It has been a long wait since Edward Gaming of LPL (China) won the 2021 League of Legends (LoL) World Championship. However, this year’s tournament is well and truly underway and it promises to be packed with the best online battle action we have ever seen.
LoL is an annual international tournament that is hosted and organized by the online game’s lead developer, Riot Games. It consists of various teams of players competing against each other by engaging in fights to the death in a simulated virtual environment.
This year’s tournament is the 12th iteration of this competition, and like its predecessors, has continued to grow and expand in popularity across the world. The prize pool was at an eye-watering US$2,225,000 at the start of the tournament.
Read more about the World Championship here!
Where Is the 2022 LoL Championship Being Held?
The 2022 action will be centered in North America. Mexico City was chosen as the host of the 2022 LoL championship play-ins, which are in the opening stages of the tournament. The games took place at the Arena Esports Stadium at Artz Pedregal, Mexico City on the 29th of September.
Three other venues in different cities in the United States will host all the remaining phases of the tournament, from the group stages to the highly anticipated final. These venues are:
- Hulu Theater in Madison Square Garden in New York City
- State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia
- Chase Center in San Francisco, California
What Is Format Does the Competition Use?
The LoL World Championships uses a very simple format to gradually narrow down the roster of 24 teams to the two remaining groups that will compete in the final. From day one of the tournament until the final, the tournament is shaped as follows:
- Play-ins
Of the 24 teams that make up each year’s list, 12 gain automatic qualification to the group stage, while the other 12 have to compete for the remaining four slots via the play-ins.
- Group Stage
The teams are separated into four groups that will compete in a double round-robin best-of-one format. Additionally, the top two teams from each group will move on to the next stage of the tournament.
- Knock-outs
This is one of the toughest stages of the tournament where the eight teams will compete in a single-elimination bracket to get through the quarter-finals and semifinals until only two teams remain.
- Final
The final will be held on the 5th of November and will be played on patch 12.18.
The Teams Playing in the 2022 Tournament
In total, there are 24 teams (which we will not list here) that are chosen from 11 regions around the world, which are:
- CBLOL (Brazil)
- LCO (Oceania)
- LLA (Latin America)
- VCS (Vietnam)
- TCL (Turkey)
- LJL (Japan)
- PCS (Pacific Asia)
- LPL (China)
- LEC (Europe)
- LCS (North America)
- LCK (Korea)
The Results So Far
The tournament has already been going for more than a week and the play-ins in Mexico City have seen four teams qualifying for the groups stages, namely:
- Royal Never Give Up
- Fnatic
- Evil Geniuses
- DRX
Up next are the group stages where 16 teams will battle it out. All roads lead to the Big Apple, as New York welcomes the 2022 LoL World Championships. If you are curious to learn more about professional League of Legends formats, you might find it interesting that the LEC is changing their format for 2022.
