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What is the 2016 World Championship?

Riot·9/6/2016, 12:57:53 PM·0 votes·89,237 views

Be a part of the global celebration of competitive esports mastery this Fall. October marks the pinnacle of every League of Legends Season: Worlds.

With the 2016 League of Legends World Championship kicking off in a couple of weeks, here’s everything you need to know about the international tournament:

What is the 2016 World Championship?

The 2016 League of Legends World Championship, more commonly called Worlds, is an international esports event takes place over five weeks of competitive play with 16 top teams.

The World Championship travels to different host regions and this year, the event will take place in North America.

Who is participating at Worlds 2016?

Here’s the breakdown of the regions with teams competing at Worlds 2016 and how many spots each region gets:

  • North America - NA League Championship Series (NA LCS) - 3 seeds
  • Europe - EU League Championship Series (EU LCS) - 3 seeds
  • Korea - League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) - 3 seeds
  • China - League of Legends Pro League (LPL) - 3 seeds
  • Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan - League of Legends Master Series (LMS) - 2 seeds
  • Wildcard regions determined at the International Wildcard Qualifier (IWCQ) - 2 seeds

Top teams from LCK, LPL, LMS, NA LCS, and EU LCS receive direct invitations to Worlds 2016, while squads from Wildcard regions qualify via an International Wildcard Qualifier.

The teams attending Worlds are:

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LCK:

  • ROX Tigers
  • SK Telecom T1
  • Samsung Galaxy

LPL:

  • EDward Gaming
  • Royal Never Give Up
  • I MAY

LMS:

  • Flash Wolves
  • ahq e-Sports Club

NA LCS:

  • TSM
  • Counter Logic Gaming
  • Cloud9

EU LCS:

  • G2 Esports
  • H2K
  • Splyce

IWCQ:

  • INTZ
  • Albus NoX Luna

What are they playing for?

In addition to international pride and glory, teams are competing for the chance to be the 2016 World Champions, the Summoner's Cup, and a prize pool of over $2,000,000 USD. Teams will earn prize money based on their finish in the event.

  • World Champion - $1,000,000 USD
  • 2nd place - $250,000 USD
  • 3rd / 4th place - $150,000 USD
  • 5th - 8th place - $75,000 USD
  • 9th - 12th place - $45,000 USD
  • 13th - 16th place - $25,000 USD

What’s the format of Worlds?

Worlds is played out in two stages: A Group Stage followed by a Knockout Stage.

Group Stage

In the Group Stage, 16 teams are sorted into four groups comprised of four teams each. They play in double Round Robin-style, Best of 1 (Bo1) matchups, meaning each team plays every other team in its group twice. Learn more about the process of how we determine which teams will face each other at the Group Stage on our Group Draw Starter Guide.

To find out which group your favorite team is playing in, watch the Group Draw Show on September 10 at 11:00 AM PT.

Knockout Stage

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After Groups, eight teams advance to the the Knockout Stage and matchups will transition to Best of 5, single elimination bracket. The winner of the Knockout Stage will be crowned our 2016 World Champion at Finals.

What are the rules for Worlds 2016? 

Our policies for Worlds 2016 are consistent with what we used at the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational. The only major policy update is side selection - starting in regional playoffs, dynamic side selection (described below) was implemented.

Side Selection

Teams’ sides will be pre-selected by coin flip during the Group Stage. During the Group Stage, each team will play every other team twice, once on blue side, once on red side. In Quarterfinals, the higher seed will have side selection for all odd games. The lower seed will have side selection for all even games.  For example, the higher seed may choose to play game 1 on blue side, but game 3 and 5 on red side and the lower seed may choose to play game 2 on red side and game 4 on blue side.

The higher seed will be required to submit their decision for game 1 by 10:00 PM local time two days prior to the stage start. If no decision is submitted the team will default to blue side for its game. In Semifinals and Finals, side selection will be determined by coin flip. The coin flip will take place the night the matchup is decided.

Side declaration for best of matches will be decided between games after game 1. Teams with side choice for the respective game (lower seed for game 2 and 4, higher seed for game 3 and 5), will have 4 minutes after the nexus explodes to select their side for the next game. This will be at the same time as the substitution declaration. The coach will inform the referee with the team about their selection.

Full Ruleset
We’ve been working closely with all the regional leagues in advance of Worlds to give them time to understand and comply with the ruleset. If you’d like to review the official language in the ruleset, read the 2016 World Championship rules here.

When is Worlds happening? How can I watch?

The Group Stage takes place over two weeks. The Quarterfinals, Semifinals and Finals will all be held a week apart from one another. For more information about ticket availability, head over to the Tickets page.

Group Stage

Dates: September 29 - October 2 and October 6 - 9

Location: San Francisco, CA

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove St., San Francisco, CA 94102

Quarterfinals

Dates: October 13 - 16

Location: Chicago, IL

The Chicago Theatre, 175 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601

Semifinals

Dates: October 21 - 22

Location: New York, NY

Madison Square Garden, 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, New York, NY 10001

Finals

Dates: October 29

Location: Los Angeles, CA

STAPLES Center, 1111 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90015

Stay tuned to Lolesports to cheer on the best teams in the world as they meet on the premier stage during the 2016 League of Legends World Championship starting on September 29.

68 Comments

Glaedr9/6/2016, 2:08:42 PM10 votes

I like how all the teams are listed with their full names except TSM

Seekor9/7/2016, 11:17:17 PM7 votes

Prize pool is pretty sad. These guys could place 5th in the DOTA International and win almost as much money as 1st in worlds. A game this big and with such a huge fanbase and esports following should be shelling out a lot more money. Especially since they are earning 1.6 billion dollars a year off the game.

The Lexer9/7/2016, 10:02:28 PM4 votes

It's getting pretty ridiculous how Riot hasn't changed the prize pool in years despite the growth of League since the early days

AlexanderMagnusI9/7/2016, 4:12:01 AM3 votes

Anyone else remember last year and how Doublift and the rest of NA tilted off the face of Earth in the second week of group stages? Remember how CLG and C9 were at the top of their groups right before that happened? Anyone remember that? Yea, that's going to happen again. #Rigged

Pµnkz9/7/2016, 7:21:55 AM3 votes

NA sucks i have only very little hope for C9 but CLG and TSM will Get shiiiittt on trust me remember my words

BlongTreyLo9/6/2016, 2:27:42 PM2 votes

Hope NA atleast get through the quarter finals this year lmao last year not a single NA team even went through haha.

FUUUDG39/8/2016, 12:33:40 AM2 votes

Eh. I think the NALCS "Power Rankings" at the end porbably have been TSM>C9>IMT>CLG>NV>TL. I feel they should place maybe a 75% weight on summer and a 25% on spring? So current means more?

Persona Royale9/8/2016, 4:53:29 AM2 votes

SKT for 3rd win worlds!!

IRON W0LF9/8/2016, 10:11:52 AM1 votes

There is a Error in the Team seeding since EU has no Top seed team since G2-8 lost them that spot at MSI then top seeds are TSM Flash Wolves Rox TIgers and EDG

LQD Lux10/9/2016, 12:37:57 AM1 votes

summoner 32

Riondrius9/7/2016, 2:08:01 PM1 votes

Ugh, more Bo1 :(. I sincerely hope this is the last year for Bo1 at worlds... do a split stream or increase the length of the tournament and give us Bo3s please ! Also, the prize pool still hasnt changed.... disappointed to say the least, for the most popular esport, and its biggest event you would expect it to have the biggest prize pool.

WeeDetarian9/6/2016, 7:58:27 PM

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