There are several League of Legends championships all over the world. The main ones involve the largest leagues from different regions of the map. As one of the most popular games in the MOBA format, events mobilize thousands of fans, who follow battles online or in person, in arenas and major events.
The main international LoL championships, in addition to the world championships, are promoted by Riot Games, the game’s developer.
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Mid-Season Invitational
The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI) is the second most important international League of Legends tournament, after the World Championship. It exists since 2015 and it runs right in the middle of the season, between the first and second split of the regional leagues. In the 2019 edition, the prize was US$ 1 million and had the participation of 14 teams, each one representing a different region of the world.
Created by Riot Games, MSI aims to unite the global LoL leagues right in the middle of the season and provide players with another competition experience in addition to the global one.
The tournament is divided into three stages: Round 1, Round 2 and Main Event. Round 1 has the participation of eight less expressive regions of the professional LoL circuit, such as Brazil, Japan, Turkey, Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Oceania. The dispute is between two groups of four meetings and the first of each group advances to the second phase. In Round 2, participants face representatives from medium-sized regions, such as Vietnam and Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau. The two winners of this stage qualify for the Main Event associated with the most expressive regions already guaranteed in the scenario: China, North America, Europe and South Korea. The Main Event has six regional champions competing for the MSI title.
Rift Rivals
Developed by Riot Games, Rift Rivals was a series of international League of Legends competitions focusing only on regions. There is no dispute between teams, but between rival regions.
The first edition was in 2017 and had five concurrent tournaments opposing some regions of the 13 main ones that make up the competitive scenario of LoL. The best teams from the Spring Split (or any other opening season) were invited to take part in a tournament against another region’s top teams.
In 2019, after two editions of the Riot Rivals, the event stopped being global and was narrowed to only the two largest tournaments: the LCS (North America) vs. the LEC (Europe) and the LPL (China) vs. LCK (South Korea) vs. LMS-VCS (Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macau/Vietnam). The idea is to focus on regional efforts to raise local eSports.
All-Star
All-Star is an international invitational tournament from League of Legends that brings together the most voted pro players from each region chosen by the public and Riot Games. They compete against each other in different tournaments and game modes. Apart from eSports professional players, the event brings together streamers, cosplayers, content creators and LoL influencers. It is a big celebration for the League of Legends community.
The duels are always at the end of the season and usually go from the traditional 5 x 5 to 1 x 1. Of the 64 players who usually take part in the event, 28 are professionals chosen by popular vote — the two most voted in each region —, and six players are chosen by Riot Games, in addition to around 30 influencers.
One of the main characteristics of the All-Star competitions is the symbolic prize, with thematic trophies. Cash values are dedicated to the two main international LoL championships (MSI and World Championship), in addition to those that take place on each server.
World Championship
The League of Legends World Championship reunites the top teams from each of the 13 regions to face each other. The competition calendar is released during the year, and the final always takes place in a different city.
Disputes take place on the Summoner’s Rift map, where two teams of five champions battle it out to destroy the other team’s base. The goal is to destroy the enemy’s Nexus – located on the other side of the map, inside the opposing team’s base. Each team has a reserve player and a coach, who shows up only in the picks and bans of each match.
The prizes for the world champions are millionaires. In the 2018 edition, for example, the initial prize was an amount of US$ 2.25 million plus US$ 4.2 million collected from fans. This additional amount came from a portion of the World Passes purchase, available during the tournament. The champion received the equivalent of 37.5% of the amount, while the vice-champion got 13.5%.
Main leagues
The main LoL leagues are the ones which participate in international championships. They are divided into 13 regions of the world. Teams have increasingly more fans and structures to grow in the eSports scene.
LCS – North America
LEC – Europe
LCK – South Korea
LPL – China
LMS – Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau
VCS – Vietnam
CIS – Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics
TCL – Turkey
CBLoL – Brazil
LLA – Latin America
LJL – Japan
SEA – Southeast Asia
OPL – Oceania
