This move will also give Riot full control over the operations and management of the regional esports scene for both titles, with more details on its plans to be shared at a later date. — Riot Games
Riot Games will be self-publishing League Of Legends (LOL) and Teamfight Tactics (TFT) in the South-East Asia (SEA) region starting from January 2023, with the Riot Games-operated servers going live the same month.
Both titles will join the company’s other self-published games like Valorant and Legends Of Runeterra on the same desktop client, while the Garena servers will still be in operation until early January 2023.
“We are grateful for Garena’s partnership and publishing support over the past decade. Their efforts have built an incredible community of League Of Legends and Teamfight Tactics players across South-East Asia, and the games’ success would have been impossible without them.
“Over the past few years, Riot has also worked hard to expand our capabilities across the region, building strong local teams and a deep network of partners. We now feel that this is the right time for us to own the publishing of League and TFT in South-East Asia, as part of our expansion into Asia Pacific.
“As we further our focus on being the most player-focused game company in the word, we are excited to bring our players immersive and meaningful experiences, both in and out of game. We are looking forward to seeing our players benefit from a unified Riot ecosystem and look forward to writing the next chapter with them,” said Alex Kraynov, the managing director for Riot Games APAC in an announcement post on the Garena website.
The transition period will begin on Nov 18, when players will be allowed to start transferring their existing accounts to the upcoming Riot Games server – an account linking guide will also be made available on that date on the migration webpage.
This move will also give Riot full control over the operations and management of the regional esports scene for both titles, with more details on its plans to be shared at a later date.
For those concerned about the possible loss of cosmetics or other account contents, the FAQ page from Garena mentions that skins, the loot inventory, mastery level, account level, summoner name (if at least one match was played in 2021 or 2022), and friends list will be retained following the migration.
The page also mentions that regional pricing for in-game items for both League and TFT will be reviewed to ensure parity with the other existing regions.
It’s worth noting that after the migration period concludes, the original Garena account will no longer be active, with the announcement advising players to migrate their accounts as early as possible before the launch of the new server.
The new Riot Games operated servers will also likely bring the long-awaited Mac client – which first launched in other regions back in 2013 but never made its way over to SEA – and integration with third-party match tracking websites such as op.gg, as well as the ability to use the same Riot Games account in the TFT mobile app.
Since its launch in 2010, the publishing rights for League Of Legends in South-East Asia – later in 2019 for TFT – has been held by Singapore-based publisher Garena.
