Riot Games will deliver League of Legends World Championship to SF

Riot Games mentioned the League of Legends World Championship will happen in-person in 2022 in San Francisco on the Chase Center the place the Golden State Warriors play.

The 4 cities within the general League of Legends tour will embrace New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and Mexico City. The worldwide occasion will span North America from the group stage to the finals. It’s additionally the primary time the occasion might be held in Mexico.

The occasion goals to breathe extra life into the esports trade, which has been seeing nice numbers for online-only occasions through the pandemic however has been lacking loads of the thrill round bodily occasions. Market researcher Newzoo had to downgrade its income expectations for esports in 2020 a few instances because the magnitude of the pandemic grew and bodily occasion revenues dried up. But most esports on-line occasions drew a lot bigger audiences than previously.

The eleventh League of Legends World Championship is Riot’s greatest occasion sequence of the 12 months, and this 12 months it happened in Reykjavik, Iceland, from October 5 to November 5. A total of twenty-two groups participated and Edward Gaming of China took residence the highest prize of almost $500,000 because the LPL World Championship.

The common viewers minutes was 30.6 million and peak viewership was 73.8 million individuals. That’s 60% larger than final 12 months, which was the earlier file, mentioned John Needham, president of esports at Riot Games, at a press occasion on the Chase Center.

Riot Games mentioned the event will return to a continental tour format, and return to the U.S. for the primary time since 2016, when it was held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Needham attended a press occasion with Naz Aletaha, world head of League of Legends Esports; Chris Greeley, head of esports North America and Oceania Pacific; Martin Balquier, head of esports for Latin America at Riot.

Also attending had been movie star gamers resembling Eric “Licorice” Ritchie, a League of Legends esports participant, at the moment high laner for Golden Guardians.

Aletaha mentioned, “We are returning to North America for the first time since 2016.” She mentioned the occasion will kick off in Mexico City, after which transfer on to New York metropolis’s Madison Square Garden. The semifinals might be in Toronto on the Scotia Bank Arena, and the 2022 World Finals might be happening at Chase Center.

“We can’t wait to culminate our 12th world tour here,” Aletaha mentioned.

And Balquier mentioned Riot is happy to deliver the occasion to Latin America for the primary time, as followers have been asking for that for the previous decade.

Greeley mentioned, “We are incredibly excited to bring that excitement to our fans.”

Above: Left to proper: Riot Games’ John Needham, Naz Aletaha, Chris Greeley, and Martin Blaquier.

Image Credit: Marla Takahashi

Aletaha mentioned the corporate is wanting on the format for the event, which is able to optimize for quite a lot of variables.

Needham mentioned the corporate has wished to do occasions in North America for the previous couple of years however hasn’t been in a position to take action due to COVID-19. He famous that the corporate has realized how one can do the occasions safely in mild of the pandemic.

Aletaha mentioned she didn’t but have information to share on the place the corporate would pivot if they’re pressured to pivot due to COVID restrictions. Greeley mentioned Riot was ready to deal with the completely different visa processes for 3 completely different international locations.

Above: Chase Center govt exhibits off the house of the Warriors.

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

“We want to make it an amazing experience for the tens of millions of fans who want to tune in from home,” she mentioned. “Right now we are laser-focused on North America for the tour.”

Greeley mentioned that the North American groups are getting extra aggressive and have had enhancements of their beginner and academy groups in order that the area will proceed to enhance for the esports occasions. With the launch of Arcane, Riot additionally hopes that there might be renewed curiosity within the area as properly.

Aletaha mentioned the viewership has been predominantly on-line — a minimum of 90% of viewership is on-line — and he or she mentioned it’s not going going to be marketed a lot on tv. But the advertising and marketing efforts might be geared toward setting new data, Aletaha mentioned.