Wild Rift League Removes APAC Region, Introduces Grassroots Tournaments in Exchange

Riot Games officially announced that the APAC (Asia Pacific) Region shall no longer be part of the League of Legends: Wild Rift League (WRL) Esports Circuit. This means the region will rely on local esports organizers to keep the struggling esports scene going. 

This is not the first time Riot Games has decided to halt its Wild Rift League operations in a region. Back in 2023, the publisher also decided to exclude non-Asian regions from its mobile esports league. This caused quite a backlash from fans who were looking forward to a bigger esports roadmap for Wild Rift in 2024.

Riot Games announces removal of APAC region from WRL

Through a post on the official Wild Rift Esports website, Riot Games unveiled its plans for the WRL and the APAC region.

“For the past year, we’ve focused on Wild Rift esports in APAC and China through the WRL, while other regions have focused on third-party competitions."

"While we’ve seen some incredible competition in the WRL, we’ve also seen that our grassroots and community-focused events in a number of regions have been very successful. We’ve decided to expand that approach to APAC,” stated the post.

This change means that China shall be the sole region participating in the WRL as the APAC region will settle with community-driven tournaments. 

The post explained how grassroots or community-driven tournaments have been quite successful in some regions and Riot Games is looking to apply this to the APAC region, believing this is the best course of action.

“Our goal has always been to ensure Wild Rift players can participate in competition and foster a robust sense of community and belonging."

"We believe that pivoting to the model that relies on grassroots and community-led competition is the most sustainable and enabling path for APAC moving forward, giving players time and the space to grow and establish what role high-level competition will play in their community,” Riot Games wrote.

Riot Games unveils local Wild Rift Esports 2024 Roadmap

Following the announcement of the WRL changes, the roadmap for the Wild Rift esports scene for various regions has been unveiled. 

For the Philippines, there are four events that fans can look forward to including a 4th Anniversary event alongside the second season of Arcane.

According to the post, starting in May, a tournament titled Wild Rounds: Grand Slam will be unveiled followed by more community tournaments in the third quarter of 2024. 

The fourth quarter will then be followed by the highly-anticipated 4th Anniversary celebration alongside the welcoming of the second season of Arcane, Riot Game’s award-winning Netflix series.

More details about the upcoming Wild Rift esports tournaments shall be unveiled at a later date. Fans will have to keep their eyes peeled for more updates in the near future.