League of Legends
League of Legends
Golden Guardians has a chance vs Team Liquid in LCS playoffs
William Davis
The 2020 LCS Summer Split Playoffs has started and we are getting close to seeing the top two teams in action. Both Team Liquid and Cloud9 are getting ready to play their first playoffs matches after the opening round has concluded. The first round of games had a surprising upset, as Golden Guardians swept Team SoloMid 3-0 while FlyQuest won their match as expected. As the first seed, Liquid got …
League of Legends
iG decline continues as team knocked out of LPL playoffs
William Davis
The former world champions at Invictus Gaming have been knocked out of the 2020 LPL Summer Split Playoffs after a devastating 0-3 loss against LGD Gaming. LGD started their playoffs run with a smooth victory against Team WE and that momentum seemed to carry on into their series against iG. Even though LGD was the underdog, the team came out flying in game one with a tempo that iG simply …
League of Legends
Is KT Rolster heating up in the fight for LCK playoff spots?
William Davis
KT Rolster is a legendary organization within League of Legends, but it has not been able to fight among the region’s best teams for some time now. The team is currently battling for the last spot in the 2020 LCK Summer Split Playoffs, but do they have what it takes? KT is currently fighting for the last spot in the summer playoffs, but it will be a hard journey to …
League of Legends
The rise, fall, and potential rise again of Unicorns of love
Jared Wynne
Unicorns of Love was the ultimate meta breaker, and in more ways than one. From their name and uniform to their play style and identity, everything the team did flew in the face of League of Legends conventions. They didn’t have to go to Worlds or win titles to earn devotion from fans, they just had to be themselves. It’s worth looking back at the original roster that rose from …
League of Legends
T1 is dominating the LCK after replacing Faker with Clozer
William Davis
The recent addition of young talented mid laner Lee “Clozer” Ju-hyeon to the T1 starting LCK roster came as a shock to many. T1 fans were not happy when they heard that the most successful player in League of Legends history, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, had to take up a spot on the bench. But things have been going well for the team since the move. Clozer was subbed in for …
League of Legends
TSM to lower bracket in LCS playoffs after Golden Guardians upset
William Davis
Golden Guardians just pulled off the upset of the season and is making Team SoloMid play the loser’s bracket in the 2020 LCS Summer playoffs. TSM’s playoffs run is not going as well as was expected. In the first round of playoffs, Golden Guardians destroyed TSM for a clean 3-0 sweep. Golden Guardians is advancing through the upper bracket and TSM is getting a second chance against Dignitas. After today’s …
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix knocked out of 2020 LPL playoffs by Victory Five
William Davis
Current World Champion FunPlus Phoenix has been eliminated from the 2020 LPL Summer playoffs in the first round. In its first playoffs appearance, Victory Five achieved the seemingly impossible and knocked FunPlus Phoenix immediately out of playoffs. The best-of-five series finished after four games that looked one-sided for the most part. V5 picked up games one and two without much difficulty. At match point, it was time for top laner …
League of Legends
TSM vs Golden Guardians: 2020 LCS playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
Team SoloMid and Golden Guardians will kick off the 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs with a match on Thursday. TSM finished the regular season in fourth place, followed by Golden Guardians in fifth. TSM and Golden Guardians played two times in the regular season, and on both occasions, TSM walked away with the victory. In these matches, TSM showed that it has a perfect read on Golden Guardians’ style. The …
Secretlab reveals slick new League of Legends chairs
William Davis
League of Legends
One of the most popular gaming chair brands has just revealed a new series in collaboration with Riot Games, with new chairs inspired by selected League of Legends champions. The new set of chairs features designs inspired by Akali, Yasuo, and Ahri, making it possible for League of Legends fans to get a unique chair with some of their favorite champions represented thematically. In addition to the three champion-themed chairs, …
Sneaky says he wants to join an LCS team next year
William Davis
League of Legends
Popular streamer and former League of Legends pro player Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi said in a recent interview that he is looking to join a team for the 2021 LCS season. The former Cloud9 player will be looking to join an LCS team if the right offer is made prior to the 2021 season. Sneaky took an official break from professional play in January before the 2020 season got underway. Sneaky …
CLG drops coaches SSONG and Weldon after poor LCS Summer Split
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
After a rocky 2020 LCS Summer Split, Counter Logic Gaming has chosen to make some big changes to its coaching staff. CLG announced that it was dismissing head coach Kim “SSONG” Sang-soo as well as coach Weldon “MindGames” Green in a somber tweet after two disappointing splits in 2020. “We thank both for their leadership and dedication to CLG. We wish them the best in their future ventures,” CLG stated. …
SK Gaming Trick will reportedly be ineligible for Worlds 2020
William Davis
League of Legends
The SK Gaming veteran jungler Kim “Trick” Gang-yun won’t be able to participate at the 2020 World Championship in Shanghai if the team manages to qualify, according to a report from ESPN. Trick will not be able to participate in the upcoming World Championship due to passport issues. Riot reached out to all LEC teams for copies of their passports to begin the visa process for players and staff participating …
New tool shows alleges TF Blade, others share smurf accounts
William Davis
League of Legends
A Reddit user has created a tool that might get some of the top League of Legends streamers in trouble. A redditor showed alleged proof that some streamers, most notably Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni, are taking part in account sharing, an activity banned by League of Legends publisher Riot Games. The tool identifies overlaps between accounts, pointing out whenever two accounts under the same owner are being played at the …
URF vs. Nexus Blitz: Which game mode is better?
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends has a variety of temporary game modes that rotate in and out through the year. Some modes go along with a specific event, such as Odyssey: Extraction. This game mode came out in 2018 with the release of the Odyssey skin line. Other modes, such as URF, consistently return. Riot Games released Nexus Blitz in 2018 and brought it back with patch 10.15 and the Spirit Blossom …
Is CoreJJ or Bjergsen more deserving of LCS Summer Split MVP?
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 LCS Summer Split is going into its playoffs stage, but which player has been the most valuable throughout the split thus far? The summer split has been hectic with a lot of surprises and many great plays being made, but two players have been extraordinarily important to their respective teams. Those two players are star mid laner Søren “Bjergsen” Bjerg from Team SoloMid and former world champion Jo …
How Schalke 04 made a miracle run to the LEC summer playoffs
William Davis
League of Legends
It didn’t look good for FC Schalke 04 after the first five weeks of the 2020 LEC Summer Split, but the team has miraculously turned things around and qualified for the upcoming playoffs. The question being asked now is simple: How did they do it? The state of Schalke was already bad coming into the summer split after a poor performance in the spring. Schalke started the split as expected …
Fans are angry with Faker benching, T1 issues new statement
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Some fans of T1 have been blasting the organization its handling of star mid laner Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. Others have taken things a step further. T1 CEO Joe Marsh issued a public statement discussing harassment and even threats of violence that the team has faced in recent weeks. To address this, Marsh called for calm while also threatening to send lawyers after those individuals who go too far with their …
Yone win rates are terrible at release, so what’s the problem?
William Davis
League of Legends
The release of new champion Yone was one of the most anticipated in a long time, but his solo queue win rates are looking very dire early on. Yone was released to a lot of hype around the League of Legends community, and few could wait to play the highly mechanical assassin. Yone has a kit that invites a lot of skirmishing, very similar to his half-brother Yasuo. But while …
Team Liquid cements first-place finish in 2020 LCS Summer Split
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
In one of the most impressive turnarounds of the year’s League of Legends competitive season, Team Liquid has mathematically secured a first-place finish in the 2020 LCS Summer Split. Liquid bested Immortals on Saturday, advancing the team’s record to 14-3 in the summer split. With just one game left in the season, second-place teams Cloud9 and Team SoloMid are unable to catch up at 12-5. This assures Liquid first place …
How Treatz surpassed Biofrost and made TSM a better team
William Davis
League of Legends
The recent addition of Erik “Treatz” Wessén to the LCS roster has paid off in a big way for Team SoloMid. There was a mixed response from TSM fans when the team decided to sub in Treatz for the popular Vincent “Biofrost” Wang going into week 6 of the 2020 LCS Summer Split, but the team has looked completely different since. While Biofrost was an important member of TSM when …
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.
