Riot Games is set to take the world of mobile gaming by storm with the imminent launch of League of Legends: Wild Rift.
There is a lot riding on the release of League of Legends: Wild Rift as it comes from the original hit PC MOBA title, LoL. This is probably the reason behind Riot Games taking its sweet time to make sure everything is set in place for its global release.
The way the game’s development is progressing, it looks like Riot Games is taking a few pages off from its Valorant book. Valorant entered into a very hyped open beta earlier this year.
The game was so appealing that many pro-players have announced jumping boats and joining the Valorant trend. By the looks of it, Riot might be hyping up the League of Legends: Wild Rift popularity before the global launch.
Already in its regional closed beta phase
The Closed Beta access kicked off last week, September 15. Right now, Riot is focusing its closed beta phase on four countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
This is generally a region-based. However, the online community believes kicking off the beta in Asia might probably have something to do with Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.
Mobile Legends is a big hit in Asia. eSports events have already transpired for the MOBA game. However, ML is contested to be a clone of League of Legends.
In fact, Tencent filed a lawsuit against Moonton and Xu Zhenhua in 2018 for a copyright-related. With ML’s content having striking similarities with that of LoL.
That’s right—we have news! Closed Beta kicks off in select regions today, and a new ranked system is coming so get ready to climb.
Plus, we’ve got updates on in-game content, gameplay, and champions.
📺 https://t.co/osrh8jYIq9 pic.twitter.com/WlMrYG6xuP
— League of Legends: Wild Rift (@wildrift) September 15, 2020
Can League of Legends: Wild Rift nab ML’s thunder?
Making Wild Rift a hit in Asia would make all the difference. Take Blizzard for instance, after getting cold feedback for Diablo Immortal in North America, it decided to release its updated gameplay trailer during ChinaJoy 2020 in Shanghai.
Nonetheless, on Reddit, there’s a long list of why Philippine players would gladly shift to Wild Rift from MLBB.
A few of the reasons mentioned were; “Riot Singapore has surprises for SEA players joining WR,” and “Most of disgruntled MLBB players are fed up by matchmaking issues, bugs, server issues, throws, and overpowered hero releases.”
It is important to note that Riot Games chose the Philippines to run its Alpha testing back in June.
Because who doesn’t want to hurl briefcases at their lane opponent?
💼 💥 Corporate Mundo
🍾 💪 Augmented Singed
🌿 🎵 Muse Sona
⚪ 🏹 Freljord Ashe
🐺 🔥 Red Riding AnnieStrut onto the Rift with one of these skins today. pic.twitter.com/53kuuelyad
— League of Legends: Wild Rift (@wildrift) September 25, 2020
How long until the actual release
League of Legends: Wild Rift is still slated for a 2020 release. If Valorant’s beta is any indication, the game could still actually launch late this year.
Valorant was in Open Beta for almost two months. It closed a few days before it officially launched.
If Riot will take the same schedule pattern, then we might see Wild Rift launch either in November or December. Although, who’s to say that Riot won’t surprise its awaiting fans in October.
The Beta will end early in October, per the game’s support page. Nonetheless, it is slated to open back up days later, unlocking more regions to access the game.
Also, Riot mightily simultaneously unveil the Open Beta in regions that already when into Closed Beta testing. Hopefully, the Open Beta will be a sure sign of a near release for Wild Rift.
Featured image courtesy of Riot Games