Following months of what seemed to be a quiet time for Wild Rift competitive scene, Riot has finally brought a heartbreaking conclusion for one of their big mobile esports titles. An official announcement stated that Riot will shift their operation and focus on Wild Rift Esports in Asia, starting from 2023.
Wild Rift Esports (WRE) will be discontinued and replaced by Wild Rift League in Asia region, meaning that regions outside of Asia will not be participating in the upcoming season.
For 2023 season, WRL Asia will consist of twelve teams from China’s WRL and eight teams from Japan, South Korea, and the rest of Southeast Asia. WRL Asia series will be held twice in a year.
Furthermore, Riot also stated that in order to give other areas the time to grow organically, they will “unlock the opportunity for third parties to host events.”
Several well known names among Wild Rift competitive scene have voiced their frustration on social media. Excoundrel, shoutcaster for UK professional League, had anticipated this outcome and tweeted that Riot was making the wrong choice as their target audience had invested more time and money into other popular mobile games like Mobile Legends.
On the other hand, Starting, WR professional player of Sentinels, simply berated Riot’s decision on twitter and said Riot pulled a big ‘f— you’ to their audience in the West.
Many also feel that low global viewership numbers on Wild Rift Icons 2022, which was occured in July, were also one of key factors on Riot’s decision.
Former WR esports director, Leo Faria, once stated that China was the only country which highly contributed to WR esports viewership numbers.
League of Legends to be merged as well
Prior to their WRL Asia’s announcement, Riot had already planned a big change in their most popular esports title ahead of the competitive season of 2022–2023.
According to Peter Schmidt, the League Operation Director of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) LoL professional league will be merged with CIS, Turkey, and Europe to form a new competitive scene designated as the EMEA region.
Along with the changes to the LEC, which now called as the League of Legends EMEA Championship, Riot is also making significant changes to the rest of the EU ecosystem. This change should create more opportunities for aspiring professional players to advance to the region’s highest level.
With the area now unified, all players from Europe, Turkey, and MENA will be able to freely participate in the LEC as citizens, thus no longer be the subject to LoL Esports’ Interregional Movement Policy.
The LCL remains suspended until further notice, but CIS and its players have been integrated into the EMEA ecosystem, which means that every player from that region will have the same residential status as others.
