A new standalone women’s League of Legends tournament for the UK, Ireland and Nordics region has been announced, known as Rising Stars.
The Northern Europe tournament has been announced by LoL developer Riot Games, in collaboration with tech firm and organiser GGTech and UK university esports tournament organiser NUEL.
It’s designed to promote inclusion and opportunities in esports, with each competing team required to be entirely composed of women aged at least 16 years old.
And G2’s women’s League of Legends team, G2 Hel, will be taking part.
The tournament is being held online on November 26th and 27th 2022, and is primarily geared towards participants from the Northern European region, though it is also open to the rest of Europe.
All matches will be played on the EU West server and will require a League of Legends account in good standing.
The players in the Rising Stars tournament will battle for a £3,000 prize pool.
Player registration will include gender verification in collaboration with DivE, an organisation promoting gender diversity in esports which already assists in the EMEA operation of Riot Games’ VCT Game Changers tournament and Wild Circuit Game Changers.
Moderators will also be present throughout the tournament to ensure and support a safe space for all participants.
The news comes after Esports News UK broke the news two months ago that Riot plans to introduce a full women’s circuit for League of Legends. It also comes a few weeks ahead of the first women’s Wild Rift Wild Circuit: Game Changers tournament finals, with UK players in that tournament for the mobile version of League of Legends.
The broadcast of the event will be produced at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham, with esports production students, supported by GGTech and NUEL staff, taking the lead to develop their skills and experience.
In September, NUEL and Confetti announced a partnership ahead of a £5m esports complex opening in a bid to ‘further develop esports in the UK’.
“Rising Stars, as a local, standalone tournament, is another example of the work that we and our partners can do to promote diversity and inclusion in the esports community. The fact that we’re also able to support students taking their first professional steps in the industry is the cherry on top.”
Will Attwood, Riot Games
Will Attwood, competitive experiences manager for Northern Europe at Riot Games, said: “Riot Games is committed to creating more opportunities for women gamers; Game Changers has been a huge success for Valorant and will continue to expand into other games.
“Rising Stars, as a local, standalone tournament, is another example of the work that we and our partners can do to promote diversity and inclusion in the esports community. The fact that we’re also able to support students taking their first professional steps in the industry is the cherry on top.”
David Jackson, GGTech/NUEL country manager, added: “Esports is a fantastic arena for all gaming enthusiasts to engage and compete during the winter months and the Rising Stars tournament is the perfect platform to bring people together. All players who participate in esports competitions should be made to feel included and welcome, so it is great to see the work that Riot Games and DivE are doing in this space.”
Rising Stars will be broadcast live on the NUEL Twitch channel, and there’s also a Rising Stars Discord.
Players can register to participate in Rising Stars up until November 22nd at https://www.challengermode.com/s/RisingStarsNE
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.
