Esports giant trying its hand at concert promotion

Riot Games, the developer of esports mainstay League of Legends (LoL), is to stage a concert featuring music from the game ahead of next month’s League of Legends World Championship 2017 final.

Dubbed League of Legends Live: A Concert Experience, the show will include performances from both international artists and amateur “League of Legends community musicians”, with headliners including Norwegian producer Alan Walker (whose song ‘Faded’ features in the game), metal band Pentakill and DJ duo Mako.

The concert will take place at Beijing National Aquatics Center (17,000-cap.) on 3 November, on the eve of the Championship final, which will pit either SK Telecom T1 (South Korea) or Royal Never Give Up (China) against Samsung Galaxy (S. Korea) or World Elite (China). Prize money currently stands at more than US$5m, with $2.13m pledged by Riot and more than $3m by fans.

League of Legends Live will be streamed live at watch.na.lolesports.com and on the game’s Facebook page.

Esports, or competitive videogaming, is becoming an increasingly hot property in live entertainment for its ability to fill stadia with thousands of fans who have little interest in concerts. Madison Square Garden Company and AEG in the US, TEG in Australia and France’s Vivendi all have business interests in esports, as a growing number of promoters and other music businesses seek to claim a slice of the pie.

The global esports market is predicted to be worth US$1.1bn by 2019.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.