Fans of professional League of Legends will be seeing a slightly different version of Summoner's Rift this season. Riot Games has introduced a new feature that will allow esports teams to customize the Rift during official League of Legends matches.
The feature is called "Summoner’s Rift Arena Banners." It will look like a series of banners across the Rift, which each team can choose to customize however they like. It's important to note that the banners will only be viewable by spectators, and it won't affect the professional players or gameplay in anyway way. It's unclear which version of the Rift live audiences would see, but as the LCS and LEC Leagues have suspended live games due to the coronavirus, this won't be an issue till down the line.
Presumably, this space will be used for a mix of branding and advertising. Video games have a long history of in-game advertising, although a lot of games have taken a more subtle approach. Of course, advertising in League isn't necessarily a bad thing. Advertising is a huge income stream for professional sports, and this will likely bring in a lot of money for League teams. An extra income stream will allow teams to improve their training facilities, bring on more support staff, and produce better talent.
But still, it might feel a little strange to tune into a League of Legends game and see an advertisement for the US Air force, which recently sponsored its first professional player.
League of Legends is available on PC.
Source: Riot Games