League of Legends
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 …
League of Legends
TL Tactical says LPL, LCK teams are “most dominant” before Worlds
Olivia Richman
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 …
League of Legends
Team Liquid vs. Team SoloMid: 2020 LCS playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
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 …
League of Legends
Is Pantheon better as a mid laner or support?
William Davis
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 — …
Everything you need to know about China’s top seed, Top Esports
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
Top Esports was the first LPL team to qualify for the 2020 World Championships after winning the 2020 LPL Summer Split Playoffs. Professional League of Legends fans know that the LPL is the strongest region in the world today, but they might not be as familiar with Top Esports as they are with the more popular teams such as Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, or Funplus Phoenix. Top Esports has dominated …
G2 vs Fnatic in LEC playoffs peaks at almost 900,000 viewers
William Davis
League of Legends
The upper bracket final LEC playoffs match between G2 Esports and Fnatic ended in a five-game nailbiter that drew almost 900,000 concurrent viewers at its peak. According to Echarts, the series the all-time LEC & EU LCS viewership record, which shows how popular the league has become among League of Legends fans. The peak viewership reached 898,643 unique viewers. The average viewers throughout the 2020 LEC Summer Split sat at …
Team SoloMid takes out Cloud9, secures spot in LoL Worlds 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
It was all or nothing for two of the biggest organizations in the LCS, but Team SoloMid ended up securing itself the last North American spot in the 2020 League of Legends World Championship. TSM vs. Cloud9 has been a matchup that historically delivers for fans, and this one was no exception. Both teams were recently knocked down to the lower bracket of the 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs, which …
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
