020 World Championship finals. Earlier that day, the audience refused to cheer for the DAMWON players as they were introduced by the host. Instead of letting it affect their mental state, the DAMWON players used it as motivation to deliver the performance of their lives. Four games later, DAMWON became the first …
League of Legends
Shad0w confirms he will play in the LPL for the 2021 season
William Davis
Former MAD Lions jungler Zhiqiang “Shad0w” Zhao recently confirmed in a Weibo post that he will be playing in the Chinese LPL for the 2021 season. After playing with MAD Lions throughout the 2020 season, Shad0w will be heading to the best league in China. Even though his exact destination isn’t official yet, this is looking to be the first time a player fostered in Europe will play in the …
League of Legends
2020 All-Star viewership goes down for the second year in a row
William Davis
All-Star 2020 registered the lowest viewership the event has ever seen, a trend that began in 2019. The All-Star event is not what it used to be. The 2020 edition of the competition registered its lowest vierwership numbers to date, despite LoL Esports’ best efforts to promote it. The decline of All-Star’s viewership is nothing new. In 2019, the event reached a 293,000 viewer peak, in contrast with 2018’s 565,000 …
League of Legends
LPL All-Star event rescheduled to take place in January 2021
Olivia Richman
League of Legends fans won’t get to watch the LPL All-Star action until 2021. The LPL made an official announcement on Twitter, telling fans that the All-Star event will be held on January 1 and 2. It will feature four matches that showcase popular LPL players’ skills and bring some entertainment to the mix. According to the LPL’s tweet, specific details including the event’s schedule, players, and events will be …
FunPlus Phoenix announces rebrand with a brand new logo
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix is rebranding once again. Chinese League of Legends organization FunPlus Phoenix announced a logo change earlier today. On Twitter, the 2019 World Championship winner explained that the change was an “upgrade” of its brand vision. “Our totem phoenix soars from oriental, engraved it’s burning mark rapidly on the letters of FPX. The vision we want to share is the spirit of Faith, Passion, and Xpossibility. Fly Phoenix, Fly,” …
Lillia still hasn’t been buffed or nerfed since her release
William Davis
League of Legends
In an amazing display of potential lauched balance, Lillia has neither been buffed nor nerfed since her release in patch 10.15. After a total of 10 patches, Lillia still has not seen any changes despite being a contested pick in both solo queue and professional play. Lillia was released on July 22 and has only seen minor bug fixes since then, the latest being in patch 10.23. Lillia is one …
KT Rolster picks up mid laner Dove for the 2021 LCK season
William Davis
League of Legends
KT Rolster has picked up another player for its 2021 LCK roster, and this time it’s mid laner Kim “Dove” Jae-yeon. The former SANDBOX Gaming mid laner Dove will be playing under the KT banner in 2021 after a shaky 2020 season. Dove will be a part of the big new roster KT will be fielding next year, with a total of 12 players currently on the roster. Dove will …
Former TSM Academy player Evolved shows Yasuo outplay potential
William Davis
League of Legends
Former mid laner for Team SoloMid Academy Jackson “Evolved” Dohan recently pulled off an impressive 1v3 outplay on Yasuo during a solo queue game, and we can explain how. After leaving TSM Academy in the 2020 offseason, the 19-year-old mid laner has been pursuing streaming and some great highlights have come of it. In this most recent outplay, Evolved managed to take on three opponents all by himself on Yasuo …
KT Rolster vs. NS RedForce: KeSPA Cup betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
Two underdogs will clash in the KeSPA Cup 2020 semifinals for the last spot in the grand final. After fighting through the group stage, KT Rolster will meet NS RedForce in a best-of-five for the first time, and it looks to be a close one. Both teams have been a pleasant surprise throughout the tournament, each making upsets against teams that looked better on paper. Now it’s time to find …
2022 Asian Games may allow Korean LoL stars to avoid military service
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The inclusion of esports in the 2022 Asian Games comes with a unique perk for Korean esports players. In South Korea, all adult men must have served at least 18 months in the military by age 28. Exemptions can be given for a variety of reasons, including those classified as “outstanding athletes” who “enhance the national prestige.” Given how the historical baseline for “outstanding athlete” has been success in international …
The most improved professional players of 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 season of League of Legends has been one of the most competitive in years, with several players fighting their way up through the ranks and improving immensely. Despite playing in an online format for most of the year, 2020 has been great for competitive League of Legends. A lot of new players have proved themselves on the biggest stage, with everything culminating at the 2020 World Championship in …
The LCS has one big advantage over the LEC, says G2 Ocelote
William Davis
League of Legends
At the 2020 World Championship, North America had the worst performance by the region to date. Team SoloMid went down in history as the first number one seed from a major region to end the tournament winless. FlyQuest and Team Liquid both failed to make it of groups. Those results reignited the conversation about North America as a region and its weaknesses. In the offseason, LCS teams went big with …
DAMWON vs. Afreeca Freecs: KeSPA Cup 2020 betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
KeSPA Cup 2020 has already kicked off and now two big names are set to clash in group A. The defending world champions from DAMWON Gaming will meet last year’s KeSPA Cup winners Afreeca Freecs. So far, DAMWON has gotten off to a perfect start while Afreeca is falling behind. Afreeca needs to win this match to stay alive in the fight for a playoffs spot. So far, the two …
DAMWON Gaming renames for 2021 season, partners up with KIA
William Davis
League of Legends
The defending world champions from DAMWON will be changing their name for the 2021 season after signing a naming rights deal with KIA Motors. With the new partnership, the team will be known as “DWG KIA” starting in 2021, according to several reporters within the South Korean League of Legends scene. With the KIA partnership, DAMWON will also rock a new uniform and will get a new logo. 담원게이밍과 기아자동차가 …
These are the best teams to watch at Demacia Cup 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
Demacia Cup 2020 is the last Chinese LoL tournament of the year, and it has a lot of exciting players and teams to keep an eye on. The annual Demacia Cup recently kicked off with 24 teams total competing for the title and the honor that comes with it. The teams participating feature a great mix of well-known LPL teams and smaller squads who are ready to show what they …
Blank returns to the LCK after joining KT Rolster in 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
Former SKT jungler Kang “Blank” Sun-gu officially returns to play in the LCK as he will play for KT Rolster in the upcoming 2021 season. After playing for the Japanese team Sengoku Gaming in the LJL, Blank will return to the big stage with one of the most prominent esports organizations in League of Legends. He will be the team’s jungler for the LCK alongside young talents Lee “Bonnie” Gwang-su …
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
