Riot Games Keeping League Of Legends Circuit At 10 Teams

Riot Games will keep the top North American circuit for “League of Legends” at 10 teams next year, despite extraordinary demand from investors seeking one of the new permanent spots in the league. After Riot announced in June it would abandon its promotion-and-relegation system and sell slots in the League Championships Series for $10M, scores of current teams and new investors applied, and Riot did not initially rule out taking more teams than planned. In an update posted late Friday, Riot said its vetting process was mostly completed, with its team having gone through two phases of cutdowns. The winners of the permanent spots will be announced in November.

Separately, Riot also confirmed it had hired the Barrett Sports Group to help review the applications, with work being led by Founder & Principal Owner Dan Barrett.