John Needham serves as President of Publishing & Esports where he drives the unified vision for publishing and esports at Riot Games worldwide. In this role, John’s responsible for shaping and integrating publishing, esports, international operations, and music to create a cohesive and immersive around-game environment for millions of players around the globe.
Under John’s leadership, Riot Games Esports experienced rapid growth and maturation across several titles. From LoL Esports’ World Championship and Mid-Season Invitational hitting record viewership year after year to launching and expanding the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) worldwide, John has led unprecedented growth of two major esports. More recently, he’s overseeing esports development for Riot’s emerging autobattler TeamFight Tactics (TFT) and Riot’s upcoming fighting game 2XKO.
John joined Riot in 2017 as the Managing Director of Europe and North America where he led the rebranding of the League of Legends European Championship (LEC), which included the move to a long-term partnership model with 10 teams and an influx of new partnerships including Kia, Logitech, Red Bull, and Foot Locker.
Prior to Riot, John has held several leadership positions across Games & Entertainment including Microsoft, Cryptic Studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Telemundo, Gazillion Entertainment, and Sony Online Entertainment.
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