League of Legends Game Changers EMEA for women finally here

The first official women’s tournament of League of Legends in EMEA. The League of Legends Game Changers will be the overall circuit for women in EMEA, and LGC Rising will be its inaugural competition.

Following the success of the initiatives at VALORANT with Game Changers, Riot now intends to replicate that momentum in the League’s competitive ecosystem. According to Riot, LGC Rising is the “first step” in building a “meaningful competitive ecosystem” for women across the region, which will begin in August and culminate in a live grand finale at Paris Games Week in October.

This launch does not come out of nowhere. Previous reports published in January already hinted at Riot’s plans to create a women’s league inspired by VALORANT’s successful Game Changers format. However, this initiative has long been at the top of the community’s list of requests, as it builds on the progress made over the years in local grassroots tournaments such as Germany’s Equal Esports Cup and France’s Coupe des Étoiles.

We’ve seen what Game Changers can do in VALORANT, now we want to create the same kind of impact in League. This is not a one-off tournament, but the start of a new journey.

Riot Games

In addition, Riot has stressed that the LEC organizations are fully behind the LGC initiative and will support the scene “every step of the way.” This could mean that other LEC organizations besides G2, SK Gaming and Team Vitality, which already have an active female squad in League, could create their own LGC squads in the near future.

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LGC Rising will start with online qualifiers in August and will continue until the grand final on October 30, which will be held live at Paris Games Week, where the first VALORANT mixed tournament was already held in 2024.

For LGC Rising, Riot is taking a cautious approach to the first edition, emphasizing that this is a “pilot” event, but designed to grow over time. Like the VCT Game Changers rules, participation in LGC Rising is only open to players who identify as female, in order to provide a “safe, respectful and competitive” space in which women can thrive.

LGC Rising will feature eight teams competing, with three direct invites likely to go to organizations that already have women’s squads, and those linked to LEC organizations. The other three teams will qualify through the Equal Esports Cup, and two more will be selected in an open qualifier scheduled for early August.

The format of the tournament will consist of two groups of four teams that will face each other in a bracket with best-of-one matches. The top three from each group will advance to a best-of-five, double-elimination playoff, although Riot has not yet confirmed whether or not the Bo5 will feature Fearless Draft.