During these uncertain times, it’s a bit weird to report the news about an event being not canceled. Riot Games decided to keep moving forward and organize its annular League of Legends World Championship event despite the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent video published on League of Legends esports’ Twitter account, Riot announced the dates and venues for the event.
According to Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent and Global Head of Esports John Needham, the event will take place in Shanghai between September 25th and October 31st. While the original plan was to host the competition in multiple venues across China, Riot Games decided to host the entire competition in one city in order to “reduce travel and better control the show environment”.
The information provided states that the early stages of the competition will not have any live audiences. However, there’s still a chance to have a big finale featuring a huge crowd of League of Legends fans. According to Riot Games, this will depend on the situation of the pandemic and “local guidelines”.
We can be sure that this year the biggest esports competition in the world will be different, but Riot Games vowed to return to normal next year. The company hopes to fulfill its promise and bring the best League of Legends teams on a multi-city tourn across China in 2021 and announced its plans to host League of Legends World Championship 2022 in North America.
We can only hope that the current situation remains stable and League of Legends fans across the globe will get to see the culmination of the 2020s season. Some may even get lucky and get to purchase a ticket to the new Pudong Soccer Stadium where the grand finals are set to take place. We have our fingers crossed.
