Verizon, Riot Games Expand Partnership With League Of Legends, Valorant Ahead Of Midseason Iceland Events

Verizon VZ and Riot Games announced an expanded, multi-year partnership between the two companies, becoming the official 5G wireless and network service partner for both League of Legends and Valorant esports, Riot said Monday.

Riot also announced that LoL’s May 6-23 mid-season invitational and the Valorant Masters from May 24-30 in its inaugural esports season will take place from the Laugardalshöll Indoor Sporting Arena in Reykjavík, Iceland.

Verizon became an official partner of League of Legends LCS North American regional league last June, but will now become a North American partner across LoL’s three annual global events as well as the founding partner for Valorant esports. They’ll be prominently featured across Valorant regional North American Challenger events and to Valorant’s four annual global majors.

“Expanding our partnership with Riot esports allows us to build on the success of the past year and continue expanding the opportunities to leverage the power of 5G Ultra Wideband for player and fan experiences across both LoL and Valorant,” said Yvette Martinez-Rea, Verizon’s vice president of partnerships and sponsorships.

There will be consumer promotions within the Verizon Up rewards program featuring discounted LoL in-game digital goods in addition to video content and in-broadcast sponsored segments. Other major Valorant sponsors include Red Bull, SecretLab gaming chairs and others to be announced.

Riot Games said it would not disclose the financials of the agreement, but described it as meaningful for both League and Valorant. Ten years after LoL’s debut as an esport, with its 2020 world championship final was watched by an average of 23 million, Riot is eager to popularize Valorant, its version of the popular first person shooter genre, at the size and scale of League.

“We’re very bullish on the second decade of esports at Riot,” said Naz Aletaha, Riot Games’ head of global esports partnerships and business development. “We really think that we have this really interesting opportunity to define what modern sports can look like, and bring that to the hundreds of millions of our fans all around the world.”

With Riot’s esports so technology-driven and a digitally native audience, having a partner like Verizon not only join last year for a proven entity like LoL but then agreeing to also be the founding Valorant partner was something Aletaha takes great pride in.

“For us, it’s a real sign of strength of the sport and when our partners expand their commitment,” she said. “It’s a pretty resounding endorsement of our vision.”

Verizon will also be a partner in Valorant’s recently launched VCT GameChangers initiative designed to provide training, experience and a spotlight to elevate women and other marginalized groups within the competitive esport’s community. There will be a multi-region series and an academy with monthly tournaments to give more opportunities to players at the semipro and grassroots levels.

Valorant’s competitive format will be similar to League of Legends’, with 10-12 teams competing in different regions in Challengers events, which act as qualifiers for the larger Masters and World Championship tournaments. The esport format was launched last year, highlighted by a First Strike tournament that Aletaha said exceeded Riot’s initial expectations.

“Now I think some of our partners see that and I think believe in the future of Valorant,” she said. “They can look to League of Legends and see what we did with League, the commitment we made to making League the sport that it’s become today. Our partners know that we’re making the same commitment on the Valorant side. So I think it’s a really great opportunity, frankly, for partners to get in on what we believe to be the next great global esport at the ground level.”