League of Legends World Championship
| League of Legends World Championship | |
|---|---|
|
The 2014 World Championship logo | |
| Tournament information | |
| Month played | October |
| Format | Group Stage (Round Robin), Bracket Stage (Single Elimination) |
| Current champion | |
| Samsung Galaxy White | |
The League of Legends World Championship is the annual international electronic sports League of Legends championship tournament hosted by Riot Games. It is the culmination of each League of Legends season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 70 pounds (32 kg) Summoner's Cup, and the US$1,000,000 champion prize.[1]
Season 1 Championship
The Season 1 Championship[2] in June 2011, held at Dreamhack in Sweden, featured a US$100,000 tournament prize pool[3] with a $50,000 champion prize.[4] 8 teams from North America, Southeast Asia and Europe participated in the championship.[5] Over 1.6 million viewers watched the streaming broadcast of the event, with a peak of over 210,000 simultaneous viewers in the final matches.[6]
| Place | Team | Players[4] | Prize money | |
| ID | Name | |||
| 1st | Fnatic |
|
Maciej Ratuszniak |
$50,000 |
| 2nd | against All authority |
|
Paul Boyer |
$25,000 |
| 3rd | Team SoloMid |
|
Christian Kahmann |
$10,000 |
Season 2 World Championship
After Season 1, Riot announced that US$5,000,000 would be paid out over Season 2. Of this $5 million, $2 million went to Riot's partners including the IGN Pro League and other major eSports associations. Another $2 million went to Riot's Season 2 qualifiers and championship. The final $1 million went to other organizers who applied to Riot to host independent League of Legends tournaments.[7]
The Season 2 World Championship was held in early October 2012 in Los Angeles, California to conclude the US$5 million season. Twelve qualifying teams from around the world participated in the championship, which boasted the largest prize pool in the history of e-sports tournaments at the time at US$2 million, with US$1 million going to the champions. The group stage, quarterfinal, and semifinal matches took place between October 4 and 6. The grand finals took place a week after, on October 13 in the University of Southern California's Galen Center in front of 10,000 fans, and were broadcast in 13 different languages.[8] In the grand finals, Taiwan's professional team Taipei Assassins triumphed over South Korea's Azubu Frost 3-to-1 and claimed the US$1 million in prize money.[9]
Over 8 million viewers tuned in to the Season 2 World Championship broadcast, with a maximum of 1.1 million concurrent viewers during the grand finals, making the Season 2 World Championship the most watched eSports event in history at the time.[10]
| Place | Team | Players[11] | Prize money | |
| ID | Name | |||
| 1st | Taipei Assassins |
|
Wang June Tsan |
$1,000,000 |
| 2nd | Azubu Frost |
|
Park Sang-Myun |
$250,000 |
| SF | Moscow Five |
|
Evgeny Mazaev |
$150,000 |
| SF | Counter Logic Gaming Europe |
|
Mike Petersen |
$150,000 |
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- SF = Semi Final (no 3rd place decider was played)
Cheating incident
During the quarterfinal round of the Season 2 World Championship, Jang Gun Woong of team Azubu Frost cheated by turning his head to look at the big screen which was positioned behind him. The screen, which presents an overview of the game, is meant to be watched only by the crowd, as it displays elements that are supposed to be hidden from the players inside the game. This led to Azubu Frost being fined US$30,000.[12][13][14]
Technical issues
During the last quarterfinal best-of-three match on October 6 between European team Counter Logic Gaming EU and Chinese team World Elite, multiple technical difficulties occurred. Roughly twenty minutes into the second game, the network connection in the arena went down, terminating the live stream on Twitch.tv and disconnecting all ten players from the game, forcing to remake the game. Then, roughly sixty minutes into the third game, the network went down again. A final attempt was made at finishing the third game, but due to more network outages and technical issues, including a player's defective computer which had to be replaced, the last game and the following semifinals were rescheduled to be played on October 10 in the Galen Center, which was still undergoing construction work. The cause of the connection issues is uncertain, but is suspected to have been caused by faulty hardware.[15][16][17][18]
Season 3 World Championship
The Season 3 World Championship was held in late 2013 in Los Angeles, California. 14 teams from North America, Korea, China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and one of the emerging League of Legends territories measured up at the World Playoffs after having qualified through their regional competitions.[19] The grand finals were held in the Staples Center on October 4, 2013, where Korean team SK Telecom T1 defeated the Chinese team Royal Club,[20] granting them the title of the Season 3 world champions, the Summoner’s Cup and the $1 million prize.
The Season 3 World Championship grand finals broadcast on October 4 was watched by 32 million people with a peak concurrent viewership of 8.5 million.[21] The numbers once again beat the previous records for eSports viewership, and are above those for the viewers of the 2013 NBA Finals and the 2013 World Series.[22][23]
| Place | Team | Players[24] | Prize money | |
| ID | Name | |||
| 1st | SK Telecom T1 |
|
Jung Eon-Yeong |
$1,000,000 |
| 2nd | Royal Club |
|
Xiao Wang |
$250,000 |
| SF | NaJin Black Sword |
|
Gu Bon-Taek |
$150,000 |
| SF | Fnatic |
|
Paul Boyer |
$150,000 |
- SF = Semi Final (no 3rd place decider was played)
2014 World Championship
The 2014 World Championship featured 16 teams competing for a $2.13 million prize pool, with 14 teams qualifying from the primary League of Legends regions (China, Europe, North America, Korea and Taiwan\SEA) and two international wildcard teams.
The following teams participated in the tournament:[25]
| Region | Qualifier | Teams |
| China | LoL Pro League |
Edward Gaming |
| Europe | European League Championship Series | |
| North America | North American League Championship Series |
Team SoloMid |
| South Korea | OnGameNet The Champions |
Samsung Galaxy White |
| Southeast Asia/Taiwan | Garena Premier League |
Taipei Assassins |
| International | International Wild Card Tournament |
Dark Passage |
The group stage began at September 18 in Taipei and concluded at September 28 in Singapore with eight teams advancing to the bracket stage.[26] The bracket stage started on October 3 in Busan, South Korea, and concluded on October 19 with the grand finals hosted at the 45,000-seats Seoul World Cup Stadium,[27][28] where South Korean team Samsung Galaxy White beat the Chinese team Star Horn Royal Club to become the 2014 League of Legends world champions.[29][30][25]
American band Imagine Dragons contributed the theme song "Warriors" for the tournament,[31] and performed live on the grand finals stage in South Korea.[32] All games were made available for free via live streaming.[33]
The 2014 World Championship games were streamed live by 40 broadcast partners, and cast in 19 languages. The grand finals were watched by 27 million people, with concurrent viewership peaking at over 11 million viewers.[34][35]
| Place | Team | Players[29][30][25] | Prize money | |
| ID | Name | |||
| 1st | Samsung Galaxy White |
|
Jang Hyeong-Seok |
$1,000,000 |
| 2nd | Star Horn Royal Club |
|
Jiang Nan |
$250,000 |
| SF | OMG |
|
Gao Diping |
$150,000 |
| SF | Samsung Galaxy Blue |
|
Choi Cheon-Ju |
$150,000 |
- SF = Semi Final (no 3rd place decider was played)
Racism incident
While preparing for the World Championship group stage in Taipei, SK Gaming's Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen acted in a racially insensitive way while playing on the Taiwanese server, being disrespectful towards other players and naming his account "TaipeiChingChong". Johnsen was fined $2,500 USD and was suspended from his team's first three games in the tournament.[36]
2015 World Championship
After the 2014 Season, Riot Games introduced a number of changes to competitive League of Legends. The number of teams in the League Championship Series was increased from 8 to 10 in both the North America and Europe regions.[37] A second Riot Games official international tournament was announced, the Mid-Season Invitational, which is scheduled for May 2015.[38] Additionally, starting from 2015, all teams are required to field a Head Coach in their competitive matches, who will stay on stage and speak with the team via voice-chat in the pick-ban phase of the game. This change makes the Head Coach an officially recognized member of the team.[39]
The 2015 World Championship will conclude the 2015 Season, and is planned to be held at several venues across Europe in October 2015. Like the 2014 World Championship, the 2015 World Championship will be a multi-city, multi-country event.[40] The group stage will start on October 1 in Le Dock Pullman, Paris. The bracket stage is scheduled to start on October 15 in Wembley Arena in London, continue to Brussels Expo in Brussels, and conclude on October 31 with the grand finals hosted in Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin.[41]
References
- ↑ "Behind League of Legends, E-Sports’s Main Attraction - NYTimes.com". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ aAa vs fnatic - Grand Final Season 1 Championship - YouTube. Riot Games. January 28, 2013. Event occurs at 0:06. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
- ↑ Tom Senior (April 8, 2011). "League of Legends Season 1 Championship to have $100,000 prize pool". PCGamer.com. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Riot Season 1 Championship - Leaguepedia - Competitive League of Legends Wiki". Retrieved September 29, 2014.
- ↑ "DreamHack Summer 2011 - League of Legends Season One Championship". Retrieved 2014-10-29.
- ↑ John Funk (June 23, 2011). "The Escapist : News : League of Legends Championship Draws 1.69 Million Viewers". The Escapist. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Season 2". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ "The League of Legends Season 2 World Championship Live from the Galen Center (TV Movie 2012) - Plot Summary - IMDb". Retrieved October 8, 2014.
- ↑ "Taipei Assassins triumph in 'League of Legends' world finals". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ "Riot: League of Legends Season 2 Championships most watched eSports event of all time". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Season Two World Championships". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends playoffs soured by allegations of cheating". Retrieved June 25, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends tournament cheaters fined $30,000". Retrieved June 25, 2014.
- ↑ "World Playoffs - Rule Violations". Retrieved June 25, 2014.
- ↑ "Season 2 World Championship - Leaguepedia - Competitive League of Legends Wiki". Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Season 2 playoffs Day 3 recap: Network failure suspends play, Riot postpone finale of CLG EU v. World Elite match, semifinals | PCGamesN". Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends season two World Playoffs rescheduled - Destructoid". Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- ↑ CLG.eu vs WE - Game 3 - Season 2 Quarter Finals - YouTube. Riot Games. October 12, 2012. Event occurs at 0:00. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Season 3 World Championship takes place October 4". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ Farokhmanesh, Megan (October 5, 2013). "League of Legends 2013 World Championship winner crowned". Polygon. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ "One World Championship, 32 million viewers | League of Legends". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- ↑ "'League of Legends' eSports finals watched by 32 million people". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "ESPN’s president says that eSports are not ‘real sports,’ and he’s wrong | For The Win". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Season Three World Championship". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2 "Bracket | LoL Esports". Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ↑ "World Championship 2014 Preliminary Schedule | League of Legends". Retrieved October 8, 2014.
- ↑ "'League of Legends' scholarship". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ Magrino, Tom. "Welcome to the League of Legends 2014 World Championship!". Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 "Riot - World Championship 2014 - Leaguepedia - Competitive League of Legends Wiki". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 "League of Legends 2014 World Championship". Retrieved October 20, 2014.
- ↑ "Imagine Dragons teams with 'League of Legends' for $2.3m tournament - Yahoo News Singapore". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Prepare yourself for the 2014 Worlds Final | LoL Esports". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "Watch ‘League Of Legends’ World Championship 2014 Live Online". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends 2014 World Championship Viewer Numbers (Infograph) - onGamers". Retrieved December 3, 2014.
- ↑ "Worlds 2014 by the numbers | Riot Games". Retrieved December 3, 2014.
- ↑ "League of Legends Competition Ruling: Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen | LoL Esports". Retrieved October 8, 2014.
- ↑ "2015 Season: 10 Teams, Expansion Tournament & Circuit Points | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
- ↑ "Introducing the new Mid-Season Invitational | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
- ↑ "LCS Season: Details on LCS head coaches | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
- ↑ "Worlds 2015 to be held in Europe | LoL Esports". Retrieved January 24, 2015.
- ↑ "2015 World Championship Venues | LoL Esports". Retrieved April 9, 2015.
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