Huge blow for Esports fans as Wild Rift has recently announced the discontinuation of its Esports support in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The Wild Rift League (WRL) Asia, once covering both China and APAC, will now exclude APAC, essentially ending Riot’s esports backing for that region and making way for localized tournaments.
In the official statement, the team mentioned that for the past year, the focus has been on esports activities of Wild Rift in APAC and China by way of the WRL while other regions rely on third-party competitions. At the same time, the WRL has been able to bear fruit since grassroots and community events have been successful across many regions.
In light of this, the decision has been made to expand this grassroots approach to the APAC region as well. The decision is so that Wild Rift players can actively participate in competitions while “fostering a strong sense of community and belonging”, as per the statement. The shift towards grassroots and community-led competitions was seen as the most sustainable and empowering path forward for APAC.
As of this announcement, once again, China will be the region holding a monopoly in the WRL, and, as a result, it means the adoption of the grassroots approach that is currently in the West. Hence, APAC teams will now mainly participate in localized community tournaments.
To be fair, this is bad news for Esports fans in the region. Last year, there were also talks about the downfall of Wild Rift Esports in the West, especially after the official announcement of the team’s decision to concentrate solely on the Asia region, recognized as the most vibrant mobile esports market., but now even that’s limited to China.
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