Riot Games has unveiled its first official off-season tournament series for Wild Rift, fresh off the back of the conclusion of the world’s first Wild Rift Icons Global Championship, which wrapped up in Singapore in July.
The Wild Circuit, as it’s called, is “a consolidated competition series hosted in the eight Wild Rift Esports regions, providing a stage for professional teams, and teams of all skill levels to show what they’ve got in the Mobile MOBA space and prepare for Season 2.”
According to Riot, third-party organisers will work with the different regions to host official events during the off-season, which stretches from 18 July to 23 October.
The events will have a prize pool although the exact number was not specified.
The Wild Circuit officially kicked off on 21 July and this is how the schedule looks like:
Brazil
- July 21 – Wild Circuit Qualifiers 1
- Aug 11 – Wild Circuit Qualifiers 2
- Aug 18 – Wild Circuit Qualifiers 3
- Sept/Oct – Wild Circuit Series
China
- July 29 – Snapdragon Pro Series
- Aug 1 – Huya The Legend Cup
- Aug 2 – Douyu Wild Rift Master Series
- Aug 19 – Weibo Cup
LATAM
- Aug – Movistar Super Series: Wild Rift
- Aug – Movistar Stars Cup
- Aug – ESL Play Americas
- Aug – The Thunder Rift
- Aug – Leyendas Salvajes Wild Rift
- Sept – Wild Rift Mayor League
North America
- July 29 – Wild Circuit Series – North America
- Sept 23 – Rift MSTRS Wild Rift
SEA/Korea/Japan
- Sept/Oct – Wild Circuit Asia Invitational 2022
It’s not really surprising that China is getting a series of events built around Wild Rift – the country is already host to the LoL Wild Rift League.
And while Riot has not published any official numbers about its player base, a recent Sensor Tower report said League of Legends: Wild Rift has generated about US$500 million in global lifetime revenue – pretty impressive, considering the game was only launched in late 2020.
The report also estimated that China accounted for 72% of the title’s revenue, generating over US$345M via Apple’s App Store alone.
Impressive, considering Wild Rift launched only a year ago in the Chinese market.
Leo Faria, the Director of Esports for Wild Rift at Riot Games had earlier said China was an outlier and the region being so strong was partly due to the country having a large population, with many who play video games so Riot was looking into ways to strengthen the other regions, including having more tournaments and international play.
Faria also said one of the biggest challenges was to promote the sport and develop an ecosystem for competitors because some regions needed more time to develop.
*Featured image from Riot Games
By Samantha Chan \ 10:30, 4 August 2022