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Riot Games is planning to bring League of Legends’ Korean top-flight competition, the LCK, in-house and is building a dedicated studio for the purpose, due to open in September 2018, in time for the 2019 season.
Inven Global report that the stadium is leased until 2029, and will seat 400-450 fans for LCK broadcasts. Riot Korea have named it LoL Park, and it will be located in Seoul, on the third floor of Gran Seoul. It’s a sizeable space, with nearly 57,000 square feet, with backstage and practice spaces in addition to the studio area.
The studio will also feature a coffee shop, called Bilgewater, and a PC Bang — an internet cafe — that will allow fans to play a variety of games at the arena. Construction starts in January.
This change will bring the LCK in-line with the EU and North American LCS tournaments, with all three being broadcast by Riot. The current broadcasters, OGN And SPOTV, may still be involved. Lee Seung-Hyun, Riot Korea’s representative, said: "Just because we are planning to broadcast LCK doesn’t mean we’re cutting our ties with OGN or SPOTV. We will continue to work together."
Lee Seung-Hyun also said: "LCK and LoL esports as a whole was able to develop like this due to the players’ efforts and the fans’ support. Riot Games invested close to 30 billion won (Approx. 28,000,000 USD). In order to bring LoL even closer to esports, we’ll start investing even more."
Reports suggest that the LCK will change very little, structurally. The LCK will be staying with its best-of-three format, and by all accounts the casting personnel will remain largely the same. However, Riot’s direct overview could mean more english language content on the series for fans around the world.
