Recently, on her personal page, MC Minh Nghi officially announced her departure from VNGGames after many years of association. It can be said that the departure of the most prominent female MC in League of Legends Vietnam from the prestigious publisher also means that she has decided to part ways once again with the most famous Esports title in Vietnam. This is truly a regrettable situation for the VCS community. Since VNGGames was chosen by Riot as a partner to take over and re-release League of Legends as well as restart the VCS tournament, MC Minh Nghi has been regarded as the visual face of this game.
Thus, at this time, the VCS has officially lost 2/3 of the female MCs who participated when the tournament was restarted by Riot in Vietnam in 2023. While the situation with MC Remind faced backlash from the community, the case of MC Minh Nghi leaves many regrets. Particularly, this raises many questions about how VNGGames has been operating the tournament, as clearly both major Esports titles managed by this publisher are showing significant issues, namely League of Legends and League of Legends: Wild Rift.
It is remembered that during the period when news about Riot and VNGGames would jointly take over and re-release League of Legends in Vietnam broke, both parties communicated very strongly about this event and made the community more confident about the bright prospects of Vietnamese players joining the international atmosphere. But at this point, League of Legends remains the same and Vietnamese gamers have become accustomed to significantly fewer events compared to the time under Garena, which everyone understands is primarily due to the policies of Riot and VNGGames being “unable to act.”
As for the tournament, while VNGGames cannot directly impact the operation of the VCS, it is clear that this publisher has the right to voice opinions. And until now, the accompanying programs for the Spring 2024 VCS have completely disappeared. When comparing to the VCS in 2023, especially during the time of the 2023 World Championship, the differences are striking. Currently, the accompanying programs for the Spring 2024 tournament only include mic check clips, fun/fail or “trash talk” that have long existed.
Looking at the games considered “counterparts” to League of Legends in Vietnam, such as Arena of Valor, it is clearly a different world. Recently, Arena of Valor collaborated with a series of prominent artists from the New Year celebration as well as many famous faces like Do Mixi, Hau Hoang… for a program welcoming the Lunar New Year 2024 – something that League of Legends fans can only dream of. And certainly, this falls under the communication category – which is the responsibility of VNGGames.
Or more recently, while League of Legends Vietnam says goodbye to 2 prominent MCs, Arena of Valor and Free Fire have just announced they will welcome new female MCs. If Free Fire has revealed the identity of YoonSul – the familiar MC who previously collaborated with Wild Rift, then the names joining AOG 2024 remain a mystery. But this also shows that Garena’s game titles clearly attract more compared to their direct competitors on the VNGGames side.
Continuing to lose a visual face of the tournament, after more than a year of managing League of Legends, VNGGames currently may only have the impressive accompanying programs from the first year left. Thus, League of Legends in Vietnam continues its existence thanks to what has been built in the past. As for the tournament, the audience may only have to accept “getting used to” before this publisher has more community-oriented communication activities.