Riot cancels sold-out LCS Championship event due to growing health concerns

Riot Games have cancelled the LCS Championships at the Prudential Center amid growing health concerns. The sold-out event meant to reunite LCS teams with fans will now be relocated to California without crowds in attendance.

The LCS Championship will now be played out in Los Angeles, California at the LCS Arena. Riot are working to provide full refunds to those who purchased tickets to the Prudential Center event.

The LCS production was set to go on the road on August 28-29 in Newark, NJ for the semi-finals and Grand Finals, Riot revealed on July 9. The hope was to have live crowds on-site for the first time since the league went online.

Those plans have since changed after a rise of cases around the nation have prompted Riot to “table that reunion for now.”

“Given the current state of affairs, we cannot in good conscience conduct a massive fan event at this time,” Riot said. “After much consideration, it is with extreme disappointment that we’ve elected to relocate the LCS Championship event from the Prudential Center to the LCS Arena.”

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Instead of continuing with the planned event amid growing cases nationwide, the LCS Championship is going to be played without fans in LA.

“While we expect other shows and sporting events to press on through this period,” Riot explained. “The LCS does not need to take health and safety risks in order to produce its core competitive product.

“Pivoting all postseason operations to the LCS Arena in Los Angeles provides a safer environment for everyone, and helps ensure our Worlds representatives will be healthy for their trip to China.”

All matches for the LCS playoffs will still be played on LAN, as the company will look to 2022 to once again have fans join their teams on gameday.

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During the Summer 2021 regular season, the league started to hold offline matches again. They eventually moved back to online conditions after cases were initially found among Immortals players and staff, with another instance later reported in a different team.

The LCS moved back online to close the split shortly after.