Riot Games recently announced that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Series would be moving from China to Europe, and it looks like Iceland might be hosting the event.
While Riot Games have yet to confirm if Iceland is where the tournament will play out, a Dot Esports report claims that will be the case. Given that several big League of Legends events have taken place in Iceland, including the Mid-Season Invitational back in May, it’s not hard to believe Riot Games would return for the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Series.
One thing’s for sure, though: shifting the event from one region to another is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We figured 2020 would be the hardest Worlds we’ve ever produced,” said John Needham, Global Head of Esports at Riot Games, in a press release. “With vaccines being distributed worldwide this year, we anticipated a return to some sort of “normal” in 2021. Well, unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. With the Delta variant, travel restrictions and COVID protocols have been even MORE complicated to navigate in 2021 than they were in 2020.”
You can watch Needham’s complete statement about moving the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Series from China to Europe below.
#Worlds2021 Update from John Needham. pic.twitter.com/9dCfH2nUTg
— LoL Esports (@lolesports) August 24, 2021
Like everything else in the world these days, COVID-19 continues to make live esports events challenging. Hopefully, by the time the 2022 League of Legends World Championships happen in North America, there will be some semblance of normalcy.
Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.
[mm-video type=video id=01fec4hhn2w231ze6azs playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01fec4hhn2w231ze6azs/01fec4hhn2w231ze6azs-7d3a33779d6d43653e176b299da9aa68.jpg]
[listicle id=1083617]