Riot Takes Over League of Legends & TFT in SEA! Account Transfer Guide & Rewards Explained

Hey everyone, it's your boy back with some MASSIVE news for all my SEA League and TFT players! As of 2026, looking back, the landscape for Riot Games in Southeast Asia has completely transformed. Remember the days when we had to deal with Garena? Well, those are officially ancient history now! Riot Games finally brought League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics under their direct publishing wing in our region, and let me tell you, it's been a game-changer.

I still remember the official announcement dropping. Riot basically said, "Enough is enough, we want our SEA fam to have the exact same dope experience as players everywhere else in the world." And you know what? They delivered. This move meant the end of their 12-year partnership with Garena. Honestly, it was a long time coming. Riot had already been successfully self-publishing bangers like Valorant, Legends of Runeterra, and Wild Rift across APAC, so bringing LoL and TFT home was the final piece of the puzzle.

The transition itself was a whole process, but Riot made sure it was as smooth as possible for us players.

The Great Account Migration: How It Went Down

Here’s the lowdown on how everything shifted over. The key dates were everything:

• Account Linking Started: October 18th, 2022 (The pre-game lobby!)

• Migration Process Began: November 18th, 2022 (The game starts!)

• Garena Servers Shut Down: Early January 2023 (The nexus explodes!)

• Final Deadline: December 31, 2022 (Don't be that person who AFK'd!)

The message was clear: Link your accounts ASAP or risk losing everything! Riot set up a special microsite with all the deets, and the community was buzzing with guides and tutorials. The best part? If you completed the transfer, you got showered with in-game rewards as a "welcome to the family" gift. We're talking icons, emotes, maybe even some skin shards – it was a nice little bonus for dealing with the switch.

And let's talk about what you could bring with you. Riot promised that almost everything would carry over, and they weren't lying:

• Your hard-earned Champion Mastery points (all those S- ranks finally mean something!)

• Your entire Loot Inventory (skin shards, ward skins, the works)

• Your In-Game Currency (both Blue Essence and Riot Points)

• Your collection of Emotes (gotta have the right BM tools)

• Every single Champion Skin you ever bought or unlocked

• And thankfully, your Friend List (no more re-adding your entire squad)

For players who were based in SEA but grinding on other servers like Korea or NA, this was a godsend. You could finally transfer your account to the new local servers without starting from scratch. Ping issues? Basically gone overnight. It was like getting a brand-new, ultra-low latency PC setup for free.

A New Era for SEA Gaming

This wasn't just a server change; it was a full-blown infrastructure overhaul. Riot launched brand-new servers and made the games accessible through their own Riot Multigame Client. No more separate launchers! Countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong all got direct access.

But Riot didn't just set up servers and dip. They committed to the region HARD. They announced plans to establish new local offices in the countries I just mentioned. This meant more community events, better local support, and tournaments that actually felt connected to us. The "welcome events" and local activities they promised weren't just PR talk – we actually got to participate in region-specific missions and earn cool rewards.

Think about it: before 2023, our version of events sometimes felt... different. Now, we're on the same patch, same events, same client as everyone else. It unified the player base in a way we hadn't seen before.

The Final Word on Garena & Looking Ahead

Here's the crucial part some people almost missed: Once the transition was done, Garena League accounts were gone. Poof. Vanished. If you slept on the transfer until after the December 31st deadline, Riot couldn't guarantee your data. There were so many last-minute panic posts on forums! Thankfully, most people made it.

So, where are we now in 2026? The difference is night and day. Queue times are more consistent, customer support is actually responsive (crazy, right?), and we're fully integrated into the global Riot ecosystem. When a new TFT set drops or a LoL event starts, we get it at the same time as everyone else, with the same chances to earn rewards.

The move to self-publishing was a bold power play by Riot, and honestly? It paid off for them and for us, the players. It showed they were serious about investing in Southeast Asia not just as a market, but as a core part of the global LoL and TFT community. The era of fragmentation is over. We're all on the same Rift now. 🎮✨

TL;DR for my skimmers: Riot ditched Garena and now runs LoL/TFT directly in SEA. Account migration was in late 2022/early 2023 with awesome rewards. All your skins and progress transferred over. We now have better servers, direct support, and are fully synced with the global game. A total W for SEA gamers!