2021 League of Legends World Championship

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.

2021 League of Legends World Championship

Tournament information
Game	League of Legends
Location	Iceland
Dates	October 5–November 6
Administrator	Riot Games
Tournament format(s)	10 team single round-robin play-in stage 16 team double round-robin group stage 8 team single-elimination bracket
Venue(s)	Laugardalshöll (Reykjavík)
Teams	22
Final positions
Champion	Edward Gaming
Runner-up	DWG KIA
Tournament statistics
Attendance	Peak viewership: 73,860,742[1]
MVP	Lee "Scout" Ye-chan (Edward Gaming)
← 2020 2022 →

"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.

Impact of coronavirus on the tournament

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]

Qualified teams

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	Rogue	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

Venue

Reykjavík was the city chosen to host the competition. All matches were played at Laugardalshöll without spectators.^[2]

Reykjavík, Iceland
Laugardalshöll
Reykjavík

Play-in stage

Play-in groups

• Date and time: October 5–7, began at 11:00 UTC.
• Ten teams are drawn into two groups, with five teams in each group.
• Single round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
• If teams have same win–loss record at the end of play-in groups, tie-breaker matches are played. A two-way tie is not broken by the results of the head-to-head game those teams played, however the team that won in the head-to-head gets side selection in the tiebreaker game.
• The top team automatically qualifies for the Main Event, while 2nd to 4th-place of each group advance to the play-in knockouts and 2nd-place receive a bye to match 2. The bottom team is eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	LNG Esports	4	4	0	1.000	Advance to group stage
2	Hanwha Life Esports	4	3	1	.750	Advance to play-in knockouts round 1
3	PEACE	4	2	2	.500	Advance to play-in knockouts round 2
4	RED Canids	4	1	3	.250
5	Infinity Esports	4	0	4	.000

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	DetonatioN FocusMe	5	4	1	.800	Advance to group stage
2	Cloud9	5	3	2	.600	Advance to play-in knockouts round 1
3	Galatasaray Esports	4	2	2	.500	Advance to play-in knockouts round 2
4	Beyond Gaming	5	2	3	.400
5	Unicorns of Love	5	1	4	.200

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Play-in knockouts

• Date and time: October 8–9
• King of the hill format with two branch. The 3rd-place teams from the group stage facing 4th-place teams from the same group in match 1. Winner will play against with the 2nd-place team from other group in match 2.
• Single-elimination. All matches are best-of-five.
• The upper-place team chooses the side for all odd-numbered games, while the lower-place team chooses the side of even-numbered games.
• The winners of the match 2 in each branch advances to the main event group stage.

	Round 1					Round 2
						A2	Hanwha Life Esports	3
	B3	Galatasaray Esports	2			B4	Beyond Gaming	0
	B4	Beyond Gaming	3
						B2	Cloud9	3
	A3	PEACE	3			A3	PEACE	0
	A4	RED Canids	2

Source: LoL Esports

Group stage

• Date and time: October 11–18, began at 11:00 UTC.
• Sixteen teams are drawn into four groups with four teams in each group based on their seeding. Teams of the same region cannot be placed in the same group.
• Double round robin, all matches are best-of-one.
• If teams have the same win–loss record and head-to-head record, tiebreaker matches are played for first or second place. If more than 2 teams, tiebreaker placement is based on the combined times of teams' victorious games.
• Top two teams will advance to Knockout Stage. Bottom two teams are eliminated.

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	DWG KIA	6	6	0	1.000	Advance to knockouts
2	Cloud9	7	3	4	.429
3	Rogue	8	3	5	.375
4	FunPlus Phoenix	7	2	5	.286

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	T1	6	5	1	.833	Advance to knockouts
2	Edward Gaming	6	4	2	.667
3	100 Thieves	6	3	3	.500
4	DetonatioN FocusMe	6	0	6	.000

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Royal Never Give Up	7	5	2	.714	Advance to knockouts
2	Hanwha Life Esports	7	4	3	.571
3	PSG Talon	6	3	3	.500
4	Fnatic	6	1	5	.167

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PCT	Qualification
1	Gen.G	8	5	3	.625	Advance to knockouts
2	MAD Lions	8	4	4	.500
3	LNG Esports	7	3	4	.429
4	Team Liquid	7	3	4	.429

Source: LoL Esports
Rules for classification: 1) Winning percentage; 2) Tiebreaker match(es); 3) Total game victory time^[a]

Knockout stage

Main article: 2021 League of Legends World Championship final

• Date and time: 22 October–6 November, time for all matches 12:00 UTC.
• Eight teams are drawn into a single elimination bracket.
• All matches are best-of-five.
• The first-place team of each group is drawn against the second-place team of a different group.
• The first-place team chooses the side for the first games, loser of the previous game chooses the side for the next game.
• Teams from same group will be on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning they cannot play each other until the Finals.

EDG won the 2021 World Championship

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

C1

Royal Never Give Up

2

B2

Edward Gaming

3

Edward Gaming

3

Gen.G

2

D1

Gen.G

3

A2

Cloud9

0

Edward Gaming

3

DWG KIA

2

B1

T1

3

C2

Hanwha Life Esports

0

T1

2

DWG KIA

3

A1

DWG KIA

3

D2

MAD Lions

0

Ranking

Team ranking

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[b]	–	–	–	3–3	3–0	2–3
5th–8th	Royal Never Give Up[b]	–	–	–	4–2	2–3			4.5%	$101,250
	Hanwha Life Esports[b]	3–1	–	3–0	4–2	0–3
	MAD Lions[b]	–	–	–	3–3	0–3
	Cloud9[b]	3–1	–	3–0	2–4	0–3
9th–11th	PSG Talon	–	–	–	3–3				2.5%	$62,500
	100 Thieves	–	–	–	3–3
	Rogue[b]	–	–	–	2–4
12th–13th	LNG Esports[b]	4–0	–	–	3–3				2.375%	$53,347.50
	Team Liquid[b]	–	–	–	3–3
14th–16th	FunPlus Phoenix[b]	–	–	–	2–4				2.25%	$56,250
	Fnatic	–	–	–	1–5
	DetonatioN FocusMe[b]	3–1	–	–	0–6
17th–18th	PEACE	2–2	3–2	0–3					1.75%	$43,750
	Beyond Gaming[b]	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[b]	1–3							1%	$22,500
	Infinity Esports	0–4
Place	Team	PG	PK1	PK2	GS	QF	SF	Finals	Prize (%)	Prize (USD)

Regional ranking

• The win-ratio is determined by number of won games compared the number of games played.
• Bracket stage wins are prioritized.

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	3G+1P	1 team 4W-0L (100%)			4 teams[b] 13W-11L (54.17%)	2 teams 5W-5L (50%)	1 team 3W-2L (60%)	1 team 3W-2L (60%)
2nd	South Korea	LCK	3G+1P	1 team 3W-1L (75%)		1 team 3W-0L (100%)	4 teams[b] 18W-6L (75%)	4 teams 9W-3L (75%)	3 teams 7W-8L (46.66%)	1 team 2W-3L (40%)
3rd	North America	LCS	2G+1P	1 team[b] 3W-1L (75%)		1 team 3W-0L (100%)	3 teams[b] 8W-10L (44.44%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
4th	Europe	LEC	3G				3 teams[b] 6W-12L (33.33%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
5th	TW/HK/MO/SEA	PCS	1G+1P	1 team[b] 1W-3L (25%)	1 team 3W–2L (60%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)	1 team 3W-3L (50%)
6th	Japan	LJL	1P	1 team[b] 3W-1L (75%)			1 team 0W-6L (0%)
7th	Oceania	LCO	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 3W–2L (60%)	1 team 0W-3L (0%)
8th	Turkey	TCL	1P	1 team 2W-2L (50%)	1 team 2W-3L (40%)
9th	Brazil	CBLOL	1P	1 team 1W-3L (25%)	1 team 2W–3L (40%)
10th	CIS	LCL	1P	1 team[b] 1W-3L (25%)
11th	Latin America	LLA	1P	1 team 0W-4L (0%)

Notes

1. The total amount of time it took a team to win their games against all other teams in the tiebreaker
2. Not including tie-break games.