How Gamers Lounge and Riot Games’ deal plans to affect Middle East and Africa

At the end of March, game developer Riot Games, known for esports titles such as League of Legends and VALORANT, teamed up with gaming company Gamers Lounge to bolster the Middle East and African (MEA) esports ecosystem. 

The deal highlights the Middle East’s continued development within esports and gaming, with many game developers looking to create localised content in the region. Riot Games’ collaboration with Gamers Lounge, however, looks to take this expansion even further, with the latter being appointed the developer’s creative arm in MEA.

Speaking to Esports Insider, Gamers Lounge COO, Hashem AlBorno, explained that the partnership will enable the company to “further grow and nurture the gaming communities for League of Legends, VALORANT and Wild Rift.”

Gamers Lounge will look to bolster Riot Games’ community engagement in MEA by creating new experiences and different content that focus on the region’s culture and preferences, and speaking their own language. This includes design and illustration of posts, video production, in-game content creation, and creating live programmes and events.

By launching a range of projects in esports and gaming, Gamers Lounge’s goal is to connect stakeholders, brands and publishers to the MEA audience. 

Founded in 2014, Gamers Lounge has gone on to become a prominent stakeholder in the MEA ecosystem. One of the company’s notable activations was Red Bull Proseed, a League of Legends tournament — originally created, and named, by Gamers Lounge — that spanned over four seasons. Moreover, the company partnered with PUBG to create the content on its social media platforms for one year and has collaborated on MEA-focus esports documentaries.

Given its tenure in the space, Gamers Lounge has also seen how the market in the region has evolved in such a short space of time, particularly with regard to MEA’s competitive ecosystem.

AlBorno, stated: “We’ve been in the market long enough to witness the gradual growth of esports, starting from teams that were simply groups of friends gathering to play, to the creation of the very first professional esports team in the region.

“The past few years have been particularly significant, especially after the MEA region began gaining recognition in global esports events.” 

Specifically, the partnership with Riot Games will primarily focus on League of Legends, Wild Rift and VALORANT. To garner the attention of MEA audiences, Gamers Lounge will produce marketing and social media content, which includes designs, illustrations and video production. 

Whilst Riot Games’ partnership with Gamers Lounge is a significant move by the developer, it isn’t the first time that these two companies have joined forces. Gamers Lounge previously worked with Riot Games on two seasons of the Intel Arabian Cup (IAC), which was MEA’s official League of Legends event before the Arabian League, as its broadcast partner in 2021 and 2022. 

AlBorno added: “We managed to introduce new technologies for the first time in the region, such as the use of Augmented Reality in the live broadcast, in addition to working with them on the IAC’s second season finals which was offline and attended by thousands of people.”

Gamers Lounge has also worked with Riot Games to produce the show ‘The Best Duo’, inspired by and created to celebrate  League of Legends’ Soul Fighter limited event. According to Gamers Lounge, the show featured multiple influencers and was very well-received by the community. 

When asked if Riot Games’ expansion in the Middle East will push other game developers to focus on the region, AlBorno replied saying it already has. 

He stated: “Riot Games usually has a great roadmap that significantly helps grow the MEA region in terms of awareness. This has created a sense of challenge, pushing other developers and publishers to start giving the MEA region more focus as well. 

“Riot was one of the first to open this path, and since then, we’ve seen many publishers hiring for MEA-specific teams, including Mobile Legends, Garena, Bandai and more.”

For Gamers Lounge, the partnership looks to add more notable activations to its impressive catalogue of projects. Alongside its marketing campaigns with PUBG, Red Bull, Samsung, Ubisoft and IGG, the company has worked with stakeholders on social media management, branding and production.