Along with the announcement of where and when both the Mid-Season Invitational and World Championships will be held, Riot also confirmed the start date for each region’s competitions.
However, the biggest change to the 2024 season will involve both the MSI and Worlds, as the winner of the Mid-Season Invitational will earn an automatic spot at LoL Worlds 2024, and the next best-performing region will gain an additional slot for their region at the World Championships.
Riot explained that they “want to continue increasing the stakes around MSI and create a stronger connection between MSI and Worlds”.
Although the winner of MSI will automatically qualify for Worlds later in the year, Riot has also announced that the team that qualifies for Worlds will need to commit to success and must qualify for their region’s summer playoffs.
Due to the changes, the LEC, LCK, LCS and LPL will have three Worlds slots, while the PCS and VCS will retain two slots, and the LLA and CBLOL will keep their singular slots.
The Mid-Season Invitational will be held in Chengdu, China, from May 1–19, and the World Championships will take place from September 25–November 2 across Europe, with Berlin, Paris and London set to host different stages of the tournament.
Finally, the start date of every regional tournament has been confirmed by Riot Games, with the list below displaying the start date of each season.
Santander will become the major sponsor of both leagues for at least the next three years, allowing the banking institution to participate in a variety of activation functions.
Activations include logo placements throughout the competitions, dedicated content pieces, and commercial spots during broadcast breaks, banners, special drops for spectators, and VIP tickets for the finals.
Santander sees the transaction as a digital entertainment expansion that will help it market its brand in a variety of competitive arenas. In addition to esports, the institution has sponsorship deals in Formula 1 and football.
According to Nathalie Picquot, the Director of Corporate Marketing at Santander, investing in esports is part of the bank’s objective to connect with a younger, more active, and diverse audience while also promoting values like teamwork and resilience. The director stated that such an audience cannot be easily reached through traditional media means, which is a common cause for esports collaborations.
“We want to be seen as the bank of the future, we want to look into the future, we want to connect with this new generation. So associating ourselves with the gaming industry makes a lot of sense,” said Picquot.
“[Esports is] creating employment, there are professional teams, there are high-performance centres with people training, this is something that is here to stay and something we want to connect with.”
Even before this agreement, the bank has dabbled with a handful of esports sponsorship alternatives. The Superliga, League of Legends’ Spanish European Regional League, was sponsored by its subsidiary brand, Openbank. Santander also made a name for itself in Brazil by endorsing the Brazilian Free Fire League (LBFF) and the esports organization FURIA.
The bank also struck a five-year sponsorship deal with the Brazilian League of Legends Championship (CBLOL), setting off an international branding effort centered on Riot Games’ Intellectual Property.
According to Picquot, Santander picked League of Legends as a sponsor because of its global audience, environs, and reputation.
Furthermore, the idea that the game encourages creative thought processes and togetherness, as well as the premise that the game is not violent, influenced the decision.
Picquot would not specify the exact numbers of the contract but did say that the value would not be comparable to that of soccer or Formula I.
“It’s extra a niche-audience sort of channel, to attach and have interaction with in a really totally different method. We see it as complementary to these different partnerships.”
Santander’s next moves in esports were also not disclosed by Picquot, but he assured that more information would be forthcoming. The LEC and LLA model activations are still in the works, but he added that collaborations with Mastercard, another League of Legends esports partner, are being considered.
On June 14th, the collaboration was formally announced at an event in Madrid, Spain, which featured streamers, artists, and League of Legends players.
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