Worlds 2024 could be heading back to London, igniting excitement among the UK League of Legends enthusiasts.
After the successful hosting of the Mid-Season Invitational in London’s Copper Box Arena, there are reports indicating that the League of Legends World Championship will be making its way back to the UK capital next year. Although the decision and logistics are not yet finalized since we are more nearly five months away from this year’s Worlds, trusted sources have revealed to Dom Sacco from Esports News UK that London is a highly likely candidate for hosting Worlds in 2024.
London proved to be a fantastic host city for MSI 2023, with a vibrant live crowd cheering for every team playing throughout the event. While there were some empty seats during the long Play-in Stage, the playoff games were played in front of a fully sold-out arena. The tournament, ultimately won by JDG, also broke the MSI viewership records with nearly 800k average viewers and 2.3M peak viewers, according to Esports Charts.
During a press conference held at MSI 2023, the Global Head of League of Legends Esports Naz Aletaha expressed Riot Games’ interest in returning to the UK for future events. Aletaha emphasized the importance of hosting events in regions where fans from various countries can come together to support their favorite teams. She stated, “We want fans to be able to travel in if they can, and we want to of course bring the best of League of Legends to all the local fans here. So you can definitely expect us to come back [to London].”
According to Esports News UK’s report, Riot has been in discussions with the UK government and entities such as the Greater London Authority, the regional governing body of Greater London, and London & Partners, an organization funded by GLA to promote London across the world. Although London & Partners commented, “we are not aware of any decisions that have been made for the 2024 season, but we’d be delighted to continue to support Riot Games,” when reached out by Esports News UK.
One source mentioned in the reporting claimed that the O2 Arena would be the venue for the Finals week of Worlds 2024, with the other stages taking place in other European cities such as Paris, Berlin and Barcelona. Worlds traveling multiple cities across a region is the usual way Riot organizes these events, World 2019 in Europe was held in Berlin and Madrid with a Finals week in Paris. Worlds 2019 was the last World Championship held in Europe with a crowd present since Worlds 2021 in Reykjavík, Iceland was during the pandemic.
There is no official communication from Riot about Worlds 2024 yet since the first upcoming tournament on the calendar is the 2023 World Championship in South Korea.
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