One of the most popular MOBA titles for PC, League of Legends is expanding its reach on mobile. Riot Games had announced last year that League of Legends: Wild Rift, the game’s fresh avatar made for mobile players, would be rolled out in 2020. While the game seems to be accessible in open beta for players in certain Asian regions, a large number of countries will be getting access today. Riot has listed names like Vietnam, Oceania, Taiwan, Turkey, Russia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Certain west European countries have also started getting access, which means that the entire region should be able to play the game sooner than later.
Here are the regions from the first phase, where access is already available:
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Laos
- Myanmar
- Timor-Leste
Here are the regions that shall get access today onwards:
- Europe
- Middle East
- North Africa
- Oceania
- Russia
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- Vietnam
The game will be coming to the Americas in Spring 2021, with the rest of the world following after such an announcement.
In case the open beta is not available in your region, you could consider sideloading the APK and the OBB files. However, you would need to VPN into a supported region to play and as we know, using a VPN isn't advisable for a game like this since the server ping and consequent lag will hamper your gameplay experience.
To mark the occasion of the launch in the above-mentioned regions, Riot Games has also announced a special event. "On December 10 at 0200 PT, we are rallying the world for the biggest Baron battle in history, with players across the planet uniting in a YouTube Livestream to face off against everyone’s favorite ancient, Void-born, acid-spitting, river monster.” To take part in the battle, one just needs to attend the Livestream. Participants will be able to play the game by typing in the chat with [1], [2], [3], and [4] allowing you to attack and use other abilities.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is based on the same concept as the PC version. Players get to compete in matches that last anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes where they need to work in teams to achieve a victory condition, for instance destroying a core building in the enemy team's base after bypassing a line of defensive structures called turrets, or towers. It was reported last year that Tencent would be working with Riot Games in the development of League of Legends: Wild Rift since it owns 100% stakes. Tencent already has an adaptation of the game called Wangzhe Rongyao (Honor of Kings) for mobile gamers in China which is one of the most popular and highest-grossing mobile games. Having said that, it seems that Riot is going to be the worldwide publisher for League of Legends: Wild Rift while Tencent would be given publishing rights in China. Even the official Google Play Store app listing highlights the developer as Riot Games.