Riot Games to hold its first mobile esports tournament for Wild Rift

Riot Games announced its first international tournament, for League of Legends: Wild Rift, in Singapore this year. The Wild Rift Horizon Cup will cap off the 2021 preseason and will begin on November 13, with the finals on November 21. This is Riot Games’ first mobile gaming esports tournament. Eight regions from around the world are already competing in their regional tournaments to qualify for the Wild Rift Horizon Cup. The top 10 teams from the regional qualifiers will head to the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Center to compete for the international title. The prize pool and the format of the tournament are yet to be announced. “The Wild Rift Horizon Cup is the first of many steps we will take to show how committed we are to our mobile fans around the world.” said Leo Faria, global head of Wild Rift Esports, in a press release. “We are excited to share more of what we’ve been preparing for the future of the sport later this year” An international tournament for Wild Rift comes as no surprise for fans of Riot Games. The mobile game joins the ranks of Valorant and League of Legends as a competitive esport on an international scale. League of Legends: Wild Rift was launched across multiple regions this year and has already shown that it is committed to the esports scene. League of Legends: Wild Rift is a version of League of Legends but was built for consoles and mobile from the ground up. The game already has over 70 iconic characters from the League of Legends roster and promises to release two champions per month. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has announced that eight video games will be included as medaled events for the Asian Games 2022. The games will be Street Fighter V, Hearthstone, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile Asian Games Version, Dota 2, League of Legends, Arena of Valor Asian Games Version, EA Sports FIFA, and Dream Three Kingdom 2. The Asian Games is a continental multisport event that is held every four years where athletes from Asia compete against each other in various sports for medals. It is very similar to the Olympics, however, it focuses solely on Asia. Video games have been part of the Asian Games in the past, but mainly were only demonstration events, so the medals won during these events were not counted toward countries’ medal total. League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced the five cities that will host this year’s League of Legends World Championship. The tournament will take place in the Chinese cities of Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Shenzen. The League of Legends World Championship takes place every year and pits the top teams from 12 regional leagues against each other. Every year, the location for this tournament changes regions and different cities host various events at different stages. Verizon and Riot Games are teaming up to offer training and mentorship for women in esports through an expansion of Verizon’s VCT Game Changers initiative. The objective is to train more female esports casters. The announcement comes from Verizon’s E3 keynote presentation, which featured several announcements. Chief among those is Verizon’s commitment to increasing female representation in the gaming industry and esports.