Riot Games is funding $500,000 in gaming and esports classroom resources through DonorsChoose during this year’s League of Legends World Championship.
According to a release, the money will go towards projects submitted by public school teachers in California, Texas and New York, the three states hosting stages of the tournament. DonorsChoose is a US education non-profit, founded by a teacher in 2000, which lets teachers request classroom materials and lets donors pick which requests to fund. Eligible projects cover areas such as game development, esports and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.
How the funding unlocks across Worlds
Rather than releasing the full amount at once, Riot will unlock the funding in stages as the tournament progresses. The competition begins with the play-ins on October 15th at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles. The Swiss stage, quarterfinals and semifinals follow at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas, before the grand final on November 14th at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Whatever is left once the tournament finishes will be spent on GivingTuesday, December 1st, when Riot will run a nationwide donation matching campaign on the DonorsChoose site. That campaign will be open to any teacher project focused on gaming and esports, and will run while funds last.
Dylan Jadeja, CEO of Riot Games, said: “The heart of our partnership with DonorsChoose is pretty simple: give teachers more ways to help students discover what they’re capable of. Games can be a meaningful part of that exploration — a starting point for learning how to create, problem-solve, work as a team, or even imagine a career they didn’t know was possible. As we bring Worlds to communities across the U.S. this year, we’re excited to support the teachers helping the next generation discover what they love and where it can take them.”
Four years of Riot and DonorsChoose
The two have worked together since 2023, and Riot has funded more than $1m in gaming and esports resources for public school teachers over that period. According to the release, that money has covered more than 1,600 projects across the US, supporting close to 1,000 teachers and reaching over 110,000 students.
Riot also said requests for gaming and esports resources on the DonorsChoose site had risen by 126% since the partnership began. The company has described the work as part of a broader commitment to widening access to jobs in the games industry and improving representation within it.
Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose, said: “Students thrive when learning taps into their passions. Riot Games continues to support public school teachers with resources to help students build peer connections and explore careers in STEM. This is a model for what it looks like to tap into a student’s potential.”
