League of Legends
League of Legends
T1 vs. FunPlus Phoenix: Mid-Season Cup betting analysis
William Davis
LCK’s T1 and LPL’s FunPlus Phoenix are opening the 2020 Mid-Season Cup in a highly anticipated match. Fans around the world wanted these teams to meet in the 2019 World Championship, but fate and G2 Esports, wouldn’t allow it. Now, T1 and FPX are finally playing against each other in the first game of the tournament. Kim “GimGoon” Han-saem, Kim “Khan” Dong-ha Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang Lin “Lwx” …
League of Legends
Riot finally fixes year-old matchmaking problems in EUW server
William Davis
Riot Games is addressing the EUW server’s longstanding matchmaking woes, adding to an ever-growing list of issues that need to be remedied to fix the solo queue experience in League of Legends. Riot changed the matchmaking configuration in the EUW server, prioritizing closer MMR over low queue times. As a result, challenger players are now facing longer queues, theoretically with the tradeoff of better matchmaking. After the change, players in …
League of Legends
LCS adds Friday Night League, hoping to boost viewership numbers
William Davis
Big changes are in store as the LCS has released the schedule for the 2020 LCS Summer Split, set to start on June 12. The news is particularly big because the LCS is making major changes to its schedule. The league has decided to move two LCS matches from Mondays to Fridays for new Friday Night League broadcasts. Starting on June 12, fans can enjoy two LCS matches on Fridays …
League of Legends
Listen to Tarzaned claim he boosted IWillDominate to Challenger
Olivia Richman
On a recent stream, League of Legends streamer Julian “Tarzaned” Farokhian claimed he boosted fellow streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera’s account to Challenger. After an ongoing fued between the two Twitch streamers, Tarzaned decided to up the ante and expose IWillDominate with claims that he boosted the Team Liquid content creator’s account. “You call yourself a Challenger player and you never actually got Challenger on your own. I actually had to …
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
IWillDominate and Tyler1 feud escalates with harsh insults
Olivia Richman
One of the most popular streaming beefs is between Fortnite superstars Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Turner “Tfue” Tenney. The two can never seem to agree on anything related to Epic’s battle royale, with Ninja always saying Tfue is too negative while Tfue labels Ninja as a suckup. That beef is downright wholesome compared to the ongoing feud between League of Legends streamers Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera and Tyler” Tyler1″ Steinkamp. IWillDominate …
YamatoCannon signs with SANDBOX Gaming, what does it mean for the LCK?
William Davis
League of Legends
On May 15, LCK team SANDBOX Gaming officially announced Jakob “YamatoCannon” Mebdi as its head coach for the 2020 LCK Summer Split. YamatoCannon is the first western coach to sign with an LCK organization. Once YamatoCannon gets his visa approved, he will join the organization in Seoul. In the meantime, the head coach will be working remotely from Europe. Korean coaches are highly valued around the world. Hiring a western …
Explaining all the controversy around TSM, Doublelift, and Dardoch
William Davis
League of Legends
It’s been four days since Team SoloMid president Aleena “Leena” Xu leaked confidential information on Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s Twitch stream. The incident reignited the accusations of conflict of interest against TSM, but like every other drama in the community, people stopped talking about it and moved on. But this leak was more than an isolated incident. It will have permanent effects on the career of jungler Joshua “Dardoch” Hartnett, and …
Brazillian LoL team Redemption allegedly refuses to pay Korean players
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
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 …
2020 Mid-Season Cup groups and format leaked ahead of tournament
Olivia Richman
News
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 …
TFT patch 10.10 is bringing back hyper carry Syndra
William Davis
News
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, …
Pick-URF returning to League of Legends, release date announced
William Davis
League of Legends
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 …
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
T1 and FPX set to open the League of Legends Mid-Season Cup
By
William Davis
League of Legends
Perkz opens up on role swap with Caps, says G2 was trolling too much
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix Tian knows how to quiet his haters in LoL solo queue
By
William Davis
