Riot Games is considering adding a women’s League of Legends global esports circuit, similar to its Valorant Game Changers initiative.
Esports News UK sources said that such a move was discussed internally by Riot a little while back, but today’s announcement that G2 Esports have signed a women’s League of Legends team has taken the idea forward.
The timing of the launch of the league has not been set in stone yet, however.
Separate to a global circuit, Riot is also considering adding other isolated tournaments for female players, but plans around these are still in the works.
Currently there is no official women’s League of Legends circuit by Riot Games. There have been a few third-party women-only LoL tournaments over the years, such as FemaleLegends at DreamHack, ESWC Paris, and more recently the GirlGamer Oradea Festival EU LoL tournament. This was won by the roster that later signed to G2 and will include a world final later this year, but it’s not an official women’s Worlds tournament.
In the UK, at a student level, there are also NUEL’s Women and Non-Binary university tournaments in League of Legends and Valorant.
Sources said that Game Changers coming to EU League of Legends in particular is something that has ‘definitely’ been discussed further and may be likelier than ever following the G2 announcement.
One point of contention that may have prevented such a circuit from being developed and announced so far is that whether the MENA region would be involved, with any potential finals in the Middle East making it difficult for LGBTQ+ players to compete.
In July, Rocket League team Moist Esports declined to play at Saudi’s GWB event, with UK coach Noah vowing “not to associate with a country that doesn’t recognise LGBTQ+ people as human beings”.
Riot’s Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Game Changers women’s circuit was first launched in North America in early 2021, and was added to the EMEA region following its success. Back in May 2022, G2 Gozen won a record three VCT Game Changers tournaments in a row, beating UK org Guild again in the final.
It’s also worth mentioning there have been difficulties with Riot verifying non-binary players in EMEA: VCT Game Changers EU currently prevents non-binary players from competing, and that could be the same for League as well.
Yesterday, UK esports organisation Resolve announced they were withdrawing from women’s League of Legends due to a lack of developer support and tournaments.
Resolve operations director Jeff Simpkins said: “A dissapointing decision to have to make. Such a lack of support by Riot and tournament organisers generally for the women’s scene in League of Legends right now.”
Perhaps now they may reconsider.
H2K founder Richard Wells previously said it’s a big goal of his for 2022 to start work to help get more female LoL players competing at the top level, and this comment on the LoL subreddit claims Rich mentioned he was working with Riot for a female League scene. We’ve reached out to Rich for clarification.
Esports News UK has also reached out to Riot for comment on a potential women’s LoL circuit and will update this article if we hear back.
Dom is an award-winning writer who graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV as well as Riot Games and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Association up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and as an esports consultant helping brands and businesses better understand the industry.
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