State of the Unions: ELEAGUE and Riot

Following lunch on day 2 of the Esports Business Summit, ELEAGUE gave a State of the Union on how their productions across online and linear media have been going for the past two years. It was a candid and transparent fireside chat that focused on some of their biggest hardships as well as their biggest wins. The representatives spoke about how they have begun tailoring content between different platforms as well as looking to increase production timeline. They also announced a partnership with Nintendo – this November they will be broadcasting Super Smash Brothers Ultimate on TBS leading up to the release of the game.

Next up, Riot started with their newest League of Legends music video, “Rise,” leading into a historical overview of League of Legends championship series. Beginning with light-hearted old questions like, “Can a player play barefoot?”, they showed the lineage of the LCS from humble beginning to 1.2 billion hours of Worlds footage watched last year. Ramping up to their 10-year anniversary, Riot and League of Legends are planting League of Legends as a major esports title for the foreseeable future. Riot has plans for their Chinese League to have multiple esports venues within the 2 years, making them one of the first developers to make a strong move forward to localizing esports.