Riot Games Will Focus Heavily In Asia For Wild Rift Esports

Riot Games’ President of Esports, John Needham has said that Wild Rift Esports will now focus more on Asia and will “wind down” their competitive operations in the rest of the world.

“A year ago, we launched the inaugural season of Wild Rift Esports, Riot’s first mobile esport. We went in with all the aspiration, ambition, and resources we provide our major esports. While we built an exciting sport across several regions this past year, we have decided to put our focus on where mobile esports and gaming are flourishing, and wind down our own competitive operations in the rest of the world.”

The mobile market has grown over the years in Asia with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang taking the lead for the MOBA genre in mobile and Riot Games hopes to capitalize on that by focus heavily in Asia.

“In 2023, we will centralize the operation and focus of Wild Rift Esports in Asia, the biggest and most active mobile esports market in the world. The new Wild Rift league in Asia will be the first Riot cross-regional professional mobile esports league and will replace the original Wild Rift Esports (WRE) in April of 2023. This new league ecosystem will consist of twelve teams from China’s WRL and eight teams from the other 2022 Asian regions. The season will be structured as two splits each year and will focus on showcasing the best talent from the most competitive regions in our sport.

Given the vigorous mobile esports market in Asia and the level of competition in these regions, as showcased at Icons 2022, we’re thrilled to bring interregional level play to the Wild Rift Esports regular season for the first time. The new Wild Rift Asian league will bring the intensity and hype of regional rivalries more regularly to our fans in Asia. We’ll have more details to share about this new league in early 2023!”

The Wild Rift community outside Asia however has reacted negatively from these news.

You guys have effectively killed any momentum you had to gain more eyes in the west. Instead of pushing your top stars in NA EU LATAM you’re relying on “big numbers” from Asia? Nice guys I hope mobile legends bang bang continues to beat you in court

— Brock (@_NerfMyDoritos) November 21, 2022

TSM Brasil has also pulled out from Wild Rift after the announcement.

“Today we announce our farewell to the Wild Rift scene.

It’s been 2 years of battles and conquests, of a family on and off the game. A beautiful story, an unforgettable chapter of #TSM in Brazil.

To our players, loyal fans and this beautiful community: thank you.”

Hoje anunciamos nossa despedida do cenário de Wild Rift.

Foram 2 anos de batalhas e conquistas, de uma família dentro e fora de jogo. Uma história linda, um capítulo inesquecível da #TSM no Brasil.

Aos nossos jogadores, aos fiéis torcedores e a esta linda comunidade: obrigado. pic.twitter.com/Yd4Pl1qfF4

— TSM Brasil 🇧🇷 🏆 (@TSM_BR) November 21, 2022