All Stars 2019 Approaches, How Will it Change This Time?

With All-Stars 2019 on the horizon, many are curious about the structure of League of Legends’ most volatile event.

All-Stars will occur from Dec 5-7 in the Las Vegas Esports Arena. This year, two pros from each region will be voted for to represent their league. After the vote concludes, six additional pros will be selected and invited to All-Stars by Riot.

Just like All-Stars 2018, streamers and personalities will be invited to attend and compete in the events. The invitees will be selected from Riot’s League Partner Program.

This year’s competitors will be competing in these formats:

• All-Star 1v1 Tournament
• TFT Tournament
• 5v5 Summoner’s Rift
• Show Matches
• Blind Pick URF
• Tandem Mode

Similarly to last year, All Stars will include charity events. In the 2v2 tournament, $100,000 dollars was donated towards mental health.

All-Stars 2018 also went on to become the most viewed All-Stars since 2015. Unlike 2018 however, All-Stars 2019 will feature Teamfight Tactics.

Lack of Structure Changes in Hopes of Bring Success

Following their success in 2018, Riot appears to be recreating the same event structure in 2019. Previously, All-Stars has changed every year. All-Stars 2015 had tournament seedings based on Worlds performance but had no prize incentive for participants. All-Stars 2017 sent out each region’s best players onto a single team to participate in a grand tournament but struggled to actually function as a competitive event. This is because All-Stars has many casual events as well as not having an official prize pool for competing players.

All-Stars has also conflicted heavily with Rift Rivals. Both events were similar in their semi-competitive nature, but neither provided a big incentive for teams to compete. Previous iterations of All Stars has been near-indistinguishable in purpose to its Rift Rival counterpart.

Riot stays the Course Amid Community Outcry

With 2019, Riot seems to have settled on their solution for All-Stars’ historic issues. In the future, we can likely expect it to continue as a casual event for the fans’ favorite pros as well as popular streamers and personalities.

But as it solidifies as a casual event, it leaves a vacancy in the League of Legends ecosystem. No other event had the gathering of each region’s best pros onto a single team, much like international rosters from traditional sports. Although fans are voicing their discontent, it is unlikely the community will see any changes to All Stars specifically. Tyler Erzberger mentioned on Twitter that a League of Legends World Cup is coming in the future.

With viewership increased with the chosen format, Riot has no reason to change their mind. Until demand becomes high enough for reform or another event like a World Cup, All-Stars will likely continue as is.

Written by Devon Huge