Introducing the RSAA

We aspire to make League of Legends an inclusive, generational, college and high school sport across North America. To do so, we’re leveraging the unique infrastructure and culture of American scholastic sports. Over 80 colleges officially support League (up from 30 a year ago), and they collectively invested over $6M into the college League of Legends ecosystem in 2018. Last fall, we saw five US states sanction League as a high school varsity sport with state championships.

This morning, we announced the formation of the Riot Scholastic Association of America (RSAA), a governing body for Riot’s college and high school efforts in North America comprised of an advisory board of six collegiate esports leaders, working closely with a dedicated team at Riot. We regard the establishment of the RSAA as another step towards our mission.

Why the RSAA?

League of Legends is currently one of the most established college esports, and we want to take a more proactive role in working with schools and other stakeholders to ensure that it meets more than just Riot’s needs. As a publisher-backed governing body, we have the resources to continue investing in college League of Legends without the need to charge membership fees, raise outside capital, or chase down challenging/nascent business models, meaning that we can focus on the long term sustainability of the sport.

The formation of the RSAA represents Riot’s long term commitment to League of Legends, and it’s development as an inclusive, multi-generational, college and high school sport. As League enters its 10th year, we’ve never been more committed to growing the ecosystem that supports it.

How does it work?

Riot’s current scholastic team will operate under the RSAA effective immediately. The College League of Legends season and championship will be governed by the RSAA, in tandem with existing operations partners.

The board of advisors is made up of leaders from throughout college esports. The board will work with the RSAA team on ways to level up Riot’s continued support for scholastic esports, including scaling competitive operations, creating a more inclusive student community, and aligning with the goals of schools.

As the RSAA establishes itself, we will, evaluate potential school membership models, showcase best practices through whitepapers and conferences, explore an expanded role in high school esports. In the future, should Riot establish another esport, the RSAA will explore expansion beyond League of Legends.

What’s next?

As we wrap up the 2019 College League of Legends season, we’re already deep into 2020 season planning. Tomorrow, on the first day of the College Championship, we will conduct our inaugural meeting with the Board of Advisors where we’ll be sharing a deep dive into the current League of Legends landscape and what we believe to be on the horizon. This is still the early days of college esports, and as such, we’re not jumping in with a ton of assumptions for how we’ll work with the board. The primary focus of that meeting will be establishing the kind of board we’d like to be, and the topics we’d like to prioritize.

It’s an exciting time for college esports. The formation of the RSAA we feel is a practical next step in realizing an inclusive and constructive ecosystem for League of Legends and beyond. Be sure to check out rsaa.riotgames.com to keep up to date on everything college and high school League of Legends.