League of Legends
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix Tian knows how to quiet his haters in LoL solo queue
William Davis
FunPlus Phoenix jungler Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang had the absolute best comeback when a player tried to flame him in solo queue. Tian is not your regular solo queue jungler, as Tian is a defending world champion and the 2019 World Championship finals MVP. So when a solo queue player attempted to flame him, Tian had the perfect comeback. LPL players often play in the Korean server. Despite having their own …
League of Legends
Viper joins Hanwha Life Esports ahead of the 2020 LCK Summer Split
William Davis
Bottom laner Park “Viper” Do-hyeon has officially joined Hanwha Life Esports ahead of the 2020 LCK Summer Split. Viper is reuniting with former teammate Son “Lehends” Si-woo under a new banner. Viper and Lehends were considered one of the strongest duos in the LCK between 2018 and 2019 while playing with Griffin. Now, the duo is getting ready to thrive with a new organization. 2020 hasn’t been an easy ride …
League of Legends
Riot Games announces new Mid-Season Streamathon event
William Davis
Riot Games has announced the Mid-Season Streamathon, a global event to celebrate League of Legends and raise funds for COVID-19 relief. Between May 29 and May 31, League of Legends fans can enjoy the 48-hour event starting on Friday at 5 PM PDT, 7 PM CST. It will be a non-stop broadcast featuring different events with top players from all over the world. Throughout the weekend, fans can donate to …
League of Legends
Shernfire explains why he left Team Liquid, the LCS, and NA
Olivia Richman
Team Liquid jungler Shern “Shernfire” Tai has confirmed that he’s leaving the esports organization, and North America as well. Shernfire told his followers the news on Twitter and was met with a lot of support. Many League of Legends fans actually felt Team Liquid was making a mistake in letting Shernfire go, with some even saying they are now “former Team Liquid fans” because of how the organization had handled …
League of Legends
Brazillian LoL team Redemption allegedly refuses to pay Korean players
Olivia Richman
Two former Redemption eSports Porto Alegre players from Korea have accused their contracted organization in Brazil of not paying them. Choi “BalKhan” Hyun-jin and Im “Patrick” Jin-heyok both tweeted yesterday that they’ve been waiting for payments from Redemption for over two months. Instead of working out a solution, the organization is allegedly ignoring the players’ attempts at reaching out. Due to this unfortunate situation, which mirrors what happened to BalKhan …
News
2020 Mid-Season Cup groups and format leaked ahead of tournament
Olivia Richman
A League of Legends player has accidentally leaked the groups and format for the upcoming 2020 Mid-Season Cup. The Mid-Season Cup will take place over the course of four days, from May 28 to 31. The two opening days will consist of the group stage, followed by the playoffs the two closing days of the event. Invictus Gaming’s support player Su “Southwind” Zhi-Lin accidentally leaked previously unknown details about the …
News
TFT patch 10.10 is bringing back hyper carry Syndra
William Davis
Teamfight Tactics patch 10.10 is here and it brings a new galaxy, changes to important items, and an unexpected buff to Syndra. As the name implies, the key to TFT: Galaxies is its galaxies, as each has its own set of rules and way of playing. Developer Riot Games has done a good job adding a variety of galaxies to the game. In patch 10.10, TFT gets its eighth galaxy, …
League of Legends
Pick-URF returning to League of Legends, release date announced
William Davis
Limited-time game mode Pick-URF is coming back on May 14 with patch 10.10. Pick-URF will be back in League of Legends as part of the Pulsefire event. Unlike the traditional URF mode, where players get assigned a random champion, each player picks whoever they want in Pick-URF. Of course, this opens a window opportunity for players that want to spam a particular champion. To prevent the abuse of certain champions, …
Griffin looking to terminate player contracts after poor LCK split
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Griffin announced yesterday that they are in the process of terminating all of their existing player contracts. According to a Facebook post, the organization stated that “contract termination and other options” are being discussed with the players. So far, nothing is final, and the team will notify their fans and followers as soon as something is decided. “We are deeply sorry and thankful to the fans who have supported Griffin …
Soraka is about to make a big comeback after LoL patch 10.10 buffs
William Davis
League of Legends
League of Legends patch 10.10 has arrived to the live server. The most recent update in League of Legends brings a new event and adds new skins to the Pulsefire skin line. Pulsefire Lucian, Pulsefire Lucian Prestige Edition, Pulsefire Pantheon, Pulsefire Fiora, and Pulsefire Ekko are coming to the shop of May 14. The Pulsefire event starts on that same day. Each skin will sell for 1,350 RP. While the …
Kobbe officially released from TSM, joins Misfits in the LEC
William Davis
League of Legends
Danish bottom laner Kasper “Kobbe” Kobberup has joined Misfits after being released from Team SoloMid. Kobbe is returning to Europe to play under Misfits’ banner in the upcoming 2020 LEC Summer Split. The announcement comes after weeks of speculations regarding the future of Kobbe’s career. Kobbe joined TSM ahead of the 2020 LCS Spring Split where he found mild success. His tenure with TSM was cut short when TSM announced …
Istanbul Wildcats vs. 1907 Fenerbahçe: TCL Winter betting analysis
William Davis
League of Legends
The Istanbul Wildcats and 1907 Fenerbahçe Esports will face off in the TCL 2020 Winter Season finals on May 11. While the regular season was all about 1907 Fenerbahçe, the story in the playoffs has been very different. The Istanbul Wildcats, who qualified for the playoffs as the fourth seed, have had a perfect run so far with two clean 3-0 victories. In the semifinals, 1907 Fenerbahçe struggled against Team …
Volibear’s reworked abilities revealed, release date announced
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Volibear’s reworked abilities have been revealed and the beloved bear plays a lot differently than before. Volibear’s passive has been completely reworked. Relentless Storm now allows Volibear’s attacks and abilities to grant him attack speed instead of healing for 30% of his maximum health when near death. His basic attacks also now deal bonus magic damage to nearby enemies. His Q, Thundering Smash, still has Volibear planting all four feet …
Riot shares plans to end game-ruining behavior in League of Legends
William Davis
League of Legends
Design director at Riot Games Andrei “Meddler” Van Roon shared the developer’s plan to attack game-ruining behavior in League of Legends. Former League of Legends pro Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani recently sparked a large conversation about toxicity in solo queue. Pro players and personalities voiced their agreement with Voyboy’s message and became loud enough that they caught the attention of Riot. According to Meddler, Riot is already implementing new measures to …
Everything you need to know about the TFT mid-set Galaxies update
William Davis
League of Legends
The Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies mid-set update is coming out on June 10 with patch 10.12. Developer Riot Games officially revealed the date for the mid-set update, the only major update for TFT: Galaxies. With patch 10.12, TFT will add new champions and traits, but will also remove some champions and traits from the set. The set will last six months in total, split into two ranked acts with one major …
G2 Esports swapping Caps and Perkz again for LEC Summer Split
William Davis
League of Legends
G2 Esports announced that Rasmus “Caps” Winther and Luka “Perkz” Perković, and it might be the best decision made by the organization to date. Caps and Perkz are back in what might be their best roles. After one split as ADC, Caps has returned to the mid lane, restoring the balance to the team. And while it might feel like another one of G2’s tricks, it’s a clever move by …
New Volibear splash art leaked ahead of champion rework release
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games is planning a stream to unveil more about Volibear’s rework after the champion’s new splash art leaked out. In May 2019, developer Riot Games left it up to the Leauge of Legends community to decide which champions would receive reworks. They would be completely redesigned from the ground up, Riot explained, “including their gameplay, visuals, story, animations, voice acting…the works.” Fiddlesticks and Volibear were the most popular choices …
New Mid-Season Cup featuring LPL and LCK teams coming in May
William Davis
News
The Mid-Season Cup between the LCK and LPL is coming by the end of May, Fomos’ reporter Kenzi shared on Twitter. There might not be a Mid-Season Invitational this year, but the LPL and LCK are working together on an alternative, the Mid-Season Cup. This flash tournament would run from May 28 to May 31 and will include four teams from each region. The top four teams from each league …
Riot brings the best Legends of Runeterra streamers to invitational event
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
The top 16 Legends of Runeterra content creators in North America and Europe will be competing tomorrow in the Principles Strength Invitational. The Principles Strength Invitiational is the game’s first official tournament since the Rising Tides expansion launched. It’s a single-deck, best-of-three tournament that comes with bragging rights and a $1,000 prize pool for the competitors. Those chosen competitors are content creators who have competed in multiple LoR tournaments during …
Riot Games has a big response for Voyboy’s LoL NA solo queue rant
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Riot Games has finally responded to the League of Legends community’s ongoing complaints about “malicious players” ruining ranked and solo queue games. For a long time, the League community has felt that Riot failed to respond to claims that their MOBA’s playerbase has become increasingly toxic, to the point where gameplay has been significantly affected. Former League of Legends pro Joedat “Voyboy” Esfahani decided to take it upon himself to …
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
IWillDominate and Tyler1 feud escalates with harsh insults
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
YamatoCannon signs with SANDBOX Gaming, what does it mean for the LCK?
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Explaining all the controversy around TSM, Doublelift, and Dardoch
By
William Davis
