League of Legends World Championship

League of Legends World Championship

The 2016 League of Legends World Championship logo
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. The first World Championship was held in 2011 at DreamHack Winter 2011 and was won by Fnatic. Teams compete for the champion title, the 70 pounds (32 kg) Summoner's Cup, and a US$1,000,000 champion prize.^[1] In 2015, the finals were watched by 36 million people, with a peak concurrent viewership of 14 million viewers.^[2]

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. Silversmith Thomas Lyte, having already created the Season Two World Championship Cup in 2012, crafted the winners' trophy for the 2014 games.^[3]

Overview

Year	Finals location	Final			Semi-finalists
		Winner	Score	Runner-up
2011	Jönköping	Fnatic	2–1	against All authority	Team SoloMid
2012	Los Angeles	Taipei Assassins	3–1	Azubu Frost	Counter Logic Gaming Europe	Moscow Five
2013	Los Angeles	SK Telecom T1	3–0	Royal Club	Fnatic	NaJin Black Sword
2014	Seoul	Samsung Galaxy White	3–1	Star Horn Royal Club	OMG	Samsung Galaxy Blue
2015	Berlin	SK Telecom T1	3–1	KOO Tigers	Fnatic	Origen
2016	Los Angeles	SK Telecom T1	3–2	Samsung Galaxy (esports)	ROX Tigers	H2k-Gaming

Season 1

The Season 1 Championship^[4] in June 2011, held at Dreamhack Summer 2011 in Sweden, featured a US$100,000 tournament prize pool^[5] with a $50,000 champion prize.^[6] 8 teams from North America, Southeast Asia and Europe participated in the championship.^[7] 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.^[8]

Place	Team	Players[6]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	Fnatic	xPeke Shushei CyanideFI LaMiaZeaLoT Mellisan	Enrique Cedeño Martinez Maciej Ratuszniak Lauri Happonen Manuel Mildenberger Peter Meisrimel	$50,000
2nd	against All authority	sOAZ Linak MoMa YellOwStaR Kujaa	Paul Boyer Damien Lorthios Maik Wallus Bora Kim Jerome Negretti	$25,000
3rd	Team SoloMid	TheRainMan TheOddOne Reginald Chaox 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.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12]

Top four

Place	Team	Players[13]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	Taipei Assassins	Stanley Lilballz Toyz bebe MiSTakE	Wang June Tsan Kuan-Po Alex Sung Kurtis Lau Wai-kin Cheng Bo-Wei Chen Hui Chung	$1,000,000
2nd	Azubu Frost	Shy CloudTemplar RapidStar Woong MadLife	Park Sang-myeon Lee Hyun-woo Jung Min-sung Jang Gun-woong Hong Min-gi	$250,000
3rd–4th	Counter Logic Gaming Europe	Wickd Snoopeh Froggen yellowpete Krepo	Mike Petersen Stephen Ellis Henrik Hansen Peter Wüppen Mitch Voorspoels	$150,000
	Moscow Five	Darien Diamondprox Alex Ich Genja 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.^[14] 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,^[15] 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.^[16] 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.^[17][18]

Top four

Place	Team	Players[19]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	SK Telecom T1	Impact Bengi Faker Piglet PoohManDu	Jung Eon-yeong Bae Seong-ung Lee Sang-hyeok Chae Gwang-jin Lee Jeong-hyeon	$1,000,000
2nd	Royal Club	GoDlike Lucky Wh1t3zZ Uzi Tabe	Xiao Wang Liu Junjie Pun Wai Lo Jian Zihao Pak Kan Wong	$250,000
3rd–4th	Fnatic	sOAZ Cyanide xPeke puszu YellOwStaR	Paul Boyer Lauri Happonen Enrique Cedeño Martinez Johannes Uibos Bora Kim	$150,000
	NaJin Black Sword	Expession watch Nagne PraY Cain	Gu Bon-taek Cho Jae-geol Kim Sang-moon Kim Jong-in Jang Nu-ri

Season 4

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.^[20] 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,^[21][22] where South Korean team Samsung Galaxy White beat the Chinese team Star Horn Royal Club to become the 2014 League of Legends world champions.^[23][24][25]

American band Imagine Dragons contributed the theme song "Warriors" for the tournament,^[26] and performed live on the grand final stage in South Korea.^[27] All games were made available for free via live streaming.^[28]

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.^[29][30]

Top four

Place	Team	Players[23][24][25]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	Samsung Galaxy White	Looper DanDy PawN imp Mata	Jang Hyeong-seok Choi In-kyu Heo Won-seok Gu Seung-bin Cho Se-hyeong	$1,000,000
2nd	Star Horn Royal Club	cola inSec corn Uzi Zero	Jiang Nan Choi In-seok Lei Wen Jian Zihao Yun Kyung-sub	$250,000
3rd–4th	OMG	Gogoing LoveLing cool san Cloud	Gao Diping Yin Le Yu Jiajun Guo Junliang Hu Zhenwei	$150,000
	Samsung Galaxy Blue	Acorn Spirit dade Deft Heart	Choi Cheon-ju Lee Da-yoon Bae Eo-jin Kim Hyuk-kyu Lee Gwan-hyung

Season 5

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.^[31] 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.^[32] 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.^[33]

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.^[34]

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.^[35]

Top four

Place	Team	Players[36]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	SK Telecom T1	MaRin Bengi Faker Easyhoon (sub*) Bang Wolf 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	Smeb Hojin Kuro PraY GorillA 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	Huni Reignover Febiven Rekkles YellOwStaR Deilor (coach)	Heo Seung-hoon Kim Ui-jin Fabian Diepstraten Martin Larsson Bora Kim Louis Sevilla	$150,000
	Origen	sOAZ Amazing xPeke Niels Mithy 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

Season 6

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 10th. 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 $5,070,000 USD and it was spread among the teams. The first place (SK Telecom T1) took $2,028,000, the second team (Samsung Galaxy) took $760,500, the third place (ROX Tigers) took $380,250. The rest of the prize pool was distributed among the 5th-16th places.^[37]

SK Telecom T1 won 3-2 vs. Samsung Galaxy in the 2016 World Championship, Faker, along with fellow longtime teammate Bengi, won the world championship for their third season (2013,2015,2016). ^[38]

Top four

Place	Team	Players[36]		Prize money
		ID	Name
1st	SK Telecom T1	Duke Bengi Blank (sub*) Faker Bang Wolf KkOma (coach)	Lee Ho-seong Bae Seong-ung Lee Sun-gu Lee Sang-hyeok Bae Jun-sik Lee Jae-wan Kim Jeong-gyun	$2,028,000
2nd	Samsung Galaxy	CuVee Ambition Crown Ruller CoreJJ Wraith (sub**) Edgar (coach)	Lee Sung-jin Kang Chan-yong Lee Min-ho Park Jae-hyeok Jo Yon-gin Kwon Ji-min Choi Woo-bum	$760,500
3rd–4th	H2k	Odoamne Jankos Ryu FORG1VEN Freeze (sub***) Vander Pr0lly (coach)	Andrei Pascu Marcin Jankowski Yoo Sang-wook Konstantinos-Napoleon Tzortziou Aleš Kněžínek Oskar Bogdan Neil Hammad	$380,250
	ROX Tigers	Smeb Peanut Kuro Cry (sub****) PraY GorillA 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

References

1. "Behind League of Legends, E-Sports's Main Attraction - NYTimes.com". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
2. "The viewership of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship toppled Riot's expectations". Lazygamer.net. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
3. "Behind League of Legends, E-Sports's Main Attraction". The New York Times. October 12, 2014 – via New York Times.
4. aAa vs fnatic - Grand Final Season 1 Championship - YouTube. Riot Games. January 28, 2013. Event occurs at 0:06. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
5. Tom Senior (April 8, 2011). "League of Legends Season 1 Championship to have $100,000 prize pool". PCGamer.com. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
6. "Riot Season 1 Championship - Leaguepedia - Competitive League of Legends Wiki". Retrieved September 29, 2014.
7. "DreamHack Summer 2011 - League of Legends Season One Championship". Retrieved 2014-10-29.
8. John Funk (June 23, 2011). "The Escapist : News : League of Legends Championship Draws 1.69 Million Viewers". The Escapist. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
9. "League of Legends Season 2". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
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13. "League of Legends Season Two World Championships". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
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15. Farokhmanesh, Megan (October 5, 2013). "League of Legends 2013 World Championship winner crowned". Polygon. Retrieved February 26, 2014.
16. "One World Championship, 32 million viewers | League of Legends". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
17. "'League of Legends' eSports finals watched by 32 million people". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
18. "ESPN's president says that eSports are not 'real sports,' and he's wrong | For The Win". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
19. "League of Legends Season Three World Championship". Retrieved February 26, 2014.
20. "World Championship 2014 Preliminary Schedule | League of Legends". Retrieved October 8, 2014.
21. "'League of Legends' scholarship". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
22. Magrino, Tom. "Welcome to the League of Legends 2014 World Championship!". Retrieved 20 August 2014.
23. "Bracket | LoL Esports". Retrieved October 20, 2014.
24. "Riot - World Championship 2014 - Leaguepedia - Competitive League of Legends Wiki". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
25. "League of Legends 2014 World Championship". Retrieved October 20, 2014.
26. "Imagine Dragons teams with 'League of Legends' for $2.3m tournament - Yahoo News Singapore". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
27. "Prepare yourself for the 2014 Worlds Final | LoL Esports". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
28. "Watch ‘League Of Legends’ World Championship 2014 Live Online". Retrieved October 19, 2014.
29. "League of Legends 2014 World Championship Viewer Numbers (Infograph) - onGamers". Retrieved December 3, 2014.
30. "Worlds 2014 by the numbers | Riot Games". Retrieved December 3, 2014.
31. "2015 Season: 10 Teams, Expansion Tournament & Circuit Points | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
32. "Introducing the new Mid-Season Invitational | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
33. "LCS Season: Details on LCS head coaches | LoL Esports". Retrieved March 18, 2015.
34. "Worlds 2015 to be held in Europe | LoL Esports". Retrieved January 24, 2015.
35. "The viewership of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship toppled Riot's expectations". Lazygamer.net. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
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37. "2016 World Championship".
38. http://www.lolesports.com/en_US/articles/sk-telecom-t1-wins-world-championship-again

External links

• Official news website