League of Legends
League of Legends
Impact joins Evil Geniuses roster ahead of LCS 2021 season
William Davis
Evil Geniuses has announced former Team Liquid star Jeong “Impact” Eon-young as its starting top laner for 2021. Evil Geniuses finalized its 2021 roster with the addition of Impact to the squad. Impact is joining returning members Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen and Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro. The team also signed former FlyQuest support Lee “IgNar” Dong-geun, who will be laning with Matthew “Deftly” Chen, who was recently promoted from the academy …
League of Legends
DRX promotes three rookies to main roster for 2021 LCK season
William Davis
DRX revamped its 2021 LCK roster with the addition of three rookies to the roster. DRX will look very different in 2021, as the organization went for a roster that consists of rookies and up-and-coming players. After a disappointing end to its 2020 season, DRX is trying a new strategy for next spring. The organization kept jungler Hong “Pyosik” Chang-hyeon in the roster, while the rest of the players decided …
League of Legends
KT Rolster fans are protesting after recent offseason signings
William Davis
Another big drama in South Korean esports is unfolding after KT Rolster didn’t live up to some fans’ expectations in this offseason. After a sloppy 2020 season, KT has almost completely rebuilt its LCK roster by signing a few players with LCK experience, as well as several rookies. Even though it’s admirable that KT is going for some young players with lots of potential, some fans are not happy about …
League of Legends
Peanut returns to the LCK 2021 with Team Dynamics
William Davis
Jungler Han “Peanut” Wang-ho is returning to the LCK after signing a two-year deal with Team Dynamics. Peanut is back in South Korea and has joined Team Dynamics as its starting jungler for 2021. Peanut returns after playing for a year with LGD Gaming in the LPL. 2020 was a good year for Peanut. LGD, a team that doesn’t usually achieve much domestically, snatched the fourth LPL seed to the …
League of Legends
Former Worlds champ Crown retires after Bjergsen, Doublelift
William Davis
Former Samsung Galaxy mid laner Lee “Crown” Min-ho has announced that he will retire from professional League of Legends. After more than five years as a professional player, Crown will step back from pro play after a year in the Korean challenger league. Crown made a name for himself in 2017 whe won the 2017 World Championship together with Samsung Galaxy. Crown will be another big name to retire in …
League of Legends
How much money is Perkz making at Cloud9 in the LCS?
William Davis
The 2021 League of Legends offseason has been the craziest in the history of the game, with Luka “Perkz” Perković going to Cloud9 as one of the biggest roster swap yet. Not a lot of fans would have expected the former G2 Esports mid and bot laner to join a team in the LCS, but now it has happened. Not only is Perkz one of the best players to ever …
League of Legends
Nexus Blitz might return to LoL for potential Christmas event
William Davis
Nexus Blitz might be back on the League of Legends live servers during December. The popular game mode is currently enabled on the Public Beta Environment (PBE), which does indicate that Nexus Blitz will likely return to the live servers throughout December. Nexus Blitz is known as one of the most popular featured game modes and it looks like Riot will bring it back for a potential Christmas event. The …
League of Legends
Afreeca Freecs adds Bang and Lehends, completes LCK 2021 roster
William Davis
Afreeca Freecs has completed its roster with the addition of two-time World Champion Bae “Bang” Jun-sik and former Griffin support Son “Lehends” Si-woo. Afreeca Freecs is ready for the opening season of the franchised LCK. The team finalized its lineup with a new duo in the bottom lane. This signing marks the return of Bang to the LCK after two years in the LCS. Lehends joins after parting ways with …
TSM adds Huni to its starting roster for the 2021 LCS
William Davis
League of Legends
Team SoloMid has officially welcomed Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon as its starting top laner for the LCS in 2021. The TSM roster is finally shaping up. The organization has closed a deal with Evil Geniuses and acquired Huni, who will be replacing outgoing top laner Sergen “Broken Blade” Çelik. “I’m super excited just being on the starting roster. It’ll be a really good opportunity for me, the roster seems really good. …
Are Europeans paying too much for RP in League of Legends?
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s currently more expensive for European players to buy Riot Points (RP) compared to the North American LoL players, and this has some users complaining to developer Riot Games. After a recent post about RP prices on social media, fans are slowly starting to realize that the RP prizes on the European servers are exceptionally high compared to the North American server. Because of differences in currencies, EU players are …
TSM promotes Swordd to Academy roster, adds Babip
William Davis
League of Legends
Team SoloMid has begun building its Academy roster for 2021 and has started out by adding two interesting players. The young mid laner Rico “Swordd” Chen will be promoted to the Academy roster, after playing on TSM’s talent program. Swordd has been known as a very big individual talent and will now get to play on a bigger stage in the new 2021 Academy format. Joining him is the Australian …
AOC uses Among Us Twitch stream to raise $200,000 for charity
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
New York state representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised $200,000 by playing Among Us on Twitch earlier this week. The impressive fundraising effort went towards eviction defense, food pantries, and other support aimed at communities. “We did it! This is going to make such a difference for those who need it most right now,” AOC said. We did it!$200k raised in one livestream (on a whim!) for eviction defense, food pantries, and more.This …
Kayle, Malphite, others are dominating LoL patch 10.24
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot recently released the second patch of the 2021 preseason, with a lot of focus on the new item system’s overall balance. The changes have balanced a few strong champions, which means that the meta is already changing a bit once again. On patch 10.23, Summoner’s Rift was completely dominated by tanks. These tanks are still strong on patch 10.24, but the changes have made room for some other champions …
Doublelift retires with 2000 kills and more crazy stats
William Davis
League of Legends
The recently retired bot lane legend Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng ends his long career with some of the most impressive stats ever seen in the LCS. With Doublelift entering the next stage in his life, LoL Esports shared some of his career stats, and they are by all means impressive. Doublelift has been competing since the very first World Championship back in 2011 and has since then attended numerous international events, …
Nuguri is reportedly heading to LPL, could join FunPlus Phoenix
William Davis
League of Legends
Newly crowned World Champion top laner Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon might be heading to the LPL for the 2021 season. According to Naver Sports, Nuguri is heading to the LPL for the first time in his career. It’s still unclear which team he will join exactly, but most rumors are suggesting the former world champions at FunPlus Phoenix. The team recently said goodbye to both of their top laners, Kim “Khan” …
DAMWON Gaming adds Khan as top laner for the 2021 LCK season
William Davis
League of Legends
The World Champions from DAMWON Gaming are making changes in the top lane for the 2021 season by adding Kim “Khan” Dong-ha. The former FunPlus Phoenix and SKT T1 top laner will once again be back in the LCK, this time playing for another World Champion organization. Khan will replace Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon, who became a free agent earlier this month. Nuguri is likely heading to the LPL, which leaves …
Fnatic finalizes its new 2021 LEC roster with Upset
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic has completed its 2021 roster with the addition of former Astralis bot laner Elias “Upset” Lipp. Fnatic is ready for 2021, as the organization finalized its 2021 roster and it’s looking like a strong contender. Two days after welcoming mid laner Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer, Fnatic confirmed Upset as its new starting bot laner and the final piece to its puzzle. Upset is considered one of the best bot laners …
Game-breaking bugs on Ashe, MF still in the 2021 LoL preseason
William Davis
League of Legends
Even after a patch and several hotfixes, some of the first game-breaking preseason bugs are still in the game. One of the first big bugs that was discovered in the preseason was on Ashe. Since the release of patch 10.23, the Frost Archer has been able to cast her Volley (W) twice consecutively by using a neat level-up trick, and this remains in the game in patch 10.24. The trick …
SwordArt signs with Team SoloMid for $6 million over two years
William Davis
League of Legends
The rumors of former Suning support Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh going to Team SoloMid for the 2021 LCS season finally seems to become reality. According to The Washington Post, the veteran support has signed a two-year contract with TSM worth $6 million. This contract will likely go down as the biggest contract in LCS history and seems like one of the biggest signings in the offseason. Breaking: Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh has …
Riot Games addresses an upcoming Tahm Kench rework
William Davis
League of Legends
Fans of Tahm Kench might have to wait a bit longer for the upcoming rework, according to Riot Phlox. The upcoming Tahm Kench rework was teased over five months ago, but fans have not seen the River King’s rework just yet. This has gotten some dedicated players to wonder what the status of it is, and Rioter Phlox recently answered that question on Reddit. “So the [Tahm Kench] rework is …
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.
