Riot responds to report of League event at Esports World Cup in Saudi

Riot Games has responded to a report that the Esports World Cup will add a League of Legends tournament to its lineup.

Riot Games has a tight hold over League of Legends esports. Its top domestic leagues across the world were franchised in the late 2010s and no teams from those leagues have participated in a third-party event since.

According to a report from Jacob Wolf, that is set to change as Riot has been in talks with the Esports World Cup to add League to its lineup. The $45m event is a multi-esports tournament backed by the Saudi Arabian government that is replacing Gamers8.

The 2023 edition of Gamers8 saw multiple esports organizations send over many of their teams in titles ranging from CS:GO, and Rocket League to DOTA 2. However, League of Legends and Valorant, Riot’s esports titles, were noticeably absent from the competition.

Riot responded to the report from Wolf, saying that the Esports World Cup is just one of the events the developer is interested in jumping into with its pro teams.

League esports might be in more events than just the Esports World Cup

In a statement given to Wolf, Riot said that it is in talks with “various tournament organizers, including the Esports World Cup, regarding the provision of official licenses for third-party events to be included in the League of Legends pro ecosystem.”

Riot further stated that it started looking into adding third-party events after seeing the success of the Asian Games, which saw teams of pros from South Korea, China, and elsewhere battle for international glory.

“We’re in active exploration of these opportunities, including if and when they can fit within the 2024 calendar, but nothing has been confirmed at this time,” Riot told Wolf.

League esports fans have not seen teams from the LCS, LEC, LPL or LCK compete outside of the Riot ecosystem against each other in years. Some have held show matches against one another, but third-party operators like ESL, BLAST and IEM have not held League tournaments for some time.

Fans will have to wait and see what Riot ends up coming up with as the Esports World Cup is set to start in the summer. However, the developer did say in its statement that “nothing has been confirmed at this time” for the 2024 season.