Riot Games reportedly accepted a deal to send League of Legends teams to the Saudi-backed Esports World Cup, and the community has criticized the decision.
Jacob Wolf reported on Jan. 2 that Riot is still “working through details” of how specifically the teams will participate in the upcoming tournament. Nevertheless, two representatives from the LCS, the LEC, the LPL, and the LCK are set to attend the event. At the time of publication, it remains to be seen which squads will take part.
The report caused a stir in the community, with players and fans on social media pointing fingers at Riot for siding with Saudi Arabia while failing to partner with third-party organizers in the past. Fans criticized the developer for reportedly cooperating directly with the Saudi government, which has a history of human rights violations.
“Awful news. If you are taking money from the Saudi Government you are taking money directly from Human Rights abuse. I hope this is quickly responded to and cancelled/shown to be just a rumor as that is the only correct decision,” one fan said on Reddit.
Others said the deal was inevitable: “Anyone genuinely surprised by this clearly hasn’t been aware of what’s been happening in other esports spaces. It was never a matter of if, only when,” freelance esports caster Shibby said on X (formerly Twitter).
The Esports World Cup was announced in October and was said to be a successor to summer’s Gamers8 event. It featured tournaments for other esports games, including CS:GO, Fortnite, and Rocket League. With many other esports game developers partnering with Saudi Arabia, it was only a matter of time before Riot followed suit.
Following the backlash, many are wondering how Riot will react to the situation, given the quick end of its partnership with NEOM in 2020. The deal lasted just 14 hours before the developer cut ties with the Saudi-backed project.
