League of Legends Worlds moved to Europe

Riot Games has announced that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship will be moved from China to Europe.

The event informally known as Worlds was scheduled to be hosted in China for the second consecutive year but the company has decided to move due to Covid-19 concerns.

In a video update on YouTube, Riot’s global head of esports John Needham explained that travel restrictions and the rising delta variant has made it impossible to hold the event in China. 

He said: “After considering all potential options, we concluded that moving Worlds to Europe provided the best opportunity for the most teams and their best players to compete. We’re not ready to announce where in Europe Worlds will be held this year, but accessibility for the highest number of teams and their best players will be the key deciding factor.”

Worlds is consistently one of the most-watched events in the esports calendar with lavish production more commonly associated with major sports events including tech like mixed reality and holograms. Esports Charts reported that the 2020 edition was watched by a peak audience of 3.8 million with an average audience of more than 1.1 million viewers.