Riot Games Closes Australian Office, Dissolves Oceanic Pro League

Riot Games has closed its office in Sydney after seven years and dissolved the Oceanic Pro League (OPL), the company announced on Wednesday.

The announcement was made via a statement released by Riot Games' North America and Oceania managing director Malte Wagener and global esports director of operations Tom Martell regarding the office closure and the dissolution of the Australia and New Zealand-based "League of Legends" pro-league.

In the statement posted on the official "League of Legends" website, the company said that it had hoped to establish the first professional esports league in the region and give top regional players the chance to play professionally. But Riot ultimately decided to end its Australian operations when the OPL failed to live up to expectations.

"The OPL has not met our goals for the league, and we do not believe that the market is currently able to support the league in its current form," the company stated.

Riot Games, however, asserted that this does not mean the end of esports in the Oceania region. "We remain committed to supporting our pro players in the region with a path to continue their careers moving forward," the statement continued.

The 2021 season will see Oceania joining the League Championship Series competitive territory, and thus “OCE players will no longer take an import slot on LCS rosters,” according to Riot. Both the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) and World Championship qualifiers will still be held for the OCE region next year.

Riot Games opened its Sydney office in February 2013 to handle the marketing, community management and esports in the region, Gamesindustry.biz noted. Currently, the Sydney office has 10 fulltime employees who are expected to be affected by the closure.

A spokesperson for Riot Games said that regional publishing support has been transitioning to the company's North American team over the past year. The company is also "actively supporting" its employees through the transition by looking for new opportunities both within and outside of the company.

It is speculated that the global pandemic may have played a part in the decision to close the Australia office and dissolve OPL. Despite esports tournaments resuming in some form or another, too many events and tournaments have either been postponed or outright canceled since March.

Video game developer, publisher and esports organizer Riot Games was established in 2006 in West Los Angeles, California. It was fully acquired by Chinese corporation Tencent in 2015 and, as of May 2018, has been operating 24 offices around the world with 2,500 staff members employed.

As the developer of "League of Legends," Riot Games has helped foster the growth of the multiplayer online battle arena game globally since it was first released in 2009.

Recently, Riot Games entered into a multi-year partnership with Spotify to create an original "League of Legends" podcast, the first entry for Spotify into the esports arena.