How to Migrate Your Account From Garena to Riot Games

Riot Games announced that its partnership with Garena is coming to a close after 12 long years and that it will self-publish League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics (TFT) in Southeast Asia (SEA). As a result, players will need to transition their accounts from Garena to Riot Games. Welcoming players with open arms, Riot Games has planned a suite of in-game rewards as a gift for players after their account transition is complete. Additionally, the company is also planning some welcome events and local activities to further enhance the player experience.

“We’re excited to integrate players from Southeast Asia deeper into the Riot ecosystem. That includes everything from large in-game events and cross-product campaigns, to fan-favorite policies like art for RP, and so much more,” said Riot Games.

Everything you need to know about the account migration from Garena to Riot Games

Riot Games’ contract with Garena ends in January 2023 and it will take over League of Legends and TFT publishing in Southeast Asia (Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, and Vietnam) once the contract has ended. 

As a result, both titles – League of Legends and TFT – will be available through the Riot multigame client, a single sign-on platform where all the games are housed. To download the multi-game client, players can navigate to www.riotgames.com.

How to migrate your account?

Riot Games stated that it is working closely with Garena on the account migration process so that players can retain their account data. The company has an Account Migration Microsite to help players migrate their Garena account information to new or existing Riot IDs. 

Let’s see how it’s going to work:

• Firstly, the migration services from Garena to Riot Games require accounts to be linked in order for account data to be synced and transferred.

• Riot Games encourages all players to complete this migration before December 2022.

• Notably, the account migration process begins on 18th November.

• The progression freeze will happen in early January 2023

• The new servers will open in early January.

Pre-link checklist for Account Migration

Before connecting your accounts, there are a few things you must have first:

• A Garena League of Legends account with account progression
  Players should note that their Garena account must show some signs of progression (champion mastery, ranked games in match history, honor or challenge progress, etc) or include unlocked/purchased content (RP, skins, TFT Coins, etc) to be eligible for a transfer. If neither is true, then there will be nothing for you to link/migrate to your Riot Account.

• A Riot account with the same shard as your Garena League Account
  If you already have a Riot Account with League of Legends progress or content, your two accounts must have the same shard for linking to work. Region lock exists to some extent in Riot Games accounts. If there is a mismatch of shards between the Riot account and the Garena account, players will have to make a new Riot account to connect to. Note that if you try to connect to a new account, or to an account with no connected League of Legends account, its shard will automatically convert to match your Garena account’s shard.

Players can check their Riot and Garena account shard/regions to see if they match. In the Riot account, your shard/region is located in the Personal Information tab in Account Management, and in the Garena account, you can find your shard/region in the General settings. The region is based on your IP, while a shard is based on the region you selected in the settings.

Once you've confirmed the eligibility of both your accounts by following the above-mentioned steps, you'll be able to link your account on Garena Client starting from 18th November 2022 at 10 am UTC+8 till early January 2023.

Linking Garena and Riot Accounts

• Log in to the Garena Client.

• Select League of Legends.

• Select Start Linking to go to the account linking page.

• You might be directed to follow a series of prompts regarding your Garena Account. Complete these to continue.

• Confirm your desired League of Legends Garena Account (Remember: Accounts can only be linked once. Previously linked accounts will not be eligible at this step)

• Log in to your desired Riot Account or create a new one.

• Follow the prompts to prepare your account for linking.

• Continue until you reach the ‘Ready to Link?’ page, where you can see all the changes that will be made to your account.

• If everything looks right, click Link Accounts. 

• Your accounts are now connected.

Players should note that for a few days in early January 2023, no account progression or purchases will be tracked for the migration. This means any progression/purchases you make during this time, whether it be climbing through ranked, getting new skins, or unlocking challenges, will NOT count post-migration. Riot Games will inform players when these dates approach.

What can you retain?

Some of the items that are retainable include but are not limited to:

• Cosmetic Content

• Loot Inventory 

• RP

• Champion Mastery, Eternals, and Account Level

• Summoner Name

• Friends List

Riot Games has announced that your account contents will be merged, overwritten, or added accordingly.

Your Garena League summoner name will be reserved for you if you played at least one game between 1st January 2021 and 6th January 2023. In this case, your Riot League summoner name will be overwritten with your existing Garena League summoner name, enabling you to continue your legacy on the new servers.

Additionally, your Garena League friend list will overwrite your Riot League friend list, but it will only be populated with friends who have also migrated.

Notably, once the transition period concludes, Garena League accounts will no longer be active. Players based in Southeast Asia, but playing on accounts outside of the region, will be able to transfer their League of Legends accounts to the SEA server. However, this is a one-way transfer only. Accounts from other regions can be transferred to SEA, but cannot be transferred out once completed. 

This transition also brings about new monetization methods to ensure that players receive an authentic Riot-published gaming experience. As a result, Garena Shells will not be eligible for conversion to Riot Points but can still be used on other Garena games.