League of Legends World Championship 2026 Overview

The time for the League of Legends World Championship (Worlds) has come again, and it is back in the United States this year. The 2023 Worlds was the last time this massive tournament was held in the US, and it was arguably the greatest Worlds of all time. So, this year, the US is trying to run it back to make another memorable tournament for the home country of League of Legends developers, Riot Games. The tournament locations are in Los Angeles, California; Allen, Texas; and New York, New York.

With over 100 million monthly players globally, League of Legends is one of the most popular games ever. An audience that big makes for a massive championship that can even rival the likes of mainstream sporting events. While it does not garner the same level of viewership as something like the Soccer World Cup, it is most comparable to it because World brings in teams from around the globe to compete under one roof. These teams hail from China, South Korea, Europe, North America, South America, and the Southern Pacific – more specifics on these teams later.

As there are three locations for the tournament, there are also three stages of the tournament. In Los Angeles, the play-in stage was played. This was a small bracket stage with four teams playing in the best of five games, double elimination, fearless format. Fearless means that characters played in one game of the series cannot be played by either team for the remainder of the series. The teams in this stage were North America’s Cloud 9, South America’s FURIA, Europe’s Karmine Corp, and Vietnam’s MVK Esports. Only the winner of this stage made it into the next stage of Worlds, and that team was Karmine Corp.

Played in Allen, Texas, the second and longest lasting stage is the Swiss stage. Sixteen teams compete in this stage, but only eight make it to the final stage. Due to the many teams, the format changes in the Swiss stage. At the beginning, no teams from the same region can be seated against each other and all games are best of one. As the stage progresses, this changes again – teams from the same region can play against each other depending on their record. The goal for each team is to get three wins to advance to the final stage, while three losses result in elimination. Only teams with the same record play against each other, and once a team gets either two wins or losses, the format turns into fearless best of three to determine whether a team is promoted or eliminated from Worlds. For teams that advance, the better their record within the Swiss stage is, the better seating they get in the final stage of the tournament. For example, teams that pass the Swiss stage with 3-0 record are better seated than a team with 3-1 or 3-2 records. The teams in the Swiss stage are:

South Korea (LCK)

• Hanwha Life Esports
• Dplus KIA
• T1
• Gen.G Esports

China (LPL)

• Invictus Gaming
• TOP Esports
• Anyone’s Legend
• BiliBili Gaming

Europe (LEC)

• Moviestar KOI
• G2 Esports
• Karmine Corp

North America (LCS)

• LYON
• Team Liquid Alienware

South America (CBLOL)

• LOS

Southern Pacific (LCP)

• Team Secret Whales
• CTBC Flying Oyster

In New York, the final stage of Worlds is the Bracket stage with top eight teams from the Swiss stage. The tournament format becomes even more strict as the winner of this stage becomes the World Champion. Each team will participate in a fearless best of five series. Losing one series means elimination from the tournament. League of Legends Worlds will be streamed live on the Riot Games channel on Twitch and YouTube, as well as many other co-streamed channels, from October 15^th to the finals on November 14^th, 2026.