League of Legends
League of Legends
Analyzing all the groups at LoL Worlds 2020
William Davis
The groups for the 2020 League of Legends World Championship are decided. 22 teams were seeded into different groups and the favorites and underdogs are now clear. New rivalries and new faces will be present for Worlds 2020, meaning this could be the most competitive Worlds to date. This year, the VCS won’t be participating in the event, so there’s a change of format. 10 teams will be split into …
League of Legends
LoL Worlds 2020 play-in, main event groups revealed
William Davis
The groups for the 2020 League of Legends World Championship play-in stage and main event have been revealed. Fans around the world are waiting for Worlds to kick off on September 25, but their appetites have been whetted with the announcement of some of the matches they can expect. As always, the main event group stage will consist of four groups, with four teams in each. 12 teams are qualified …
News
Origen rebrands as Astralis, Origen GM Deficio steps down
William Davis
Astralis Group has announced that it will merge all activities and teams into the Astralis brand, including the LEC team Origen. The merge will happen with immediate effect, which means that Origen and the FIFA roster Future FC will now be known as Astralis. According to Astralis Group CEO Anders Hørsholt, the merger of all team brands will “position them as a leading organization in international esports”. The Astralis logo …
League of Legends
The five best players before the 2020 LoL World Championship
William Davis
The 2020 World Championship is just a short time away, and with all of the participating teams decided, it’s time to talk about the best players heading into the event. All eyes are on the major regions and the teams coming from them. This year, the LPL may have the most promising teams in the scene. But they’re not alone. These are teams that have been making waves in each …
League of Legends
Riot changes prize pool allocation going into Worlds 2020
William Davis
Riot Games recently announced some changes to the 2020 World Championship prize pool allocation, which will be more evenly distributed this year. The two VCS teams will also be greatly compensated for their absence. Fans are gearing up for Worlds while the participating teams have started the bootcamp in Shanghai. In a recent article, Riot provided fans with the last bit of information before the tournament kicks off. The most …
League of Legends
Coach Kim resigns from T1 after missing Worlds 2020
William Davis
T1 coach Kim Jeong-soo has resigned from T1 after the results of the Worlds Regional Qualifiers. According to T1, the decision was mutual and the organization respects Kim’s decision. The announcement was anticipated by many fans after a lackluster split where T1 did not manage to qualify for the 2020 World Championship. Dear fans,Following the results of the Worlds Qualifiers, Jung Su “KIM” Kim has decided to resign. T1 respects …
League of Legends
Can the NA region and its LCS teams perform at Worlds 2020?
William Davis
North America as a region has been struggling to find success at the annual League of Legends World Championship. But this year might be the one where an LCS team makes an unexpected deep run at the tournament. LCS teams are often considered worse than the other major regions, but is that a fair assessment by League of Legends fans? And will that assessment hold up this year? LCS teams …
League of Legends
These champions could end up dominating LoL Worlds 2020
William Davis
The 2020 League of Legends World Championship kicks off in under two weeks and the Worlds patch is hitting live servers very soon. The Worlds patch is usually one of the most exciting of the year because Riot wants to guarantee the game is in perfect shape for the largest event of the year. Every year brings a new meta that sees a few champions dominate the picks and bans phase. …
Fans concerned with EDG response to sexual harassment claims
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Some League of Legends fans are not happy with how EDward Gaming is responding to sexual harassment allegations against an employee. A former EDG employee came forward with sexual harassment allegations against the organization’s official photographer. According to the previous employee, EDG had attempted to pay her off to keep her from going public with the story. Eventually, they “forced her out of the organization.” tw // sexual harassmentA former …
How will the new Mythical items change League of Legends?
Nicholas James
League of Legends
The new item overhaul for Season 11 looks to bring big changes to how players build and purchase items while adding fresh and sometimes strange effects to new and existing items alike. Mythical items are the cornerstone of this update with activatable spells, potentially insane statistical buffs, and buffs to other items already in the player’s inventory. There is speculation on what these new changes will bring to the game …
Gen.G and Fnatic are dark horses to watch for at Worlds 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
The favorites for the 2020 World Championship have already been agreed upon by both experts and fans. But which teams could end up surprising everyone with a deep run at the tournament? 22 teams will fight for glory and the Summoner’s Cup at Worlds in Shanghai, and some teams are bigger favorites than others. The LPL is considered the strongest regional league, represented by favorites such as Top Esports and …
Destiny loses Twitch partnership for “encouraging violence”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Popular streamer Steven Kenneth “Destiny” Bonnell II has lost his Twitch partnership for “encouraging violence.” Destiny is a variety streamer with over 576,000 followers on Twitch. He’s well known for playing League of Legends, although he’s been found in the Just Chatting category in recent broadcasts. Although there has been no official statement from Twitch on the partnership matter, Destiny did note earlier today that the streaming platform had emailed …
G2 Jankos asked to shut down his Twitch stream from Shanghai
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports jungler Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski did his first stream after arriving in Shanghai, but he was quickly asked to shut it down after streaming for just over an hour. Teams are beginning to arrive in Shanghai, where the 2020 World Championship will soon be held. All players and staff were sent for 14-day quarantines right after arriving, which means that players will have a lot of time on their …
League of Legends players are torn over end of Clubs feature
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The League of Legends community has mixed feelings about Clubs being shut down. Riot Games has announced that it is shutting down its in-game Clubs feature for League of Legends “in the near future,” which will most likely be around the end of the year. This feature allows LoL players to find one another within the game, queuing up with people who may not already be on their friend list. …
Riot reveals new skin plans for the remainder of 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games has provided a big update on skins for the remainder of 2020 in a new dev post. Riot has been releasing more skins each year and is planning to continue that trend. In the recent dev post, it was announced that Riot is expecting to exceed its goal for new skins through 2020. The original goal was to create 120 new skins, but it looks like the number …
LS confirms that he has gotten offers from NA, EU, Korea, China
William Davis
League of Legends
The popular LCK caster and League of Legends content creator Nick “LS” Cesare recently confirmed that he has been approached by esports organizations from several regions. A recent report by Inven Global claimed that LS had been approached by two big organizations, one of them being the LCK’s T1. It was not reported exactly what position LS had been offered, but fans are speculating that it could either be a …
KkOma steps down as head coach at Vici Gaming, and this is why
William Davis
League of Legends
Vici Gaming head coach Kim “KkOma” Jeong-gyun has stepped down from the team due to family reasons. KkOma will be traveling home to Korea to spend time with his family as he will soon become a father. KkOma has been the head coach for the LPL team Vici Gaming since December last year after coaching SK Telecom T1 for seven years prior to that. Farewell, kkOma!https://t.co/c4inqDbVVL pic.twitter.com/GzHZbPWqlH — VICI Gaming …
2020 World Championship icons and emotes are live on the PBE
William Davis
League of Legends
Worlds icons and emotes have just hit the Public Beta Environment (PBE) together with patch 10.19’s balance changes. The 2020 World Championship is right around the corner, which means that the yearly Worlds icons and emotes will soon be available for purchase. Once again, it will be possible to rock your favorite team icon while flashing your favorite team’s in-game emote. 9/8 PBE Update: Worlds 2020 Summoner Icons & Emotes, …
T1 loses to Gen.G in LCK gauntlet, will miss LoL Worlds 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
T1 fought bravely for the last Korean spot in the 2020 World Championship but ended up falling to Gen.G in the last match of the gauntlet. T1 lost to Gen.G in a three-game series, without a real chance to fight back. T1 was strong early, but was outclassed in team fights in the later stages of each game. Gen.G has been great throughout the season, barely missing the summer split …
Riot reveals Mythic items and new item shop for next LoL season
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot recently revealed more information about the upcoming item overhaul for the 2021 preseason. The new update will include Mythic items and a number of new normal items as well. One month ago, Riot shared a first look into its preseason plans. They revealed a complete item overhaul that will add more diversity into different roles. In this most recent announcement, Riot shared information about Mythic items, which will be …
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
PSG Talon will play with substitutes during the Worlds play-in stage
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Worlds broadcast team revealed, no English LPL casters included
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games gives first preview of its new Dragonmancers skin line
By
William Davis
