The League of Legends esports scene in Oceania has been rocky for years now, and the League of Legends Circuit: Oceania (LCO) is being “revamped,” hitting the second hurdle for the region based in Australia.
After thanking everyone involved within LCO, Riot explained that it would be streamlining the region’s esports and competitive circuit. This means that it’ll have its own pathway into the APAC League esports region come 2025.
The APAC region league will be a multi-region league in Asia-Pacific, which was announced back in June. As esports viewership struggles in some areas around the world, this helps ensure that each league is financially sustainable and worth players and viewers’ time.
More details will come in the future about how League of Legends Circuit: Oceania will work with APAC. Teams that are affected by this include Ground Zero Gaming, Kanga Esports, Mammoth Esports Club, Team Bliss, Antic Esports, ION Global Esports, and Fury.
This isn’t the first time the region has faced difficulties. Before the LCO was established in 2021, the Oceanic Pro League (OPL) was in the area. However, Riot shut down the OPL in 2020 because of problems with how the region was performing.
The LCO seems to be running into similar issues, along with funding problems. While the OPL was run by Riot, the LCO was run by ESL Australia and Guinevere Capital. ESL Australia is a group in Australia that runs leagues for a variety of esports.
For more information on League of Legends esports, check out the T1 documentary that was released today.