League of Legends
League of Legends
JD Gaming signs former Suning coach Chashao for 2021 LPL season
Olivia Richman
JD Gaming has announced the addition of head coach Shih “Chashao” Yi-Hao. Fans of the professional League of Legends scene have called the change a “buff” for JD Gaming. Chashao is a very talented coach who is best known for leading underdogs Suning to Worlds 2020. Before becoming Suning’s head coach in 2013, Chashao coached Flash Wolves. “Our order of Chashao has arrived! We look forward to the breakthroughs he …
League of Legends
Riot reveals Battle Queens 2020 LoL event, including Nexus Blitz
William Davis
Nexus Blitz returns in the Battle Queens 2020 event, where players can earn a lot of rewards to round out the year. With the introduction of patch 10.25, Riot has released the new Battle Queen skin line. The new skins include cosmetics for Janna, Katarina, Qiyana, Diana, and the newest champion Rell. The patch will not only include the new skins and Rell but will also have the Battle Queens …
League of Legends
All rosters for each LEC team in the 2021 season
William Davis
The 2021 LEC season is getting close and the 10 teams have their respective rosters locked in. Just like in North America, the offseason in Europe has been wild and included a lot of big changes. Big names like mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković and top laner Barney “Alphari” Morris have left to play in the LCS, while a bunch of rookies from the European Leagues are getting a shot …
League of Legends
Seraphine is failing as a mid laner due to troubling kit
William Davis
It’s been almost two months since Seraphine’s release and the champion is not living up to Riot Games’ expectations. Seraphine is arguably the most problematic champion released in 2020. From its odd online presence to its controversial lore and its kit that looks like a Sona remake, players had every reason to dislike the Starry-Eyed Songstress. To make things worse, Seraphine is not even working how Riot intended her to …
Expectations for each LCS roster going into the 2021 season
Nicholas James
League of Legends
2021 looks like it is going to be a big season for the LCS. Many teams have rebuilt their entire rosters or made moves to acquire big stars in the wake of another year in which not a single LCS squad made it out of the group stage at the World Championships. With big changes come different expectations. Some teams are looking to break into international competition with a splash …
Here are the starting rosters for each LCS team in the 2021 season
William Davis
League of Legends
The offseason has been intense for LCS teams, with a lot of new big signings and star players retiring. After weeks of signings from left and right, the 10 LCS teams are now starting to be complete and it’s, therefore, time to look at the rosters. Fans can look forward to a 2021 season with a lot of new big names in the league that will hopefully increase the competitive …
TSM announces 2021 Academy roster including Hauntzer, Cody Sun
William Davis
League of Legends
Team SoloMid has announced its roster for the Academy league in 2021, and it includes a familiar face in top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell and bot laner Liyu “Cody Sun” Sun. Joining the two LCS veterans is young Taiwanese player Wang “Yursan” Sheng-Yu, who previously played for Alpha Esports in the PCS and is a fairly unknown name. These three signings complete the TSM academy roster, which already had jungler …
Wild Rift is now available in Europe on iOS and Android
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s now possible to play the Wild Rift open beta in Europe and several other regions on both iOS and Android. Riot announced earlier this year that Wild Rift would extend its reach to several new regions on December 10, but it seems to have come a bit earlier than that. The regions that Wild Rift extends its open beta to include Europe, Vietnam, Oceania, Taiwan, Turkey, Russia, the Middle …
Former ROX Tigers mid laner Kuro retires from pro LoL
William Davis
League of Legends
Another member of the famed ROX Tigers squad has chosen to retire, and this time it’s mid laner Lee “Kuro” Seo-haeng who will be putting his mouse and keyboard on the shelf. It’s hasn’t been long since former ROX Tigers support Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyun made the announcement that he would retire, and now Kuro will be doing the same. Kuro was the mid laner for ROX Tigers when the team …
LCK star GorillA retires after 1 season with SANDBOX Gaming
William Davis
League of Legends
Another legend has retired from professional League of Legends, with support player Kang “GorillA” Beom-hun calling it a career. The 2021 offseason has been full of great players retiring and GorillA is the next in line. The Korean support has had a fantastic career and will likely be remembered as one of the best support players of all time. He is mostly known for his time on ROX Tigers, one …
Riot previews new Marauder, Warden skins for Kalista, Quinn, more
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot recently introduced four brand new skins to close out the year. The skins include new cosmetics for Kalista, Kled, Quinn, and Gragas. Both Kalista and Kled will be receiving skins for the Marauder skin line, joining champions such as Olaf, Warwick, Alistar, and Ashe who already have Marauder cosmetics. It also looks like Xin Zhao will be receiving a Marauder skin. Quinn and Gragas will receive some light-themed heavenly …
Can SwordArt challenge CoreJJ as the best support in the LCS?
William Davis
League of Legends
After signing with Team SoloMid on a record-breaking contract, Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh will be playing in the LCS with an eye towards becoming the best support in the region. Team Liquid support Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in has been considered the best support in the LCS for a while, and may even be the best player in the entire league. The recent Worlds finalist SwordArt has now come to challenge that spot …
Olleh says illegal betting could ruin solo queue, points to Faker
William Davis
League of Legends
A new type of illegal betting in League of Legends is being scrutinized in China, and it may reach even farther than that. According to former Team Liquid support Kim “Olleh” Joo-sung, it’s possible to bet on solo queue games through illegal betting sites in China. These sites allow people to place bets on professional players’ solo queue games and whether the players involved will win or lose. This has …
Dignitas completes its LCS 2021 roster with new bot laner Neo
William Davis
League of Legends
Dignitas finalized its 2021 roster with the addition of bot laner Toàn “Neo” Trần, previously known as Asta. Dignitas promoted Neo from its Academy team and has completed its LCS roster for the upcoming season. With Neo in the roster, Dignitas becomes the only team competing in the LCS in 2021 without an import on its line-up. The organization is betting on homegrown talent for the upcoming season. Dignitas signed …
Suning head coach Chashao steps down from LPL team
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Head coach Shih “Chashao” Yi-Hao has stepped down from his position at Suning. The Chinese League of Legends team announced the news earlier today, stating that they “regret” to announce his departure. Chashao was with the team for 571 days, experiencing both the lows and highs of the team’s journey. “Thank you for your contribution and efforts to Suning,” Suning stated on Twitter. “Wishing that your next stop brings you …
Perkz says he wasn’t allowed to go to Fnatic, will be the best mid in LCS
William Davis
League of Legends
New Cloud9 mid laner Luka “Perkz” Perković talked about his offseason and how he wasn’t allowed to join the rivals from Fnatic by G2 Esports on a recent Croatian podcast. During the podcast, Perkz talked about his time with G2 and some of the offers he had gotten during the offseason. Besides the questions from the podcast host, the audience also got to ask the Croatian mid laner 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.
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
League of Legends
