The 2023 final of the League Of Legends LEC, the global esports event, will take place in Montpellier this fall.
Is France becoming indispensable in the field of e-sports, playing video games in competitions alone or in a team? In any case, our country, in which 10.8 million Internet users aged 15 and older are interested in eSports, has great ambitions. On January 16, the Ministers of Economy (Digital Transition), Sports and Culture announced an ambitious action plan to “make France a great esports nation and re-energize the esports strategy for 2020-2025”. » Approached sector participants presented their work on five goals: structure the esports ecosystem; to better support amateur practices and associations in the sector in the territories; remove obstacles to the development of practice in France; strengthen the capacity of the French ecosystem to host major international esports events; and finally mobilizing the ecosystem for the Olympic eSports Week in France at the end of 2024, after the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.
Emmanuel Macron already mentioned holding major international competitions in June last year. The head of state showed a desire to accelerate the structuring of the esports sector and increase its attractiveness, in particular through the holding of new major international events, announcing new major competitions “Blast Major” in France in May 2023. and Trackmania games in 2024.
Montpellier: the obvious choice
These competitions have just added a new important meeting in Occitania: the 2023 final of the “League Of Legends LEC”, the most important international esports competition for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) zone. will take place in Montpellier this autumn. League of Legends (LoL), the most popular PC game in the world, which has been the powerhouse of the industry for more than a decade, has played an important role in the popularity and professionalization of esports. Competitions bring together not only the best teams in the world, but also a large audience. In 2022, the LEC Summer Playoffs event, held in Malmö, Sweden, attracted around 20,000 people from dozens of countries.
Montpellier’s choice seems obvious, as for over 20 years the city has focused part of its economic development on the cultural and creative industries sector, hosting renowned schools in video games and 3D animation, as well as world-famous studios. like Ubisoft, Blue Twelve and Fortiche. “We are proud to be able to host the League of Legends LEC finals in the Occitania region and in Montpellier. A planetary event that unites the youth of the entire EMEA region,” said Mayor of Montpellier Mikael Delafosse and President of the region Carol Delga.
“France has a huge LoL Esports fan base. We are therefore delighted to be returning to this country for the first time since 2017 with our flagship event in Montpellier. The candidacy of this city and region of Occitania proved to be very attractive, with a real passion and unwavering commitment to the development of esports,” said Alberto Guerrero, director of EMEA esports region at Riot Games.
With this meeting, Occitania, which accounts for 10.3% of French video game companies (125 companies, + 20% compared to 2018) and is the first region in terms of the number of “amateur esports”, thus confirms its position in cybersport.