League of Legends
League of Legends
SK Gaming is reportedly looking to pick up Jezu, TynX, and Blue
William Davis
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” …
League of Legends
Gilius renews his contract with FC Schalke 04 for the 2021 LEC season
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Should Perkz leave G2 Esports? Would G2 be the same without him?
Nicholas James
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
Suning vs DAMWON Gaming 2020 World Championship betting analysis
William Davis
DAMWON Gaming and Suning are meeting in finals of the 2020 World Championship. It will be an epic battle between the giants in the east as the LCK tries to regain to its former glory. DAMWON is the first LCK team to reach the finals at Worlds since 2017. DAMWON is not your regular LCK team, as the team is not afraid of going for unorthodox picks and is one …
How Suning went from a mediocre LPL team to a Worlds finalist
William Davis
League of Legends
Suning has undergone huge improvements the past year, taking them to the 2020 League of Legends World Championship final despite low expectations. Going into Worlds 2020, very few people expected something big from Suning. Coming out of the LPL as the third seed is no easy task, but teams such as Top Esports, JD Gaming, and G2 Esports were expected to beat them on any given day. The young squad …
Quickshot and Vedius will cast Worlds 2020 final, Sjokz to host
William Davis
League of Legends
The biggest esports match of the year is approaching and will have some of the best on-air talent available covering it, but it won’t be covered by as many casters as in years past. The 2020 League of Legends World Championship final will be cast by none other than Trevor “Quickshot” Henry and Andy “Vedius” Day. The analyst desk will be hosted by Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere and will include such …
What is Fnatic planning for its LEC team this offseason?
William Davis
League of Legends
Offseason rumors are floating around left and right around Fnatic. After finishing top eight in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, Fnatic’s offseason has now begun. The team took heavy favorites Top Esports to five games. Very few expected Fnatic to put up a fight against the LPL champions, but Fnatic exited the tournament looking stronger than it did entering. Despite the decent performance at Worlds, there are still quite …
K/DA releases new single MORE featuring Seraphine
William Davis
League of Legends
K/DA is ready with another song from their upcoming EP, leading up to its anticipated performance at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship final. The virtual pop group’s newest song, “MORE,” is featuring the vocal talents Madison Beer, SOYEON, and MIYEON of K-Pop group (G)I-DLE. Furthermore, the song features former K/DA member Jaira Burns, Lexie Liu, and the newest League of Legends champion Seraphine. It has been known that …
Will Xmithie retire after parting ways with Immortals?
William Davis
League of Legends
Jungler Jake “Xmithie” Puchero won’t be returning to Immortals in 2021. Immortals has allegedly decided to move forward without Xmithie on its roster, according to a report by ESPN. It means that Xmithie’s contract would be up for grabs next November 16. According to the report, Immortals is in the process of acquiring head coach Andre “Guilhoto” Pereira who’s still under contract with Astralis. It’s unclear if Xmithie will find …
Jensen reportedly signs $4.2 million, 3-year deal with Team Liquid
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid is once again involved in another huge offseason rumor. According to Travis Gafford, Liquid mid laner Nicolaj “Jensen” Jensen will re-sign with the organization on a three-year deal. The new contract is reportedly worth $4.2 million, which would make for yet another record-breaking contract in the LCS. Jensen has been a key part of Liquid’s recent domestic and international success. Jensen joined the team in 2018 after several …
Evil Geniuses adding MAD Lions’ Peter Dun, building around Svenskeren
William Davis
League of Legends
Evil Geniuses will reportedly be making big changes to its coaching staff for the 2021 season. According to ESPN, Evil Geniuses is eying the former MAD Lions head of coach staff Peter Dun, who recently announced that he will be looking for new opportunities in 2021. If the deal goes through, Dun will become Evil Geniuses’ head coach and work to build up a team around star jungler Dennis “Svenskeren” …
Riot teases 2020 Worlds final opening ceremony
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 League of Legends World Championship opening ceremony is going to be wild. The big Worlds final is only a few days away and Riot is slowly starting to tease the matchup as well as the ceremony leading up to the game. This year’s opening ceremony will feature the virtual League of Legends pop group K/DA, assisted by the newest champion Seraphine. Furthermore, the ceremony will have names such …
New Battlecast and Resistance League of Legends skins revealed
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games has five new skins ready to go for the last weeks of the season. It’s time for some brawlers to receive a new skin. Riot has presented a new Battlecast skin for Nasus and Zac, while Yorick, Jayce, and Singed will get new cosmetics from the Resistance skin line. The five new skins are expected to hit the Public Beta Environment very soon. PBE Preview: Battlecast New engines …
Doublelift talks about TSM’s 0-6 performance at Worlds 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
After coming back from the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, Team SoloMid bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng has had some time to reflect on his and his team’s poor results. After TSM got knocked out of the Worlds group stage with a 0-6 record, there has been a lot of time for the players to reflect on the results and what went wrong. After returning to North America, Doublelift …
Bjergsen leaves TSM’s roster, heads into coaching with strong legacy
William Davis
League of Legends
Newly retired mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg ends his career with some impressive LCS stats. Not only has the former Team SoloMid captain been a leading figure of North American League of Legends for years, but he also has a resume that very few around the world can match. Shortly after the announcement of Bjergsen retiring as a player, Lolesports released some interesting stats for his LCS career. Most fans already …
Astralis reportedly eyeing Jeskla, promisq, and Zanzarah for LEC
William Davis
League of Legends
With Astralis set to phase out the Origen brand in the coming weeks, the organization is set to make some big changes to its LEC roster ahead of the 2021 season. According to Esportmaniacos, Astralis is looking to pick up mousesports’ Jesper “Jeskla” Strömberg and Hampus “promisq” Abrahamsson, while AGO ROGUE jungler Nikolay “Zanzarah” Akatov will get his LEC debut and replace Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir. The new bot lane would replace …
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
League of Legends
Riot Forge reveals first look of Ruined King: A League of Legends story
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Rogue adding FC Shalke 04’s Odoamne, promoting Trymbi in 2021
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot looks to improve champion select and LoL’s end-game lobby
By
William Davis
