League of Legends Summer Finals Head to Oakland's Oracle Arena

The Summer Finals for the NA LCS will be held on Oakland, Calif. this year with the top teams from [...]

By Tanner Dedmon

The Summer Finals for the NA LCS will be held on Oakland, Calif. this year with the top teams from the NA LCS facing of against each other in the Oracle Arena.

LoL Esports announced the location of the NA LCS Summer Finals just yesterday with the summer competition taking place in Oakland on September 8-9. The Oakland Arena has played host to many events in the past and is also the home of the Golden State Warriors the parent organization of the NA LCS' Golden Guardians.

While the event is indeed a return to California by Riot Games, it's actually been several years since such an event was held in the state. Discussing the reasoning behind holding the NA LCS Summer Finals in the Bay Area, Riot Games' Chris "Riot Chopper" Hopper cited the popularity of esports in the area as one factor.

"Ever since the days of the Solomid Series, 'Baylife,' IEM Oakland, and IPL Faceoff, the Bay Area has been a hotbed for esports," Riot Chopper said. "When we went to San Francisco for the Group Stage of Worlds 2016 at the Bill Graham Auditorium, we were inspired by the passion and energy of the crowd. We're delighted to bring Summer Finals to the home of the largest League player base of any metropolitan area in North America."

The Rioter also referenced a previous post from Riot Games that detailed how they select different venues for national and international events before further explaining why the California location is an appropriate one.

"As we described earlier this year in our philosophy around selecting venues, we want to make sure that the host city can support the inbound audience, media, and teams. While some of our previous locations for events may have been travel-friendly, it's hard to imagine a more welcoming location than the San Francisco/Oakland metro area– it's a hub for most travel from Asia to the US for international fans, and has nearly 4,000 nonstop flights per week for fans flying in from anywhere across North America."

Those wanting to attend the event in-person can't buy tickets just yet since they're not available, but they'll go on sale on July 9 just after Rift Rivals concludes. The prices also haven't been revealed yet, though Riot Games added that ticket prices, the exact time that the tickets will be on sale, and more info will be available on June 29 in another post.

Trending Now: