AND THEN THERE WAS ONE.
Riot Games has announced that they will be removing APAC from the Wild Rift League circuit (WRL). The announcement comes in a post on the Wild Rift Esports website.
“For the past year, we’ve focused on Wild Rift esports in APAC and China through the WRL, while other regions have focused on third-party competitions."
"While we’ve seen some incredible competition in the WRL, we’ve also seen that our grassroots and community-focused events in a number of regions have been very successful. We’ve decided to expand that approach to APAC,” the post states.
In a post on the Wild Rift Esports official website, Riot has explained the decision is the most sustainable path in the APAC region.
“Our goal has always been to ensure Wild Rift players can participate in competition and foster a robust sense of community and belonging."
"We believe that pivoting to the model that relies on grassroots and community-led competition is the most sustainable and enabling path for APAC moving forward, giving players time and the space to grow and establish what role high-level competition will play in their community,” the post adds.
What this means for Wild Rift in APAC
With the announcement, China will once again be the sole region in the WRL while APAC will follow the “grassroots” approach from the West.
This means that effectively, APAC teams will now only focus on localized community tournaments.
Just in the last couple of months, several APAC teams have already dropped their Wild Rift teams including powerhouses of Vietnam Team Flash and Thailand’s Buriram United.
As of writing, no Filipino team has officially announced any roster movement.
The announcement is a blow to the already struggling scene, effectively killing (hopefully not permanently) the international scene. The ball is now at the hands of local organizers whether or not they can continue to sustain the community scene.
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