On June 16, Bobby Jin, the Co-CEO of TJ Sports and assistant general manager of Tencent Games K6 Cooperation, unveiled the current esports plan for League of Legends Wild Rift in mainland China at the Tencent Esports Global Summit.
There are three key developments that Jin unveiled during his presentation on the main stage of the event:
The very first Wild Rift World Championship event will come to life in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Apart from the top Wild Rift global event, there are grassroots and professional esports systems in the general Wild Rift ecosystem. For the professional esports system, there are three professional channels: the “National Competition Channel,” “LPL Channel,” and “Influencer Channel.” Professional teams in all three channels will compete for 12 slots in the professional esports system.
TJ Sports has not confirmed the English name of Wild Rfit esports professional league. TJ Sports told The Esports Observer that the system is not a franchised system, but it doesn’t rule out the franchising possibility in the future.
Seventeen (17) original LPL teams will compete in the LPL Channel beginning in September for the five slots in the professional league, while 32 non-LPL teams will compete in the National Competition Channel for six slots, and six teams owned by influencers or celebrities will compete for one slot from the Influencer Channel.
For the grassroots system, there are two competitions: “Spark Invitational,” and “National Championship.” Sixteen (16) non-LPL teams will compete in the Spark Invitational in August, and the two best teams from the competition will be qualified in the National Competition Channel, and also potentially be directly invited to Wild Rift World Championship. In addition, the best performing teams from the National Championship will also be qualified in the National Competition Channel.
The entire 2021 Wild Rift plan will run from August until January 2022. Top teams from LPL Channel will also be qualified to Wild Rift World Championship.
In addition, Jin announced that Chinese dairy brand Momchilovtsi has become the industrial partner of Wild Rift esports professional competitions in China. In May, TJ Sports signed a two-year strategic partnership with Chinese smartphone brand OPPO and named the brand as the official partner of Wild Rift esports competitions in China. Jin also mentioned during a private press briefing that there are more partners to be announced that the company has not disclosed.
