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Team Liquid set to return Doublelift to Team SoloMid in huge LCS trade League of Legends Team Liquid set to return Doublelift to Team SoloMid in huge LCS trade By William Davis Riot Games is reportedly canceling the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational League of Legends Riot Games is reportedly canceling the 2020 Mid-Season Invitational By Olivia Richman T1 favored vs. DragonX in 2020 LCK spring semifinals match predictions League of Legends T1 favored vs. DragonX in 2020 LCK spring semifinals match predictions By William Davis
Cloud9 break LCS trophy after LCS Spring Split 2020 finals victory League of Legends
Cloud9 break LCS trophy after LCS Spring Split 2020 finals victory Olivia Richman Lifting up the LCS champion trophy inside your apartment is apparently not the same as lifting it up on the LCS Arena stage.  After defeating FlyQuest in the Spring Split 2020 Finals, Cloud9 became the Spring Split champions. After a 17-1 regular season record, this didn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, other teams were even avoiding scrimming with the squad since they were “shitting on” the …
C9’s Vulcan: “It’s hard to blame teams for not scrimming against us” League of Legends
C9’s Vulcan: “It’s hard to blame teams for not scrimming against us” Olivia Richman Cloud9 are the 2020 LCS Spring Split champions.  A 3-0 win over FlyQuest in the Finals saw them take the title that had been evading them for so many years. With a 17-1 record during the season, it isn’t too surprising when Cloud9 managed to take the championship. It was still an emotional moment to see the team jump out of their chairs and hug after the victory, though. It’s …
Cloud9 destroys FlyQuest, wins 2020 LCS Spring Split championship League of Legends
Cloud9 destroys FlyQuest, wins 2020 LCS Spring Split championship William Davis Cloud9 is the 2020 LCS Spring Split champion. Cloud9 dominated FlyQuest in the LCS finals and earned its first championship title since 2014. The team closed the series in three games to complete the best split in the history of the LCS. FlyQuest fought hard through the lower bracket, but it wasn’t enough to stop Cloud9. 7 FINALS. 6 2ND PLACES. 1 TITLE.AFTER 6 YEARS, CLOUD9 ARE THE 2020 #LCS …
Doublelift bashes LCS teams, calls them “snowflakes” for being scared to lose League of Legends
Doublelift bashes LCS teams, calls them “snowflakes” for being scared to lose Olivia Richman Not one to shy away from smack talk no matter the situation, Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng called out LCS teams for their poor mentality during a stream with an LCK commentator.  Team Liquid may have finished in 9th place in the LCS, but Doublelift still had harsh words for the other teams competing in North America after he heard Cloud9’s Philippe “Vulcan” Laflamme admit in an interview that other teams didn’t …
G2 Esports topples Fnatic, wins 2020 LEC Spring Split championship League of Legends G2 Esports topples Fnatic, wins 2020 LEC Spring Split championship By William Davis Match predictions for Cloud9 versus FlyQuest in 2020 LCS Spring finals League of Legends Match predictions for Cloud9 versus FlyQuest in 2020 LCS Spring finals By William Davis FlyQuest’s Santorin says beating EG “feels like another day of scrims” League of Legends FlyQuest’s Santorin says beating EG “feels like another day of scrims” By Olivia Richman
Cloud9’s Blaber takes home 2020 LCS Spring Split MVP award League of Legends
Cloud9’s Blaber takes home 2020 LCS Spring Split MVP award William Davis Cloud9’s jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang is the 2020 LCS Spring Split MVP. Cloud9 collected its final award of the season. Cloud9 claimed all the spots in the All-Pro Team and the Coach of the Split award. The jungler is receiving the most important award of the split in his first as a starter. This is confirmation that Blaber is, in fact, LCS material. In the offseason, Cloud9 and Blaber received …
FunPlus Phoenix World Championship skins are getting mixed reviews League of Legends
FunPlus Phoenix World Championship skins are getting mixed reviews William Davis Riot Games revealed the World Championship skins for FunPlus Phoenix and the community is not fully sold on the concept. FunPlus Phoenix took the 2019 World Championship by storm, becoming the third Chinese team to win the event. There were a lot of discussions about which champion the players would pick for their custom in-game skins. It went as follows: Kim “GimGoon” Han-saem, Gangplank Gao “Tian” Tian-Liang, Lee Sin Kim …
Team Liquid reportedly puts Doublelift’s contract up for trade League of Legends
Team Liquid reportedly puts Doublelift’s contract up for trade Olivia Richman Multiple sources close to the situation have revealed that Team Liquid has put Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s contract up for trade. While Team Liquid hasn’t announced the big move themselves, League of Legends journalist and content creator Travis Gafford has come forward with the news after hearing about it from multiple sources. According to Gafford, multiple teams have informed him that Doublelift is up for sale and will likely be traded …
TFT patch 10.8 adds new galaxies and gives a massive buff to Soraka League of Legends
TFT patch 10.8 adds new galaxies and gives a massive buff to Soraka William Davis Teamfight Tactics deployed patch 10.8 and it brings new units and new galaxies. The highlight of patch 10.8 is the addition of Xerath, the first unit added to the game since the release of TFT: Galaxies. Xerath Tier 5 Dark Star-Sorcerer Abyssal Bombardment: Xerath summons random meteor strikes for 6/8/45 seconds. Meteors deal magic damage, if they kill an enemy, adjacents enemies take damage and get stunned for 1.5 seconds. …
League of Legends fans discuss Garena Vietnam’s shady practices Olivia Richman League of Legends It’s no surprise that League of Legends fans don’t like Garena, the Singapore-based company that received the license from Riot Games to run LoL in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. Some players from that region have even admitted to playing on North American servers, willing to deal with 200 ping just to avoid dealing with Garena. So what has Garena done to be so often called “shady” and “scummy” by the …
Riot is discussing future of Valorant esports with teams, organizers Steven Rondina News Valorant’s closed beta has generated an overwhelming amount of hype through the Twitch drop system. But what happens after that? Riot Games gave some early details of its plans for Valorant esports. Though Riot has set the standard for intense publisher control of competition with League of Legends, the publisher seems to be looking more at the systems used in games like Counter-Strike and Dota 2 when it comes to …
Valorant developers announce new Ranked Mode coming to closed beta Olivia Richman League of Legends Riot Games has announced that Valorant will have a new Ranked Mode in the near future. Just a few days after the closed beta was released, developers are already looking into making some big changes. One of those changes is the addition of a Ranked Mode after closed beta participants have continuously complained about the matchmaking system. One player took to Twitter to ask Riot if they were going to …
LoL patch 10.8 brings big changes to the jungle, buffs solo kills William Davis League of Legends League of Legends patch 10.8 has arrived! The most recent patch brings massive changes to the experience granted by kills and targets champions with the most presence in pro play. On the cosmetic side of the game, patch 10.8 adds Coven Morgana, Coven LeBlanc, Coven Zyra, and Coven Zyra Prestige Edition. All of the new skins will be available on April 16. Patch 10.8 has something for everyone, starting with …
Valorant anti-cheat could be a serious security risk for players gabhernandez League of Legends Popular gaming and tech YouTuber Mutahar Anas, who runs the YouTube channel SomeOrdinaryGamers, has released a video about how Valorant’s anti-cheat engine could be a security or privacy risk to consumers.  Riot created a new anti-cheat engine called Vanguard that must be installed in order to run the game. In the video, Anas claims that the game has a kernel anti-cheat drive, vgk.sys, that runs every time the player’s computer …
Valorant players debate if Raze is OP, shroud and summit weigh in Olivia Richman League of Legends The Valorant closed beta has allowed people to get their hands on a lot of new agents, and players already have some very strong opinions. One of those new agents is Raze, whose ability kit revolves around dealing damage. Boom Bot allows Raze to deploy a small robot that travels in a straight line, locks onto an enemy and explode. This often acts as a distraction, making the opposing team …
League of Legends fans not impressed with ESPN2 LCS broadcast Olivia Richman League of Legends League of Legends fans are coming together to voice their disdain for the League of Legends Spring Split playoffs airing on ESPN. Starting April 11, the Riot announced that all playoff games would be broadcast on ESPN2 going forward. While this seemed like a big move for esports during the ongoing lockdown and a chance to get more viewership, current fans were not happy with the games they’ve watched on …
FQ igNar on potential LCS final vs Cloud9: “I think we can beat them.” Olivia Richman League of Legends FlyQuest beat Team SoloMid in a back-and-forth five match game in the Spring Split semi finals this weekend. The win knocked TSM out of the playoffs and put FlyQuest on a tough road to face Cloud9 in the finals. But first, they’ll have to face Evil Geniuses once again, a team they lost to recently. WIN.gg spoke with Lee “igNar” Dong-geun about the win, how they plan to take down …
Team SoloMid knocked out of 2020 LCS Spring playoffs by FlyQuest William Davis League of Legends Team SoloMid has been knocked out of the 2020 LoL Championship Series Spring playoffs by FlyQuest. The season is over for TSM, as the team fell in the second round of the playoffs against FlyQuest in a series that went to game five. FlyQuest is facing Evil Geniuses one more time for the last spot in the finals. FlyQuest is showcasing greatness in the playoffs. In the series against TSM, …
G2 Esports survives in 2020 LEC playoffs, eliminates Origen Nina Forneloza League of Legends G2 Esports knocked Origen out of the 2020 LoL European Championship Spring playoffs and is now headed to the semifinals. The reigning LEC champion is not going down without a fight. After being relegated to the lower bracket, the defending champion is now back on track. G2 took the victory over Origen and got a chance for revenge in the semifinals against MAD Lions E.C..   If there’s one thing that …
Cloud9 annihilates Evil Geniuses, reaches 2020 LCS Spring finals William Davis League of Legends Cloud9 defeated Evil Geniuses and is now heading to the finals of the 2020 LCS Spring Split. Evil Geniuses’ master plan failed in the semifinals against a Cloud9 that looks stronger by the minute. Cloud9, the perennial second-place team, is on the road to get its first title since 2014. Evil Geniuses was supposed to be a challenge for Cloud9, but the semifinals turned out to be a one-sided affair. …
Fnatic beats MAD Lions, qualifies for 2020 LEC Spring Split finals William Davis League of Legends Fnatic secured a spot in the 2020 LEC Spring Split finals with a decisive victory over MAD Lions. Fnatic is the first team qualified for the finals in the LEC. On Saturday, the series in the upper bracket between Fnatic and MAD Lions was decided in three games. Fnatic walked away with the victory and will have to wait one week before knowing its final opponent for the season. Fnatic …

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.