Riot Games
Riot Games released their premier MOBA game League of Legends in October 2009. Then there was only one server that was located within California, USA.
Players from Southeast Asia had to endure 150 to 200 Pings in order to play LoL until a year later, in 2010, when Garena, an Singapore-based game developer and publisher has taken charge of the production and distribution League of Legends in Southeast Asia.
In the process of setting up dedicated servers across the majority of SEA countries The players have been enjoying the lowest ping levels since the year 2010. However, the technical players, player, esports and infrastructure support from the third-party publishers decreased in time.
Over 12 years later, and to the delight of its local players, LoL is finally going back into the hands Riot Games, starting in January 2023. With Riot Games’ Riot Games’ official Riot Games game client players will have the ability to play League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Valorant as well as Legends of Runeterra for PC.
After 12 long years, League of Legends returns to its parent company in Southeast Asia
At its height, Garena spearheaded the first-ever LoL Esports League in 2012 The Garena Premiere League (GPL) prior to the time even the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) was even in existence.
National teams such as Singapore Sentinels, Taipei Assassins, ahq eSports Club, Saigon Jokers, GIGABYTE Marines, Kuala Lumpur Hunters, and the Bangkok Titans made a name for themselves within the GPL. In the exact year, in 2012 Taipei Assassins did the region proud when they won the second world championship of the LoL.
TSM’s head coach in 2022, Singaporean Wong “Chawy” Xing Lei started his professional game in GPL before transferring to the League of Legends Master Series (LMS) that was launched in the year 2015. With the help of ahq, he had the opportunity to play at Worlds in 2017 before resigning to become an official coach.
In the year 2018 Vietnam created its own league called the Vietnam Championship Series. The league was given Wildcard Region status with a quicker route to Worlds. In the year 2019, LMS as well as LST and the League of Legends SEA Tour (LST) were merged to create the Pacific Championship Series (PCS).
The return of the two titles is also a sign it is likely that Riot Games will take charge of the corresponding leagues for esports. Participants can look forward to more community events, tournaments for collegiate teams as well as offline events. For the VCS players, they not only have the opportunity to take over operations and ownership as well as in charge of its marketing and production initiatives, Alex Kraynov, Managing Director for APAC, Riot Games, said to ONE the world of esports.
“We are thankful for Garena’s collaboration and publishing support throughout the last decade. Their efforts have created an amazing collection composed of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics players from Southeast Asia, and the game’s success would have been unattainable without them.” Alex added. Alex.
“Over the last few months, Riot has also worked hard to improve our capabilities throughout the region, creating strong local teams as well as an extensive partnership network. We are now convinced that it is the best time to be able to control publication of League as well as TFT across Southeast Asia, as part of our expansion into Asia Pacific.”
To Taiwan as well as Vietnam in particular, Riot Games told ONE Esports in an exclusive interview that for it to “comply with local rules” the company has chosen Taiwan Mobile and VNGGames as the new producers for League of Legends and TFT in both countries.
In the course of this move, Riot will launch its own League of Legends and TFT servers. The existing Garena servers will be shut down at the end of January 2023. Players who want retain their account as well as their information will need be linked to an Riot ID.
Be assured that everything in your account will remain including:
- Cosmetic Content, also known as skins. Riot will also offer you a bonus loot reward equal to the value the cosmetic contents.
- Loot Inventory that includes the essence balances
- RP
- Champion Mastery, Eternals, Level
- Summoner Name
- Friends List
The process of linking accounts will begin on the 18th of November 2022.
The complete step-by-step migration tutorial as well as FAQs can be found at Riot’s official microsite for Account Migration here.
The players are encouraged to transfer their accounts as quickly as they can, and expect the special welcome rewards in-game.