Global Esports Event Threat Assessment: League of Legends World Championship 2025

Executive Summary

Riot Games’ League of Legends World Championship became the most watched esports event with a recorded 6.86 million peak viewers in 2024. High-profile events like the League of Legends (LoL) World Championship, pose possible risks to attendees, participants, and event-affiliated personnel from a variety of threat actors with a range of motivations. Nisos monitored the threat landscape ahead of the event to stay abreast of developments among cybercriminals, state-sponsored threat actors, and event-related physical security risks. We regularly work in close partnership with corporate security, cyber threat intelligence, and trust and safety teams leading up to and during high-profile events and heightened periods of risk, providing clients with timely and actionable updates to ensure they are aware of and able to defend against cyber, physical and reputational threats.

With the LoL World Championship kicking off in October in venues across three cities in China, we identified several risks, outlined below, which our analysts are tracking for players, fans, and attendees traveling to the event.

Social Threats

Travelers to China from certain nations, backgrounds, and with certain collective identities will likely face increased risk of physical and verbal harassment by Chinese officials and LoL fans.

• South Korean nationals and individuals of Korean descent may face an increased chance of physical and verbal harassment when attending or participating in the LoL World Championship in China. While typically associated with soccer, Koreaphobia can also lead to nationalistic undertones and anti-Korean sentiments in esports in China.
• While LGBTIQ+ individuals may not face an increased chance of physical and verbal harassment from the general public in China, they may experience governmental censorship and pressure to accept Chinese cultural norms.
• US nationals and individuals who reside in the United States may experience increased scrutiny from government officials. Possible trade tensions as well as the US Department of Defense’s decision to add Tencent to the military blacklist possibly increase the risk for US travelers to China.

Cyber Threats

Travelers to China will almost certainly face Chinese government-related cyber threats.

• Mobile devices with Chinese mobile payment or transportation applications have built-in features that allow the Chinese government to monitor and censor messages.
• All means of communication are likely monitored in China.
• Chinese police, border guards, and other security officials have the authority to review the content stored on travelers’ electronic devices.

Government Threats

The Chinese government will almost certainly collect detailed personal information on all visitors to China, which may lead to questioning and detention.

• The Chinese government begins collecting extensively on travelers before they enter the country and almost certainly conducts continuous monitoring of individuals of interest once they arrive, including questioning the traveler at border crossings.
• Travelers should have no expectation of privacy in public or private locations.
• China’s detention of foreign businesspeople has increased over the past two years, likely in response to increased geopolitical tensions.

Background

League of Legends, also called LoL, belongs to the free playable genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA). League of Legends is a real-time strategy game, in which two teams of five players compete against each other on a map designed like an arena and try to take each other’s base. Originally, the prize pool was $100,000 for players in Sweden in 2011. It grew to $4.5 million in China in 2017. The number of spectators also continues to grow. Over 80,000 spectators filled an entire soccer stadium in China where SK Telecom T1 and Samsung Galaxy fought for the 2017 title, and 40 million viewers also followed the event via live stream.[2] This year’s Worlds will be hosted across three Chinese cities. Play-Ins and the Swiss Stage will commence in Beijing, with the Quarterfinals and Semifinals in Shanghai, culminating in a grand final in Chengdu.[3]

Social Threats

Koreaphobia

South Korean nationals and individuals of Korean descent may face an increased chance of physical and verbal harassment when attending or participating in the LoL World Championship in China. China has a documented history of Koreaphobia during sporting and esport events.

In the world of professional League of Legends, South Korea has the most active professional players (1,038 as of February 2025), who earned a total of $39 million since 2010. This is almost double that of the next place country, China.[4] The dominance of South Korean players over Chinese players in the LoL esport has spurred Koreaphobia (恐韩症) among Chinese fans and members of the esports community, leading to nationalistic undertones and anti-Korean sentiments. Stemming from soccer, the term Koreaphobia emerged during China’s 32 year loss record against South Korea, which lasted until 2010, but has persisted since.[5] In 2023, Chinese hooligans attacked South Korean soccer fans during a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries in China, which South Korea won.[6]

While the LoL World Championship is a competition between individual teams, Chinese fans commonly track how different Chinese teams perform against Korean teams. Several teams that perform especially well against Korean teams are dubbed “抗韩先锋” (kang han xian feng), which means “anti-Korean frontline.”[7] Some fans have used crude and racist terms to describe teams with Korean “imports” in previous years when importing players was less common.[8]

While South Korea typically has a large number of Korean teams taking part in the LoL World Championships, Korean players frequently play on non-Korean teams. According to news reporting, at the 2023 LoL World Championship, 36 of the remaining 91 registered players across 16 teams were Korean.[9]

Recent social media discussions about Koreaphobia have surfaced around a competitive, first-person shooter video game, Valorant, in which Chinese teams have lost to Korean teams. [10]

Homophobia

While LGBTIQ+ individuals may not face an increased chance of physical and verbal harassment from the general public while in China, they may experience governmental censorship and pressure to conform to Chinese cultural norms. While the general Chinese public appears to allow for a more inclusive society, there are no laws explicitly providing protections against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.[11] Chinese authorities adhere to the principle of “don’t support, don’t encourage, don’t condemn.”[12]

China’s public opinion of LGBTIQ+ people appears to have shifted in recent years to allow for a more inclusive society. A 2024 Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law study found that 53% of respondents agreed that LGBTIQ+ people should be accepted by Chinese society. Researchers surveyed the mainland Chinese public about their familiarity with and acceptance of LGBTIQ+ people. The study also found that 68% agreed and a further 30% somewhat agreed that LGBTIQ+ students should be protected from bullying and violence in schools.[13]

The Chinese government, conversely, has cracked down LGBTIQ+ groups and events since 2016. Same-sex marriage and adoption are not allowed and LGBTIQ+ people are not legally protected against discrimination.[14] Chinese authorities banned “abnormal sexual behaviors” from the media in 2016.[15] Dozens of accounts dealing with LGBTIQ+ topics on the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat were reportedly deleted in 2021. Similarly, China’s largest Pride event was suspended as of 2021.[16] However, a public outcry in China forced its most popular social media network Sina Weibo to reverse a decision to ban online gay content a few days after the content was banned.[17]

US-China relations

US nationals and individuals who reside in the United States may experience increased scrutiny by government officials and individuals involved in the LoL World Championship. Possible trade tensions as well as the US Department of Defense’s decision to add Tencent to the military blacklist possibly increase the risk for US travelers to China.

In January 2025, the US Department of Defense added Tencent Holdings Limited to its list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States.[18] While this designation did not include sanctions against the company, it serves as a warning to US companies not to invest.[19] In 2011, Tencent went from being Riot Games’ publishing partner in China to its majority stakeholder after paying $400 million for a 93% stake in the League of Legends developer.[20]

Cyber Threats

Risks From Use of Chinese Mobile Applications

Travelers to China will almost certainly need to use a mobile device with Chinese mobile payment or transportation applications, because China’s merchants almost exclusively use cashless transactions. While these applications are nearly ubiquitous in China and provide convenience, they have built-in features that allow the Chinese government to monitor and censor messages, access the device’s address book and photos, track the user’s location, and activate the microphone or camera, potentially exposing personal, confidential, or proprietary information.[21]

About Nisos®

Nisos is the human risk management company specializing in unmasking threats before they escalate. The company is a trusted advisor, operating as an extension of security, intelligence, legal, and human resource teams to protect their people and business. Nisos’ intelligence-led solutions help enterprises make critical decisions, manage human risk, and drive real world consequences for digital threats. For more information, please visit: https://www.nisos.com.