By the end, this year will has been a slow victory for both Australian MOBA players and the country’s emaciated games industry. In February, Riot opened their Sydney office and began hiring staff to support the Oceanic LoL community. And before Christmas, all of the lights should be green on those local LoL servers we’ve been promised.
In a Q&A post on the game’s official forums, Oceanic studio manager Mirko Gozzo was asked for an ETA on the Australian servers: “For sure before the end of the year,” he replied.
Gozzo reported the new studio’s latest hirings: a local eSport coordinator was apparently picked up just last week, and four offers were recently made for technical positions. They’re really throwing the parts onto the speeding metaphor over there.
The manager also revealed his studio’s ambitious plans for the Oceanic region: to make professional eSports viable the way it is in North America and Europe.
“Our ultimate goal for Oceania is to develop eSport to professional level,” he said. “This might take some time though as PRO eSport needs to be fostered from the bottom therefore for the first period we will focus on semi-pro organisation development.”
If anybody can build an eSports infrastructure more-or-less from scratch, it’s Riot, who’ve consistently put their money exactly where their mouth is – increasing the going rates for prize pools and even offering Championship players a salary. Do you think they’ll pull it off?
Thanks, Polygon.