Riot Games will publish League of Legends in Southeast Asia starting January 2023. This is the largest MOBA game that has changed hands since Garena’s twelve-year tenure.
Riot Games will be publishing in Southeast Asia with League of Legends starting January 2023. This marks the end of a 12-year partnership for the largest MOBA. Garena has been handling the Southeast Asia servers of League of Legends since its 2009 launch. Many players in the region have expressed frustration at the lack of consistency. Riot’s newest games, including Valorant (and League of Legends: Wild Rift), have been published in the region. Both League and TFT will follow their lead.
Riot announced its announcement in. It stated that it wants to make sure that players in Southeast Asia have the same League experience and TFT experience that people in other countries have. Riot also plans to establish new offices in key countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia to ensure that these territories have their own Riot team.
Players from affected territories will have to migrate their League accounts to Riot. They will also be given a series of in-game rewards and a host of local events to celebrate the transfer. The League of Legends website has a migration tutorial as well as a FAQ. Players from SEA who have accounts on servers in the region will be able to transfer to the SEA server. However, the transfer is only one-way. Players will not be able to transfer back once they have moved.
Riot assures players that cosmetics, loot, and RP will all be transferred over. This includes summoner names as well as your associated friend list. It does note that Garena’s Shells currency can not be transferred into Riot Points. Also, players are warned that no compensation will be given if they do not complete the process by December 31.
Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad called it “a big move from Riot” and one that made sense for the company. He also noted that Garena is still partnered with Tencent, Riot Games’ parent company, for many more titles. Fans are thrilled to be “free” from Garena, as League Reddit posts are filled with players exclaiming they are finally free from Garena. They cite issues with Garena, limited skins, and slow patch times, among other concerns.