Riot at a crossroads: Gyeongbokgung upgrades as LEC online claims circulate
riot is drawing attention on two very different fronts: an on-the-ground visitor upgrade at Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace, and separate claims circulating that the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) could shift to mostly online play from 2027 with the Berlin studio potentially closing.
What happens when Riot Games Korea’s ticket-machine donation reshapes the Gyeongbokgung entry experience?
The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on March 18 (ET) that it received a donation of five unmanned ticket vending machines from Riot Games Korea at the Gwanghwamun ticket office at Gyeongbokgung on March 17 (ET). With the donation, the number of unmanned ticket vending machines inside the palace increased from ten to fifteen.
The Cultural Heritage Administration positioned the new machines as a practical response to congestion, particularly on weekends and public holidays, when ticket-purchase lines can be long. The added units are set to be installed at the Gwanghwamun ticket office, described as the busiest location for visitors. The stated aim is straightforward: reduce waiting times and ease crowding at the point of entry.
In a separate release describing the same initiative, the new machines were also framed as replacing ageing units at the Gwanghwamun ticket office, where rising visitor numbers had increased wear and tear, malfunction rates, and maintenance costs. That release listed visitor numbers at Gyeongbokgung as 3. 38 million in 2022, 5. 57 million in 2023, and 6. 44 million in 2024.
The donation was marked by a ceremony held on March 17 (ET) in collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Administration. Hyukjin Cho, CEO of Riot Games Korea, said the company hoped the machines would improve visitor convenience and added that the effort was made possible with support from players who love Riot Games’ titles.
What if Riot’s cultural-heritage partnerships become a bigger part of its public footprint?
The Cultural Heritage Administration signaled that it sees corporate participation as a model to expand, stating it would continue improving visitor convenience by expanding public-private partnerships connected to corporate social responsibility activities.
Riot Games Korea’s involvement in heritage work was described as long-running. Since signing an agreement to protect national heritage in 2012, Riot Games Korea has supported overseas heritage acquisition and repatriation, and palace preservation projects. The separate release added that Riot Games Korea has supported projects including the purchase and repatriation of cultural assets, preservation and use of royal artefacts and palaces, and youth education programs centered on cultural heritage. It also stated Riot Games Korea’s cumulative donations reached ₩10 billion by 2025, making it the largest private-sector contributor to the country’s cultural heritage protection sponsorship programme.
While the immediate impact is operational—more machines, shorter lines—the longer-term significance is reputational and institutional: a game company being repeatedly tied to tangible improvements at highly visited cultural sites, under the umbrella of a formal relationship with a government cultural agency.
What happens when claims of an online-first LEC collide with today’s studio-based format?
Separate from the Korea donation story, claims have circulated that Riot Games may move the LEC to exclusively online matches—outside of Roadtrips—from 2027. The claims were attributed to retired League of Legends pro Kim ‘Wadid’ Bae-in, who said during a co-stream that he heard Riot is considering moving the LEC out of the usual Riot Games Arena studio in Berlin.
As described in the claims, the Berlin studio currently hosts LEC events other than Roadtrips—live arena events hosted and organized by an LEC team—and the Season Finals, described as the only Riot-organised LAN event for the LEC each year. The idea presented was not an end to all in-person moments, but a shift where arena shows and Roadtrips would still happen while the majority of the season would be played online.
The claims also included uncertainty. It was stated that Riot had not made any official statement, and it did not sound like a decision had yet been made. It was also not known whether any alleged change would affect Valorant’s VCT EMEA league, which was described as sharing the Berlin studio with the LEC.
The same set of claims framed the potential shift as consistent with cost pressures: live esports events are expensive to run, and it was stated Riot has already been cutting costs by hosting fewer arena shows and occasionally running game days without live audiences. The LEC was also noted to have hosted online matches before during the COVID-19 pandemic when live events were not allowed.
For now, riot has a confirmed, concrete action in Seoul and an unconfirmed, forward-looking question in Europe—one rooted in speculation rather than an official plan.
