The Adelaide Football Club, owner of Legacy Esports, has welcomed the news that the Australian Football League (AFL) is entering the Australian esports industry.
The AFL has partnered with Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends, to bring League of Legends: League of Origin, a premier stadium tournament to Melbourne in November this year.
The competition will have a State of Origin-style format, with Oceania’s best League of Legends players set to step outside their regular season teams to represent their home state.
The Adelaide Football Club was the first professional sporting team in Australia to invest in esports when they purchased Legacy Esports in May, 2017.
The Club has also recently partnered with Bastion Live and UniSA to create a High School Esports League, where students around Australia will compete against each other in the League of Legends game.
Students and teachers from South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania are encouraged to sign up for the competition which gets underway on Monday, May 28.
Sign up for the High School Esports League now.
Adelaide Football Club Chief Operating Officer Nigel Smart said the AFL has shown great sporting leadership by announcing the partnership with Riot.
“As an AFL Club, and the owner of Legacy Esports along with the High School Esports League, we will always work with the AFL to help support and leverage strategic opportunities for growth within the Australian esports industry,” Smart said.
“Having the AFL take this first step into esports is an innovative strategic move which will benefit esports across the board in Australia.
“We are involved in esports because it is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, it is hugely popular with millennials and it centres around three aspects that are key parts of our strategic focus, technology, entertainment and media.”
The Crows will work alongside the AFL and Essendon – the only other AFL club involved in esports after purchasing a League of Legends team they rebranded ‘Bombers’ earlier this year – to continue to grow esports in Australia.
As part of the AFL and Riot partnership, a purpose-build esports studio will be built in Melbourne.
A venue and date for League of Legends: League of Origin will be confirmed in coming weeks.
