Developer Riot Games, responsible for the worldwide smash-hit League of Legends franchise, made an official announcement today that the upcoming Wild Rift league season will be centered solely in Asian countries. John Needham, President of Esports for Riot Games, announced that while the recently concluded first season was worldwide, the company is putting the focus where mobile games are flourishing, Asia. Existing Wild Rift Esports operations in different regions around the world will be winding down and ceasing operation.
The new Asian league will mark the first cross-region Esports league for Riot Games, which has traditionally operated separate leagues for most Asian countries. Until just a few weeks ago, Garena published Riot Games’ titles in Southeast Asia, with the account migration process currently underway to bring gamers into the region under the oversight of Riot Games. The rationale behind the move was to ensure all players in all regions have the same experience playing the various titles that make up the League of Legends franchise and Valorant, the free-to-play team-based shooter.
Wild Rift’s new Asian Esports league will be divided into twelve teams from China’s existing Wild Rift League and eight from the other 2022 Asian regions. Similar to the standard League of Legends seasons, the new Wild Rift league will play two separate splits, before culminating in a large event to crown the league champion. Which teams are making the cut from the existing Esports league has not been announced yet.
While Riot Games is only providing its official support for one region, other parts of the world will now have the option for interested third parties to run their own Wild Rift Esports leagues and tournaments. The new, decentralized structure will be similar to how the fighting game community has run events for years without official support from developers. Given that Esports are already a small niche in most markets, and Wild Rift is itself just a mobile version of the incredibly popular League of Legends, some regions of the world may never get a competitive event again.
The League of Legends 2022 World Championship was one of the most-watched Esports events in history. The anthem for the event by Lil Nas X was streamed over 70 million times on Spotify before the event had even started. By comparison, the Wild Rift Icons Global Championship took place over the summer, with most League players unaware that the event was even taking place. The first and only Icons Championship was won by Nova Esports, a Chinese team from Hong Kong. In fact, the entire top five of the Icons Championship were teams from China and southeast Asia, lending credence to Riot Games’ decision to cease worldwide operations.
