- Riot has canceled its League of Legends 2021 All-Star event
- Pandemic travel restrictions cited as the main reason
- Fans will have to wait until next year
The League of Legends 2021 All-Star event was supposed to take place online, due to Covid-19 reasons, but instead was canceled altogether.
All-Star Event Canceled
It seems that the ad-hoc regulatory mandates caused by the pandemic are still getting in the way of organized events. Recently Riot Games announced that the League of Legends All-Star event will be canceled due to travel restrictions.
The company posted an announcement yesterday, acknowledging the success of MSI and Worlds, but confirmed that it would unfortunately have to cancel the All-Star event, due to Covid-19 restrictions. “This decision was not made lightly, as we know many fans and players around the world look forward to closing out the LoL Esports season at ASE,” the statement read.
It is unfortunate that the event was canceled while at the same time Riot has a dazzling year of success. The popularity of Arcane, Riot’s first animated series, which dominated Netflix charts in over 50 countries, massively boosted LoL’s popularity. Another big achievement Riot accomplished this year was the record-breaking number of viewers the 2021 World Finals attracted. It is a shame Riot’s event season has to end so suddenly.
Riot’s Reasons to Cancel the Event
Travel restrictions and lockdowns have impacted most people’s lives over the past year and a half. The world of esports has also been hit, as events were organized only online, with limited or no live viewers at all.
This is the case for the All-Star event as well. The last event was held exclusively online, but this year Riot wanted to have the event in person. The problem is that would have required players to stay in quarantine for long periods of time, far surpassing the event’s duration itself, which is just three days long.
Riot said that the event is supposed to “capture the spirit of ASE, which is to bring pros, influencers, and fans together to celebrate the LoL Esports season with cross-regional competition.” The company says that doing the event online for a second year in a row simply defeats the purpose.
Riot decided that it is better to just skip the All-Star 2021 season altogether and do it next year when hopefully everything will be back to normal. In the meantime, LoL fans will have to wait for other Riot projects, like Arcane’s second season, and also the start of the 2022 professional league season. The latter begins on January 14 in North America’s LCS and Europe’s LEC.
