The League of Legends World Championship is the pinnacle of each LoL season. This epic tournament is watched by millions and features a lot of hyped matches.
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So far, not much is known about the 2022 edition of LoL Worlds. But we do know a few things, such as the 4 locations where it will be held.
LoL Worlds is one of the most peculiar world championships in esports. The tournament always lasts for around 6 weeks and takes place in multiple locations. Obviously, this creates a lot of hassle and involves a tremendous amount of effort.
At first glance, you may think that a concise competition would be better for everyone involved. The teams would need to travel fewer times, the fans who pay for the tickets would get the benefit of watching all the matches, and Riot Games would need to invest less money.
However, given the fact that League of Legends is a global phenomenon with 4 major leagues and nearly a dozen smaller ones, it actually makes sense for Riot Games to prefer an extended version of their game’s world championship that spans many weeks and multiple locations.
What this does is quite intuitive. It allows people from multiple locations to come and see the live action. It also creates the opportunity for a lot more press and a lot more free advertising.
When a Riot Games event takes place in a city, lots of people who play LoL go to see it and often bring their friends with them. LoL is a social experience, just like traditional sports. And people can’t resist telling their friends about their involvement in esports.
LoL Worlds usually features 24 teams from around the world. With so many teams, the tournament can’t have just 2 stages. So it has 4 of them instead.
There are 2 rounds of Play-Ins, one Group Stage, and the Main Event, also known as the Playoffs. The Play-In stages are usually played in one location. The Group Stage is played in a different location, along with the Quarterfinals. Then for the Semifinals, the location changes again. And the Grand Final is moved to a 4th location.
If this is confusing, no need to worry about it. That’s just how Riot Games rolls. The effectiveness of this way of doing things is a bit questionable with regard to viewership. But it’s clearly working in the more general sense of the word.
LoL is gaining lots of new players each year and it’s growing at a much faster pace than other great MOBAs such as Dota 2. More than 100 million people play LoL and less than 8 million play Dota 2. So you might be tempted the ask: what’s going on here?
But in terms of its player base / viewership ratio, Riot Games are not doing a great job. Only around 3-4% of the people who play the game care about its World Championship. By contrast, around 20 – 25% of the Dota 2 community cares about The International and the Dota Pro Circuit.
You may attribute this to demographics and the fact that Dota 2 is played by much older people, but it’s clear that Riot Games doesn’t know how to tap into the potential of their massive player base and are happy to just let people play the game, buy champions and skins, and completely ignore its esports side.
Worlds 2022 is a tournament that prioritizes the game’s US-based audience. The Play-In matches will take place in Mexico City, but the other locations are all in the United States.
If you want to watch the Group Stage and the Quarterfinals, you’ll have to travel to New York. If you want to watch the Semifinals, you’ll have to go to Atlanta. And if you want to see the Finals, you’ll need to be in San Francisco’s 1 Warriors Way arena.
One interesting thing about Riot’s way of doing things is that the first arena has a very small number of seats (~100), while the last two arenas offer around 20,000 of them. Based on its previous experience, Riot knows that the Semifinals and Finals generate a lot more interest than the rest of the tournament.
The 2022 edition of LoL Worlds will be its 12th. When you think about 2011, it feels like ancient history. Back then, the tournaments were much smaller and the prizes were quite modest. Now, everything is huge and the production value is impressive. But the games themselves are not much different.
So far, very little is known about which teams will take part in this year’s edition of LoL Worlds. All we know is that the best teams on the planet will compete in the tournament and South Korea, for the first time in quite a few years, will be represented by 1 or 2 teams that can actually win the big trophy.
In general, Worlds takes place in October – November. But it all depends on what Riot Games decides to do. In other esports, the number of days and the competitive format tend to stay the same, in the sense that the 2022 edition will be very similar to the 2021 edition. But in LoL, you always get something different.
The participants in the League of Legends World Championship 2022 will be decided based on the Summer Split results. As usual, the LPL, LCK, LEC, and LCS will receive a lot more spots than the smaller leagues, and their best teams will advance directly to the Group Stage.
All of these leagues are currently underway and their results will be known by the end of the Summer.