When Riot Games opened its Sydney office in 2015, it literally caused a stir: in addition to building an actual artificial reef for Nautilus, it founded the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League. Five years later, unfortunately, things have changed, and yesterday Riot announced the closure of its Sydney office and the dissolution of the OPL.

In a statement jointly released by Malte Wagener, Managing Director of North America and Oceania, and Tom Martell, Director of Global Esports, it became clear that Riot's hopes for the OPL were not bearing fruit. Riot Games wants to build a competitive and sustainable league that promotes commercial growth and fan engagement and supports professional play as a full-time career."

"Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of our teams and players, the OPL is not meeting our goals for the league." "We do not believe the market can support the league in its current form."

Riot's Sydney office has been closed as it is "primarily focused" on running the OPL. As for League of Legends Pro in the Oceania region, it will be added to the U.S. and Canadian LCS competition regions.

OCE players "will no longer be imported to the LCS roster," the statement added, confirming that Oceania will still host MSI 2021 and Worlds qualifying tournaments in 2021.