Image credit: Esports World Cup
After years of Riot Games-sanctioned tournaments, we could finally see third-party organisers get a share of the League of Legends limelight.
Riot Games runs a tight ship when it comes to its IPs, particularly League of Legends. The American video game developer and publisher of one of the most popular esports titles of all time is notorious when it comes to granting its IP to third-parties. Intel Extreme Masters as well as DreamHack were some of the popular third-party tournament organisers that used to put on a show for professional League of Legends until franchising came into play.
But according to a report by investigative reporter Jacob Wolf, Riot is currently in talks to have League of Legends being hosted by third-party organisers. This also includes the upcoming Esports World Cup that is hosted by the Saudi Arabian state-backed Savvy Gaming Group. They were also the one's responsible for the Gamers8 series of tournaments that featured a $45 million-dollar prize pool split between various titles like Rocket League, CS:GO, Fortnite, and Rainbow Six: Siege to name a few.
The Esports World Cup is expected to start in July 2024 and will feature a League of Legends tournament. This is according to an internal email at Riot that was obtained by The Jacob Wolf Report, who went on to state that the eight-week event will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and will have the largest prize pool in esports history.
The email also stated that Riot is currently working through the details of how League of Legends will be a part of the event. Two teams from Riot's top-four leagues — LCK, LPL, LCS, and LEC — will be allowed to participate in the event after the LoL Esports global head of esports strategy, Chris Gheeley spoke with each league to hold off on any and all activities in the first week of July. This was to allow the teams to compete in the Esports World Cup.
This came after the Riot esports team saw just how well the response for League of Legends was outside the LoL Esports ecosystem, particularly the 2022 Asian Games back in September 2023. Some of the top teams in the leagues like T1, JD Gaming, Bilibili Gaming, and EDward Gaming to name a few had majority of its players representing its countries during the tournament. This included the likes of South Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and more.
With League of Legends expected to be a part of the Esports World Cup, this will be the first time that an LoL tournament that isn't hosted by Riot will feature professional teams since the IEM XI World Championship back in February 2017. While professional teams were already part of the Riot-sanctioned leagues since 2013 like the LPL as well as the NA and EU LCS, it wasn't until late 2017 and beyond did Riot start to make teams exclusive to its regional leagues.
The Rise of Saudi Arabia and its Emergence in Esports
The last couple of years have seen the rise of Saudi Arabia and its position when it comes to both traditional sporting events and esports. Football is one of the great examples after the Saudi Pro League was able to bring in plenty of big-name stars to its football clubs from across the world. This included the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané, and Roberto Firmino just to name a few.
Formula1 was another prestigious sporting event that did not escape the Saudi's gaze as Jeddah was chosen as part of the 2021 F1 racing calendar as it made its inaugural debut as the fifth full-night race event. Even The Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour as well as the Premiere Golf League have had its tussles with LIV Golf after a division of The Public Investment Fund created a new entity in 2020, which had its own plan to establish a global professional league that is often referred to as the “Super Golf League”.
The people behind Gamers8 and the upcoming Esports World Cup, the Savvy Gaming Group are also the same people that bought over both ESL and FACEIT, two of the industries biggest independent tournament organisers back in January 2022. And while many will view Saudi Arabia as an emerging region when it comes to both traditional sports and esports, it still can't fully escape from the vitriol given the country's dogged history of human rights violations.
It's Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud was also caught on the wrong side of major headlines after he was alleged to have ordered the assassination of The Washington Post's journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. It has since been concluded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had indeed ordered the killing while the New York Times concluded that the murder was premeditated.
This also wouldn't be the first time that Riot has worked with Saudi Arabia. Back in 2020, the LEC welcomed NEOM, a state-backed city development that also has ties back to MBS. However, this did not go down well and was soon cancelled just hours after the announcement.
But could Saudi Arabia's inclusion into esports save the industry in the future? The scene has been in disarray for some time, especially after the entire scandal between the LCSPA and Riot. Overspending has been a key component to many esports teams over the years with no real way to earn back its initial investment, which has since caused many orgs to go under or to form mergers with other teams to stay afloat.
It remains to be seen what Riot will do with its impending partnership with Saudi Arabia and how this will affect the industry as a whole, given the stance it has on certain issues.
