League of Legends
League of Legends
Yuumi’s win rate is going up again despite her last nerfs
William Davis
It’s time to check in with Yuumi to see how is the Magical Cat doing after getting heavily nerfed in patch 10.15. It turns out that she’s doing just fine. Yuumi is not an easy champion to balance. Since its release in 2019, League of Legends developers have tried almost everything to get Yuumi to a healthy spot. So far, all efforts have failed, and Yuumi has quickly become the …
League of Legends
After Nexus Blitz sees decline in popularity, will it return?
William Davis
The excitement was great when Riot Games announced the return of Nexus Blitz, but the game mode is seeing a decrease in popularity after its first weeks back in play. The action-packed game mode was reintroduced together with the Spirit Blossom event, with new in-game Nexus Blitz events and an updated look to the map. That map was turned into an Ionian Forrest, matching the Spirit Blossom event’s theme. Despite …
League of Legends
Riot reveals new voice lines for LoL champion Sona
Olivia Richman
Sona first arrived in League of Legends in the fall of 2010, and her age is beginning to show. Riot Games has finally listened to the League of Legends community’s request for a Sona update after 10 years. The big change comes in the form of new voiceover work. Fans had complained about Sona’s voice lines in the past. She only had 15 speaking lines, with the majority of them …
League of Legends
Riot Games taking a vacation after LoL 10.16, Killjoy launch
Steven Rondina
The staff of Riot Games has been working hard in 2020 and they’re taking a bit of a summer vacation. The publisher behind League of Legends and Valorant announced the news themselves and detailed how exactly this will work for players of both games. Unsurprisingly, this will result in updates to both games being paused, but fans need not worry about either of the two popular games going offline during …
League of Legends
What is wrong with Cloud9 as the 2020 LCS Summer Split ends?
William Davis
Cloud9 has been in charge of the LCS throughout 2020, but the American super team is starting to show signs of weakness. Cloud9 had a perfect start to the 2020 LCS Summer Split, winning their first nine games of the split and matching the roaring pace the team was able to maintain in the spring split when C9 steamrolled the entire league. After the first round-robin in summer, something seemed …
League of Legends
Leak says new champion Samira could be coming in just two weeks
Olivia Richman
A League of Legends streamer and habitual leaker has unveiled some new details about the MOBA’s possible 151st champion, Samira. Brazilian content creator Streamie, who also leaked Yone, told the League of Legends community that she planned to share details about Samira’s abilities and physical appearance during a live stream. According to Streamie, she got the information from a friend who works at developer Riot Games. Streamie described Samira as …
League of Legends
Why is Fnatic struggling in the 2020 LEC Summer Split?
William Davis
The 2020 LEC Summer Split is entering its final week of the regular split, but one team especially has been struggling to find its usual success and is now in danger of missing the playoffs altogether. Fnatic has been a dominating organization in Europe ever since the start of League of Legends esports, winning the first World Championship in 2011. Since then, Fnatic has won several domestic titles and achieved …
League of Legends
Cloud9 vs TSM: 2020 LCS Summer Split betting analysis
William Davis
Playoffs in the 2020 LCS summer Split are right around the corner and the final standings are still undecided. With Team Liquid in sole possession of the first place, Cloud9 and Team SoloMid are fighting for second. The summer took an unexpected turn and Team Liquid is now the number one team in the league. Cloud9, the favorite coming into the split, is dropping games against teams it defeated in …
Riot updates behavior systems to better fight toxicity in LoL
William Davis
League of Legends
In a new post on the League of Legends website, Riot Games have previewed upcoming changes to the game’s behavioral system which includes LP loss mitigation for players with AFK teammates. In a bid to tackle toxicity, Riot developers have now outlined their intent to reduce disruptive behaviour by League of Legends players. The developer has presented five scenarios which they wish to decrease in frequency, with their ultimate goals …
Riot gives answers on the future of Winter Summoner’s Rift
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games recently answered questions regarding the return of Winter Summoner’s Rift in their latest edition of Ask Riot. Riot has often been quick to communication and their monthly Ask Riot articles are representative of that. The series of articles enable the community to ask the developers all sorts of questions about the game and its future. A recent Ask Riot put the focus on the famous Winter Summoner’s Rift …
2020 LoL World Championship date, location announced
William Davis
League of Legends
Riot Games is moving forward with its plans to host the 2020 League of Legends World Championship in China. Riot announced the dates for Worlds 2020, the most important event of the year in competitive League of Legends. The competition kicks off on September 25 and will run through October 31. Halloween will see a new world champion crowned in Shanghai, China. The entire event is taking place in Shanghai …
The best performing players so far in the 2020 LCS Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
The 2020 LCS Summer Split is getting closer to its playoffs after many chaotic weeks of play, affording us time to consider which players have managed to consistently perform the best over the course of the split. The LCS is known to be a league in which nearly every team can beat each other under the right circumstances. This split has been no different, with a lot of upsets that …
G2 Esports vs. Fnatic: 2020 LEC Summer Split betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
Fnatic and G2 Esports are closing week seven in the 2020 LEC Summer Split in Europe’s Match of the Week. In previous splits, Fnatic versus G2 used to be a clash between the two top teams in the league and a battle for first place. In recent times, G2 has battled just to stay in playoff contentions, while Fnatic is tied in third with SK Gaming. This season, the standings …
TF Blade out of League Partner Program until at least 2021
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends streamer Ashkan “TF Blade” Homayouni has been removed from the League Partner Program (LPP) until at least June 2021. The popular streamer announced that Riot has decided to remove him from LPP due to lack of behavioral improvement. Riot will allow for a review of his behavior and content in June 2021 to decide if the ban should be continued from that point. “We conducted a comprehensive …
How Team Liquid climbed to first place in the LCS Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
Seven weeks into the 2020 LCS Summer Split, there has been a lot of conversation regarding who was the second-best team in the LCS, with Team Liquid and Team SoloMid primarily in the conversation. This all assumed that Cloud9 would remain at the top. After this past week’s match between C9 and Liquid, that conversation has changed. C9 tried to pull off its usual tricks and Liquid handled it as …
LEC ends NEOM partnership with Saudi Arabia amid backlash
William Davis
League of Legends
The LEC has canceled its partnership with the Saudi Arabian government amid backlash from both fans and individuals in the company. The European League of Legends league announced a high-profile sponsorship deal with NEOM, a developing tourist destination in Saudi Arabia. The league received heavy criticism from players, team owners, fans, and Riot Games employees, including LEC casters and is now going back on its decisioon. Riot’s EMEA esports director …
These highlights show how to play new LoL champion Lillia
William Davis
League of Legends
The newest addition to League of Legends entered the game only one week ago, but players are already trying to determine the best way to play Lillia. While Lillia has only been out for a week, there are already a lot of opinions on her from around the community. Lillia has seen record low win rates in solo queue, which indicates that her kit is not yet powerful enough. Despite …
LEC brings on NEOM as new partner, talent lash out against move
William Davis
League of Legends
The LEC recently announced NEOM as its new main partner for the 2020 LEC Summer Split, and that announcement was followed by a lot of criticism from both LEC staff and the community. NEOM is based in Saudi Arabia and will be the home and workplace for millions of citizens. The project is backed by the Saudi Arabian government and its vision is to build a city based on a …
Fiora, Jax, Yasuo are about to get big buffs in patch 10.16
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends lead gameplay designer Mark “Scuffy” Yetter has revealed the first sneak peek for patch 10.16, and there are many different nerfs and buffs planned for the game. 10.16 Patch Preview with changes:Not 100% final, but getting close. We have a good meta, so a lot of small changes is our approach to diversify without destroying it. pic.twitter.com/lVHTXdTu10 — Mark Yetter (@MarkYetter) July 28, 2020 The next patch …
The rise and powering up of Karthus in Season 10
Jared Wynne
League of Legends
Karthus has become one of the premier mid, jungle, and bot lane picks in patch 10.14. Thanks to the steady jungle experience buffs and the reversion of some ill-advised nerfs to the champion, this hyper-scaling mage has risen from the ashes. Karthus was one of the hardest hit champions after the preseason 10 jungle experience nerfs. By reducing jungle experience and decreasing neutral monster spawn timers, Riot effectively nerfed the …
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.
