Riot Games has responded to a report that the Esports World Cup will add a League of Legends tournament to its lineup.
According toa report from Jacob Wolf, that is set to change as Riothas 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 isreplacing Gamers8.
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 theAsian Games, which saw teams of pros from South Korea, China, and elsewhere battle for international glory.
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.
Declan McLaughlin was a Gaming & Esports Writer on Dexerto’s US team, specializing in Valorant and League of Legends. He has bylines at Upcomer and Inven Global.
