The 2021 League of Legends World Championship is set to move from its original location in China to Europe, according to sources telling Upcomer.
Riot Games, the game’s developer, ran into difficulties securing travel visas for an allotment of people. From production staff to qualified teams, with less than a few months before the tournament’s commencement, Riot was still working to resolve how they could all enter China smoothly.
Unfortunately, such a resolution never materialized as Riot eventually made the decision to relocate to Europe, where it lasted the tournament at the Shanghai in 2019 across three countries (Germany, Spain, and France).
For Worlds 2020 in China, most of its stages were held in an enclosed studio in Shanghai to preserve COVID-19 preventative measures. In the Grand Finals, it was staged at the Pudong Football Stadium in front of a live audience of 6,312 people that saw DAMWON Gaming defeat Suning in four games to win the title.
Worlds 2021 was originally slated to take place in multiple cities throughout the East Asian country, with the Grand Finals being staged in Shenzhen at the Universiade Sports center in the Guangdong province. In May, Riot announced Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, and Chengdu as the other cities hosting the event’s other stages from Play-Ins to the semifinals.
With the tournament moving to Europe for Worlds 2021, it becomes unclear as to what will happen to next year’s edition, in which is North America slated to be the hosting region. Riot return to China this year to fully bring a “live sporting experience” following the more restricted 2020 edition. With this setback, Riot may opt to push back NA’s hosting the tournament to 2023 to give China another chance of hosting in 2022.
“We’ll share official updates tomorrow on our socials,” a Riot representative said in a statement delivered to Upcomer.
