League of Legends
League of Legends
How Riot Games and Tencent bend to the Chinese government’s will
Steven Rondina
Riot Games has for years been a frequent source of controversy, but even in its best moments there’s a cloud hanging over the famed developer and publisher. This comes from the company being a wholly owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings Ltd., a conglomerate with close ties to the repressive Chinese government. Despite Tencent being the largest video game company in the world, many remain largely in the dark about the …
League of Legends
DAMWON Gaming vs DragonX LCK summer playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
The time has finally come for the 2020 LCK Summer Split final, as DAMWON Gaming and DRX will meet in what should be an intense best-of-five series. Both teams went through the regular split with very few losses, but DAMWON was superior in the end. DRX had the best start to the split, but DAMWON slowly caught up to them and secured the first-place seed in the final week of …
League of Legends
T1 promises legal action after threats, harassment of LoL team
Steven Rondina
T1 doesn’t have a great relationship with its fans these days, and it doesn’t seem like that’s changing any time soon. The organization stated on Twitter that it is taking legal action against fans that have been harassing members of the team. This continues what has been an ugly second half of the 2020 LCK Summer Split, marred by controversy surrounding the team’s mid lane situation. A Message from @T1 …
League of Legends
G2 Esports vs. Rogue: 2020 LEC Summer Playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
Rogue will challenge the kings of the LEC when it clashes with G2 Esports in a best-of-five series for the last spot in the 2020 LEC Summer Split Final. The two teams haven’t met each other since week 6 of the split, where G2 ended up running away with the victory. In fact, Rogue has not managed to beat G2 a single time in the organization’s history. While G2 is …
League of Legends
FlyQuest PowerOfEvil: “I still think that NA is underrated.”
Olivia Richman
FlyQuest is undoubtedly one of the strongest North American teams in League of Legends, proven by their 2020 LCS Summer Split performance. Now, Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage is looking to the finals and he’s not scared of either team. He also spoke to WIN.gg about what it means for FlyQuest and its veteran players to finally make it back to Worlds after all this time. How did you feel after your …
League of Legends
How FlyQuest climbed to the top of the LCS
William Davis
FlyQuest recently qualified for its second LCS final in the organization’s history, the first one being in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. But who is FlyQuest and how did they manage to climb to the top in the LCS? FlyQuest is a team that has been around for several years, but was not among the original LCS teams back in 2013. Since the team joined the league in spring 2017, …
League of Legends
Sneaky’s latest sexy cosplay transforms him into a gamer girl
Olivia Richman
Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi used to be Cloud9’s talented AD carry. But it’s clear now that the League of Legends veteran is most popular for his streaming and monthly cosplay photoshoots. Every month, Sneaky posts two photos of his recent cosplays on Twitter. By now, fans know that they can get the full photoshoot, complete with sexier pics or signed polaroids, by subscribing to Sneaky’s racy Patreon. Every month, Cloud9 tells …
League of Legends
Riot gives a first look at the new upcoming item icon updates
William Davis
League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scuffy” Yetter recently released the first sneak peek at some of the game’s upcoming item icon changes. The changes are a part of the big item overhaul scheduled for the 2021 preseason, which is now only a few months away. The recent sneak peek includes a new icon to B.F Sword, Rabadon’s Deathcap, and Bramble Vest. Scuffy mentioned on Twitter that the new …
TL Tactical says LPL, LCK teams are “most dominant” before Worlds
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid’s bot laner Edward “Tactical” Ra has continued to prove himself throughout the 2020 LCS Summer Split. Despite his performance helping Team Liquid complete their redemption arc and quality for Worlds, the rookie is still as humble as ever. WIN.gg spoke with Tactical about the importance of making it to the League of Legends World Championship as their LCS playoffs match against TSM looms ahead. What does it mean …
Team Liquid vs. Team SoloMid: 2020 LCS playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
Team Liquid and Team SoloMid will clash in a battle between giants for the last spot in the 2020 LCS Summer Split final. The two teams have been rivals for years, with several players having played for both organizations. The most notable is Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, who has had success on both teams. However, Doublelift failed to win Team Liquid a fifth LCS trophy due to a lack of motivation …
Is Pantheon better as a mid laner or support?
William Davis
League of Legends
Pantheon, the Unbreakable Spear, is best known for his global engagements and scary early game damage. But in which role is he currently best? Pantheon is one of the few champions that can be viable both as a support and in the mid lane. The champion was originally a mid-game carry bruiser, but players quickly figured out that he can also be a niche pick as a support. For several …
Doublelift speaks out on rivalry with Team Liquid ADC Tactical
William Davis
League of Legends
Former Team Liquid bot laner Yiliand “Doublelift” Peng spoke out on his rivalry with current Liquid bot laner Edward “Tactical” Ra. Doublelift and Tactical have been on many people’s minds throughout the year, after competing for the starting bot lane spot in Team Liquid during the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Despite the rivalry, there is no bad blood between them, according to Doublelift. During a recent stream, Doublelift addressed speculation …
How the Doublelift roster swap improved both Liquid and TSM
William Davis
League of Legends
Since Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng moved back to Team SoloMid from Team Liquid in April, both teams have improved drastically. But how did that happen? Doublelift has been playing at the top of the LCS for many years and has been an impactful player on both Liquid and TSM, winning a total of seven LCS trophies throughout his career. His original swap to Liquid in 2017 made the team a juggernaut …
Riot Games announces big changes for 2020 World Championship
William Davis
League of Legends
It has been confirmed by Riot Games that the teams qualifying to the 2020 World Championship from Vietnam will not be able to participate at the tournament due to travel restrictions, forcing the publisher to make some big changes to the World Championship format. With this sad news, Riot has released an update on the tournament format which will see some changes. The play-in stage in particular will be hit …
Immortals release sOAZ, Altec, Eika, Gate and coach GoToOne
Fariha Bhatti
League of Legends
After an abysmal last-place finish in the LCS 2020 Summer Season, Immortals has announced that they will be parting ways with four of their starting players along with assistant coach Adrien “GotoOne” Picard. The team announced that it will be releasing support Austin “Gate” Yu, bot laner Johnny “Altec” Ru, and the French duo of top laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer and mid laner Jérémy “Eika” Valdenaire. It is safe to …
VCS teams removed from LoL Worlds 2020 due to visa issues
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
The 2020 League of Legends World Championship was always going to necessitate a few concessions and unfortunately, one of them is that it’ll have fewer teams than usual. According to ESPN’s Tyler Erzberger, LoL Worlds 2020 is going to feature 22 teams instead of 24. That’s because the VCS will be unable to send any players due the Vietnamese government restricting players’ ability to travel to and from China for …
Kold retires from professional play, looking to become a coach
William Davis
League of Legends
Former Splyce and Origen jungler Jonas “Kold” Andersen officially retired from professional League of Legends after being absent for one year. Kold has been inactive since August 2019, when he stepped down as the starting jungler for Origen. His departure from Origen was announced in November, as the organization explained that Kold stepped down due to health issues. In his most recent announcement, Kold explains that the health issues were …
Riot releases trailer for new champion Samira, shows abilities
William Davis
News
Riot Games recently released the first official trailer for the newest League of Legends champion, Samira. Samira, the Desert Rose, will be a new attack damage carry but is very different from what we usually associate with that type of champion. Samira can deal damage from range, but also right up in the enemy’s face by using either her guns or sword. Samira is a gifted, ruthless marksman who charges …
FlyQuest takes spot in 2020 LCS Summer Split Final by beating Liquid
William Davis
League of Legends
FlyQuest has locked up a spot in the 2020 LCS Summer Split Final after taking down Team Liquid 3-2 in a hard-fought series. The best-of-five series started out with a 45-minute marathon of a game, where both teams played for late-game win conditions. FlyQuest took the lead early on, but Liquid managed to crawl its way back in the mid game. As the game went on, FlyQuest’s team composition started …
Riot combating AFKs in LoL with LP mitigation, earlier surrender
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games’ changes to the League of Legends behavioral system seem to be working. The publisher discussed some of the planned changes to the behavioral system set for September and also presented a few things it wants to add to the game before the season ends. This includes an earlier surrender system and LP mitigation. Just a light update this month on our behavioral changes and what’s coming next.https://t.co/Q95m1Gt6As — …
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.
