| 2021 League of Legends | |
| Game: | League of Legends |
| Location: | Iceland |
| Start Date: | October 5 |
| End Date: | November 6 |
| Administrator: | Riot Games |
| Tournament Format: | 10 team single round-robin play-in stage 16 team double round-robin group stage 8 team single-elimination bracket |
| Venues: | Laugardalshöll (Reykjavík) |
| Teams: | 22 |
| Champion: | Edward Gaming |
| Runner-Up1: | DWG KIA |
| Attendance: | Peak viewership: 73,860,742[1] |
| Mvp: | Lee "Scout" Ye-chan (Edward Gaming) |
| Previous: | 2020 |
| Next: | 2022 |
The 2021 League of Legends World Championship was an esports tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends. It was the eleventh iteration of the League of Legends World Championship, an annual international tournament organized by the game's developer, Riot Games. The tournament was held from 5 October to 6 November in Reykjavík, Iceland.[2] Twenty two teams from 11 regions qualified for the tournament based on their placement in regional circuits such as those in China, Europe, North America, South Korea and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Southeast Asia with ten of those teams having to reach the main event via a play-in stage.
"Burn It All Down" was the tournament's theme song, put together by PVRIS, while Denzel Curry, CIFIKA, Besomorph, and Wang Yibo from Uniq, produced their own respective remix versions of "Burn It All Down".[3] [4]
Edward Gaming of China's LPL defeated the defending world champions, DWG KIA of Korea's LCK, to win their first World Championship title.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which was mainly confined to China in January and early February 2020, once again affected the scheduled multi-city hosting format that was most recently present for the 2019 League of Legends World Championship. On June 16, Riot Games originally announced the dates and locations of the event, with the event taking place in Shanghai, Qingdao, Wuhan, Chengdu, and the finals taking place in Shenzhen.[5] [6] However, due to travel complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in mainland China, Riot Games announced Reykjavík, Iceland (where the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational had been hosted), as the new host city for the event.[7]
Due to complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam, two teams from the VCS (Vietnam) were once again unable to participate in the tournament.[8]
Like the 2020 event, the tournament did not feature a live audience as result of the pandemic.[9]
South Korea (LCK) and China (LPL) received an additional spot in the group stage, totaling up to four representatives each for their respective region. The qualification format for North America (LCS) changed to a one-season-per-year system, with the seeding decided by the cumulative scoreboard from the whole season and the results from their respective championship series.
Due to Vietnam (VCS) being unable to field teams for the event, the third seed from Europe (LEC) received direct entry into the group stage.[10]
Top 4 regions in 2021 Mid-Season Invitational (LPL, LCK, LEC, PCS) are seeded to pool 1 in the main event's group stage for the summer champion.
| Region | League | Qualification Path | Team | ID | Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Started from Group Stage | |||||
| China | LPL | Summer Champion | Edward Gaming | EDG | 1 |
| Most Championship Points | FunPlus Phoenix | FPX | 2 | ||
| Regional Finals Winner | Royal Never Give Up | RNG | 3 | ||
| Europe | LEC | Summer Champion | MAD Lions | MAD | 1 |
| Summer Runner-Up | Fnatic | FNC | 2 | ||
| Summer Third Place | RGE | 3 | |||
| South Korea | LCK | Summer Champion | DWG KIA | DK | 1 |
| Most Championship Points | Gen.G | GEN | 2 | ||
| Regional Finals Winner | T1 | T1 | 3 | ||
| North America | LCS | Summer Champion | 100 Thieves | 100 | 2 |
| Summer Runner-Up | Team Liquid | TL | 3 | ||
| TW/HK/MO/SEA | PCS | Summer Champion | PSG Talon | PSG | 1 |
| Started from Play-in stage | |||||
| China | LPL | Regional Finals Runner-Up | LNG Esports | LNG | 1 |
| South Korea | LCK | Regional Finals Runner-Up | Hanwha Life Esports | HLE | |
| North America | LCS | Summer Third Place | Cloud9 | C9 | |
| TW/HK/MO/SEA | PCS | Summer Runner-Up | Beyond Gaming | BYG | |
| CIS | LCL | Summer Champion | Unicorns of Love | UOL | 2 |
| Latin America | LLA | Infinity Esports | INF | ||
| Turkey | TCL | Galatasaray Esports | GS | ||
| Brazil | CBLOL | RED Canids | RED | ||
| Japan | LJL | DetonatioN FocusMe | DFM | ||
| Oceania | LCO | PEACE | PCE | ||
Reykjavík was the city chosen to host the competition. All matches were played at Laugardalshöll without spectators.
| Place | Team | PG | PK1 | PK2 | GS | QF | SF | Finals | Prize (%) | Prize (USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Edward Gaming | – | – | – | 4–2 | 3–2 | 3–2 | 3–2 | 22% | $495,000 | |
| 2nd | DWG KIA | – | – | – | 6–0 | 3–0 | 3–2 | 2–3 | 15% | $337,500 | |
| 3rd–4th | T1 | – | – | – | 5–1 | 3–0 | 2–3 | 8% | $180,000 | ||
| Gen.G | – | – | – | 3–3 | 3–0 | 2–3 | |||||
| 5th–8th | Royal Never Give Up | – | – | – | 4–2 | 2–3 | 4.5% | $101,250 | |||
| Hanwha Life Esports | 3–1 | – | 3–0 | 4–2 | 0–3 | ||||||
| MAD Lions | – | – | – | 3–3 | 0–3 | ||||||
| Cloud9 | 3–1 | – | 3–0 | 2–4 | 0–3 | ||||||
| 9th–11th | 100 Thieves | – | – | – | 3–3 | 2.5% | $62,500 | ||||
| PSG Talon | – | – | – | 3–3 | |||||||
| Rogue | – | – | – | 2–4 | |||||||
| 12th–13th | LNG Esports | 4–0 | – | – | 3–3 | 2.375% | $53,347.50 | ||||
| Team Liquid | – | – | – | 3–3 | |||||||
| 14th–16th | FunPlus Phoenix | – | – | – | 2–4 | 2.25% | $56,250 | ||||
| Fnatic | – | – | – | 1–5 | |||||||
| DetonatioN FocusMe | 3–1 | – | – | 0–6 | |||||||
| 17th–18th | PEACE | 2–2 | 3–2 | 0–3 | 1.75% | $43,750 | |||||
| Beyond Gaming | 1–3 | 3–2 | 0–3 | ||||||||
| 19th–20th | Galatasaray Esports | 2–2 | 2–3 | 1.25% | $28,125 | ||||||
| RED Canids | 1–3 | 2–3 | |||||||||
| 21st–22nd | Unicorns of Love | 1–3 | 1% | $22,500 | |||||||
| Infinity Esports | 0–4 | ||||||||||
| Place | Team | PG | PK1 | PK2 | GS | QF | SF | Finals | Prize (%) | Prize (USD) |
| Place | Region | League | Teams | Play-in Stage | Main Event | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groups (4 games total) | K.O Match 1 (Best-of-five) | K.O Match 2 (Best-of-five) | |||||||||
| Group stage (6 games total) | Quarterfinals (Best-of-five) | Semifinals (Best-of-five) | Finals (Best-of-five) | ||||||||
| 1st | China | LPL | 3+1 | 1 team 4W-0L (100%) | 4 teams 13W-11L (54.17%) | 2 teams 5W-5L (50%) | 1 team 3W-2L (60%) | 1 team 3W-2L (60%) | |||
| 2nd | South Korea | LCK | 3+1 | 1 team 3W-1L (75%) | 1 team 3W-0L (100%) | 4 teams 18W-6L (75%) | 4 teams 9W-3L (75%) | 3 teams 7W-8L (46.66%) | 1 team 2W-3L (40%) | ||
| 3rd | North America | LCS | 2+1 | 1 team 3W-1L (75%) | 1 team 3W-0L (100%) | 3 teams 8W-10L (44.44%) | 1 team 0W-3L (0%) | ||||
| 4th | Europe | LEC | 3 | 3 teams 6W-12L (33.33%) | 1 team 0W-3L (0%) | ||||||
| 5th | TW/HK/MO/SEA | PCS | 1+1 | 1 team 1W-3L (25%) | 1 team 3W–2L (60%) | 1 team 0W-3L (0%) | 1 team 3W-3L (50%) | ||||
| 6th | Japan | LJL | 1 | 1 team 3W-1L (75%) | 1 team 0W-6L (0%) | ||||||
| 7th | Oceania | LCO | 1 | 1 team 2W-2L (50%) | 1 team 3W–2L (60%) | 1 team 0W-3L (0%) | |||||
| 8th | Turkey | TCL | 1 | 1 team 2W-2L (50%) | 1 team 2W-3L (40%) | ||||||
| 9th | Brazil | CBLOL | 1 | 1 team 1W-3L (25%) | 1 team 2W–3L (40%) | ||||||
| 10th | CIS | LCL | 1 | 1 team 1W-3L (25%) | |||||||
| 11th | Latin America | LLA | 1 | 1 team 0W-4L (0%) | |||||||