China Confirms Absence from League of Legends at Asian Games; Will Send 23 Athletes Across 4 Esports Titles

China will not participate in League of Legends (LoL), the premier esports event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games scheduled for this September.

Local media outlets, including China's Xinhua News Agency, cited a statement from the General Administration of Sport of China's Information Center, reporting that "23 athletes have been selected for the esports national team to compete in four events at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games."

The four selected events are Honor of Kings, PUBG Mobile, Identity V, and Naraka: Bladepoint. Notably, League of Legends (LoL), the most popular title in China, was excluded from the list.

The Chinese League of Legends national team reached the semifinals at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in 2023, but failed to advance to the finals after being defeated by South Korea, led by Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok.

At that time, South Korea defeated Taiwan in the finals to win the gold medal in the first-ever official esports tournament at the Asian Games.

China went on to win the bronze medal after defeating Vietnam in the third-place match.

For the upcoming Aichi-Nagoya Games, South Korea, Taiwan, and China were granted automatic qualification based on their medal wins in the previous tournament.

Other nations are currently competing in qualifying rounds that began on June 12 to determine the remaining participants.

However, when the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) released the list of automatic qualifiers and qualifying participants for League of Legends earlier this month, China was absent from the list, sparking rumors of their withdrawal within the esports industry.

Those rumors were confirmed when the Chinese government officially announced its roster for the four esports events.

Chinese esports experts interpret the move by stating, "Considering that not only League of Legends but also titles with Japanese-owned intellectual property are excluded, it appears that the recently strained China-Japan relations have influenced the reduction in esports participation."

In fact, China has decided not to send athletes to compete in titles where Japan holds the IP, such as Tekken, The King of Fighters, Street Fighter, and Pokémon Unite.

South Korea announced its roster of 36 athletes for nine esports events last month.

For the highly anticipated League of Legends event, the roster includes top laner Choi "Zeus" Woo-je (Hanwha Life Esports), jungler Kim "Canyon" Geon-bu (Gen.G), mid laner Kim "Zeka" Geon-woo (Hanwha Life Esports), mid laner Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok (T1), bot laner Lee "Gumayusi" Min-hyeong (Hanwha Life Esports), and support Ryu "Keria" Min-seok (T1), as they aim for a second consecutive tournament victory.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.