The continuous absence of VCS at international tournaments over the past two years, attributed to “travel restrictions”, has led to significant criticism of Riot Games regarding their preparations for the tournament. However, the deeper reasons behind this situation are known only to those involved. Whether Riot Games is truly stingy or careless in their organization remains to be seen, but this will serve as another example to evaluate the issue.
According to information from journalist Kristine Tuting of OneEsports regarding the four LCK teams that Riot “accompanied” from Korea to Iceland for Worlds 2021, the creator of League of Legends reportedly spent around 345,000 USD (equivalent to 7.8 billion VND) just to facilitate the travel of the Korean players.
Specifically, the flights for the LCK teams were private flights. Riot Games chartered a private jet to transport the players to Iceland, and this jet was a luxury civilian aircraft – the Crystal Skye Boeing 777, with a rental cost of 23,000 USD per flight hour. The journey from Korea to Reykjavik, Iceland took 13 hours, and the total flight cost was 345,000 USD, all covered by Riot Games.
The Crystal Skye Boeing 777 is a luxury aircraft designed specifically for private flights, featuring a total of 88 seats and amenities equivalent to a 5-star hotel. During MSI 2021, RNG also rented a private jet to bring the entire team to Iceland, with an estimated total cost of around 200,000 USD.
At Worlds 2021, aside from the 4 LCK teams, Riot did not announce any support for the travel of other teams. The reason seems to be that the teams themselves preferred to control their schedules, opting for “self-arranged” flights, such as the 4 LPL teams.
Riot’s “lavish spending” of nearly 8 billion VND just to facilitate the travel of the LCK teams could be seen as proof that this game publisher is willing to spend generously to support the organization of Worlds. However, some opinions suggest that Riot is only genuinely concerned about major regions; had it not been for the LCK but rather VCS or Wild-card regions, they might not have received the same privileges.