League of Legends
League of Legends
Tyler1 speaks out about Pokimane’s $5 donation cap on Twitch
Olivia Richman
T1 streamer Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp had a response to another streamer. And for once, it was to voice his agreement instead of cause drama. Imane “Pokimane” Anys recently limited her Twitch donations to a $5 maximum. While she didn’t say exactly why, Pokimane has been criticized in the past for accepting donations from male viewers who send large amounts of money despite potentially having financial problems. This has led some …
League of Legends
All you need to know to prepare for League of Legends Season 11
William Davis
Season 11 in League of Legends is right around the corner, and it’s coming with big changes to items, ranked play, the in-game shop, and more. The new season won’t just be a big change because of the usual ranked reset, but also because of the big item overhaul that will hit the live servers in the preseason. Players will get a few months to adjust to the new items …
League of Legends
Excel Esports parts ways with Caedrel before LoL 2021 shuffle
William Davis
Excel Esports and jungler Marc “Caedrel” Lamont have chosen to part ways after working together since the end of 2018 where Excel entered the LEC franchise. Thank you @Caedrel. Thank you for joining us on this journey for the past two years. Thank you for putting your trust into Excel back in 2018. Thank you for everything, there will always be a home here for you. Now go smash whatever …
League of Legends
T1, Faker to appear on BTS’s new variety show Run BTS
William Davis
T1 has announced a new collaboration with wildly popular musical act BTS. T1 and BTS are two names that need no introduction. The most popular esports organization in the world and the most popular boy band are collaborating for the first time. Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, Park “Teddy” Jin-sung, Lee “Effort” Sang-ho, Mun “Cuzz” Uchan, and Kim “Canna” Chang-dong are the first special guests of Run BTS, a variety show produced …
League of Legends
These are the best builds for new LoL champion Seraphine
William Davis
The newest champion in League of Legends Seraphine has taken to the stage and is ready to dominate on Summoner’s Rift. Seraphine is a real pop star with a rhythmic and deadly kit. She is a mage support and can also be played as a solo laner in mid. So far, Seraphine has been picked the most as a support in Platinum rank and above, with a total of 87,000 …
League of Legends
Team Liquid and TF Blade split up for mysterious reasons
William Davis
Team Liquid has parted ways with streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni, the organization announced on Twitter. TF Blade started as a streamer, but became a substitute player for Team Liquid Academy and the LCS main roster. The team supported his ambition to reach rank one in every server and helped him do so with various bootcamps. Today we are parting ways with @tfblade. Ashkan has been integral in the TL …
League of Legends
Sneaky shows a lot in Halloween cosplay of Azur Lane Casablanca
Olivia Richman
“Happy Halloween!” So how does the League of Legends community celebrate this spooky holiday? With another cosplay from Zach “Sneaky” Scuderi, of course! The former League of Legends pro dropped an adorable game-related cosplay on Halloween for all of his fans. Happy Halloween! Azur Lane Casablanca????: Lynn???? @squarenoodles pic.twitter.com/hkS02l3GAT — Zach Scuderi (@Sneaky) October 31, 2020 The cosplay was based on Casablanca from the Chinese mobile game Azur Lane. The …
League of Legends
Riot Games reveals list of franchises for 2021 LCK season
William Davis
Riot Games has revealed the final list of franchises that will compete in the 2021 LCK season and beyond. After a long process, Riot Games has selected 10 organizations that will be part of the LCK next year. The selected teams are: DAMWON Gaming DRX Afreeca Freecs Gen.G T1 KT Rolster SANDBOX Gaming Team Dynamics Hanwha Life Esports hyFresh Blade Nine out of the 10 teams selected were part of …
The best champions to climb with before ranked season 10 ends
William Davis
League of Legends
The ranked season is coming to an end, so it’s time to put in the last effort in solo queue to hopefully climb a few last ranks before the preseason kicks in. But what are the best champions to climb with in this final sprint? The current state of solo queue is pretty diverse and there are a lot of viable options for every role. The season 10 meta seems …
Worlds 2020 Finals had 2nd-highest viewership in esports history
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 League of Legends World Championship ended with a bang in the final between DAMWON Gaming and Suning. Millions of viewers tuned in to watch DAMWON win the Summoner’s Cup, the first time for a Korean team since 2017. The final was decided in four games, with the series hitting a peak viewership of 3.88 million viewers, excluding Chinese platforms per Esports Charts. 3.88M Peak Viewers on #Worlds2020 Grand …
Only 8 Worlds 2020 Pick’em players had perfect scores
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Part of the fun of the League of Legends World Championship is predicting the matches. After DAMWON defeated Suning in the finals to become the champions, eight Pick’em participants had perfect scores at the end of thee event. That means all eight of those viewers predicted the end result of all four main event groups and notched perfect brackets during the knockout stage. Those eight viewers will receive an Alienware …
LoL fans livid over Worlds 2020 finals crowd dissing DAMWON
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
League of Legends viewers were excited to finally have hype around the Worlds 2020 finals, delivered by a live audience of over 6,000 fans. But it didn’t go as expected, at least not for eventual champions DAMWON Gaming. When DAMWON was introduced on stage for the finals, the audience was deafeningly silent. Some clapping could be heard here and there, but the Chinese audience was largely unenthusiastic as DAMWON’s roster …
DAMWON’s Canyon is awarded with the Worlds 2020 finals MVP award
William Davis
League of Legends
It has been the perfect World Championship for DAMWON Gaming jungler Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu. After an intense final at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, DAMWON Gaming could lift the Summoner’s Cup as the first Korean team since 2017 after beating Suning. The best-of-five series went in favor of DAMWON 3-1 and the biggest reason for that was Canyon. The @oppo MVP of the #Worlds2020 Final: Canyon! pic.twitter.com/qxQeq6Dz3P — …
DAMWON Gaming is the 2020 World Champions after beating Suning
William Davis
League of Legends
After weeks of high-quality games at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, the 10th winner of the Summoner’s Cup has been crowned. DAMWON Gaming won the trophy after the most intense Worlds final in years. Both teams were neck-to-neck for the most part, but the Korean overlords were too strong in a hard-fought series. DAMWON GAMING ARE THE 2020 WORLD CHAMPIONS! ???? #Worlds2020 pic.twitter.com/5ugqBGJ0cs — LoL Esports (@lolesports) October …
Riot Forge reveals first look of Ruined King: A League of Legends story
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games just released the trailer for its new game, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. League of Legends fans have a new title to look forward to in early 2021. Ruined King is a single-player story-driven turn-based RPG game developed by Airship Syndicate. Ruined King is the first game developed under Riot Forged, a partnership between Riot Games and independent studios. Riot first announced Ruined King in 2019 …
Rogue adding FC Shalke 04’s Odoamne, promoting Trymbi in 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
Veteran top laner Andrei “Odoamne” Pasdu seems to be heading to Rogue, while AGO Rogue support Adrian “Trymbi” Trybus will replace Oskar “Vander” Bagdan. According to ESPN, Rogue is close to signing former FC Schalke 04 top laner Odoamne. The team will also give rookie support Trymbi a chance to fill the big shoes of Vander. The Polish veteran is on contract with Rogue through the end of the 2021 …
Riot looks to improve champion select and LoL’s end-game lobby
William Davis
League of Legends
More improvements to the League of Legends client are underway, with the latest targeting things players experience before and after every game they play. Riot Games recently released its fifth client cleanup report, with a focus on champion select and the end of game experience. Riot is primarily looking to make champion select more responsive and to improve the user experience by potentially removing features that are taking up space …
SK Gaming is reportedly looking to pick up Jezu, TynX, and Blue
William Davis
League of Legends
SK Gaming might look to make a lot of offseason changes going into the 2021 LEC season. The offseason rumors have made its way to SK, a team that is reportedly looking to pick up three new players for the upcoming season. According to Esportmaniacos, SK is looking to pick up Misfits Premier bot laner Jean “Jezu” Massol, LDLC jungler Kristian “TynX” Hansen, and 1907 Fenerbahce mid laner Ersin “Blue” …
Gilius renews his contract with FC Schalke 04 for the 2021 LEC season
William Davis
League of Legends
God Gilius will stay with FC Schalke 04 through the 2021 LEC season. Eberk “Gilius” Demir has officially re-signed with Schalke 04 for one more year after stepping in as the starting jungler in the 2020 LEC Summer Split and almost completing the miracle run to make it to the 2020 World Championship. We’re extremely happy to finally let the cat out of the bag: God @GiliusLoLwill remain a Royal …
Should Perkz leave G2 Esports? Would G2 be the same without him?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
Nine-time European champion Luka “PerkZ” Perković has had a lot of rumors surroudning him this offseason. Going into the 2021 season, big changes are on the horizon for teams and players alike as roster shuffles are becoming more imminent. But without any confirmation, many of these rumors are nothing more than speculation about one of the best players to play in Europe Rumors are often false guys Anyways how much …
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.
