LoL Worlds 2020 won't happen in Shanghai, China, future unknown

Steven Rondina Published 09/07/2020

The 2020 League of Legends World Championship will not be taking place in Shanghai this year.

The national government of China has cancelled all international sporting events scheduled for the country through the end of 2020. This includes Worlds 2020, leaving the fate of the largest League event of the year uncertain. This follows claims from Riot Games parent company Tencent Holdings stating that the event was still scheduled to go on as planned.

Tencent said yesterday that they still plan to hold the finals in Shanghai later this year.
That’s of course before the news today, but currently it is still scheduled to go ahead. https://t.co/SdzhgqiADQ — Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 9, 2020

The news should leave Riot Games and all stakeholders in the LoL pro scene a bit worried, if it should prove true. T1 CEO Joe Marsh has pushed back against the report, suggesting that it flew in the face of what he’d heard.

The entire League of Legends calendar is built around qualifying for Worlds each year, which is consistently one of the biggest esports events of every calendar year. A great demonstration of the importance of Worlds came earlier this year when the majority of players from North America’s LCS voted to cancel the 2020 LCS Spring Split due to its lack of relevance towards earning a spot in Worlds 2020.

The split was played out regardless of the vote, but some players lacked motivation due to the lack of impact on World Championship qualification.

Removing Worlds 2020 from the calendar entirely would leave pro players similarly frustrated across all regions. It would also rob teams from smaller leagues of the opportunity to compete with bigger names at a top event.

LoL Worlds 2020 may still happen, but not in China

Fans shouldn’t start panicking about Worlds 2020 being cancelled quite yet. The event can still potentially happen in one form or another.

The big challenge facing Riot Games is getting the players together in order to compete. While an online-only event would hypothetically be possible, lag and connectivity issues would likely mire it. Having teams from Vietnam play against teams in the United States, for example, would be very difficult.

This could be remedied by creating multiple miniature “Worlds” events, bringing together geographically linked regions into a series of events similar to the retired Rift Rivals concept.

It’s also possible that Riot will work with a different international government in order to make the 2020 World Championship happen. Though many countries have closed themselves off from international travel over recent months, a number of different nations have offered themselves up as a landing spot for international sporting events that have continued on despite health concerns.

i would also not be surprised with Riot being fully owned by China’s Tencent and the massive LoL Worlds event being coordinated in partnership with the Chinese government, that Worlds gets an exception and continues on as planned with a few changes https://t.co/BoXEFpujk7
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 9, 2020

Some fans and analysts have conjectured that it’s still possible that the Chinese government, which works closely with Riot owner Tencent Holdings, makes a one-off exception for Worlds 2020 to take place in Shanghai later in the year.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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