''League of Legends'' World Championship

League of Legends World Championship

Tournament information
Location Rotating locations
Month played October
Established 2011
Number of
tournaments
6
Administrator(s) Riot Games
Format Round-robin (group stage)
Single-elimination (bracket stage)
Teams 8 (2011), 12 (2012), 14 (2013), 16 (2014–)
Website Official website
Current champion
SK Telecom T1

The League of Legends World Championship is the annual professional League of Legends world championship tournament hosted by Riot Games and is the culmination of each season. Teams compete for the champion title, the 70 pounds (32 kg) Summoner's Cup, and a US$1,000,000 champion prize.[1] In 2016, the finals were watched by 43 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14.7 million viewers, breaking 2015's finals' viewer records.[2] The total cumulative daily unique impressions (the amount of unique viewers that tuned in every day via online and television channels) reached 396 million.[3]

LA 2024, which is overseeing the Los Angeles bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics was inspired by the success of 2016 League of Legends World Championship and is considering to plan and include eSports in the Olympics games if they win the bid. Casey Wasserman, the chairman of LA 2024, suggested using technology used in certain segments of League of Legends Worlds such as augmented reality and virtual reality to make the Olympics more accessible to a younger demographic.

League of Legends World Championships have gained tremendous success and popularity, making it among the world's most prestigious and watched tournaments (surpassing even Sports tournaments), as well as the most watched video game in the world. The 2016 League of Legends World Championship Finals attracted more viewership than 2016 NBA Finals. Due to the success of League of Legends, eSports scenes became prominent and widely seen as a potential Olympics event, it will also be included as a medal event in 2022 Asian Games.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

South Korea's SK Telecom T1 currently holds the highest record of wins, with three world championship wins (2013, 2015, 2016).[10]

Trophy

Riot Games, which owns League of Legends, commissioned the winner's trophy known as the Summoner’s Cup. Riot specified that it should weigh 70 pounds, though the actual weight of the finished cup was reduced so it would not be too heavy to lift in victory. MacTavish, having already created the Season Two World Championship Cup in 2012, crafted the winners' trophy for the 2014 games.[11]

Overview

Year Finals location Final Semi-finalists
Winner Score Runner-up Peak viewership
2011 Sweden Jönköping Fnatic 2–1 against All authority 210,000 Team SoloMid
2012 United States Los Angeles Taipei Assassins 3–1 Azubu Frost 1,100,000 Counter Logic Gaming Europe Moscow Five
2013 United States Los Angeles SK Telecom T1 3–0 Royal Club 8,500,000 Fnatic NaJin Black Sword
2014 South Korea Seoul Samsung Galaxy White 3–1 Star Horn Royal Club 11,000,000 OMG Samsung Galaxy Blue
2015 Germany Berlin SK Telecom T1 3–1 KOO Tigers 14,000,000 Fnatic Origen
2016 United States Los Angeles SK Telecom T1 3–2 Samsung Galaxy 14,700,000 ROX Tigers H2k-Gaming
2017 China Beijing

Season 1

The Season 1 Championship[12] in June 2011, held at Dreamhack Summer 2011 in Sweden, featured a US$100,000 tournament prize pool.[13] 8 teams from North America, Southeast Asia and Europe participated in the championship.[14] 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.[15]

Top Three

Place Team Players[16] Prize money
ID Name
1st Fnatic

Spain xPeke
Poland Shushei
Finland CyanideFI
Germany LaMiaZeaLoT
Germany Mellisan

Enrique Cedeño Martinez
Maciej Ratuszniak
Lauri Happonen
Manuel Mildenberger
Peter Meisrimel

$50,000
2nd against All authority

France sOAZ
France Linak
Germany MoMa
France YellOwStaR
France Kujaa

Paul Boyer
Damien Lorthios
Maik Wallus
Bora Kim
Jerome Negretti

$25,000
3rd Team SoloMid

United States TheRainMan
Canada TheOddOne
United States Reginald
Canada Chaox
United States Xpecial

Christian Kahmann
Brian Wyllie
Andy Dinh
Shan Huang
Alex Chu

$10,000

Season 2

A group picture of the Taipei Assassins, the champions of season 2.

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.[17]

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, quarter-final, and semi-final matches took place between October 4 and 6. The grand final 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.[18] In the grand final, 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.[19]

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 final, making the Season 2 World Championship the most watched esports event in history at the time.[20]

Top Four

Place Team Players[21] Prize money
ID Name
1st Taipei Assassins

Taiwan Stanley
Taiwan Lilballz
Hong Kong Toyz
Taiwan bebe
Taiwan MiSTakE

Wang June Tsan
Kuan-Po Alex Sung
Kurtis Lau Wai-kin
Cheng Bo-Wei
Chen Hui Chung

$1,000,000
2nd Azubu Frost

South Korea Shy
South Korea CloudTemplar
South Korea RapidStar
South Korea Woong
South Korea MadLife

Park Sang-myeon
Lee Hyun-woo
Jung Min-sung
Jang Gun-woong
Hong Min-gi

$250,000
3rd–4th Counter Logic Gaming Europe

Denmark Wickd
United Kingdom Snoopeh
Denmark Froggen
Germany yellowpete
Belgium Krepo

Mike Petersen
Stephen Ellis
Henrik Hansen
Peter Wüppen
Mitch Voorspoels

$150,000
Moscow Five

Russia Darien
Russia Diamondprox
Russia Alex Ich
Russia Genja
Armenia GoSu Pepper

Evgeny Mazaev
Danil Reshetnikov
Alexey Ichetovkin
Evgeny Andryushin
Edward Abgaryan

Season 3

A group picture of SK Telecom T1, the champions of season 3.

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.[22] The grand final were held in the Staples Center on October 4, 2013, where Korean team SK Telecom T1 defeated the Chinese team Royal Club,[23] 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 final broadcast on October 4 was watched by 32 million people with a peak concurrent viewership of 8.5 million.[24] 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.[25][26]

Top Four

Place Team Players[27] Prize money
ID Name
1st SK Telecom T1

South Korea Impact
South Korea Bengi
South Korea Faker
South Korea Piglet
South Korea PoohManDu

Jung Eon-yeong
Bae Seong-ung
Lee Sang-hyeok
Chae Gwang-jin
Lee Jeong-hyeon

$1,000,000
2nd Royal Club

China GoDlike
China Lucky
Hong Kong Wh1t3zZ
China Uzi
Hong Kong Tabe

Xiao Wang
Liu Junjie
Pun Wai Lo
Jian Zihao
Pak Kan Wong

$250,000
3rd–4th Fnatic

France sOAZ
Finland Cyanide
Spain xPeke
Estonia puszu
France YellOwStaR

Paul Boyer
Lauri Happonen
Enrique Cedeño Martinez
Johannes Uibos
Bora Kim

$150,000
NaJin Black Sword

South Korea Expession
South Korea watch
South Korea Nagne
South Korea PraY
South Korea Cain

Gu Bon-taek
Cho Jae-geol
Kim Sang-moon
Kim Jong-in
Jang Nu-ri

2014 Season

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 group stage began September 18 in Taipei and concluded September 28 in Singapore with eight teams advancing to the bracket stage.[28] The bracket stage started on October 3 in Busan, South Korea, and concluded on October 19 with the grand final hosted at the 45,000-seats Seoul World Cup Stadium,[29][30] where South Korean team Samsung Galaxy White beat the Chinese team Star Horn Royal Club to become the 2014 League of Legends world champions.[31][32][33]

American band Imagine Dragons contributed the theme song "Warriors" for the tournament,[34] and performed live on the grand final stage in South Korea.[35] All games were made available for free via live streaming.[36]

The 2014 World Championship games were streamed live by 40 broadcast partners, and cast in 19 languages. The grand final was watched by 27 million people, with concurrent viewership peaking at over 11 million viewers.[37][38]

Top Four

Place Team Players[31][32][33] Prize money
ID Name
1st Samsung Galaxy White

South Korea Looper
South Korea DanDy
South Korea PawN
South Korea imp
South Korea Mata

Jang Hyeong-seok
Choi In-kyu
Heo Won-seok
Gu Seung-bin
Cho Se-hyeong

$1,000,000
2nd Star Horn Royal Club

China cola
South Korea inSec
China corn
China Uzi
South Korea Zero

Jiang Nan
Choi In-seok
Lei Wen
Jian Zihao
Yun Kyung-sub

$250,000
3rd–4th OMG

China Gogoing
China LoveLing
China cool
China san
China Cloud

Gao Diping
Yin Le
Yu Jiajun
Guo Junliang
Hu Zhenwei

$150,000
Samsung Galaxy Blue

South Korea Acorn
South Korea Spirit
South Korea dade
South Korea Deft
South Korea Heart

Choi Cheon-ju
Lee Da-yoon
Bae Eo-jin
Kim Hyuk-kyu
Lee Gwan-hyung

2015 Season

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.[39] A second Riot Games official international tournament was announced, the Mid-Season Invitational, which took place in May 2015, and featured a single team from each major region and one international wildcard.[40] 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.[41]

The 2015 World Championship concluded the 2015 Season, and was held at several venues across Europe in October 2015. Like the 2014 World Championship, the 2015 World Championship was a multi-city, multi-country event.[42]

2015 Worlds was won by SK Telecom T1, their second title, as they won the 2013 Worlds too. SKT Top laner Jang "MaRin" Gyeong-Hwan was named the tournament most valuable player (MVP).

The finals were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers.[43]

Top Four

Place Team Players[44] Prize money
ID Name
1st SK Telecom T1

South Korea MaRin
South Korea Bengi
South Korea Faker
South Korea Easyhoon (sub*)
South Korea Bang
South Korea Wolf
South Korea kKoma (coach)

Jang Gyeong-hwan
Bae Seong-ung
Lee Sang-hyeok
Lee Ji-hoon
Bae Jun-sik
Lee Jae-wan
Kim Jeong-gyun

$1,000,000
2nd KOO Tigers

South Korea Smeb
South Korea Hojin
South Korea Kuro
South Korea PraY
South Korea GorillA
South Korea NoFe (coach)

Song Kyung-ho
Lee Ho-jin
Lee Seo-haeng
Kim Jong-in
Kang Beom-hyeon
Jeong No-chul

$250,000
3rd–4th Fnatic

South Korea Huni
South Korea Reignover
Netherlands Febiven
Sweden Rekkles
France YellOwStaR
Spain Deilor (coach)

Heo Seung-hoon
Kim Ui-jin
Fabian Diepstraten
Martin Larsson
Bora Kim
Louis Sevilla

$150,000
Origen

France sOAZ
Germany Amazing
Spain xPeke
Denmark Niels
Spain Mithy
United States Hermit (coach)

Paul Boyer
Maurice Stückenschneider
Enrique Cedeño Martínez
Jesper Svenningsen
Alfonso Aguirre Rodriguez
Tadayoshi Littleton

* Easyhoon substituted Faker in multiple games throughout the tournament

2016 Season

The various stages of the 2016 Worlds were held throughout the United States in Chicago, San Francisco, New York City, and the finals in Los Angeles.

The Groups of teams were decided through a live Group Draw Show on September 10. The games were played on the 6.18 patch of the game with Yorick disabled and Aurelion Sol was disabled for days 1-3. There were 16 teams and 4 groups that consisted of 4 teams. The group stage was Bo1 and the top two teams from each groups would advance to the Knockout Stage. The Knockout Stage was Bo5 and the #1 vs #2 teams from each group would face each other in the bracket. The total prize pool was $6,700,000 USD and it was spread among the teams. The first place (SK Telecom T1) took $2,680,000, the second team (Samsung Galaxy) took $1,005,000, the third place (ROX Tigers) took $502,500. The rest of the prize pool was distributed among the 5th-16th places.[45]

SKT won 3-2 vs. Samsung Galaxy in the 2016 World Championship Finals, with Faker winning the MVP award, and along with teammate Bengi captured their third world championship in four seasons (2013, 2015, 2016), cementing SKT's legacy as the most dominant League of Legends team in the world.[46]

The finals were watched by 43 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14.7 million viewers, breaking 2015's finals' viewer records.

Top Four

Place Team Players[47] Prize money
ID Name
1st SK Telecom T1

South Korea Duke
South Korea Bengi
South Korea Blank (sub*)
South Korea Faker
South Korea Bang
South Korea Wolf
South Korea KkOma (coach)

Lee Ho-seong
Bae Seong-ung
Lee Sun-gu
Lee Sang-hyeok
Bae Jun-sik
Lee Jae-wan
Kim Jeong-gyun

$2,680,000
2nd Samsung Galaxy

South Korea CuVee
South Korea Ambition
South Korea Crown
South Korea Ruler
South Korea CoreJJ
South Korea Wraith (sub**)
South Korea Edgar (coach)

Lee Sung-jin
Kang Chan-yong
Lee Min-ho
Park Jae-hyeok
Jo Yon-gin
Kwon Ji-min
Choi Woo-bum

$1,005,000
3rd–4th H2k

Romania Odoamne
Poland Jankos
South Korea Ryu
Greece FORG1VEN
Czech Republic Freeze (sub***)
Poland Vander
United States Pr0lly (coach)

Andrei Pascu
Marcin Jankowski
Yoo Sang-wook
Konstantinos-Napoleon Tzortziou
Aleš Kněžínek
Oskar Bogdan
Neil Hammad

$502,500
ROX Tigers

South Korea Smeb
South Korea Peanut
South Korea Kuro
South Korea Cry (sub****)
South Korea PraY
South Korea GorillA
South Korea NoFe (coach)

Song Kyung-ho
Han Wang-ho
Lee Seo-haeng
Hae Seong-min
Kim Jong-in
Kang Beom-hyeon
Jeong No-chul

* Blank substituted Bengi in multiple games throughout the tournament
** Wraith substituted CoreJJ in multiple games throughout the tournament
*** Freeze was listed as substitution for FORG1VEN. He didn't play any games during the tournament
**** Cry was listed as substitution for Kuro. He didn't play any games during the tournament

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