The 2020 League of Legends World Championship, an esports tournament hosted by Riot Games, will be held in Shanghai in 2020 and 2021.
Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent and Global Head of Esports John Needham discussed the plans in a video, which you can check out below.
The 2020 World Championship will be held exclusively in Shanghai, and the top teams from the regional leagues will compete in the premier LoL Esports competition.
The final sessions of the 10th season of the League of Legends World Championship will begin on September 25. The final competition will be held on October 31 at Pudong Soccer Stadium.
Hosting the esports event in a single city will reduce travel throughout the tournament, and allow LoL Esports to control the show environment amid COVID-19.
The earlier stages of the tournament will focus on digital viewer experiences and will not be played in front of a live audience. LoL says it continues to innovate the viewer experience.
The World Championship will return to China in 2021 for the full multi-city World Championship tour, and North America will host the World Championship in 2022.
World Championship held at Pudong Soccer Stadium
According to SHINE, this will help Shanghai to establish itself as an “international esports capital” with an improving esports industry chain.
Chinese teams won the previous two finals of the League of Legends World Championship, which were held in South Korea and France.
Shanghai has taken various measures to support the esports industry, including increasing venues, holding top events and setting up esports majors in colleges.
Tencent has also announced the debut of its esports hall V-Station in Shanghai on October 1. Tencent said China will surpass North America to become the world’s top esports market on commercial value.
“Esports has become the most potential sub-category of gaming, with many business models and opportunities,” said Xiao Hong, CEO of the Perfect World.
Esports is a global multi-billion dollar industry. It is growing in popularity and is set to challenge the NFL with a predicted 300 million viewers by 2022.
Japan is also launching an economic plan to expand its esports industry with the private sector, in a bid to generate $2.6bn (¥285bn) in economic benefits annually by 2025.
