Following the announcement that the 2021 League of Legends World Championship will be held in Europe instead of China, Riot Games has decided to once again rely on Iceland as its venue, sources tell Dot Esports.
Less than a week ago, Riot Games confirmed (following a report from Upcomer) that Worlds 2021, League’s biggest event of the year, will be moving from China to Europe due to the COVID-19 Delta variant. “Travel restrictions and COVID protocols have been even MORE complicated to navigate in 2021 than they were in 2020,” according to an official statement from Riot’s global head of esports, John Needham.
In the official announcement regarding this change of venue, Riot decided not to reveal the European country that will host this year’s World Championship. But this country will be Iceland, according to sources close to Dot Esports. Iceland already hosted the Mid-Season Invitational, this year’s other international League tournament, in May.
Riot has proven it can safely run international tournaments in the middle of a pandemic since Needham affirmed in the announcement that Worlds 2020 ended with “zero infections.” There’s still no information on whether there will be an audience or if Iceland will be the only venue, but the information available suggests that the event would work in a similar way to the last two tournaments, with a “bubble” system and strict protocols to avoid the spread of COVID from third parties that aren’t essential to the event.
Dot Esports reached out to Riot for comment but hasn’t received a response at time of publication.
Update Aug. 30 10:40am CT: Riot responded to Dot’s request for comment. “We’ll have updates on Worlds 2021 this week,” Riot said.
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