A Riot Games representative told The Esports Advocate on Monday that Game Changers will not be a part of the Esports World Cup and that the inclusion of other Riot competitive titles in the eight-week event to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, beginning in early July 2025 are still being negotiated.
The comments from Riot are in response to TEA’s questions to the company about a report from ReaderGrev writer Mikhail Klimentov published on Friday. In that report, Klimentov cited “an internal 2025 Esports World Cup document” he was shown by a source. Those documents noted that League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Valorant, and Valorant Game Changers are part of the final line-up of game titles that will be part of the Esports World Cup competition that runs from July to late-August 2025.
“The document, which was viewed by ReaderGrev, characterizes the lineup as all but confirmed,” notes the report.
But a Riot representative threw cold water on that report, noting that negotiations are still underway for the games that were part of the competition last year including League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, as well as Valorant. You may recall that TEA reported earlier this year that Valorant wasn’t included in the 2024 event due to scheduling issues with official league competitions.
While we suspect that League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, and even Valorant will be eventually announced as official competitive titles, as of this writing, negotiations on these titles have not been finalized, according to a Riot rep.
Further, the representative pushed back on the idea of Game Changers being included, telling TEA that “Game Changers is 100% off the table.”
Whatever Riot titles might be included, none of these competitions will be officially sanctioned events tied to their various leagues, and would be licensed to a third-party to handle, Riot added.
Game Changers not being included is an important distinction for Riot, as programs related to promoting women and marginalized genders being tied to the Saudi Arabian government are still problematic for countries in the West. Launched in 2021, Valorant Game Changers is an esports program created by Riot that aims to supplement the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) by creating new opportunities and exposure for women and other marginalized genders within the league’s ecosystem.
While Riot has been cautious, other game publishers have leaned heavily into allowing their games to be used to promote diversity and inclusion in Saudi Arabia through women’s only competitions.
In case you are not familiar with it, the Esports World Cup is a multi-title, eight-week competition held on an annual basis during the summer that is managed by the Esports World Cup Foundation, a non-profit funded (it claims) by a sporting grant from the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. The Esports World Cup is operated by ESL FACEIT Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi government owned gaming and esports company Savvy Games Group. EFG is home to a number of tournament organizers and broadcast production companies including DreamHack, ESL, FACEIT, and Esports Engine.
Projects backed or owned by the Saudi Arabian government such as Esports World Cup are frequently criticized for helping the government engage in what is called “sports washing,” or using various forms of sport and entertainment to cover up its record on human rights, women’s rights, LGTBQ+ rights, military actions in Yemen, and more. These and other criticisms are actively highlighted by international watchdog groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Editor’s note: This story was edited on Dec 31 at 1:58 p.m EST for clarity as it was unclear what the origin of the “internal document” viewed by ReaderGrev was. We made an assumption that it was from the Esports World Cup Foundation, but there’s no proof that this was the actual source of the information and could not independently verify its origin. We also changed the designation of Mikhail Klimentov as the author of the article and owner of the ReaderGrev newsletter (which we suggest you sign up for, as it is often a good source for esports and gaming news/information).