Not long ago, Riot made an important announcement affecting the League of Legends scene in smaller regions and wildcard teams. Starting in 2025, only the four Major regions will remain unchanged. Almost all Minor and Wildcard regions will be merged to create larger and more unified regions according to Riot’s regulations. This policy has been applied to VALORANT, and now Riot has decided to bring it back for League of Legends. While this has its benefits, it inevitably comes with negative impacts for smaller regions in general and VCS in particular.
Recently, Riot further updated the future of VCS. Specifically, according to the Director of Riot’s APAC region, Mr. Ban “ChisinX” Chee, the first dedicated APAC tournament will be held in Taipei, Taiwan in 2025, and Riot, along with its partners, is actively accelerating the construction of a new stadium there. Additionally, in his announcement, Mr. ChisinX noted that Riot will bring more events and programs to VCS during the 2025 – 2026 period.
However, in reality, this may not be positive news for VCS. For some players who have competed in many countries around the world (Levi, Kiaya, Kati, Shogun…), VCS Summer 2024 and perhaps subsequent years will see many young players competing professionally for the first time, and even experiencing international competitions for the first time. These players, for various reasons, will face more visa issues compared to their teammates and this could severely impact team rosters if next year’s APAC tournament is entirely held in Taipei, Taiwan.
However, if Riot has personally announced this, it may not change. Therefore, from this moment, VCS teams may need to start preparing for their journey at the 2024 World Championship as well as international tournaments from 2025 onwards.