Riot Announces they will not have a booth at PAX East 2015

I’m so upset that I’m not even going to bother putting a picture in this post.  I tried googling the word “disappointment” for an appropriate picture, but I didn’t find anything that really conveyed my feelings.  Instead, I give you the definition: “the feeling of sadness or displeasure caused by the nonfulfillment of one’s hopes or expectations.” 

“One of the first changes you’ll see is that we’re toning down our presence at PAX East. We’ve had an amazing time there over the past few years, but this year we’re scaling our presence down to speaker panels and the Cospitality Lounge for all the hardworking cosplayers.

Similarly, there’ll also be a shift on the esports side as we won’t be hosting the NA LCS 2015 summer playoffs at PAX Prime in Seattle. PAX has been an awesome host for the finals the past two seasons, but this year we’re exploring ways to bring that experience to even more players across NA.”

Basically, Riot will not have a booth at PAX East this year and that’s a huge bummer.  Tickets for the event already went on sale, and I know I’m not alone when I say I bought these tickets with the expectation I would be spending around 50% of my time at PAX East around the riot booth.

Riot continues to say that they will be hosting up to 5 of their own, “Riot only” events throughout 2015.  And while that’s great, I’ve already spent money on tickets / travel / hotels for PAX.  Not to mention I already live in the US – many others have spent way more to get to this convention.  PAX is well documented, and we all know about it way in advance to properly coordinate our schedules.  I’m so excited to tail Riot looking for when they might be hosting these sporadic events.

Although, I can see why Riot is doing this financially.  Last year their presence at PAX East was so large that I don’t doubt they could have a sold out attendance for their own convention. So, basically, why bring in hundreds of players to PAX and make only a portion of money from ticket sales when they can have their own event and keep all the profits?  The number of disappointed players crying that League was the only reason they were going to PAX solidifies this point.  Riot has truly a huge following, and they’re ready to make money on it.

Also, this means Riot will probably not be giving out codes and therefore I will not be giving any away. Again, a good financial decision for Riot: why give away something that is your main source of income?  Not to mention deactivating all the codes so no-one can sell them except for Riot.  But this is the price we play for a no purchase, no subscription, truly free-to-play game that makes revenue through in-game purchases but are NOT pay to win.

I enjoyed sharing these codes with you and I’m sorry that Riot has made it even more difficult for non US players to get their event exclusive skins.