League of Legends Tournaments: The Most Viewed eSports!

League of Legends tournaments can impress you not only with their number but also with the number of viewers they can boast of. According to the statistics, the peak viewership of the LoL tournaments exceeded 5.1 million people in 2022, thus breaking the world’s record and becoming the most viewed eSports discipline in the world.

The Eternal Battle with Dota 2

The rivalry between the two MOBA games, League of Legends and Dota2, has been lasting for years. And while both tend to be more popular than any shooter genre eSports, the question of which one is better still remains. To clear this out, let’s compare these titles, not in terms of game modes or graphics, but in terms of their popularity, size and number of tournaments, and other details that make a regular online game an eSports discipline.

Speaking about the popularity of these games, League of Legends is a clear winner. Its largest annual tournament Worlds was watched for 1 million hours live in 2020. And in 2022, the title won the prize for the most viewed eSports discipline ever. So, the number of its fans around the globe is truly immense. Compared to such statistics, The International, which is one of the biggest Dota 2 tournaments, fades in the lights of LoL’s Worlds. The largest audience it managed to attract is a bit more than 1 million viewers, which was in 2019.

Another thing that makes LoL stand out is the number of professional players. The League of Legends count goes for about 7000 gamers, while the Dota 2 number of pros still has to go a long way to reach that figure.

Also, the main LoL tournament, Worlds, is often compared to Super Bowl in how huge and spectacular this show is. Even during the pandemic, the Riot company managed to create a super-entertaining online event. Again, Dota 2 organizers still have a lot to learn. The largest tournament in Dota 2, The International, resembles a LAN party more than the largest eSports event of the year.

However, there’s still one point where Dota tends to be keeping the leadership, and this is the prize pool. While the largest League of Legends tournament prize pool reaches $2,500,000, Dota 2 players fought for $35 million in 2019. Anyway, even this did not manage to make this title more popular than LoL.

How Are the LoL Tournaments Held?

The League of Legends tournaments are held throughout the year. The largest of them, like the LoL World Championship, attract millions of viewers and are called the most spectacular eSports tournaments in the world. No surprise, though. Riot Games take the organization of the events seriously and even during the pandemic, they managed to create a real show despite it being carried out online.

The venue for the local League of Legends tournaments varies depending on the league. Typically, the events are held in Los Angeles (for the North American League), Seoul (for the South Korean League), Berlin (for the European League), and Shanghai (for the Chinese League). As for the world-class events, they take place in neutral territories, like Reykjavik or London, or they can be hosted by one of the countries that are home to the regional leagues.

Since the restrictions due to the pandemic have been canceled, all the events go offline, so that the public can enjoy spectacular shows and see their favorite teams battling live.

To understand the way LoL tournaments work, it’s worth taking an in-depth look into how they are structured. The Riot Games created an infrastructure that includes regional leagues. Overall, there are 12 of them with the following being the largest and most popular ones:

• South Korean (LCK);
• Chinese (LPL);
• European (LEC);
• North American (LCS).

The competitions between the regional teams last throughout the season. The participants fight for the chance to enter the two largest international LoL eSports tournaments – Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship. Only the best teams manage to reach their goal.

The regional competitions are called splits. The winners and the runners of the spring splits qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational. Teams getting their first prizes in the summer splits get a ticket to the largest event of the year – the LoL World Championship.

Overall, 22 teams get there to fight for the League of Legends prize pool. The LPL and LCK leagues get four slots each, while LEC and LCS get 3 slots each. The Pacific Championship League (PCL) and Vietnamese League (VCS) receive 2 slots each. The rest is spread between the other six regional leagues.

Each tournament can feature competitions in several League of Legends game modes. The most popular ones are:

• 1v1, which implies the battle between individual players;
• 2v2 Tandem mode where the teams contain two players each;
• 5v5 Summoner’s Rift mode with 5 players in each team.

All about the LoL World Championship

The World Championship in League of Legends is the crowning event of the year for the LoL community. Professional teams and players work hard throughout the seasons to get the chance of showing their skills and luck in this arena. Getting there is not only about the opportunity of winning a multi-million dollar prize but also about the chance of becoming a part of the greatest event of the year that gathers millions of fans from around the globe to watch this event online and offline.

History

The history of the League of Legends World Championship tournament goes back to 2011. At that time, there were only eight teams and a $98,500 prize pool. However, that didn’t stop the organizers from creating the show that gathered more than 1.6 million viewers at their computer screens.

The following year, the number of qualifying teams grew to 12, yet the biggest change happened to the tournament’s prize pool, which managed to add $1.9 within a year only to reach $2 million US dollars. The size of the event grew a lot as well. The participants performed in front of 100,000 public and the event was broadcasted in 13 languages so about 8 million people managed to tune in and enjoy the show online.

In the following years, the number of teams participating in the event continued growing until it reached 24 in 2022. With the growing popularity of this eSports discipline among professional players, the interest in the main League of Legends tournament of the year enhanced. In 2021, the event organized by Riot Games gathered more than 4 million viewers, breaking the world’s record. However, that was only the beginning, and the following year over 5 million viewers made this LoL eSport tournament the most-viewed eSports event in history.

Prize Money

The title of the LoL Worlds champion and the Summoner’s Cup are not the only things teams compete for. In fact, their main goal is to get the prize money. It’s worth mentioning that the LoL total prize pool ranks 4th in the world with the actual sum being more than $91.9 million US dollars.

Throughout the years, the tournament’s prize pool has been changing. It started with only $98,500 in 2011 and grew to $2 million US dollars only a year later. In 2013, the prize pool of the Championship was increased by another $50,000. In 2014 – 2015, the prize money reached $2,130,000. The year 2016 was great for LoL, so the prize pool of the year’s main Championship peaked at $5,070,000. A year later, the cash prize lowered to around $4.6 million.

The year 2018 entered the history of the League of Legends Worlds as the one with the largest prize pool. That year the teams fought for a whopping $6,450,000! But since that time and until the 2022 Championship, the cash prize was locked with the sum of $2,250,000. The prize pool for the 2023 Worlds is still to be revealed but if you want to know the League of Legends tournament schedule and keep an eye on the teams who have a chance to enter this competition, you can look it up on our website.

Winners

Boasting one of the largest professional gamers’ communities in the eSports industry, League of Legends already has some legendary teams like T1 (former SKT). The League of Legends World Championship winners have been changing every year. The only one that managed to repeat its success twice was SKT, which took the main prize in 2015 and 2016.

To see the Championship progress throughout the years better, check out the table below.

What Other LoL Tournaments Are There in Professional eSports

The World Championship is not the only LoL tournament worth your attention. We’ll tell a bit about some of the biggest and most important.

The League of Legends European Championship

This is a pro-grade competition held by the Riot Games in the European, Middle Eastern and African regions. The LEC Championship goes annually and is divided into spring and summer splits. The winners of the spring split qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational (the second-largest LoL tournament) and the top-performing teams of summer get their tickets to the Worlds.

The League of Legends Pro League Championship

The LoL League in China is one of the most popular among spectators. The 16 teams compete throughout the season to determine the eight best that enter the play-off stage. The winning team of the spring split becomes the league representative at Mid-Season Invitational. Teams ranking 1st to 4th places in the summer split series get their places in the LoL World Championship.

League of Legends Champions Korea

This is the strongest local LoL championship, whose winners qualify for the Worlds right away. The league comprises two seasons, the spring and the summer. Like with other LoL regional leagues, the winner of the spring season qualifies for the Mid-Season Invitational, and the teams taking the first four places in the summer series enter the World Championship to fight for the main prize of the year.

League Championship Series

Another top-level competition in the LoL eSports tournaments is the League Championship Series held between the representatives of the United States and Canada. The structure of this championship is identical to other regional competitions. But unlike the Chinese and the Korean Championships, only three best-performing teams of the summer series make it to the Worlds.

Mid-Season Invitational

The second largest League of Legends championship is Mid-Season Invitational, which is held annually starting from 2015. Before 2017, only six teams could participate in the competition: the five representing the strongest local leagues and the wildcard team. In 2017, the League of Legends tournament rules changed, and the teams from all regions got the chance to gamble for the main prize of the Mid-Season Invitational.

The only year when Mid-Season Invitational was canceled was 2020. This happened due to the pandemic.