League of Legends: Wild Rift launched on mobile devices late last year in the UK and other regions, and now the esports side of the game is ramping up.
Riot Games has announced the League of Legends: Wild Rift: Origin Series, a new tournament for Europe and MENA regions featuring a €300,000 prize pool.
There will be teams from Europe (including the UK), CIS, Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) facing off in a set of monthly best-of-three double elimination competitions, running across June, July, and August, leading to an offline finals in September 2021.
Sign ups are open from today (May 20th 2021) until June 1st for teams that want to take part in the first monthly qualifier. Teams can sign up at originseries.com.
Eligible teams must have at least three members living in Europe, CIS, Turkey, the Middle East, or North Africa, and all players must be aged 17 or over to compete.
The first Open Qualifier Weekend will take place on June 5th to 6th, with the second phase on June 12th and 13th. The month will then round out with a Qualifier Playoffs on June 21st to 24th, which will be broadcast live. Details for July, August and other stages will be confirmed at a later date.
Wild Rift features a smaller map than the standard PC version of League of Legends, with matches designed to be more casual and shorter, resulting in more, quicker kills in the early game.
Hans Christian Duerr, head of esports for Wild Rift in Europe and MENA, said: “We’re excited to launch the first League of Legends: Wild Rift intercontinental esports circuit for Europe, MENA, CIS and Turkey, building on the momentum and hype displayed by our dedicated players and fans.
“League of Legends: Wild Rift Origin Series is set to bring mobile esports to the next level and shine a light on new talents yet to be discovered. We expect to see a fiery competition from our competitors across Europe, Turkey, the CIS and MENA over the coming months and anticipate a high level of sign-ups for this open tournament series, so make sure your team is registered in time for a chance to make mobile esports history.”
Riot announced Wild Rift esports plans earlier this year and, back in March, ESL announced the ESL Wild Rift Premiership for the UK, Ireland and Nordics with a £5,000 prize pool.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
