Riot Changes LCS Championship Plans Due to COVID-19

After announcing in July that the LCS Championship event would take place in Newark, New Jersey, with tickets available for the in-person event, Riot Games has since adopted a new plan due to COVID-19 concerns. Riot announced on Saturday that the LCS Championship will now take place at the LCS Arena in Los Angeles instead of Newark’s Prudential Center. Rising COVID-19 cases in the United States were attributed to the change affecting the League of Legends event scheduled to take place later this month.

The LCS Championship was originally designed as a “road show” which would include fans after a long period of events without in-person audiences. Riot said the initial scheduling decision was made after seeing positive vaccine rollouts, but after “monitoring the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases across the United States,” Riot has changed course.

“Given the current state of affairs, we cannot in good conscience conduct a massive fan event at this time,” Riot said. “After much consideration, it is with extreme disappointment that we’ve elected to relocate the LCS Championship event from the Prudential Center to the LCS Arena.”

Referencing the delta variant of COVID-19 which has raised concerns for events like these during a time when organizers were finally starting to schedule in-person events again, Riot said there was “no set of protocols or plans” which allowed for them to deliver the event without jeopardizing anyone’s health. Refunds will be given out to those who purchased tickets to the sold-out event, and Riot said it plans to return to the Prudential Center in New Jersey in the future to make up for the abrupt change in plans.

“The Prudential Center remains a top-tier sporting venue, and it will play host to an LCS event in the future,” Riot said. “Current ticket holders will be provided full refunds, along with our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this change of plans may cause. We are working with Prudential Center on the refund process and should be able to share more details soon. We appreciate your understanding and hope to see you in 2022.”

The LCS Championship is scheduled to take place on August 28th and 29th barring any other changes in the plans.