Altanta replaces Toronto as Worlds 2022 semifinal site

Riot Games has announced that the semifinals of the 2022 League of Legends World Championships will be relocated from Toronto to Atlanta, due to issues surrounding visas.

The announcement serves as confirmation for reporting by Jacob Wolf, who broke the story on June 30.

Worlds semifinals relocated

Worlds 2022 was initially set to span three major nations of North America — the Play-In stage would take place in Mexico City before the tournament moved to New York City for the Group Stage and Quarterfinals. The four remaining teams would then travel to Toronto to contest the Semifinals before the tournament concluded with a Grand Final in San Francisco.

However, teams and fans will no longer travel to Toronto, according to an announcement by Riot. Instead, the Semifinals will be held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta.

According to Riot’s press statement, the primary issue necessitating the relocation was visas.

“The semifinals originally were set to take place at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, but due to COVID-19 impacting the viability of securing multi-entry visas to the U.S. within necessary timelines, Riot made the decision to move the location to provide a clear path for teams to complete in all stages of Worlds.”

All non-American players and staff at Worlds would be required to obtain an entirely separate visa to enter Canada, a lengthy process that would also be meaningless for all but four teams. However, there could be more going on than Riot has initially let on.

Canada still maintains strict entry regulations surrounding vaccines. While rules mandating vaccinated travelers have proof of a negative COVID-19 test were scrapped in April, Canada still bars entry to any unvaccinated individual attempting to enter from the United States.

The effects of this have been felt across the world of traditional sport, especially in leagues such as the NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS, which all span the United States and Canada. Teams traveling to Canadian opponents are required to leave unvaccinated players in the US. When talking about a game with teams as small as League of Legends, the implications of players being unable to enter Canada for a match as big as the semifinals of Worlds would be devastating.

The decision means that the final four teams will now travel to Georgia instead.

Georgia comes with its own problems

Politically speaking, Georgia is one of the most fascinating states in the United States. On the national level, Georgia has long been a swing state. It was fiercely Democrat from the 1860s to the 1960s, before going through periods of representing both sides of the aisle until becoming something of a Republican stronghold in the late 90s. While the state was crucial to Joe Biden’s Presidential win in 2020, it is heavily controlled by the Republicans at the state level. The state has had a Republican governor since 2002 and the Georgia General Assembly has been in Republican control since 2005.

Why does all of this matter? Because despite Georgia slowly turning blue (i.e. Democrat), it also carries of the most restrictive laws in the country. Major League Baseball relocated the 2021 All-Star Game away from Atlanta in response to Georgia passing laws that greatly restricted voting access to many minority communities. Furthermore, the state is currently pushing to enact a ban on abortions after six weeks. Riot allegedly told staffers that the company would support employees in the United States who needed to seek an abortion outside their home state. However, this latest move brings Riot’s commitment to reproductive rights into question.

But as things stand, Atlanta will play home to two of the biggest League of Legends matches of the year.

Fragster has reached out to Riot Games for further details.

Header: Arashboz, Riot Games