Riot Games’ Chris Greeley on massive new LoL esports changes - "We aspire to be a multi-generational sport" (Exclusive)

Riot Games announced a major overhaul today (June 11, 2024) of the professional esports competitive ecosystem for League of Legends, which has fans and pundits from around the globe talking. Esports, especially in North America, is facing many economic hurdles as sponsorship and venture capital monies have steadily dried up.

However, Riot Games has stood tall in the face of these economic headwinds, continuously attempting to change and adapt to find a winning formula that will see more fans in seats and watching online.

“So, I think with every change there's some kind of a motion with it, right? Change is hard,” Global Head of Strategy, League of Legends Chris Greeley told Sportskeeda.

“But I think we're creating a much better system and one that will be here a while. We aspire to be a multi-generational sport and I think this is the step we need to get there.”

Honestly, one could say that League of Legends esports is already cross-generational having started in 2011 with its first World Championship. And note that the Riot Games’ title has already stood the test of time, an outlier, that still has over 140 million worldwide players that play each month.

However, right now, a lot is up in the air in the world of esports. Between some organizations and esports titles folding up shop to Saudi Arabia making a play to be the largest player in the space, esports fans are looking for some hope. Sportskeeda was able to get some time with Greeley to explain what it is that Riot Games is doing and why.

Is having fewer leagues and teams best for competitive League of Legends esports or is Riot Games simply trying to save money? What follows is what Greeley had to say on those topics and more.

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Greeley discusses Riot Games' recent changes to the LoL esports scene

Q: What is it that Riot Games is doing with the League of Legends esports ecosystem and why?

Esports fans at League of Legends World Championship 2023 Finals in Seoul, South Korea. (Image via Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

Greeley: We've got a couple of great things coming. New international events, Regional Championships, three splits, right? So, focusing on creating more international competition for fans, more cross-regional competition for our teams, more opportunities for them to build fandom and other places, and with the introduction of Fearless Draft, we think there are some really exciting things coming.

[League of Legends] is the No. 1 esport in the world and we don’t want to rest on our laurels. We think it's our job to continue to innovate and to create something entertaining for fans.

Netflix used to make the joke that their only competition was sleep. There's a lot of competition for the attention of our fans. Between games, movies, streaming, and social media platforms, we need to do a lot of things to make sure that there's a reason to keep tuning in.

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Q: Some are worried about consolidating the number of leagues and teams in top-tier professional League of Legends. Why is this happening?

Greeley: In terms of the consolidation, there were probably not a lot of Western folks following the Pacific Championship Series in the Spring split.

But the way the PCS is structured right now is the League of Legends Japan League, the League of Legends Circuit Oceania, they play in through the PCS playoffs. So they have their own domestic season and then they play through the playoffs. [The new league from Riot Games will see more inter-regional competition instead of simply playing in domestic leagues where teams got international competition only when making the playoffs.]

They're building a lot of really great rivalries in that region. Now we get to add Vietnam to it as well and create a system that I think will reward all the fans in that region for hanging in for so long.

From day one, you’ll get to watch your favorite teams from all over Southeast Asia play each other. There are a lot of great players who've only got to match up in international events and now we're going to get to see them a lot.

On the Americas side, outside again of international events, we've never gotten to see the biggest brands in the Americas battle it out with each other. So, getting to watch potentially maybe Loud and Cloud9, I think will be really exciting for fans there.

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Q: One of the things I have been hearing from owners and organizations for the past two years is how can we make esports and by extension League of Legends more sustainable so that they can survive financially.

Do these changes address that in some way?

League of Legends World Championship 2023 Finals in Seoul, South Korea. (Image via Liu YiCun/Riot Games)

Greeley: There is a sustainability aspect to it. Our ecosystem was really, really big two years ago. We had something like 117 teams. We had 12 Tier-1 leagues across the world and that's enormous. We've gotten more focused on sustainability. Our teams have also gotten a lot more focused on the same and being able to consolidate our Tier-1 ecosystem into something that I think is more manageable.

So, we're going to get down to just over 60 teams in five leagues across the world. Back in March, John (John Needham, President of Esports for Riot Games) announced the formation of a Global Revenue Pool. Getting down to that 60-ish teams allows the Global Revenue Pool to really kick in and start to create sustainability.

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Q: Is Riot Games throttling back from esports or is it still an important part of what Riot Games is doing?

Greeley: I don't want to be disparaging to any teams, but ultimately, I think this is going to create a higher talent density. We're going to see more competitive matchups. I think a lot of the brands that fans love are still going to be there and now we're adding to it two important things.

One is great pan-regional competition. So outside of our three international events, you're going to get to see cross-regional matchups from the North and South Conferences in the Americas at least twice a year. The other really interesting piece of it in both APAC and the Americas is the promotion-relegation system.

I think we've given a big boost to our Tier-2 system. It's always been a great talent developer, but now the competition feels like the stakes are higher. You're going to start to get turnover into Tier-1 as teams are able to move up.

I think we're going to see a lot of fresh storylines as well. So yes, the ecosystem is getting smaller in some pieces. But I like to think we're kind of concentrating the goodness and really pulling together something that's a lot more entertaining and interesting.