Grassroots tournament organiser the UK Esports League (UKEL) has posted an update on its future in UK League of Legends (LoL) and other esports.
The UKEL, which sat below and allowed teams to qualify for Riot’s now-scrapped UKLC, will not be running a LoL league in 2022.
The news comes after Freaks 4U stepped in as organiser of the upper-tier UK/Ireland/Nordics NLC, and Riot announced changes to its European Regional League (ERL) structure. The UKEL said it had been in talks with Freaks 4U to see if it could be involved in the new structure of UK LoL.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to provide support to Freaks4U,” the UKEL said in an update post.
“Format changes have made it so our previous tournament structure is no longer tenable, and as such, in 2022 we will not be providing a broadcast League of Legends league.
“We’re still in discussions with Riot as to how we can continue to participate in the UK scene, and we will update you all with more information once we have it.”
The UKEL
“Whilst we won’t be continuing the league, we may run some tournaments in the off seasons. We’re also looking to work with partner organisations to hopefully bring some open house tournaments to the UK.”
The UKEL also said that it “isn’t going anywhere for now” and that it will continue to support grassroots esports.
The UKEL has plans to run tournaments in other esports, some of which will be semi-pro leagues with a fixed structure and broadcast, while others will be aimed at the more amateur/casual level. The UKEL is currently looking for staff to help with its 2022 plans.
The UKEL also announced that Alex ‘Synygy’ Winton has stepped back from working with the UKEL to focus on his work with LDN UTD (whose future in NLC Division 2 is up in the air), but that he will still be “assisting [the UKEL] in an advisory role”.
Marc ‘Omni’ Busby remains as co-founder and MD of the UKEL.
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.
