John Needham, President of Esports at Riot Games, said in a blog post that the League of Legends World Championship would have a “Virtual Pass” including special digital and physical merchandise, with a portion of the money going to the teams competing in the championship. In a One-Shot blog post, the CEO of esports at Riot Games disclosed that the developer of League of Legends and Valorant. Valorant will release a new product for fans to purchase in preparation for Worlds 2022 and the Valorant Champions Tour in the following year. A “Virtual Pass” is the product’s name, and it may include digital and physical items, such as Worlds goods and in-game skins.
The Needham continued by saying that he plans to push the product into Valorant esports contests the following year in addition to adding additional “experiential features” for lovers of the game. He hinted at the possibility of digital souvenirs and unique in-game cameras that may follow certain characters throughout matches. He also mentioned the possibility of access to live cameras from the event venue.
In addition to that, he proposed some more concepts pertaining to the Virtual Pass, such as esports team-specific passes. These passes would allow individuals to obtain digital and physical things that were branded with the name of their favorite team, as well as exclusive access to the rooms and chat channels of professional teams.
Riot has released a teaser for the Worlds 2023 Virtual Pass
“If we design this product correctly, it will deliver great experiences, connect fans with their favorite players and teams, and simultaneously create a new revenue stream for teams,” Needham said. “If we design this product correctly, we will connect fans with their favorite teams.”
According to the post, the inspiration for this notion originated from the fact that traditional sports generate significantly more cash from live events than esports. Even though matches of League of Legends or Valorant are sure to sell out an arena, the majority of fans undoubtedly prefer to watch the tournaments from the comfort of their own homes on Twitch or YouTube for free and enjoy practically the same experience.
In the blog post, further potential activations for esports-specific revenue as well as team-specific revenue, were also mentioned. One example of this was Riot’s suggestion to make up for the lack of broadcast licensing costs for their league by deploying target advertisements for fans viewing from their platform. Since Worlds 2023 is still several months away, and the teams still need to start playing in the Mid-Season Invitational, the particulars of what will come with the virtual pass are still subject to modification or alteration.
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