Riot Games and Cisco announced an expansion of their partnership, which began in 2020 and established the global technology leader as the Official Enterprise Networking Partner of League of Legends (LoL) Esports Global Events.
Through the new agreement, Cisco also becomes the Official Security Partner of LoL Esports and will work together with Riot Games to explore opportunities to leverage their industry-leading solutions to better connect and protect one of the most widely recognized esports in the world.
Through the current partnership, Riot Games has utilized Cisco’s networking technology to improve the competitive experience for professional LoL players as well as enhance the broadcast experience for millions of fans around the world. “The Realm” – a private Cisco game server used exclusively for LoL Esports’ major global events, the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds) and the Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) – creates a near-zero ping environment to ensure equitable and fair play for all participants at the highest level of the sport. Additionally, Riot Games’ two groundbreaking Remote Broadcast Centers powered by AWS – one in Dublin, Ireland and one in Seattle, Washington – incorporate Cisco IP Fabric for Media technology and power live esports production and delivery across the organization’s portfolio of titles, including at both regional and global events.
Through the expanded partnership, Riot Games and LoL Esports will explore opportunities to leverage Cisco’s robust portfolio of market-leading security and digital experience assurance solutions, to provide exceptional visibility and insights across the entire global digital footprint of the global organization. Given the critical role technology plays in both the LoL Esports viewing experience for fans and playing experience for pros, proactively defending critical infrastructure, preventing outages and ensuring the seamless delivery of digital experience in real-time is of paramount importance. Cisco’s ThousandEyes solution can play a crucial role in assuring performance across the entire digital supply chain to identify and troubleshoot problem areas before any incident impacts users’ digital experience; while Cisco Duo's identity security solution works to protect the organization against identity-based threats.
Additionally, Cisco and Riot Games will continue to leverage the relationship to advance their shared commitment to creating opportunities for the next generation of technology professionals, by supporting programs such as Cisco’s Networking Academy, with a particular focus on driving more diversity and inclusion in the industry.
David Mulhall, Riot Games’ Global Head of Business Development and Esports Partnerships
Over the past four years, Cisco’s revolutionary network – The Realm – has lived up to the ‘change the game’ moniker that we strive to deliver to our fans and pros at every esports event. Cisco’s technology is central in creating the near zero-ping environment our pro teams demand to compete at their highest level, which in turn makes for the best viewing experience for our fans around the world. As we look forward to an incredible MSI Finals this weekend, I’m thrilled that we can trust our longstanding partnership with Cisco to continue to deliver all the epic moments our fans live for.
Rob McQueen, Vice President, Global Sponsorships at Cisco
Our continued partnership with Riot Games reflects our ongoing commitment to delivering the best possible connected experience for League players and millions of fans worldwide. Our industry-leading security and digital experience solutions have the ability to help to protect not only the integrity of the sport, but all aspects of Riot Games’ global, multi-faceted organization.
