Yesterday, Riot Games published a post on the League of Legends Esports website presenting their plans for 2025. One of things announced were massive region mergers that will result in just 5 regions in competitive LoL. But how did we get from the pinnacle of 14 regions in 2018 to just 5 regions now? Let’s have a look back through the years.
On the 21st of February 2018, it was announced that Vietnam would split from Southeast Asia and become an independent region. This development brought the number of League of Legends competitive regions to 14; the highest it has ever been.
In May, all 14 regions came together for the first time by sending their champions to compete in the 2018 Mid-Season Invitational. But shortly after the end of the event, on the 31st of May, the merger of Latin America North & Latin America South was announced. For the first time, the number of LoL regions would go down; from 14 to 13.
The next downsizing came a year later. On the 25th of September 2019, it was announced that Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao & Southeast Asia would merge into the Asia Pacific region; 12 regions left.
For 3 years, there were no changes. But then, 3 regions were cut down simultaneously on the 18th of November 2022. First, a 3-way merger between Europe, CIS, and Turkey into the EMEA region was announced. It was followed up by the announcement of Oceania being absorbed into Asia Pacific. After all was done, 9 regions were left.
Another change came a year later. On the 27th of November 2023 it was announced that Japan would also be absorbed into the Asia Pacific region, knocking down the total number of regions to 8.
And now, with yesterday’s announcement, the plan. North America, Brazil, and Latin America will be merged into the Americas region. In addition, Vietnam will be absorbed by the Asia Pacific region. This means that just 5 competitive LoL regions will exist in 2025.
Ultimately, only 2 regions have emerged unaffected: China and Korea. The other 12 regions have been consolidated into just 3:
EMEA - Europe, CIS, Turkey
Americas - North America, Brazil, Latin America North, Latin America South
Asia Pacific - Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao, Vietnam, Japan, Oceania, Southeast Asia
It remains to be seen if there’ll be any further changes to the competitive LoL regions in the future.
LoL Esports: Building Towards A Brighter Future on lolesports.com
LoL Esports’ Post on X (Twitter)
El futuro de los esports en Latinoamérica (archived) on lolesports.com
Riot Names New Global Head of LoL Esports on leagueoflegends.com
Kalipso’s Post on X (Twitter)
LEC’s Post on X (Twitter)
Update to the League of Legends Pacific Championship Series on lolesports.com
LJL（League of Legends Japan League）’s Post on X (Twitter)
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