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South Korean League of Legends esports league faces challenges in mainland China after Taiwan controversy, halted broadcast
- Tencent’s Huya live-streaming platform ended Chinese broadcasts of the new League of Legends season after a Korean team referred to Taiwan as a country
- League of Legends Champions Korea is dealing with the fallout in mainland China amid broader struggles to grow revenue
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Ann Caoin Seoul, South Korea
League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK), South Korea’s top-tier esports league, is expected to grapple with publicity and financial challenges despite its success in the Asian Games and World Championship last year, according to industry officials on Thursday.
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For South Korea, 2023 marked a big win for its esports industry, especially for Riot Games’ League of Legends (LoL), one of the world’s biggest esports titles. Korea bagged two of the seven gold medals for esports, including one for LoL, at the Asian Games in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
T1, the LCK team backed by SK Telecom, beat China’s Weibo Gaming in November to win the annual championship of the LoL world tournament.
While the win was regarded as strong proof of Korea’s status as a global esports powerhouse, LCK league seems to be getting off on the wrong foot in 2024.
As LCK kicked off its spring season last week, Huya, a video game streaming platform in China backed by Tencent Holdings, which also owns Riot Games, has stopped the official Chinese-language broadcasts of the new season. That marked the first time that LCK broadcasts have been halted in mainland China since 2018, when Huya became an exclusive streaming partner with Riot Games for the regional tournament.
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