Riot Games launches Rising Stars

Riot Games has announced the start of Rising Stars, a new female League of Legends standalone event.

The online tournament will be organised in partnership with GGTech Entertainment, an esports educational technology business, and NUEL, a UK-focused college esports platform.

The Rising Stars competition will take place on November 26th and 27th, with a £3,000 prize pool. According to the press release, the event is primarily aimed at participants from Northern Europe (the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Nordics), but it is also open to the rest of Europe.

In conjunction with DivE, an organisation that promotes gender diversity in esports, player registration will include gender verification. DiVe is already involved in the EMEA operations of Riot’s VCT Game Changers and Wild Circuit Game Changers tournaments.

According to the release, the Rising Stars broadcast would be produced at Nottingham’s Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies. Students of Esports Production will take the lead on the broadcast, with assistance from GGTech and NUEL professionals.

Riot Games has been actively promoting the women’s esports industry, particularly in Valorant, since 2021 through the Game Changers programme. Recently, the game publisher announced two new esports tournaments in Brazil solely for women’s teams in League of Legends and Wild Rift.

Gamer Girls Night In (GGNI), which took place earlier this year in the United Kingdom, has also signed Riot as its headline gaming sponsor, demonstrating the company’s commitment to addressing diversity in the esports and gaming industries.

Will Attwood, Competitive Experiences Manager for Northern Europe at Riot Games, commented: “Riot Games is committed to creating more opportunities for women gamers. Game Changers has been a huge success for Valorant and will continue to expand into other games.”

“Rising Stars, as a local, standalone tournament, is another example of the work that we and our partners can do to promote diversity and inclusion in the esports community. The fact that we’re also able to support students taking their first professional steps in the industry is the cherry on top.”