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Riot Games details their crowdfunding and partnerships plan for League of Legends esports

Crowdfunding is coming to the League of Legends World Championships (Riot Games)
Crowdfunding is coming to the League of Legends World Championships (Riot Games)

Riot Games has revealed their plans for the future of League of Legends esports, the company told us Thursday. These plans include crowdfunded prize pools for the World Championships and partnership deals for teams in the professional scene.

To kick things off, Riot will be adding 25% of the revenue from sales of the Championship ward and champion skins to the prize pool for Worlds 2016. So, for every dollar spent on Championship Zed or the 2016 Worlds ward skin, $.25 will be added to the pool. According to Riot, this plan would have doubled the prize pool at Worlds if it had been implemented in 2015. Similarly, 25% of revenue from sales of the Challenger skin each year will be added to the Mid-Season Invitational prize pool.

What’s more, winners of the World Championship will receive 25% of revenue from sales of the Team Championship skins they earn upon winning Worlds once they are released. Teams that have already won (Fnatic, Taipei Assassins, SK Telecom T1, and Samsung White) will be receiving revenue shares on their previously released skins, including retroactive payments to those teams for skins already sold.

With this supplemental prize money coming in, Riot will not be increasing the base World Championship prize pool. They will, however, increase the revenue share of Summoner Icons by 20% to 30%, depending on region.

Due to the untested nature of their crowdfunded payment plans, Riot Games has promised that there will be a guaranteed minimum payment to each team, just in case. For example, each team in the EU LCS is guaranteed $100,000 per year, 50% of which will be going to the players.

We will be talking to Riot’s esports co-directors live on Facebook Thursday at 2:00 p.m. Pacific, so head over to the Yahoo Esports Facebook page to get more info.


Taylor Cocke sees this as a step in the right direction, but doesn’t believe it’s quite enough. Follow him on Twitter @taylorcocke.