League of Legends SEA servers part ways with Garena, now under Riot Games

League of Legends (LoL) Southeast Asia (SEA) servers waved their goodbye to a twelve-year partnership with Garena. With the newly-launched SEA servers under Riot Games, players have migrated their accounts and have been getting used to the transition.

After the migration, players kept their game history, progression, loot inventory, and in-game cosmetics such as skins and emotes. ELO ratings and ranks, however, were not transferred. Riot Games will launch a new ranked season on January 12 because, according to them, this gives players a fair start. To get your starting rank, you have to complete the usual ten placement matches.

When building the SEA servers, the publisher gave importance to reducing performance-related lag spikes. In the early months of 2023, players can expect patches that will increase client stability and improve latency issues.

This change also means that SEA will get the same events and campaigns enjoyed by the rest of the world.

Welcome Event

With Riot Games hope about the return of LoL’s player base after the transition, it will launch a welcome event starting January 13. By logging in and playing, players can earn tokens that can be exchanged for skin shards, legendary eggs, and ultimate skins.

New players can also enjoy the game because by completing in-game missions, they can unlock all 2009-2021 champions for free. This allows them to make up for a lot of lost time.

League of Legends Esports Scene in SEA

Ownership and operations of LoL esports leagues and tournaments will be completely transferred to Riot Games. This includes the Pacific Championship Series where pros from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Southeast Asia, and Oceania compete.