Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games | Worlds 2024 news and Road to London content powered by AGON by AOC
Update (October 4th 2024): Riot Games postpones 2024 Worlds Final ticket sale in response to ‘significant bot activity’
Original article (posted August 19th 2024):
Many League of Legends esports fans in the UK have been left frustrated with the ticketing system for 2024 Worlds London tickets.
Demand was always going to be high for the Worlds 2024 grand final event set to take place at London’s O2 Arena on November 2nd. And this demand, combined with the ticketing system, has left several unable to secure a ticket.
Wave one Worlds 2024 tickets went on sale last week, starting with an O2 and Virgin Media pre-sale on August 14th, Mastercard and O2 customers pre-sale on August 15th, and the general sale tickets on August 16th on the AXS.com website.
While some managed to secure tickets, several fans reported being stuck in the ticket queue, unable to secure tickets, and others even said they were falsely flagged as bots.
Scalpers have since taken to ticket resale sites like Stubhub and Viagogo, where they are already selling dozens of 2024 Worlds London tickets, priced up to 10x the value of the original price.
Tickets initially went on sale from €60 to €180, with resale sites now listing them for £400+, with some going above £1,000, and two at the time of writing being listed at £2,169 each on Stubhub for a floor A2 space.
There are no resale tickets currently listed on the official AXS ticketing platform.
However, a second wave of tickets will go live from October 2nd to 4th (10am for O2 and Virgin Media customers on October 2nd, Mastercard and O2 on October 3rd from 10am, and October 4th from 10am general sale on AXS.com.)
Fans complained about the ticketing system online – see below for some of their comments.
Esports News UK contacted Riot Games for comment and will update this article with comment should we hear back.
What’s being done about secondary ticketing issues in the UK?
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has previously taken action against major resale websites on the secondary market to help ensure consumer law is being followed.
“This has helped drive improvements to the way secondary ticket platforms now operate – including tackling potentially misleading pressure selling messages on Viagogo and StubHub, and requiring them to tell customers about resale restrictions that could lead to them being turned away at the door,” the CMA previously said.
The CMA made recommendations to the previous government in 2021 about the changes that are needed to tackle secondary ticket issues.
“It is positive that the Government now wants to address this,” the CMA said. “We look forward to working with them to get the best outcomes for fans and fair-playing businesses.”
None of this really helps you all looking for Worlds tickets right now, but it does mean things may improve for whenever we have major esports events here in the future.
‘Absolutely heartbroken’ – community responds to Worlds London tickets situation and prices
“Did any real people get Worlds tickets?” said a viewer of the Esports News UK Twitch stream on the weekend.
Another told us in a direct message: “Tickets were on reseller sites immediately. Like less than 30 minutes after general sales for upwards of £250.”
Another said in the Esports News UK Discord: “Really disappointed to see how shitty the Worlds ticket system is. It’s just been picked up by scalpers and bots.
“I can see them already going on resale sites/touter/scalper sites for like £300 each. So to me it’s obvious enough some of these have been picked up by bots just becaause of the way they were sold, and how quick they are on the resale market.”
One said: “I was in the waiting room from 9.30am this morning and im still at 9% on the general sale at 10.36am. [It might have been randomised at 10am but] it’s been a really terrible process.”
Some fans also took to Reddit to complain about the Worlds finals ticket prices.
Dannidoesreddit said: “[Tickets priced at] £150 each, I work 50 hours a week living paycheck to paycheck, been super excited about this all year checking the site since January for tickets details, only to be priced out.
“Absolutely heartbroken, why are they so expensive? I don’t understand, I stopped following football because it got too corporate and now esports is doing the same?”
Another user, This_Kangaroo_1565, responded: “Good luck getting them, the scalpers have already hammered the event. Nice system – AXS totally screwed it with that ridiculous queue.”
Here are a selection of other tweets about the situation:
We’ve contacted Riot Games for a comment on the situation.
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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.