League of Legends
League of Legends
Fnatic is going to Worlds 2020, but what happened to Rogue?
William Davis
Fnatic took down first-seed Rogue convincingly in the 2020 LEC Summer Split playoffs upper bracket. The summer split has been rough for Fnatic, struggling to find consistency in its most important matches. Fnatic finally woke up when it really mattered, as they met Rogue in the upper bracket. Not only did Fnatic win, they also did it in a convincing 3-0 fashion, something that even Fnatic fans did not expect. …
League of Legends
Why is LCK the fastest region in LoL while the LCS is slowest?
William Davis
The LCK is the fastest region out of all four major regions in average game duration in the 2020 Summer Split. The overall game time from all regions has been faster in season 10 when compared to previous years. This is due to the meta being faster, and the fact that Riot has added turret platings, elemental drakes, and other things that make teams snowball the game more easily after …
League of Legends
New visual effects for Malzahar, Nocturne, Victor in patch 10.18
William Davis
Riot is looking to update the visual effects on Malzahar, Nocturne, Viktor, and the Ignite summoner spell in patch 10.18. In a recent post on social media by visual effects lead artist Beardilocks, it was announced that the visual effects team is looking to update a few more of the oldest champions in the game. The goal is to improve the overall gameplay clarity and VFX of the selected champions …
League of Legends
K/DA to premiere new song The Baddest, release date announced
Steven Rondina
K/DA is making a comeback. League of Legends’ virtual K-pop girl group is set for a return in the very near future. After an extended silence over the future of the brand, Riot Games surprised fans by launching an official Twitter account for K/DA. The initial tweet gave fans that still have POP/STARS on their go-to playlist a treat with the announcement of a second single, which will be released …
League of Legends
G2 Esports vs. MAD Lions: 2020 LEC playoffs betting analysis
William Davis
G2 Esports and MAD Lions will clash in the winner’s bracket round 1 at the 2020 LEC Summer Split playoffs on Saturday, in an important match to decide qualification directly to the semifinals. MAD Lions performed well throughout most of the split, finishing in second place right behind Rogue. MAD Lions has shown that they can beat any given LEC team on the right day. G2 on the other hand …
League of Legends
PapaSmithy and 100 Thieves respond to criticism for playoff loss
Nicholas James
After 100 Thieves lost in a 0-3 sweep to Evil Geniuses in the lower bracket of the 2020 LCS Summer Split Playoffs, many fans and analysts were quick to criticize the performance of the team’s young players. Users across social media pointed to 100 Thieves’ newest editions, Tommy “Ryoma” Le and Philippe “Poome” Lavoie-Giguere, as pivotal reasons for why the team left the playoffs in the first round. While neither …
League of Legends
Fnatic shut out of top two 2020 LEC Summer Split All-Pro teams
William Davis
The 2020 LEC Summer Split All-Pro teams have been revealed, with players from many different teams occupying the top slots. The first all-pro team includes players from four different teams, as only MAD Lions has two representatives. The players are Barney “Alphari” Morris, Zhiqiang “Shadow” Zhao, Rasmus “Caps” Winther, Patrik “Patrik” Jírů, and Norman “Kaiser” Kaiser. All five players have been remarkable throughout the split and the most important pieces …
League of Legends
Top Esports responds to fan threats of laxatives in players’ food
William Davis
A pretty bizarre case of fan harassment was started when some Chinese League of Legends fans threatened on social media to put laxatives in Top Esports’ takeout food. The threats saw the Top Esports organization react with an official statement on the matter, saying that the organization takes these types of threats very seriously. The fans who made the original threat had posted a picture of a takeout receipt on …
Team Liquid wins the LCS Coaching Staff of the Split award
William Davis
League of Legends
The LCS has announced that Team Liquid are the winners of the Coaching Staff of the Split award, with over almost double the number of points had by second-place finisher Cloud9. Congratulations to @TL_Jatt, @TL_Dodo, @liquidcain, @CroissantLoL, and the entire staff at @TeamLiquidLoL on winning the 2020 #LCS Summer Coaching Staff of the Split Award! #TLWIN Learn more at: https://t.co/v3wk5c8mwX pic.twitter.com/JkJL8yp8Xt — LCS (@LCSOfficial) August 18, 2020 Liquid has fought …
EU Masters gets underway as all participants are confirmed
Tokoni Uti
League of Legends
League of Legends’ European tournament in the style of the Champions League has kicked off as all participants have been locked in. European Masters brings together the top teams from each of the semi-professional European Regional Leagues, giving players a platform to prove that they are the region’s best outside of the LEC and deserve a shot on the game’s biggest stages. Since the tournament’s inception in 2018, 13 EUM …
Yone is set to receive his first real nerf in patch 10.17
William Davis
League of Legends
Yone and other champions are set to receive nerfs in upcoming patch 10.17, according to Riot Games lead gameplay designer Mark “Scuffy” Yetter. The next patch will be a small one but will be affecting some of the best solo queue champions in the game at the moment. A few champions can also look forward to much-needed buffs, in this case mostly for marksmen who have fallen out of the …
Riot Games partners up with Universal for new LoL Worlds songs
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games will be teaming up with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) for the upcoming 2020 League of Legends World Championship, as six brand new songs will be made for the event. The partnership includes an esports-themed music camp, which 14 famous Universal Music Group artists attended to create six new songs for the World Championship back in July. The artists include such names as Matzka, Gong, Chiyo Monna, and …
Doublelift says LCS playoff double elimination saved his career
William Davis
League of Legends
A recent loss to Golden Guardians has Team SoloMid bot laner Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng reflecting on his performance and receiving another shot in the 2020 LCS Summer Split playoffs. TSM players and fans were feeling down after a devastating 0-3 loss to Golden Guardians in the first round of the summer split playoffs. TSM followed up the series with a convincing 3-0 victory against Dignitas, but the team was still …
Sneaky’s latest cosplay might be his craziest one yet
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
If you missed Zachary “Sneaky” Scuderi’s latest cosplay, don’t worry. We’re here to show it to you. At the end of July, former Cloud9 bot laner Sneaky casually dropped yet another risque cosplay photoshoot for his fans and followers. This time the cosplay subject was Shuten Douji in a maid outfit. The character is from Fate/Grand Order, a free-to-play Japanese role-playing game on mobile. And Sneaky did not shy away …
Golden Guardians has a chance vs Team Liquid in LCS playoffs
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
iG decline continues as team knocked out of LPL playoffs
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
Is KT Rolster heating up in the fight for LCK playoff spots?
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
The rise, fall, and potential rise again of Unicorns of love
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
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 …
Varus and Sett have fallen hard in solo queue with patch 10.16
William Davis
League of Legends
The recent League of Legends patch 10.16 has had a big impact on the game’s meta, resulting in some former top-tier picks falling drmatically in priority. The meta has shifted the most in the bottom lane, where several new marksmen and even utility mages are now posting the highest solo queue win rates. We are seeing both Caitlyn and Ashe having a big impact in the bot lane, while the …
The 2020 Summer LCS All-Pro teams are heavy on Cloud9, Liquid
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 LCS Summer Split has entered its playoffs stage, which means that the all-pro teams have been announced. The all-pro teams are based on voting done by LCS players and coaches, including the LCS broadcast team and third-party media. Every participant had to vote for his/her choices of the first, second, and third all-pro team. Once again, the first all-pro team is dominated by players from Cloud9 who have …
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.
