Riot Games Japan reveals first details for Wild Rift World Championship

We're just days away from the League of Legends: Wild Rift open beta being available in the Americas, bringing with it a huge wave of players from its PC counterpart and new players wanting to experience Summoner's Rift for the first time.

Beyond this, one of the promises by Riot Games at the beginning of the 2021 Season, in addition to expanding the availability of Wild Rift, was the creation of a competitive ecosystem with regional leagues and international tournaments, just like that seen League of Legends esports.

League of Legends Worlds 2020 was held in Shanghai. (Picture: Riot Games)

Now, two months after thos announcement, it appears the first hints of this have begun to emerge.

According to sources within Japan, a series of open and invitational tournaments will take place over the next few months, which will serve to crown a regional champion that will get a guaranteed ticket to the Wild Rift World Championship.

First Wild Rift esports tournaments in Japan

(Picture: Riot Games)

As stated by Riot Games Japan, the Wild Rift Invitational - The Opening Games will take place on 24th April, where eight teams made up of pro players and content creators from Japan will compete for a prize pool of 1.5 million yen (approx. US$13,730).

The next two tournaments, called Wild Rift Open Tournament - All Player's Rift, will take place from 29-30th May, and from 5-6th June, being tournaments with open qualifiers with registration open from from 26th April.

• Read more: ESL announce Wild Rift Premiership for UK, Ireland and Nordics

The top teams from the open tournaments will be awarded from a prize pool of 3 million yen (approx. US$27,460).

(Picture: Riot Games)

Finally, the last tournament announced (unnamed at the moment) will be a regional tournament running from July to October, having a confirmed prize pool of 9 million yen (approx. US$82,390).

However, what stands out most about the latter, aside from the fact that the finals are planned to be offline, is that according to what was revealed, the winner will have a direct seed for the Wild Rift World Championship.

• Read more: The SEA Games 2021 esports titles: Wild Rift, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile and more

These tournaments are being organized by X-MOMENT, an esports brand owned by Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo, working in conjunction with Riot Games.

(Picture: Riot Games)

At the moment no details have been revealed about the first Wild Rift World Championship, as well as what other regions will have qualifying tournaments for it, but it is expected that, like Worlds, it will take place by the end of the year, gathering the best teams in the world in their fight for for the Rift.