League of Legends has multiple servers around the world. In the past ten years, Riot Game has actively opened servers in multiple regions, and even the Japanese server was officially established three years ago. These servers are unified under the management of Riot Games, many activities and regulations are also unified, version patches are also directly updated, and they can be transferred to each other. Of course, the servers in each region still have their own promotion activities, such as the Japanese server often has some unique activities, and the Australian server is the same.
Riot Games may revoke the operation rights
Currently, except for the national server managed by Tencent, there are only Taiwanese servers and Southeast Asian servers agents represented by Garena, which are servers directly operated and managed by non-Ritung Games. The Chinese server ignores it. First of all, Riot Games is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent. The national conditions need to be taken into account for the review and promotion of the game in China. Secondly, the gap between the country and the network makes it impossible for Riot Games to operate directly in China and can only seek local agents. In 2010, Riot Games believed that Southeast Asia and Hong Kong and Taiwan were inconvenient to manage, and also signed a contract with Garena, which also had its own business in these areas, which was suitable for the rapid promotion of League of Legends in the local area at that time.
But in the past year, it has been more than once. Players in the Taiwan server and Southeast Asian server have complained about Garena's operation and management problems. The official forum has been disabled, customer service support does not exist, the official email will not reply separately, the contact number has been down, and no one will reply to the support service order submitted on the website. These problems have not been resolved today. Clients often experience coupons or skin loss, and passwords and accounts cannot be changed and their accounts are stolen. Last year, it was also rumored that Garena used player computers to mine.
This week, Vietnamese players complained about this matter again, and below the reddit forum, there were rumors that the contract between Riot Games and Garena was about to expire. The two parties may have signed a 10-year contract in 2010, so Riot Games may no longer renew its contract with Garena after 2020, but instead regain its agency rights to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. A player who claimed that his family worked in Riot Taiwan said that Riot TW had closed his office and moved to Los Angeles before, and he deleted the reply shortly afterwards.
Garena shows signs of no renewal
In fact, Garena has recently closed the local offices of Indonesia , Thailand and Philippines , and now the Southeast Asian service is managed by the Singapore office as its headquarters. These three servers have recently adjusted the conversion rate and skin price of points, and have aligned with the servers directly operated by Riot Games. They will cancel the special price and rarity of some skins inside Garena. This can also be regarded as an example of Southeast Asian servers being in line with North American servers, allowing local clients and services to better transition to Riot direct sales.
In October last year, a Garena employee who left his job was interviewed. When asked whether he thought Garena would end the management and operation of League of Legends, the employee's answer was yes. He said that the contract between Garena and Riot Games will expire soon, and Riot Games will open a new office in the Philippines. They are likely to regain the agency rights of League of Legends in these areas, making the Taiwanese server and Southeast Asian server directly operated. So, Garena is naturally treated negatively. Recently, it has also launched a lot of recharge activities, and their focus has shifted to mobile games.
This mid-season championship is held in Vietnam and Taiwan, which can also show the importance Riot Games attaches to these regions. They want to create a better e-sports atmosphere in Southeast Asia. If MSI is successful this time, it will be an opportunity for Riot Games to take over the local game operation and management rights again. Southeast Asia canceled the league system last year. Garena has limited support for e-sports events in these regions in the past few years, and LMS events have also been sold to small platforms, which has led to a decline in GPL and LMS regions. Riot Games hopes to increase the intensity of these two regions.
Conclusion
After all, starting this year, Riot Games has regained the broadcast rights of LCK events. If they regain the operation rights of Garena for the Taiwan server and Southeast Asian server, it is very likely that LMS, GPL and VCS will be included directly in their management to improve the competitive intensity of events in these regions. Although Tencent owns a stake in Garena, they will not easily interfere with the operation of Riot Games, so Riot Games does have the opportunity to regain Garena's operating rights, but whether the rumors will come true depends on the official announcement later.
