Riot launches League of Legends Mid-Season Streamathon for COVID-19

On May 18th, 2020, Riot Games officially announced the Mid-Season Streamathon. The live stream marathon will run from May 29th to May 31st, and will raise funds for COVID-19 relief worldwide. This stream serves as a replacement to the planned 2020 Mid-Season Invitational and Rift Rival events. These two events were first delayed due to global pandemic complications, but have since been replaced by the Streamathon.

The $600,000 Mid-Season Cup between the LPL and LCK is the highlight of this Streamathon, with the top four teams of each region competing for the championship. However, a various spread of other matches and events are also planned for the weekend. Japan and North America will hold exhibition games, while Southeast Asia and Latin America will feature showdown matches.

Fans from all over the world can surely find something that sparks their interest during the Streamathon, as nearly all major and minor regions are represented in the schedule.

Riot’s Mid-Season Streamathon is just one of many esports events that have transitioned online in the past few months. The four major League of Legends regions (LPL, LEC, LCK, and LCS) all transitioned from LAN to online play within the 2020 Spring Split. Only the LCK finals was broadcasted live in-studio out of the four championship matches.

The Streamathon is likely to be a fully-digital event, considering the massive amount of countries that have yet to lift current travel and lifestyle regulations. The action kicks off at 5pm PST on the 29th, and continues until the end-of-show finale from 6-8pm PST on the 31st.

Stephen No

Stephen "Steph" No is a communications major and esports journalist. Currently covering the LCS and the OWL, Steph is aiming to become a prominent Asian-American voice in Western esports media. You can follow his twitter @kdpanthera for more LCS and Overwatch League related content.