League of Legends
League of Legends
MAD Lions takes down G2 Esports in the 2020 LEC Spring Split playoffs
William Davis
MAD Lions pulled off the biggest upset of the season by defeating G2 Esports in the first round of the 2020 LEC Spring Split playoffs. The post-season is off to an explosive start in the LEC. MAD achieved the impossible, with the rookie team taking down the defending LEC champions in a series that went to game five. After ending the regular season in first place, G2 was the favorite to …
League of Legends
New Valorant agent Jett revealed by Riot Games ahead of beta launch
Olivia Richman
Five days before the highly anticipated closed beta begins, Riot has officially revealed another Valorant agent. A “duelist” agent, Jett is is an agile and evasive fighter focused on speed and stealth. She “takes risks nobody else can,” running circles before every skirmish and striking before enemies even know what hit them. Jett’s four abilities reflect a focus on close-range combat. Her first ability is Cloudburst, allowing her to throw …
League of Legends
2020 LCS playoff preview: Teams, schedule, tournament bracket
William Davis
It’s time for playoffs in the 2020 LCS Spring Split. This year, the teams are competing in a new format that gives the top four seeds more than one chance to make it to the finals. The regular season ended with three teams fighting for sixth place and a three-way tie for second. With all of the tiebreakers out of the way, the stage is nowset for the playoffs. This …
League of Legends
Faker is here to tell you whether to use the F or D key for Flash
Olivia Richman
The Unkillable Demon King has spoken. T1’s Sang-hyeok “Faker” Lee has finally weighed in on one of the biggest League of Legends debates of all time. In a recent stream, the Korean LoL star told his followers his opinion on if Flash should be bound to the “F” key or the “D” key. “Don’t fight over Flash on D or F, guys. Everyone has their own preference,” Faker said. “Just because …
League of Legends
Here’s how to get a spot in the Valorant closed beta
gabhernandez
Riot Games’ highly anticipated tactical shooter Valorant will begin a closed beta period on April 7. Fans of both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends are desperately scrambling to get a spot in the beta, but it isn’t as simple as entering into a lottery or creating an account. In order to be selected for the closed beta, prospective players must sign up for, or sign in to, a …
League of Legends
Valorant closed beta release date revealed, affected by COVID-19
Olivia Richman
Riot Games announced today that a closed testing period for Valorant will start April 7. The closed beta for the new character-based FPS title will be available in Canada, Europe, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. There’s a possibility the closed beta will become available to more regions in the future, depending on the current coronavirus pandemic. “Our plan was to bring the Valorant closed beta to as many players …
League of Legends
Team Liquid shatters Quarathon COVID-19 charity stream goal
Olivia Richman
After a weeklong charity stream, Team Liquid raised $72,615 towards coronavirus relief efforts. Throughout the past week, Team Liquid streamers and players participated in a streamathon with the goal of raising $50,000 for Direct Relief. Called the Quarathon, the organization hoped the “quarantine stream marathon” would inspire their fans to help support people going through a “rough time” due to COVID-19’s impact. They went over their goal by over $20,000. …
League of Legends
Here’s how to find the best jungle paths in League of Legends
William Davis
It’s universally acknowledged that the team that wins the jungle, wins the game. To help the new generation of junglers jumping into Summoner’s Rift, Jung.GG developed a tool that shows the optimal jungle pathing for every champion. Season 10 changed the XP granted by jungle camps and players that aren’t accounting for this become irrelevant in the game very quickly. Optimal pathing is fundamental, like knowing when to smite and …
LPL team Rogue Warriors fined more than $400,000 over match fixing
William Davis
League of Legends
LPL organization Rogue Warriors is being punished with a $400,000 fine for covering up a match-fixing incident. The LPL Discipline Committee is not going easy on Rogue Warriors, the committee issued a warning with a three million RMB fine, equivalent to $423,687.50 USD. The punishment comes after an investigation into the allegations against former jungler Wang “WeiYan” Xiang for match fixing. According to several reports, WeiYan had agreed to an …
Dodo on Liquid LCS struggles: “We just have to go back to the start”
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team Liquid probably lost its chance to compete in the 2020 LCS Spring Split playoffs with their defeat at the hands of FlyQuest. Though the team hasn’t been mathematically eliminated, a number of upsets will need to occur in order for Liquid to make the cut. This is not something coach Kang “Dodo” Jun-hyeok likes to dwell on, but it’s hard to stay positive at this point. Despite this, he told WIN.gg that he …
How to play Nautilus in the mid lane just like FPX Doinb
William Davis
League of Legends
In 2019, League of Legends players around the world were introduced to one particularly strange champion pick: Nautilus in the mid lane. It was first played in the LPL by FunPlus Phoenix’s mid laner and resident mad genius Kim “Doinb” Tae-sang, who then pulled it out at the World Championship. Doinb played three games on Nautilus in the semifinals against Invictus Gaming. He played the pick one more time in …
Valorant’s Vanguard anti-cheat might ban your PC if you cheat
Steven Rondina
League of Legends
Riot Games is taking a number of different measures to deal with cheaters in its upcoming title, Valorant. Foremost among these efforts is the creation of a new anti-cheat engine named Vanguard. While Vanguard will largely work like any other anti-cheat engine, Riot is committed to having it quickly and effectively shut down cheaters through any means necessary. This includes not just banning a player’s account from playing, but temporarily …
Riot reveals new Valorant support agent, Sage, and her abilities
Olivia Richman
News
Riot has revealed a new Valorant agent and her abilities. Sage, who appears to be the fourth of 12 agents, is a support-style agent that “creates safety for herself and her team wherever she goes.” She has the ability to resurrect allies and protect them from attacks. Developers also shared her abilities, some of which might sound familiar for players of other hero shooters. The first is Slow Orb. Sage …
Riot Games donates huge amount to coronavirus relief in LA
Olivia Richman
News
Riot Games and its co-founders have donated $1.5 million to aid coronavirus relief efforts. During a press conference on Tuesday, Los Angeles’ mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the game developer donated $500,000 to local foundations, while co-founders Brandon Beck and Marc Merill will donate $500,000 each. Of that impressive total, $400,000 will go to the Los Angeles Food Bank, an organization that Riot has held fundraisers for in the past. …
Riot Games investigating Vega Squadron for win trading in LCL
William Davis
News
Riot Games is launching an official investigation after Rolandas “Optimas” Vincalovičius accused Vega Squadron of win trading during the 2020 LCL Open Cup. Russian organization Vega Squadron is in hot water. The team was accused by former member Optimas of win trading. The incident took place during the 2020 LCL Open Cup, a competition that runs in parallel with the 2020 LCL Spring Split. In the Open Cup, eight teams …
Star Guardian Urgot is coming to LoL, and it is magnificent
William Davis
League of Legends
Pajama Guardian Cosplay Urgot is coming to the League of Legends. Riot Games has announced one of the most widely requested skins, Star Guardian Urgot, or at least soomething in that vein. Every time Riot released a new Star Guardian skin, the League of Legends fans asked for Urgot to be included into the skin line. The meme is now a reality. Pajama Guardian Cosplay Urgot is part of the …
PowerOfEvil says next LCS week “will prove who the top teams are”
Olivia Richman
News
FlyQuest had a decent weekend in the LCS, coming out 1-1 after a loss to 100 Thieves. That’s how it’s been throughout the second half of the Spring Split for FlyQuest, some wins here, then some losses there. The squad was once an undisputed top three team, but now they will have to fight next weekend to claim that spot once again. WIN.gg spoke with mid laner Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage …
IWillDominate getting tested for COVID-19, experiencing symptoms
Olivia Richman
News
League of Legends streamer Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera will be getting tested for the coronavirus. The Team Liquid content creator told his Twitch followers earlier today that he’s been experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. For him, this includes tiredness, some shortness of breath, diarrhea, and coughing. One symptom he doesn’t have is a fever, which is often the tell-tale sign of having the coronavirus. “I have to wait two days for the …
How does TFT Mobile stack up next to the PC version of the game?
William Davis
League of Legends
Teamfight Tactics Mobile is out at long last, and it’s worth taking a good look at the game and stacking it up against the originals. This is the first mobile game by Riot Games and the first time that TFT has been separated from the League of Legends client. That created a number of challenges that could have ruined TFT Mobile. Ultimately, TFT Mobile faithfully recreates the PC version of …
CLG Pobelter on LCS Spring Split: “A coronavirus-fueled fever dream”
Olivia Richman
News
Counter Logic Gaming has been knocked out of the Spring Playoffs, but they’re not about to stop trying. Not even close. CLG is putting their all into the last week of matches, said Eugene “Pobelter” Park, in an attempt to boost their morale and performance going into the Summer Split. Pobelter joined WIN.gg for an interview over webcam to talk about his very crazy Spring Split, from joining a last …
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
Dignitas offering to let Huni leave after missing LCS Spring playoffs
By
Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Team SoloMid’s Myth helps debut Valorant agent Breach ahead of beta
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Olivia Richman
League of Legends
Legends of Runeterra release date for PC, mobile announced
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Olivia Richman
