01

Introduction

Since 2017, Riot has partnered with college athletic conferences to host conference-specific League of Legends competitions as part of the College LoL Season. We believe conferences harness some of the best parts of intercollegiate competition – traditions, rivalries, and collaboration – to create competitions and experiences that are greater than the sum of their parts.

We believe partnering with organizations that also are seeking to best create, support, and elevate college competition will bring the best experience to our players at their member institutions. Partner conference competitions are one way we seek to make League of Legends an inclusive, generational sport in colleges and universities in North America.

Partner conferences receive a conference-specific regular season and playoff structure, administered by RSAA and our operations partners, with at least one guaranteed slot in the College Championship. Conferences can request custom season formats and schedules, or can let the RSAA handle the entire process.

02

Why Partner Conferences?

For students, conference support unlocks a deeper level of connection to their school’s culture and community. Participating in a legendary rivalry or seeing your school’s results proudly displayed by your school or conference is a part of the college experience that is impossible to overvalue.

For conferences, partnership with the RSAA provides a no-cost way to directly support esports at their member institutions. Conferences can be as hands-on or hands-off as they please, either leaving administration totally up to the RSAA, or collaborating with us to create the perfect format for them and their students.

For schools, conference play taps into the existing relationships, rivalries, and history their school has already cultivated. Conference competition allows for a more reliable schedule and set of opponents, with more agency in their matchups.

For Riot, conference partnerships help bridge the gap between us and administrators, and align our competition with some of the best parts of intercollegiate athletics. When administrators understand the value of gaming and esports, they are much more likely to create the kinds of long-term support for our players – their students – that we can’t directly provide on our own.

03

Non-Athletic & Esports Conferences

While we primarily partner with NCAA and NAIA athletics conferences and related organizations, we know there are many kinds of organizations that want to bring esports to their member institutions. Also, as schools without traditional athletics alignments get involved in esports, there’s room for them to form their own esports-specific conferences.

While we hold organizations with different backgrounds to a higher level of scrutiny, we want to empower schools to create, seek out, and support organizations that are right for their esports needs. Non-traditional conferences share a business and publishing plan as part of the application process to help us understand the company’s goals, vision, and long-term strategy.

04

Partnership Requirements

Partnership with the RSAA is free, but we do ask conferences to be able to meet all or most of the following requirements. All conference partnerships are evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

  • All participating member institutions must have a school faculty or employee point of contact for each member institution
  • Conference must verify enrollment status and player eligibility for all participants
  • Minimum participation of eight schools, or two-thirds of the conference membership (whichever is smaller)
  • Maximum participation of twenty-four schools (sixteen for non-traditional conferences, scaling up after first season)
  • Conference must provide Riot the rights to use conference and school names, logos, and marks for College Season publication and marketing purposes
05

Get Involved

Is your organization interested in learning more? Fill out the form below and a member of our team will contact you.

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