Riot Games might still operate one of the world's most popular games in League of Legends, but it isn't dominating it quite as it once was. Following a long standing lack of competition in the Oceania region, despite a number of excellent teams and heavy investment, Riot has announced that it is closing the Oceania Pro League and will be closing its Sydney offices in turn.
"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our teams and players, the OPL has not met our goals for the league, and we do not believe that the market is currently able to support the league in its current form.," Riot said in a statement.
Oceania players will still be able to compete in the World's qualifiers, and will enjoy bespoke qualifiers through 2021. Moving forward, though, their path to Worlds will be a little more complicated. From then on, they'll have to take part in the LCS competitive territory in the U.S. and Canada, giving them much stiffer competition at the group and qualifying stages.
Despite this drawback, League of Legends still enjoys over 115 million active players per month with a concurrent peak of as many as 50 million players per day.
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