Riot Video games has introduced a brand new multi-year partnership with Movember aimed toward strengthening psychological well being assist throughout its top-tier EMEA esports competitions.
Based on the discharge, Movember will turn out to be the Official Psychological Well being Companion of the LEC and VALORANT Champions Tour EMEA for 2026 and 2027. The partnership may also embody VCT Sport Changers EMEA.
Underneath the settlement, Movember will work alongside Riot Video games to supply psychological well being coaching, instruments, and sources for gamers and staff workers.
The initiative may also embody player-only roundtables centered on stress, aggressive strain, and coping methods, in addition to on-broadcast and on-site messaging designed to cut back stigma and encourage extra open conversations round psychological well-being inside esports.
“Supporting the well-being of the VCT EMEA group, our gamers, and staff workers is one thing we’re dedicated to strengthening, so we’re thrilled to welcome Movember as a associate,” stated Daniel Ringland, Head of VALORANT Esports, EMEA.
Normalising these conversations “past the aggressive stage,” Movember’s experience is predicted to supply sensible instruments and be sure that everybody linked to the ecosystem feels supported by professionals, in line with Ringland.
What’s Movember
Movember is a worldwide non-profit organisation recognized for tackling males’s psychological well being challenges and suicide prevention, alongside broader males’s well being points. With its annual November fundraising marketing campaign, Movember has been ‘difficult the established order in males’s well being’.
This partnership comes at a time when psychological well being assist is more and more seen as a essential part {of professional} esports.
Gamers usually face intense schedules, frequent journey, performance-based contracts, and fixed on-line publicity, all whereas competing at a younger age. By formalising psychological well being sources throughout its main EMEA leagues, Riot Video games seems to be responding to long-standing considerations throughout the scene about burnout, stress, and the sustainability of esports careers.
Considerations round participant well-being within the LEC ecosystem have been highlighted three years in the past in an investigative article that make clear the psychological pressures confronted by professional gamers. Psychological well being has since remained a recurring subject of debate throughout the group.
