

On the 9th, a Chinese media (https://36kr.com) revealed that Riot Games and Tencent has agreed to a limited partnership (10th).



According to the Chinese media, the joint venture between Riot and Tencent will be established in Shanghai. They will be in charge of supervising operations in regards to League Of Legends tournaments and other related products. It has also been revealed that both Riot Games and Tencent will be working together on new development and releases. The shares from the shared venture will be divided 50/50.



The CEO of this joint venture will be co-directed by Jin E-bo (金亦波) who is the head of the League Of Legends operations in IEG and Lin Song (林松) who is the head of Riot Games in China.



The Chinese Media (36) believes this action will increase the potential influence for esports within China. 36 further elaborated that the company created by both Riot and Tencent will be the driving force for future growth.



On the other hand, however, 36 Media warned us of this factor. If this new joint company supported by Tencent embeds its roots firmly into the esports industry, the focus of the pre-existing ecosystem for esports might shift towards Tencent’s control.