The Esports World Cup, an eight-week-long international event, is set to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, starting from 2024. The event, powered by the Esports World Cup Foundation, will feature several major games and will pit the world’s elite esports players against each other.
The goal of the event is to crown the “world champion” club that performs the best across all the games. One of the games that will be integrated into the Esports World Cup is League of Legends, as per an internal email sent by Riot Games, the game’s publisher, according to an article by Jacob Wolf.
A First Since 2017
For League of Legends, the integration into the Esports World Cup is a significant first. It will be the first time since the IEM Legends in February 2017 in Poland that Riot Games will not be the organizer of a major event on its game. The Esports World Cup is set to feature two forms of the League of Legends Worlds in 2024. The first form is the annual event that is usually held at the end of each season. The second form is a competition of eight teams that will take place a few months before the annual event in the context of the Esports World Cup.
Two Teams per Region
The eight teams that will participate in the League of Legends tournament of the Esports World Cup will come from the four major regions: the LPL (China), the LCK (South Korea), the LCS (North America), and the LEC (EMEA). According to Jacob Wolf, the mode of selection of these teams has not been specified yet. The competition is expected to take place during the first week of July, and Riot Games has reportedly asked each of the represented leagues to suspend their activities during this week.
The Esports World Cup is a follow-up to the Gamers 8, which were supported by the Savvy Gaming Group and existed for two years with the ambition of crowning the best club in the world. The Gamers 8 2023 had a cash prize of $45 million and featured major games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, FIFA, Fortnite, and Starcraft 2, among others. Twisted Minds won the Gamers 8 2023, beating BDS.
The integration of League of Legends into the Esports World Cup is a significant move for Riot Games, as it shows the company’s willingness to partner with third-party organizers for major events. The move is also a sign of the growing interest of Saudi Arabia in esports. The country is becoming increasingly active in the esports industry, with the rise of its teams and the acquisition and merger of ESL and FACE IT, two major tournament organizers, in January 2022.
