You’ve certainly heard of Riot Games through its various titles, including League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, and more. Millions of fans tune into LoL Esports every year to root on their favorite teams, hoping they might just get a skinline dedicated to them thanks to their victory. With an interest in reimagining fan experience, Riot Games and Amazon Web Services (AWS) teamed up to “transform” how Riot creates esports content.
Riot Games AWS collaboration
Riot is the first game company to make use of Amazon Web Service’s data analytic integrations for their esports broadcasts. In teaming up, Riot intends to focus on League of Legends, VALORANT, and League of Legends: Wild Rift events. AWS now stands as Riot’s official Cloud Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Machine Learning, Cloud Deep Learning, and Cloud Services provider.
“Riot Games has a long-term vision to bring joy to billions of fans around the world through our esports, and we’re extremely excited to work with AWS to level up the Riot Esports experience. The wide-ranging solutions and expertise of AWS will enhance Riot Games’ esports broadcasts and engage esports fans worldwide. From reimagining how fans view our events and content, to interacting with other players, AWS unlocks endless opportunities for Riot to shape the future of sport.”
John Needham, President of Esports at Riot Games.
So, what does the Riot Games AWS collaboration exactly mean for fans? It’ll be a “new way to experience esports.” Using AWS services, the company already uses it to work on how they design and deploy content to players. The new update focuses on the global esports event broadcasts for LoL Esports, the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT), and Wild Rift Esports. AWS’ cloud portfolio offers new insights and experiences to fans.
What to expect:
- First-ever AWS esports stats
- AWS-powered stats will play before, during, and after Riot’s global esports broadcasts. They aim to “educate and inform fans on key data points that are helping drive a team towards victory.” Fans can voice for the esports stats to be developed first. The top rank then debuts during VALORANT Champions and the League of Legends World Championship.
- AWS Global Power Rankings
- Global Power Rankins aim to create near real-time rankings of the top pro teams around the world in LoL Esports, VCT, and Wild Rift Esports. They will be displayed on-screen during game play.
- Pick’em powered by AWS
- Esports fans will be able to participate in bracket challenges throughout the competitive season. By selecting the right team, they win prizes. The new pick-em system introduces “new ways for fans to make team selections based on tournament data and compete for prizes.”
Riot plans to host a hackathon event for the Pick’em and Global Power Rankings, building the initial platform before offering participants the data to “optimize the solution to power the esports statistics.”
New plans moving forward
Riot also plans to introduce Project Stryker, a cloud-first remote broadcast centers that use AWS technology. Project Stryker supports Riot’s goals to reimagine not only esports and analytics, but music production, animation, and game development as well.
Additionally, the company plans to use a 50,000 square-foot facility located in Dublin. Along with this, they plan for a second one in Seattle later this year. Both will support live content around the world. In exchange, AWS receives exclusive naming rights for the broadcast centers.
The Riot Games AWS collaboration has been around for some time; initially, as their esports broadcasts on Twitch and Prime gaming content drops. Now as a sponsor of Riot’s esports events, their collaboration will continue with developing inclusive social impact programs in the esports environment.
For more information, check out their official website.
“Our collaboration with Riot Games elevates the entire esports landscape. This is a win, win, win for Riot, AWS, and most importantly fans. Tournament viewers and teams can now see in real time how different lanes, weapons, and abilities could determine who will become champions, similar to the stats used in other sports broadcasts. We look forward to working with Riot to create more immersive entertainment experiences and bring engaging esports content to billions of fans worldwide.”
Matt Garman, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Global Services at AWS.
