FOLLOWING RIOT Games’ big announcement that it is re-orienting the Wild Rift esports scene to focus exclusively on Asia, Tier One Entertainment co-founder and chief executive officer Tryke Gutierrez followed up with big news of his own.
“We will also be announcing a Wild Rift team soon,” he said in a Facebook post.
Gutierrez also spoke on the impact of Riot Games’ announcement.
“Out of all the years I've been in esports, this is my first time to hear a publisher as big as Riot Games say that they will have an immense focus on Asia,” said Gutierrez. “Riot being responsible for the growth of esports in League of Legends PC makes this super exciting for organizations like us.”
Riot Games had announced that, come April 2023, Wild Rift Esports will be replaced by the Wild Rift Asia League, which will be composed of 20 teams from across the region, including 12 from China.
Blacklist International Wild Rift will benefit from 'strong esports ecosystem'
Gutierrez was confident that Riot Games’ experience in creating a “strong ecosystem” in the West would port over to the new league.
“This is a start of new opportunities for esports here in this part of the world,” he said.
Earlier this year, Gutierrez and fellow Tier One co-founder Alodia Gosiengfiao said that Tier One would definitely enter the Wild Rift space.
Tier One and Blacklist International will certainly boost an already stacked PH scene. Pinoys have been at the forefront of Wild Rift, starting with the former Team Secret's performance in Horizon Cup. RRQ Philippines and Nigma Galaxy have continued Pinoy dominance with their recent string of wins, including their current top 4 placing in the League stage of the ongoing Wild Rift Circuit Asia Open.
In a post last week, Gutierrez also announced that they were taking over RSG’s slot in the Dota 2 space, and will field a team in the DPC Southeast Asia’s Division 1 regional league. With Blacklist International now getting into Wild Rift, the Codebreakers’ banner is soaring higher than ever.
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